[mushoo]

hey all, i currently do muay thai, ive been doing it for about 4 years now, problem is i havent managed to go to class for it, so ive been learning off the internet and from previous experience. lol!!

[Martyn1989]

1st Dan in WJJF Jujitsu here.

Shame I can only do it when I am home from Uni these days, as the nearest WJJF club to my Uni (Lancaster) is in sodding Blackpool!

I still really enjoy it though, although at my current club I don't really feel I can progress anymore, you have to learn so many weapon patterns on your 2nd Dan and that is really not my thing.

[ocelotrevs]

I play Capoeria, and I have been doing it for a few years now.
I also do a bit of boxing when I have the chance.

[kreation]

(Original post by Zophixan)
I lost my original message I typed so heres a quick summary.
Chinese tactics didn't involve one on one combat except during fighting on lei tai for challenge matches, and the establishment of a school in an area where there already is a school. Militarily, one on one combat would be suicide. If someone dropped their sword, their mates with rifles and more sworlds would give them a hand. (Source, chinese history forums)

Forms were smaller yes than todays wushu forms, they probabily have developed in some way, I can't comment cos I don't know about it, but they were used as a memoric, and also as a show piece for the style, not as the main training method. (Interviews with chen linage master and various other kung fu style masters)

What i posted wasn't actually push hands, its actually a demonstration of take downs, the actually push hand vid I was going to post looks like 2 greco roman guys going at it. Push hands traditionally was as you say, a sensitivity exercise, modern push hand competitions are very simliar to judo without the gi.

Judo has had atemi in it, but not as a major focus, more as a entry to allowing throws to be used. They purposely distanced judo from striking to provide a completely different path to shotokan karate. The two founders were good friends.

1950s? That was the era where they banned kung fu in some ways, contact sports anyway. During the nationalistic government before the war lord era they had a national academy where they brought forms and styles together. I brought up 1950s because thats when the decline of sparring started and when form practise took its place.

I'll type up a more detailed answer at some point
What do you think of sanshou? Does it show case all the techniques realistically or does the gloves restrict the techniques?

depends heavily on the fighter for the san shou, of course wearing gloves is going to limit technique particularly the stuff that kills but then again knife edge strikes to the neck art the most effective way keep combatants healthy and in regular competitions which is what san shou is based on and needs to survive.

as far as defensive limitations go and elbow can be used in place of a hand to much the same effect and the "sticking" can still be used by tai chi practitioners so its actually not to much of a problem unless the fighter is totally focused on their hands.

on a side note, id love for them to put in some of the old masters just for fun, as im sure (world champion or not) all the young san shou fighters would get their asses handed to them, that would make for some seriously good (albeit short) entertainment.

with regard to the previous post, your actually saying that on a battlefield which is seriously crazy that someone will always be watching (taking into account that the Chinese didn't regularly use the shield wall as in Europe), ready to hand out a weapon if you lose yours, no and during the small time it takes for them to parry a potentially killing blow in order to back through their lines and retrieve another weapon they will have used martial arts.

as far as one on one fighting goes i never insinuated as such. with regard to the chen lineage it is all very much open to interpretation as i know that the last grandmaster of my style said and wrote some utter crap and never corrected himself and only admitting it was crap to his senior most students

i would crone on more but i have to go as my gf is hear but suffice to say i disagree

[Zophixan]

Ooo, I didn't mean give them a hand as in, supplying them with weapons. As far as I understood it, chinese military tactics involved groups of men, formations if you will, hence one on one combat would never happen - if you were to drop your weapon, your unit would fight and you would presumeably pick it up. How exactly would you parry a killing blow?

Old masters beat modern fighters? How? There are no such things as killing blows, there is no science behind it, the human body is remarkably resilient, nothing short of carotid chokes or air chokes would kill someone. Secondly, no one in their right mind keeps their neck undefended, they keep their chin down. Knife hands to the neck hurt like hell, but they don't put people down; in the middle of a fight, the odds of doing such a thing is very unlikely! Its simliar to the knee arguement I've heard on other martial arts boards. Getting round house kicked in the knee isn't a guaranteed fight ender, many people can function with snapped ACLS (but once the adrenaline wears off its painful).

