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do most universities have martial arts as an extra curricular activities?

Umm, yeah, question is pretty much self explanatory. I am an A level student, and even though I have never done any martial arts before, and am in no way tough or hard, there is something about it and the things it teaches you that fascinates me. During my gap year I would like to try and get a job and do Kung Fu for a year at this kung fu gym near my house, but obviously that will only be for a year, and after that I'll hopefully be going to university. My friend said that wherever I go, there will most definitely be some sort of martial arts thing I can do, but I just wanted to know.
Thanks

Reply 1

IQ Test

17

I'd just check on the university websites, in the search bar maybe? I think many do have martial arts clubs though, but its safe to test it out. Even if they don't, cities with universities will probably have sports centres gyms to cater for the student population, maybe anyway.

I hope they have fencing clubs! ...

Reply 2

didgeridoo12uk

16

every single university will have multiple martial arts clubs. and if there isn't one, if you group several people together, you can most likely apply to the university for money to start one

Reply 3

Reagan Smash

You can always go on university websites to see if they do. For example, if you go onto the liverpool uni website you would click on the sports section. Tbh, most uni's will have martial arts clubs I think.

Lol btw, liverpool does and it has a fencing club

Reply 4

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

17

At bath we've got a dojo if that's of any help lol

Reply 5

gm15

13

My uni, royal holloway, has Ninjutsu (ninja martial art), Karate, Judo, Mixed martiala rts and thai boxing

Reply 6

slideyfoot

8

chriscahill9

My friend said that wherever I go, there will most definitely be some sort of martial arts thing I can do, but I just wanted to know.

Almost all universities have some kind of martial art on offer, or if not, there will something in the nearest town. Whether or not that will be the martial art you're looking for is another question entirely.

If you're looking for some general advice on choosing a martial art, then first of all, I'd recommend you take a look at the FAQ (if that's broken, use this link) on finding a good martial arts school. In general, signs to look for are a competitive record, regular heavy contact sparring and 'aliveness' (if you're unfamiliar with the term, Matt Thornton has a long article on the topic describing what it is and why it's important: he is the man most associated with popularising the concept. One of his students also has a good piece on aliveness).

If your interest is mainly in striking, the safest option if you want decent training is muay thai (which you'll also see as 'thai boxing'), along with martial arts like boxing and kyokushin karate. That's not to say there aren't good schools within other striking styles, but they tend to vary widely in quality.

If you're more interested in grappling, then BJJ would be an excellent choice, as the strong competitive element and ability-based ranking system generally results in high quality training. A cheaper option is judo, which is also much easier to find - the two styles are closely related, the main difference being that judo normally focuses on throws whereas BJJ is mostly about the ground. For more on judo, read the Bullshido.com article and FAQ. For BJJ, you could check my BJJ Beginner FAQ. SAMBO is another good choice, but even harder to find than BJJ. Then there's wrestling, which is also great training for grappling.

Alternately, you could combine grappling and striking by cross-training in several arts, or at an MMA gym (though technically 'MMA' is a ruleset rather than a specific style). Examples of well known MMA gyms would be Team Quest and Miletich Fighting Systems.

There are also several school databases you could try. For example, for BJJ:

TrainJiuJitsu.com
Gym Database (BJJ, MMA etc)
UK Club Map

Reply 7

slideyfoot

8

chriscahill9

You seem to know something about martial arts, what do you think of wing chun Kung Fu?.

Not much. From what I've seen and trained, it seems very much theory over practical application. There is (generally speaking) no sparring, which is a major, major flaw, as it means techniques are not pressure tested.

On the other hand, that's just my opinion, and I've only tried it out a couple of times.

Some further reading here.

People get mugged and beaten up all the time in my area and the places near where I live in general (North London)

If you're at all interested in BJJ, I have a list of clubs in London here.

Reply 8

chriscahill9

OP

8

slideyfoot

Not much. From what I've seen and trained, it seems very much theory over practical application. There is (generally speaking) no sparring, which is a major, major flaw, as it means techniques are not pressure tested.

On the other hand, that's just my opinion, and I've only tried it out a couple of times.

Some further reading here.

If you're at all interested in BJJ, I have a list of clubs in London here.

