The Martial Arts Thread

[SEO]

Several months ago I stumbled upon a martial arts class at a local recreation center, little did I know at the time that soon martial arts would become one of my biggest passions in life. I've been studying Tae-Kwon-Do ever since then, and I love it. I looked around the forum for a thread where I could talk to fellow martial artists about their experiences with martial arts but the closest thing I could find was an MMA thread so I figured martial arts deserve their own separate discussion. I would love it if this thread was a place were martial artists could share ideas and experiences without it turning it to a "if x martial art fought y martial art x would totally kick y's ass". So lets have some fun talking about martial arts.

A little about my self, at the beginning of May I began training at the local rec center. I trained in Tae-Kwon-Do, more specifically Olympic style Tae-Kwon-Do (I'll abbreviate it to TKD from now on). I really enjoyed practicing it, the emphasis on speed and foot work was really interesting for me, not to mention I really wanted to get into a martial art where I would be using my legs a lot. So I stayed there until September, when I left the city for a college in a neighboring town. Once I got here I really wanted to continue my training so I found myself an instructor, the only problem was he was a traditional TKD teacher. There was so little emphasis on the hands in Olympic style, I had a rough time transitioning to traditional style. For example during Olympic sparring it is totally okay to keep your hands down, but when I started here it was a completely different story.

I'll leave some story for later though...

So yeah guys, feel free to share your thoughts and experiences with us. Hopefully we can have a good time talking about our martial arts!

 

[bearsfan092]

When I was much younger (about 7 years ago), I did some form of karate up till orange belt 2nd degree. However, the teacher was pretty bad and stopped showing up to teach us for some reason. Never pursued karate any further than that.

 

[elettricita]

Since MMA means "Mixed Martial Arts," I see no reason why you can't discuss with us in that thread...

 

[SEO]

I think that MMA and dedicated martial arts are completely different, the MMA discussion follows the sport (you know like UFC) while in this thread I really want focus on the separate martial arts themselves. I would like to discuss people's experiences in karate or kung fu or muay thai or taekwondo or whatever you know?

 

[Shinryu]

I've always wanted to learn some form of martial art, but never was able to.

 

[Shiv]

people actually discuss that in mma threads :)

anyway, i plan on staring to learn mma (mostly muay thai and bjj) soon, fucking pumped.

 

[mirza]

As well as you should be Shiv. :)
I find the whole "learn discipline and honor" ideas in traditional martial arts cool but, honestly, the only reason I ever trained boxing and recently MMA oriented training was to learn to kick ass lol.

I've attended several different martial arts classes, but I wasn't too impressed with the practical uses of any of them. A lot of the Karate guys I watched train keep their hands down, same with TKD fighters, which makes sense for the sport, but that's a habit I wouldn't want to have in a real life situation.

Everyone trains different combat sports for different reasons, such as staying in shape, building discipline, learning something new and badass, etc. with mine being to learn how to actually defend myself in everyday situations and that's what pulled me into MMA.

Long story short I agreed to a kickboxing fight with limited training in kicks and my bobbing and weaving got me kneed in the face a couple of times.... Anyhow I like MMA because I find that it prepares you the best for real life situations and MMA basically combines all martial arts and just makes you the complete fighter.

I still enjoy watching certain traditional martial arts competitions though, anything in the Olympics I enjoy watching as well as Kickboxing tourneys and especially grappling tourneys.

Boxing I've given up on for the most part as two men punching each other in the face for a dozen rounds has really lost it's appeal.

 

[EpitomeOfFailure]

And here´s another Taekwondo practioner.
I do not actually know whether it is traditional or olympic TKD I happen tobe crazy about, but as we do have a number of different hand techniques, I´ll guess traditional.

My reason for this *hobby* is my bad shape.
That doesn´t change the fact, that TKD has done wonders to me as a person.

I do actually dislike matrial art competitions. Why?
As said, boxing looks like the same unless you´re really keen on it.
Most of the world´s top sports(wo)men hit qute hard, for obvious reasons.
Is it really exiting to see four seconds of kicking, three minutes of laying on ground and grunting out of pain, and repeat until another gets reasonably better score or forfeits.
I do not know if that holds true to other matrial arts or even TKD, but that´s the impression I got for watching olympics for half an hour.

 

[mirza]

A lot of traditional martial arts competitions are just watered down, overly conservative sparring sessions at best. Since you just called the ground game a big gruntfest with no action I think it's reasonable to say that there's no point in trying to teach you anything about MMA, or fighting for that matter. The majority of fights end up on the ground in real life as well, but your TKD instructor wouldn't bother teaching you shit about how to fight back once your ass is on the ground.

If you're interested in just stand-up fighting, look up K-1. Kickboxing basically started when a bunch of Karate guys decided to actually punch and kick each other in the face instead of that whoever touches who first gets the point bullshit.

 

[latinoheat]

Yeah because that point sparring bullshit didn't work out for arguably the best light heavyweight fighter in MMA.

