Martial Arts

[LongAndShort]

Took down a black belt at karate. I don't remember what the fight was about. He was bragging and telling me how tough he was, and this caused whoever i was with to back down, so i just put my head down (literally) and charged into his stomach. Once he was on the ground he was helpless. Problem with so many (not all) of the martial arts as far as i see is that they can be very formal and stylised but not very practical. The reason why Bruce Lee was so successful was because he knew so many styles that he became flexible beyond belief, changing with his opponent and situation.

This is Why i prefer Judo: The moves are simple, and so you do not have to think about them in a fight, They are what I do instinctivally, and Its one of the few martial arts that I know of, where half of the fighting techniques are fighting on the floor.

Yeah, wouldn't knowingly take on a Judoist (or Jiu Jistsu {sorry about incorrect spelling}) without a crowbar in my favour at least. Very fluid. Very effective. Very practical.

 

[Syntax Error]

For unarmed combat, I'd like to learn Wing Chun (the original style of Bruce Lee). I saw this episode of Fight Quest and those guys are brutal. It's basic philosophy is to invade your opponent's space and destroy them with rapid combos. One punch won't make him fall, but ten, maybe even more, will. It's also practical since it teaches you to finish fights quickly.

 

[TZer0]

Judo and Ju Jitsu for about 6,5 years.

Oh, and in 8th grade I managed to own a 10th grader by throwing him (after he grabbed me from behind, don't ask) to the floor and messing up his leg. Not only that: it was the school's bully.. who everyone else regarded as really, really badass. Now, to add insult to injury, this was in the winter and the person in question was a half-pro skier. Guess what: because of me he couldn't go skiing the rest of the season, thus missing a few competitions and other stuff. Owned.

 

[cleverlymadeup]

i've done functional jeet kune do (which is basically western boxing, wrestling, judo, muay thai and brazillian jiu-jitsu) and brazillian jiu-jitsu

now for those that say "that's not real JKD" well actually IS becaue JKD is a philosophy of fighting. the whole idea behind the system is to test the moves in a real combat environment using the minimal amount of protection needed and no longer practice what is not effective in a combat situation.

the thing about karate and kung fu is they work great against other people practicing the same art, however when put against someone else they don't do so great. i've met many a karate black belt and when asked to test their skills in a combat environment they are not very willing to do so.

the other issue with a lot of karate and kung fu schools is they ask you to pull punches because they "can kill someone with one blow" which is a very false belief and really a scapegoat to get out of actually sparring for real and a great escape when someone asks you to spar for real

 

[Toaster Hunter]

I hold a black belt in Hapkido and have been practicing it for four years. I am also a fan of MMA and may want to take that up in the future.

 

[Ethereal.Frog]

I used to do Tae Kwon Do, like as did many others it seems.
I've been looking into some other stuff, but haven't really done anything since I stopped Tae Kwon Do.

 

[Laura.]

One summer experience in Aikido

 

[blindey]

I'm going to start Aikido sometime. It's hard finding a dojo for it that isn't full around here. Otherwise, I may just take up some other martial art, but the idea behind Aikido interests me.

I haven't really gotten into too many fights in my days, but the ones I have I "won." Mostly because they didn't expect me to fight back and when I did they quit. Otherwise, I'm sure I simply deterred the fights from happening with my appearance.

Me too. There are a couple dojos *near* (ie 25 - 30 minutes away, in Houston) here, but A) I have no money and B) I am not able to drive so it'll have to be put on hold for a bit, hopefully just a bit.

 

[cyber_andyy]

Kyushindo and Kyushinryu are my posions.

The feeling of martial arts is amazing, I will never stop doing martial arts. Escpecially the fluidity of it. Its breath taking to do.

Also, how AWESOME does it make you feel.

 

[Tears of Blood]

I'm going to start Aikido sometime. It's hard finding a dojo for it that isn't full around here. Otherwise, I may just take up some other martial art, but the idea behind Aikido interests me.