Another point, why have these old masters never been videoed kicking the ass of actual fighters? Of those that do, I've seen them fight and it looks just like modern sanshou - they're hardly the small old chinese dude either, they're small, and built!
I'm willing to entertain the possibility of killing blows - if there is a scientific basis behind it, as far as I'm aware, its never been shown to be true, none of the wu shu masters I know have claimed everything of the sort!

[jmz34]

OK, basically I'm going uni this October and looking to join some sort of martial arts club. I used to do Shotokan karate ages ago and I've found it pretty crap tbh, I'm sure it would come in more useful if I did it for many years but it's not very practical from my experience.

I've got a choice of either Judo, Jujitsu or Aikido and at the moment I don't know which one to go for. I'm aware that I could try out all three and pick one from there but it'd probably save time if I could pick one beforehand. I'm looking to improve my fitness and get a massive workout during each lesson, all the while learning techniques that will be practical- stuff I could use. At the moment I'm leaning towards Judo because it's more of a sport and I'm really competitive- so in the long term it's more likely that I'll stick with it. However, I realise that Jujitsu involves strikes as well as the grappling moves used in Judo so it's more useful in self denfense. Aikido on the other hand just looks pretty cool, I don't know how useful it would be in self-defense though- especially if you're attacked by several people. I don't want to seem as if I'm looking to do martial arts just for self defense, as I've mentioned before I want to improve my fitness etc. Finally, I'm not the biggest of guys (5ft10 lean)- so I'd prefer something that doesn't focus too much on strength.

So, which one would you pick? (Given what I've said)

Thanks.

[Paradiddle_man]

(Original post by jmz34)
OK, basically I'm going uni this October and looking to join some sort of martial arts club. I used to do Shotokan karate ages ago and I've found it pretty crap tbh, I'm sure it would come in more useful if I did it for many years but it's not very practical from my experience.

I've got a choice of either Judo, Jujitsu or Aikido and at the moment I don't know which one to go for. I'm aware that I could try out all three and pick one from there but it'd probably save time if I could pick one beforehand. I'm looking to improve my fitness and get a massive workout during each lesson, all the while learning techniques that will be practical- stuff I could use. At the moment I'm leaning towards Judo because it's more of a sport and I'm really competitive- so in the long term it's more likely that I'll stick with it. However, I realise that Jujitsu involves strikes as well as the grappling moves used in Judo so it's more useful in self denfense. Aikido on the other hand just looks pretty cool, I don't know how useful it would be in self-defense though- especially if you're attacked by several people. I don't want to seem as if I'm looking to do martial arts just for self defense, as I've mentioned before I want to improve my fitness etc. Finally, I'm not the biggest of guys (5ft10 lean)- so I'd prefer something that doesn't focus too much on strength.

So, which one would you pick? (Given what I've said)

Thanks.

Right, I practice Aikido so I'll give you my perspective based on what you said.

Aikido is a long term martial art with a bit more of an emphasis on budo (Japanese martial way). So it tends to be more traditional as well. You mentioned that you are concerned about practicality to a certain level. Well most people say that to be able to use Aikido for self-defence may take you years of practice You may find that in the beginning things go very slow since you need to learn the very basics before you learn actual techniques. Once you start learning techniques, it'll take you lots of practice to be able to use them (if you need to).

I find that these basic movements and principles are pretty universal so are also transferable to other martial arts. For example getting to an attacker's blind spot, deflecting strikes rather than blocking, keeping your body centred (needed in arguably every martial art), extending and relaxing your body instead of being tense. As with dealing with multiple attackers, Aikido training always assumes that there are more than one attacker (even when just practicing with one person). With Jiujitsu, you may often end up on the floor and that's not so great if there are more than one person trying to get at you.

In terms of fitness, your legs would probably get stronger quite quickly and you'll find that you have better balance from improved core muscles (like other 'softer' martial arts). Most of the other benefits include better awareness of your body, knowing how to react (especially when you trip) and better endurance (from getting thrown around so much).

I guess in your case judo and jiujitsu would suit you better with improving your fitness. If that's your main goal, I think striking martial arts like mua thai, boxing or tae kwon do would be better in improving your fitness. In terms of practicality after say a couple of years of training, jiujutsu might be more practical but that's just my opinion, not really trying to debate which MA is better. The roots of the 3 MAs are still in jiujitsu as well.

[SubGrappling]

(Original post by Martyn1989)
1st Dan in WJJF Jujitsu here.

Shame I can only do it when I am home from Uni these days, as the nearest WJJF club to my Uni (Lancaster) is in sodding Blackpool!

