Thinking of taking up a martial art...

JRY said:
hurfdurf - such a shame that you didn't find the right instructor and has lead you to have a low opinion on Aikido. Its ok :) As have mentioned previously and by others its not the art that is flawed but the artist. I actually have an instructor in mind that came to the UK in the 60/70s that was pretty dangerous ;)

Banzai_Joe. Are you still training?
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Not in aikido any more mate no. Tbh i got to the stage where about 5 of us had been training together for those 10 years and i personally felt like my sensei (who only had a little more experience than me) was holding us back and i was becoming increasingly frustrated, so i left. Plus my iaijutsu sensei was also a 6th dan aiki-jutsu sensei was training me and with him my learning curve went through the roof.
To lend a 'tiny' bit to hurfdurf here the aikido felt flowery compared to the AJ so i concentrated on AJ. Then i got drilled into the ground once too many times and spannered my elbow up, so i retired from that too.
Only practice kendo properly now and a bit of iai. Although instinctively aikido is always still at the forefront, be it moving out of the way of something or someone (used to play ice hockey and it helped greatly), or redirecting a strike however intended it may be.

edit: JRY, who's your sensei? Or the one you mentioned?
 
kwerk said:
Question for Judo people - what happens when you're on holiday in southern Florida and someone starts on you who is covered in sweat and wearing nothing but shorts? How do you throw them with judo moves? Do you practice for that kind of thing?
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Judo tends to be gi only but for example BJJ is taught (where I went) as both gi and no-gi
 
Banzai_Joe said:
dodgy bleeder.
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Just streetwise I guess. The point is a little like the indiana jones scene where he shoots the swordmaster. What do you do when you suddenly realise the other guy just might actually have a gun?


Edit: The answer is dont get into those situations in the first place and leave the being a hard nut to the idiots. (no offense to the pros, I mean general joe public really)
 
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On a serious note - if anyone is on a budget both boxing and judo can often be found at a reasonable price in most towns. Its also very unlikely to find either of them taught badly as by their nature they're both competitive sports - dubious instructors find it much easier to hide away in arts that don't have to be put to the test but rely, for the most part, on compliant students who are susceptible to 'woo'.

at the extreme end of the 'woo' spectrum is stuff like this:


ah - his magic chi energy didn't work because the skeptic was a non believer and had his 'toung in the wrong place'....

instructors like that will find it pretty hard to exist in an art/sport that gets tested but can carry on with all their magic energy/special move BS in an art that involves punching the air and going through the motions with a compliant opponent who will eagerly leap into the air and throw himself onto the ground when you merely bend his finger. I'm not going to completely dismiss anything that doesn't involve sparring but there is certainly a quality control problem out there and a fair few charlatans/dodgy instructors.
 
Xordium said:
Now you are saying Steven Segal can act - ROFL!
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This is kinda a valid part of the point, he can't act, he didn't get a action movie career because he was an awesome actor he got it because he was a bad ass martial arts master who was pretty big and originally not bad looking.

Old vids from back before he went into movies like http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yacGwi8Kzg&feature=related kinda galvanise the point.


kwerk said:
There's money to be made in MMA so if something else worked people would be doing it.

I don't know why this is still an argument. All this stuff has been tested in the ring with MMA and in real life with ghetto fights and the like and it's always a sloppy mix of boxing/thai-boxing/BJJ/western-wrestling that works the best.

Being strong and fit and having a killer instinct to use often pre-emptive unrelenting overwhelming "unfair" force is more important than technique/form.

I think all these women/fat/small/weak people are being sold some grossly misrepresented product with the stuff taught as self-defence.
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Just because you cant use it as effectively on a guy wearing padded gloves with professional MMA training doesn't make it worthless thats like saying all martial arts are worthless because you can't use them effectively in a sword fight, or swords are useless in a gun fight. If you want to see it used effectively on an MMA guy search YT for "Steven Seagal drops Anderson Silva With Wrist Lock for Not Punching Quick Enough"

I would still put money on one of those "women/fat/small/weak people" being able to destroy the average mugger/rapist after sufficient training. Just because something doesn't work in the UFC doesn't mean it doesn't work, it just means it doesn't work in the UFC.

I have actually seen one of those UFC wannabe types (you know, the type of person who wears the merch even when he isn't down the gym or training to show everyone in the pub hes an "MMA" guy) annihilated by a much smaller/weaker opponent because they had decent technique and they didn't fight by the rules he was expecting.
 
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my two pence:

When i was young, i did karate for like few months (1 year)? but remember it was kicks and punches etc. I recently started Taekwondo but stopped and started kungfu (shaolin) as my friend wanted to do kungfu and i thought it would motivate me (that ***** stopped going lol).

I personally liked taek-wando as he would teach me different defensive skills which we would practise and whilst not master it, at least we know they exist.

In kung fu we seem to be doing same kicks every week which does get boring.

What i find amazing is (please correct me if i am wrong):
The patterns/forms of kungfu are bit "harder" than that of taekwondo. The tests to pass the first stage also seems hard for kung-fu.


Six pages, do we know which one is the best yet?

Edited to add:
I have been wikipedia-"ing" some of the martial arts names that people have been throwing around, and to me Akido and Judo (I think) seem the best ones as you dont really fight but use techniques to sub-due your opponent i.e. if someone was coming at you, you would quickly move to side and then do an act.. but i have read so many that i have probably confused myself..
 
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Banzai_Joe said:
I have to disagree there mate. Ever see that science of martial arts programme (actually there were a few similar ones). Whilst boxers punch the hardest they were proven (in these tests anyway) that they were not the fastest. Boxers clench their fists to quickly whereas a kung fu fighter will only clench at the second before striking. This makes for a faster delivery.
Also boxers by nature i guess will not expect a strike below the waste, whereas a martial artists uses all his body to strike/defend.
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I have to disagree on that, the physics behind a punch as a boxer is that it is as fast as possible or as hard as possible(two types of punches). Also, of course in a ring vs another boxer you would not expect a strike below waste, but your reflexes are trained anyway, and you learn avoidance techniques/movement techniques which aid you in avoiding those strikes, so in a fight anywhere else, doesn't make a lot of sense except if the you are fighting with a martial artist who only hits below the waste and knows you are a boxer so he does that. Also boxers are trained to take a lot of hits as well.

Want to add something else, that when you reach a certain level it does not matter what you are trained in anymore, all major martial arts have their plus or cons.
 
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