I haven't really gotten into too many fights in my days, but the ones I have I "won." Mostly because they didn't expect me to fight back and when I did they quit. Otherwise, I'm sure I simply deterred the fights from happening with my appearance.

I practiced Aikido for about 1 year, a little more perhaps, and I recommend it highly. But now here's a little warning, the thing that made me stop: Get a mate. Aikido is a sport centered around defensive techniques with emphasis on DEFENSIVE. You won't learn to attack only defend so to learn anything you'll need a friend, you can NOT learn anything by yourself except the falls and rolls. Ofc you can train with another Aikidoka but if you don't "click" you'll soon realise that you're quite alone. And if the students aren't very nice or patiant with you and your learning progress, the will and love for Aikido will soon fade. If you don't have any friends, like I do, then Aikido can become a really lonely place for you. Get a friend to come with you and at least try. Training with a friend is haven and hopefully the situation for you Peace

I'll have to make a friend in the dojo, then. I don't have "friends" really, to my dismay, and certainly none that are going to want to learn this along with me.

Thanks for the advice, though. I'll keep it in mind.

I have heard criticisms of Aikido, though. As it's built on defense, people say that many of the meneuvers learned aren't realisticly applicable in a real fight. Comedians, even, have exaggerated it. However, I have heard a lot of good things about it too, and a fighting style where you're more likely going to humiliate your opponent than really hurt him is great for me.

 

[Danny Ocean]

did karate when i was young.
and i've always really wanted to do kendo and an assortment of hand-to-hand martial arts.

also, my friend was supposed to teach me bo staff, but never got around to it.

and if someone could effectively use capoeira in combat, other than L, that would be awesome.

Oh the Bo is easy, you could probably teach yourself using videos on the internet, just make sure to recognise the difference between the different ways of doing it. There's the martial way, and there's the tricking way.

As for me, I did a year of TaeKwonDo, took a 6 month break for my GCSEs, and am going back next week. In a year I reached 3rd Kup, and also managed to earn two national titles which I'll need to defend in October, all thanks to my teacher being awesome.

We also do weapons and stuff, but mainly bo staff.

 

[Valkyira]

i've been training in kickboxing for about 6 years, i'm also studying judo but i've just started. I love MMA though, i am a huge fan of the ufc and pride

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

Oh the Bo is easy, you could probably teach yourself using videos on the internet, just make sure to recognise the difference between the different ways of doing it. There's the martial way, and there's the tricking way.

@_@ what's the tricking way!?

 

[Ushario]

Ive been boxing for a year and a half now, and have finally found myself a coach to help me get into amatuer competitions. I do Judo whenever I have the time as well and I love it.

Past experiences include Karate, Aikido and Taekwondo.

I actually started practicing my straight, high front and sweeping kicks again and strangley have found that due to my Boxing my flexibility is surprisingly good. I'm around 5 foot 9 inches and I can kick over 6 feet high after years without practice!

Warning - mini rant.

Spoiler

My personal hate with discussing martial arts in any public setting is the people that will always pipe up and inform me of how useless martial arts training is. They obviously haven't met the people that I have. They are also forgetting that every modern army literraly has its own martial art style which is made from combining various traditional martial arts.

 

[wrecker77]

i have been doing mixed martial arts for about... 2 years? i am currently a purple belt and have placed second in a sparing tournoment.

 

[Danny Ocean]

Oh the Bo is easy, you could probably teach yourself using videos on the internet, just make sure to recognise the difference between the different ways of doing it. There's the martial way, and there's the tricking way.

@_@ what's the tricking way!?

There are people who do martial arts, then there are people who do things that look like really flash martial arts moves but aren't actually that good in a fight. See XMA and the like.
As an example, the trick way to spin a staff is how you'd expect: swapping hands and making it spin. The way we do is more practical, as you never actually take your hands off the staff. Think how easy it was to stop your mate spinning that staff in front of you when you were kids, that's because he only ever had one hand on it, and the spinning action is created by the weight off the staff and some initial momentum. Try and do that when a martial artist is doing it properly (with both hands on the staff, it's like a continuous series of strikes rather than a spin.) and you'll get your hand knocked away painfully.

