Your Martial Arts?

[LostMyMap]

Since we've talked about it in various threads, I thought I would just ask. What martial arts do you practice? And how does it benefit you personally?

Let's NOT debate the relative goodness of one art vs. the other, utility for self defense etc. You can start your own thread for that. I'm just curious what people are doing.

Arts:
My school is an integrated one. A mixture of Kempo karate, Muay Thai kick boxing, and Judo/Jiujitsu. I've been focusing more on the stand up stuff and less on the mat work lately. And getting to practice on Bo staff which I totally dig.

Occasionally we do some Tai Chi.

Benefits:
So many! I have lost weight, I'm in better physical shape, I am flexible, my balance has improved, I am more confident, calmer and sleep better. Plus the people at my dojo are really cool.

[relaXman]

LostMyMap ,

Do you practise Tai Chi, as a Martial art or body exercise ?
You know, Tai Chi is also used as an exercise, for example 24 form .and you know the concept of Martial arts and some body exercises are different from each other, and they can be mixed in this thread.

I have never tried martial arts, but I tried some body exercises, Five tibet exercise, Falun Dafa and some Yoga exercises,

And nowadays I try to learn Tai chi 24 forms by myself.,,

[faithsdaddy]

Have done quite a few things over the years. Mostly JKD and in the last couple of years BJJ. I feel a need to be able to fight, which is why I do martial arts in general. I like a 'scrap' once in a while, which makes Brazilian Jiu Jitsu a great match.

Physically, my balance, stamina, etc, have gone up enormously since I started doing martial arts. I've gone from someone who felt they had poor balance and co- ordination, to feeling that I'm very good in these areas.

Would like to do Ba Gua or something, but when I looked into it, there wasn't anyone good around where I live.

[Lauxa]

I did Krav Maga for a while (yellow belt ) and now I am doing Taekwondo (white belt ). But I'm only doing that because my girls are in it and each membership gets cheaper. The Krav Maga was a really good hard workout, the Taekwondo not so much, at least at my studio. I would love to try Capoeira one of these years.

Edit: Akido is another one I'd like to try, or anything with wrestling type moves.

[LostMyMap]

Originally Posted by relaXman

LostMyMap ,

Do you practise Tai Chi, as a Martial art or body exercise ?

I guess more of a martial arts perspective. There's more to it than the forms.

[joelr]

I did boxing, submission grappling and kickboxing (san chow) all separate. Then one of my boxing coaches started a school that has all 3 and more. They even hired my grappling coach. So there we officially did MMA. But we always used to end the other individual classes with light MMA sparring because that's the main focus of my friends and I.

I moved to a different town so I've been away from it for a while but I still practice and integrate it into my cardio. I'm hoping to move back fairly soon.

Even though the classes, especially sparring, are incredibly taxing the only thing that changes my weight are weather I'm on a mass or cutting phase.
I still got chubby in the mass season even with 4 classes per week plus weights 4x week. Only diet works on that with me.
We used to do the thing where you box or grapple with someone for 5 minutes then switch partners, then again, and on and on. Oh my god, it's so hard cardio wise. I got lots of scratches and bumps and a broken toe that never healed until I took time off. And an abdominal tear.

Mostly for me it was just incredibly satisfying to finally study MMA.
I did kempo karate for a few years, got to green belt w/ brown stripe.
But I was never taught what I consider the essentials in karate which are things like footwork (cutting angles, circling), head movement, a solid jab, keep hands up, sprawl to avoid takedown, parrying a punch thrown at you rather than some harder to use block type thing.
I found that when actually sparring with people those things made a huge difference.
But I miss the "formality" of a dojo and those 4th degree black belt people who act like masters of the world. Doing MMA is just like going to basketball practice, except fighting instead of dribbling. Someday I'm going to do the dojo thing again. But being a white belt again, yeeech?

[ginkgo]

I have done a couple like tai chi and kempo. I will be doing Capoeira since there are free classes on it near me.

[sorter]

Krav Maga but only a few months. Never went for the yellow belt.
Wish I could get back to it.

A great workout.