At the wing chun kung fu place I'm considering, I know people who went there, and they said you spar with each other and even the actual trainer, and that you fight 2 on 1, 3 on 1, and even 4 on 1. You did say generally speaking, so I guess there are some places where they do that.
I know one of the instructors there through a friend and recently he literally gave someone the beating of his life in a street fight because he knew martial arts and recently faced prosecution for it. I am not saying that is what I think martial arts is for, and I don't claim to know much about it, but to me that is martial arts in practice.
Thanks a lot for your help though. It says in your profile you do ju-jit-su. Out of interest what areas of the body and what aspects of fighting does that concentrate on?
Thanks

Reply 9

mozart

the problem with wing chun is that the quality varies widely among schools - wing chun ist not a trademark, so basically everyone can open a school and call himself a wing chun master.

I've trained wing chun for several years, and I can assure you that it's a highly effective and aggressive style (we often sparred with people from other styles) - but as stated above, it all depends on the trainer and lineage - there are major differences between the interpretations of Yip Chun, Yip Ching, Duncan Leung, Wong Shun Leung, Wang Kiu, Leung Ting etc. (all of them students of the last "grandmaster" Yip Man).

Personally I can recommend the Wong Shun Leung lineage (note that Wong died some time ago, so his students are now in charge; the best-known in Europe probably being Philipp Bayer and Barry Lee). Wong's stye is straightforward, and puts an emphasis on sparring or gor sau, and in general, real-life applications.

If you give me information about the school you're considering (webpage?), I can tell you what kind of place it probably is.

In reference to the bullshido.org link, I would like to comment an two statements there:

"Because many of the hand techniques involve eye jabs, and bare hand strikes, most Wing Chun schools do not spar full contact."

This is rubbish. There is a single eye jab technique in the entire wing chun system, and this is in the "emergency" form (biu tze), and noone would use it in sparring. the wing chun straight punch is the main weapon of the style, and that's what you also mainly use in sparring. "open hand strikes" are what you would typically use if you don't want to hurt your sparring partner (i.e. slap instead of punch).

"Students spend a lot of time on the chi sao exercise to “improve sensitivity”. While being able to feel what your opponent is doing by touch is a useful skill, the average person who attacks you will not be holding his hands like a Wing Chun student, so most of this skill is not applicable to real life."

chi sau is a reflex training for in-fighting, nothing more. it helps you develop the skills to adapt to different close combat situations very quickly, and trap and immobilize your opponents hands/arms with one hand so you can hit him with the other. it also helps you to kind of "automatically" follow your oppenent when he trying to retreat (hence the term "sticky hands" ) - you simply don't let him get away, but stick to him until you've had a chance to strike. and all this has nothing to do with the way your opponent is holding his hand.

I hope this helps a bit.

Reply 10

slideyfoot

8

chriscahill9

It says in your profile you do ju-jit-su. Out of interest what areas of the body and what aspects of fighting does that concentrate on?
Thanks

Ju-jitsu is a broad term, with various spellings (due to transliteration from Japanese). I do Brazilian jiu jitsu (specific cultural and historical reasons why it has that extra 'i'), which is a grappling style. That means it focuses on the ground, so if you're interested in striking, you'd need to either look elsewhere or cross-train.

Click here if you want a basic introduction, along with a video.

mozart

the problem with wing chun is that the quality varies widely among schools - wing chun ist not a trademark, so basically everyone can open a school and call himself a wing chun master.

Heh - that's the problem with martial arts in general. At least in the UK (I think France has tighter regulations), there is no quality control or governing body, so anybody can claim to be a black belt and open up a school. Also, because 'self defence' is such an amorphous concept, anybody can claim that what they do is effective, without having to offer any proof.

Hence why I tend to recommend styles like BJJ, muay thai, boxing etc. They can at least demonstrate efficacy in a limited rules, one-on-one situation. Many other styles tend to just offer anecdotes instead (e.g., "I totally used this in the street one time," or "my grand master once beat up ten men in a pub" etc).

Having said that, it is naturally difficult to provide evidence of anecdotes even when they're true, unless you happen to have CCTV footage or something.

Reply 11

mozart

@slideyfoot

you're of course correct, but wing chun always seemed to me to be even worse in that respect than most other martial arts that I came into contact with.

btw, that is good chi sao (actually gor sao, because they are moving):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ9aNHr92LE&NR=1

do most universities have martial arts as an extra curricular activities?

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