 

[Slyguy46]

I did Okinawan Shōrin-ryū for about 8 years, but eventually had to stop due to school taking up too much time. A shame too: I was one belt away from my Black Belt.

 

[mirza]

Latinoheat are you implying that Machida trains with point sparring? He spars full contact. Traditional Karate trainers wouldn't let you do that. By that definition alone Machida trains like a kickboxer, not a point fighter. His stance should be obvious though.

Oh yeah, don't bother mentioning that he's also a Brazilian JJ Blackbelt, excellent thai boxer, versed in sumo, etc. etc.

My point was that traditional martial arts training isn't very effective in modern day MMA.

If you can beat up the average bum on the street then I guess your training is worth something.

 

[EpitomeOfFailure]

The majority of fights end up on the ground in real life as well, but your TKD instructor wouldn't bother teaching you shit about how to fight back once your ass is on the ground.

Good point.
It is true, that in real life situation, usually antoher one of the fighters ends up in grounds. Maybe even several times. Ending in gruond is not the bad thing, the thing I was complaining about was, that after another of the two fells (because of a hit into head/leg/torso/whatever) they just lay in ground.

It would be exellent to have some example of how to "fight back once your ass is on the ground", as you said.
But, because someone made a rule, that when one´s on ground, the fight stops, those situations caused the actoin to stop.
And that was just the impression I got from watching TKD competition of the Olympics. I do not imply it to other matrial arts, or even to TKD, as it may not be correct.

P.S. I´d like to thank you for givng me a tip to start kickboxing, even trou I actually feel dislike the fact that our self-defence trainings feature nothing of "what-to-do-on gound" but only "how-to-get-someone-on-ground". And because I live behind God´s back, I am not sure there is a kickboxing club nearby.

 

[Karate-Dude]

I did Okinawan Shōrin-ryū for about 8 years, but eventually had to stop due to school taking up too much time. A shame too: I was one belt away from my Black Belt.

I have been in that same style for almost 8 years now and i never regret any of it. I have competed in World Tournaments and currently I am an assistant Instructor at the dojo i attend. But on the MMA thing I wanna see ANY of those guys take on my 5 foot (i think) sensei because I ENTIRELY believe that MMA is just a bunch of Crap. Sorry if I offend ANy MMA Practicioners but It is my opinion.

 

[Karate-Dude]

One more thought, for those of you who are claiming that Traditional martial arts are not good for defending yourself you are ALL forgeting the simplest method to halt any confrontion with a male (who is usually the one assaulting you), a simple Front Snap Kick to the Groin

 

[mirza]

I have been in that same style for almost 8 years now and i never regret any of it. I have competed in World Tournaments and currently I am an assistant Instructor at the dojo i attend. But on the MMA thing I wanna see ANY of those guys take on my 5 foot (i think) sensei because I ENTIRELY believe that MMA is just a bunch of Crap. Sorry if I offend ANy MMA Practicioners but It is my opinion.

None taken. If you don't mind elaborating what you don't like about it though, I'd like to hear your opinion.

The reason I like MMA is because it is fighting, with rules. It covers all situations that a hand to hand fight could get into, prepares you to deal with all of them, and at the end of the day, it's MIXED martial arts. What that means is that basically anything within the confines of the rules applies. So yes traditional martials arts can work, as long as a fighter is prepared to handle the situations they're put into regurarly. Which means training in JJ, Wrestling, several forms of striking, etc.etc. on top of your main skill. Lastly, MMA is my favorite hand to hand combat sport because it is the least restricting. You use what works for you, as long as it's legal.

And no offense but I've yet to see a sensei who could hold a candle to a skilled MMA fighter. MMA guys train everything (or should) that's been successful in the sport so far and are far more versatile than anyone who only trains in one martial art.

The groin kick works when the other guy is just standing there. A boxer will tell you that a right hook will do the same, and a guy with a gun will just say shoot the guy. When the other guy starts moving around is when things get interesting lol.

I'll stop talking about MMA. I feel like I'm derailing the thread because it is meant for discussing traditional martial arts.

Also someone mentioned about fighting off your back. Judoka (judo) practicioners, Jiu Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (derived from JJ), Sambo (branches from judo), shoot wrestling (tho not a traditional martial art), submission wrestling (same applies) among other skills apply here. The reason I stopped training boxing is because one of my training partners (who was VERY good) told me that he'd demolish anyone who'd attempt to get him on his back because boxers know how to stop someone charging in. I wish

 

[Karate-Dude]

Well basically the thing i am most against is the sportification of the Martial Arts. The reason for this is that Martial Arts is not a sport but a Life-preserving art whichshould only be used as such. While i do compete in martial arts tournaments I rarely do the sparring as it does not prepare one for defense. Basically what I am saying that since MMA is mainly geared at the training to become sport fighters and pulling away from the definition of Martial Arts That I have been taught to believe in (almost religiously) I just have an extreme dislike for it