I still really enjoy it though, although at my current club I don't really feel I can progress anymore, you have to learn so many weapon patterns on your 2nd Dan and that is really not my thing.

whats JJJ actually like? Is there much groundwork?

[Martyn1989]

(Original post by SubGrappling)
whats JJJ actually like? Is there much groundwork?

JJJ?

[Apocalypte]

Japanese Jiu-Jitsu methinks.

[Martyn1989]

Oh right, thanks. I'm terrible with anagrams!

From my experience with JuJitsu, what you learn depends heavily on your club. I have trained at four different clubs over the last seven years (including the WJJF headquarters, which is crap), and each one offers something unique and different and focuses on different aspects of JuJitsu. The WJJF has a standardised syllabus, but some clubs add their own moves to it. Likewise, the ratio of patterns and padwork can vary amongst different clubs. There is a HEAVY emphasis on throws though in whatever club you are at.

There is a fair share of groundwork. Defense against ground strangles, defense against kicks from the ground, and of course there is a lot of JuJitsu locks which can be performed from the ground.

[Planto]

Anyone have any experience with getting back into martial arts after long breaks?

When I was 15 I took up Taekwondo and I loved it at first, achieving my yellow belt with an A pass after a month or so. I was due very shortly after to take my "green tag" grade but I was set for getting a pass which allowed me to skip straight onto my green belt, before I lost all motivation and stopped going.

Anyway I'm now 20 and considering taking it back up (if I haven't got enough on my plate with music, gym, photography and planning to join the OTC).

Any tips on how to prepare myself if I do take it back up? Should I try and refamiliarise myself with routines etc. before I start joining classes again?

[Paradiddle_man]

(Original post by Planto)
Anyone have any experience with getting back into martial arts after long breaks?

When I was 15 I took up Taekwondo and I loved it at first, achieving my yellow belt with an A pass after a month or so. I was due very shortly after to take my "green tag" grade but I was set for getting a pass which allowed me to skip straight onto my green belt, before I lost all motivation and stopped going.

Anyway I'm now 20 and considering taking it back up (if I haven't got enough on my plate with music, gym, photography and planning to join the OTC).

Any tips on how to prepare myself if I do take it back up? Should I try and refamiliarise myself with routines etc. before I start joining classes again?

Strictly speaking it seems like a month isn't really much. I used to do TKD for 3-4 years ages ago but if I was to take it up again now I would need to start from the basics again.

But do prepare yourself for it before you take it up again. Going over the basic kicks, pumsae (forms if I remember correctly), and maybe the korean commands (if your intructor uses them) may make things easier. Lots of stretching may be a good idea as well especially on the legs. May save your muscles from being over strained. For the kicks, you could probably get a list of them from somewhere and pick out the ones you remember to see if you can still do them. If you can't then practice it. If you can, then practice more

Good luck!

[WolfishSmile]

(Original post by Paradiddle_man)
Strictly speaking it seems like a month isn't really much. I used to do TKD for 3-4 years ages ago but if I was to take it up again now I would need to start from the basics again.

But do prepare yourself for it before you take it up again. Going over the basic kicks, pumsae (forms if I remember correctly), and maybe the korean commands (if your intructor uses them) may make things easier. Lots of stretching may be a good idea as well especially on the legs. May save your muscles from being over strained. For the kicks, you could probably get a list of them from somewhere and pick out the ones you remember to see if you can still do them. If you can't then practice it. If you can, then practice more

Good luck!

You can find good resources for all the forms online, and they're easy enough to pick up again if you run over them - refreshing your memory. I can still remember my WTF forms and I've not done them in a long time now that I'm ITF. Basic kicks are good to practice, the common ones like roundhouse, front, side, hook, and then there's probably a lot of video demonstrations on YouTube if you want to expand any further into spinning or jumping kicks. But as Paradiddle says, make sure you fully stretch up before hand. When I changed my club last year, I was out for 2 months, and I just kept up my own training in between and even though I changed styles (and so had to pick up quite a few different techniques, and learn an entirely new set of forms) it came flooding back very quickly.

[imtired]

(Original post by Planto)
Anyone have any experience with getting back into martial arts after long breaks?