It gave me much perspective about fighting. It's nothing like in the movies.
Being in shape is critical. Frequently, the first person that gets exhausted will lose. And that can happen in minutes, even one minute.
Real fights usually go to the ground very soon and you don't want that.
Our hands and feet aren't built to withstand the force or weight we can put behind them. If the wrist isn't completely straight it can easily break.

Learning how to seriously injure someone was very sobering. When and why would I want or need to do something that extreme and terrible?
Brought much more meaning to the phrase, "no one wins a fight."
.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by sorter

It gave me much perspective about fighting. It's nothing like in the movies.

It tends to annoy me when people are fond of violent fighting movies where people's noses get slammed against a wall and this kind of things. I always think if they knew how much that hurts in real life, they wouldn't be so excited about it.

Learning how to seriously injure someone was very sobering. When and why would I want or need to do something that extreme and terrible?

When you are a woman and someone is trying to rape you, such a skill can be very practical. But in theory I see your point.

[sorter]

Originally Posted by Rose of Cairo

It tends to annoy me when people are fond of violent fighting movies where people's noses get slammed against a wall and this kind of things. I always think if they knew how much that hurts in real life, they wouldn't be so excited about it.

When you are a woman and someone is trying to rape you, such a skill can be very practical. But in theory I see your point.

The problem is when you hurt someone you're judge, jury (with little to no deliberation), and executioner.
You can be mistaken about someone's intentions.
What if the rapist only intended to dry hump a woman.
What retribution does the rapist deserve then? But that's a moot question because the woman couldn't know his intentions.

Unfortunately, when someone attacks you, you usually need to assume the worst and react accordingly.
You have a right to kill someone even if they only intend to have a plain old fist fight.
They don't deserve death but you can't know they're intentions.
Sometimes people get killed just for being poor communicators.

That doesn't make it less disturbing.
I heard a guy talk about using a shotgun on someone who broke into his home.
His kids were in the house. What else could he do? But he said it's still very disturbing that he took a life no matter how justified it was.
.

[joelr]

Originally Posted by sorter

The problem is when you hurt someone you're judge, jury (with little to no deliberation), and executioner.
You can be mistaken about someone's intentions.
What if the rapist only intended to dry hump a woman.
What retribution does the rapist deserve then? But that's a moot question because the woman couldn't know his intentions.

Unfortunately, when someone attacks you, you usually need to assume the worst and react accordingly.
You have a right to kill someone even if they only intend to have a plain old fist fight.
They don't deserve death but you can't know they're intentions.
Sometimes people get killed just for being poor communicators.

That doesn't make it less disturbing.
I heard a guy talk about using a shotgun on someone who broke into his home.
His kids were in the house. What else could he do? But he said it's still very disturbing that he took a life no matter how justified it was.
.

Krav does that thing though where (similar to Karate actually) every move ends in like some death move neck break.
That's not real either. I mean it CAN be but it's not the norm. I was a bouncer and have had to defend myself even just on the street being a city dweller (not even in "bad" areas). Last time it happened a guy actually put his hands (he saw I had cigars and wouldn't give him one and he started swearing at me so I told him to F off) and his hands were up and he was intending to hit me. But it's not a big deal, lucky for me he was not any kind of fighter. I put my hands up (no fists) and jumped right out of his range, circled around him, he could not figure it out at all, he threw a punch and I slapped it down cuz my hands were right there in the way and he was out of range then I open handed left hook slapped his face which was totally open to me. Lightly but with hips behind it. He lost his balance and fell down.
Then he was like "I could sue you" and got up and sat down.
Then I asked a guy smoking for a smoke for that guy and he smoked his butt and said he shouldn't have reacted so harshly.

Sure he could have pulled a gun. I would have ran. Or gave him my cigar.
But in some situations you do have a level of control if you train for it.

I mean if someone tried to rape me, unarmed, and I won the battle, they would either be unconscious/dazed from a punch, asleep from a submission or suffering from a broken arm or leg from a lock submission.
None of which are lethal and they happen daily in sport fights.