That's not to say the people who do tricking don't know martial arts, however. I still think it's effing awesome.

 

[KingKamor]

I took about three and a half years of Tae Kwon Do. I had to quit because my grades were going down, even though I had just entered the six-month training period before black belt. Since then, I've lost much of the flexibility that I had in my legs and simply use the self-defense tecniques that they taught me.

These days, I like to spar with a friend of mine who I trained with in the same studio. We use various weapons, but it's mainly just for fun, especially when he breaks out the padded nunchaku with the seven-foot-long rope between each end.

 

[Ushario]

I'm going to start Aikido sometime. It's hard finding a dojo for it that isn't full around here. Otherwise, I may just take up some other martial art, but the idea behind Aikido interests me.

I haven't really gotten into too many fights in my days, but the ones I have I "won." Mostly because they didn't expect me to fight back and when I did they quit. Otherwise, I'm sure I simply deterred the fights from happening with my appearance.

I practiced Aikido for about 1 year, a little more perhaps, and I recommend it highly. But now here's a little warning, the thing that made me stop: Get a mate. Aikido is a sport centered around defensive techniques with emphasis on DEFENSIVE. You won't learn to attack only defend so to learn anything you'll need a friend, you can NOT learn anything by yourself except the falls and rolls. Ofc you can train with another Aikidoka but if you don't "click" you'll soon realise that you're quite alone. And if the students aren't very nice or patiant with you and your learning progress, the will and love for Aikido will soon fade. If you don't have any friends, like I do, then Aikido can become a really lonely place for you. Get a friend to come with you and at least try. Training with a friend is haven and hopefully the situation for you Peace

I'll have to make a friend in the dojo, then. I don't have "friends" really, to my dismay, and certainly none that are going to want to learn this along with me.

Thanks for the advice, though. I'll keep it in mind.

I have heard criticisms of Aikido, though. As it's built on defense, people say that many of the meneuvers learned aren't realisticly applicable in a real fight. Comedians, even, have exaggerated it. However, I have heard a lot of good things about it too, and a fighting style where you're more likely going to humiliate your opponent than really hurt him is great for me.

Aikido is misrepresented very often. Its so effective that Australia's, and others, police force use it. Its strengths are disarming, disabling and defending. Due to this many people think it lacks the tools to finish fights when it does in fact have many ways of defeating an opponent.

It shares a lot with Judo in that you won't be punching but you will be grappling. One of the first principles of Aikido that I was taught was that you always try to use the simplest method to deal with a situation. A lot of the advanced techiniques are really for use against other advanced martial artists and so, as you said, are not very applicable in most situations.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

There are people who do martial arts, then there are people who do things that look like really flash martial arts moves but aren't actually that good in a fight. See XMA and the like.
As an example, the trick way to spin a staff is how you'd expect: swapping hands and making it spin. The way we do is more practical, as you never actually take your hands off the staff. Think how easy it was to stop your mate spinning that staff in front of you when you were kids, that's because he only ever had one hand on it, and the spinning action is created by the weight off the staff and some initial momentum. Try and do that when a martial artist is doing it properly (with both hands on the staff, it's like a continuous series of strikes rather than a spin.) and you'll get your hand knocked away painfully.

That's not to say the people who do tricking don't know martial arts, however.

oohhh okay, i got it. basically the martial arts way and then the 'martial arts' way. like, performers and whatnot.

would still be fun to learn. the right way!

 

[Danny Ocean]

Aikido is misrepresented very often. Its so effective that Australia's, and others, police force use it. Its strengths are disarming, disabling and defending. Due to this many people think it lacks the tools to finish fights when it does in fact have many ways of defeating an opponent.

It shares a lot with Judo in that you won't be punching but you will be grappling. One of the first principles of Aikido that I was taught was that you always try to use the simplest method to deal with a situation. A lot of the advanced techiniques are really for use against other advanced martial artists and so, as you said, are not very applicable in most situations.

Is it in any way similar to Hapkido? I remember we had a seminar on that, and it sounds quite similar to what I read here.