(Original post by Paradiddle_man)
Strictly speaking it seems like a month isn't really much. I used to do TKD for 3-4 years ages ago but if I was to take it up again now I would need to start from the basics again.

you could ask and see what the instructor can do. i know one guy who who quit after green belt, came back a year later and they let him skip the few few belts, so not exactly back to basics, but you'd have to show how much you remember so i recommend practicing before you join which should get you back to where you were when you left off much faster.

i also did tkd a few years ago (got to black tag, i was going to quit after getting black, but i thought it was pointless since the belt is just a symbol and paying for the test and everything would have been a waste of money), and soon i'm going to start ju jitsu (if i can find somewhere that does it here, if not something similar) since it's completely different i'm going to have to start from the beginning.

[Maqdah]

(Original post by mushoo)
hey all, i currently do muay thai, ive been doing it for about 4 years now, problem is i havent managed to go to class for it, so ive been learning off the internet and from previous experience. lol!!

I took a couple of lessons when I was in Thailand and I fell in love with it. I just heard that there is this guy from Thailand that comes once a year for 2-3 months and teachs Muay Thai so i'm extremly excited ^_^

[Draug]

Not sure how appropriate it is to post in the middle of ongoing discussion, but let me introduce myself, if only briefly.

I currently train in Krav Maga and have done so for a while now. However, as there is no competition involved I'm looking at taking up some Muay Thai for its competitive aspect, and conditioning. Furthermore, I plan to look into some Jujutsu for better take down, grappling and ground work at some stage in the near future, as anyone that's familiar with Krav will know of it's predominantly striking nature.

At this stage in time I'm looking at becoming an instructor in the next year or so, and possibly a military instructor later on down the track.

One thing that has caused me a certain amount of disappointment is the amount of politics involved in Krav Maga, and martial arts in general. I realise that different teaching styles develop over time, but one can't help but wondering why those with similar aims don't work together for their common goals.

One group of arts that come to mind - which I have a great deal of interest in for the effectiveness of their weapon techniques - is that known as Eskrima, Kali, or some other similar name covered under the broad umbrella of Filipino Martial Arts. There seems to be as many flavours as there are instructors and it can be a little dissuading at times for someone who wishes to take up a system but is unsure of the variations between styles.

Perhaps I've written a little more than necessary, but I hope it may present a little more of my perspective on martial arts and all.

[browser]

(Original post by jmz34)
OK, basically I'm going uni this October and looking to join some sort of martial arts club. I used to do Shotokan karate ages ago and I've found it pretty crap tbh, I'm sure it would come in more useful if I did it for many years but it's not very practical from my experience.

I'm looking to improve my fitness and get a massive workout during each lesson, all the while learning techniques that will be practical- stuff I could use.

I don't know how useful it would be in self-defense though- especially if you're attacked by several people. I don't want to seem as if I'm looking to do martial arts just for self defense, as I've mentioned before I want to improve my fitness etc. Finally, I'm not the biggest of guys (5ft10 lean)- so I'd prefer something that doesn't focus too much on strength.

I was actually going to suggest Krav Maga. The only drawback it seems would be the lack of competition. I am also competitive and I enjoy the competition presented in sparring but some people need the national and international competitions....are you one of them?

Krav Maga is purely based on real world scenarios (hence less competitions...) so in terms of practibility I would say this one beats your other three.

It is also extremely intensive. During lessons instructors should often wear you out to exhaustion before making you fight. Training is often done with loud music to simulate clubs, and also in the dark.

I also did Karate for 7 years before recently starting Krav and while I thought Karate helped a lot in techinque and discipline...if I was attacked with a knife, my first thought would be Krav techniques every time....

well that's about the best I can up with at 2am....I hope some of it makes sense.

[there's too much love]

hey are there any martial artists living in Hull here?

I've been doing judo for a few years and atemi jutsu for about a year more than that.

I'm orange belt in both. I've recently had a collar bone break, it was on the grading day (British bulldogs just before hand as part of a warm up game).

But yeah, I'm generally interested in martial arts.

[xTazx]

I do a southern style of kung fu as well as muay thai, and I find they both complement each other (obviously I know opinions vary on this), but that kung fu seems to be better in helping with flair and learning to control your body (therefore speed) a bit more, while muay thai helps with power and the sparring with the reflexes and real world techniques! I just have one problem with it though, the music they play in the rings, I just can't take the sound! Not meaning any disrespect of course, I cant take the sound of bagpipes for too long either, but it really puts me off!