But to Rose, actually not much hurts in a real fight, not until afterwards. The body kicks in adrenaline and natural pain killers so pain doesn't get in the way of survival. Thats' why knockouts are needed in most sport fights because almost never does someone quit from pain. One guy, Frank Shamrock actually fought 2 rounds with a completely severed arm bone. Cut in two.
The knockout is when the brain gets shaken and shuts off momentarily, it's sometimes the only way to stop someone. A lot of police are killed by shooting a knife weilder who is up to 40 FEET away! Then they run in and stab the officer even after a chest shot that ends up killing them moments later.
I saw a training video about that when I was a dispatcher.

[md5sum]

I practiced Tae Kwon Do for a long while, but where I was practicing, they were more concerned with "learning cool moves" than with proper training and doing things right. Other than learning some pretty cool self-defense techniques, I didn't really get anything out of the training. I did get about a month from testing for my red belt before I dropped it.

In the last couple of months I've been considering returning to a more aggressive studio to get more training and discipline, but have not made that step yet. I've got a lot of other disciplines I'm working on mastering first.

~md5sum~

[md5sum]

Originally Posted by ginkgo

I have done a couple like tai chi and kempo. I will be doing Capoeira since there are free classes on it near me.

Capoeira always looked fun, but nobody for over 200 miles near me teaches it.

~md5sum~

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by sorter

What if the rapist only intended to dry hump a woman.
What retribution does the rapist deserve then? But that's a moot question because the woman couldn't know his intentions.

That's still sexual assault. I don't see fighting it off as "retribution" the rapist "deserves" but simply as a need to defend myself. Sexual assault is very traumatic and as a woman it's useful to be able to prevent it, that's all.

Plus, it depends on the martial art. When I was doing wing-tsun they taught us to go straight to the vital points and to kill or at least seriously hurt. That was brutal. But when I was taking ju-jutsu classes, they taught us how to render the opponent harmless without harming them too much. And the higher your skill level, the more control you have over how much and where you want to hurt them, anyway.

You have a right to kill someone even if they only intend to have a plain old fist fight.
They don't deserve death but you can't know they're intentions.
Sometimes people get killed just for being poor communicators.

Hmm... I don't know where you live, but I don't think where I come from you have a right to kill someone that easily. And besides, I think nobody deserves death.

That doesn't make it less disturbing.
I heard a guy talk about using a shotgun on someone who broke into his home.
His kids were in the house. What else could he do? But he said it's still very disturbing that he took a life no matter how justified it was.

I personally don't think it is justified to kill someone just for breaking into your house. I agree that this is disturbing.

Originally Posted by joelr

But to Rose, actually not much hurts in a real fight, not until afterwards. The body kicks in adrenaline and natural pain killers so pain doesn't get in the way of survival. Thats' why knockouts are needed in most sport fights because almost never does someone quit from pain.

Hmmm.... I was beaten up in school and I assure you it really hurts.

Maybe if you (general you) are in an aggressive or excited mood and willing to fight, then it does not hurt? Dunno. In my experience, it is very painful.

[joelr]

Yes I think you have to be willing to fight and your mind goes into fight mode and you get tunnel vision and adrenaline and all that.
I was also in a high school fight and I remember someone asking me afterwards if my eye was ok and I was like "what?", I had a big swollen punched eye but I never felt it or remember it.
But then when I though about it I kind of remembered a moment where something hit my eye fast and hard but there was no feeling. When you turn the pain and fear into violence (something needed when facing a predator or on a battlefield) then the adrenaline kicks in.


I've been kicked really hard in the nose while grappling on the ground with someone, so hard it made a crunch noise but I was determined to win the match and it was almost painless. Then right after it throbbed like crazy.

[Rose of Cairo]

Originally Posted by joelr

Yes I think you have to be willing to fight and your mind goes into fight mode and you get tunnel vision and adrenaline and all that.

You are such a gladiator.

I guess it hurt in my case because I was not in fight mode, feeling neither excited nor aggressive and not willing to fight at all.

[Dharma]

Originally Posted by LostMyMap

Since we've talked about it in various threads, I thought I would just ask. What martial arts do you practice? And how does it benefit you personally?

Okinawan Kenpo

I don't 'practice' anymore, but it is quite ingrained in my memory.

Benefits me by having something in my back pocket in case TSHTF and I'm unarmed.