is anybody studying a martial art here?

[kakihara]

has anybody studied or is studying a martial art? i am. im just curious, feel free to talk about your experience or anything else related to.

[The Burgomaster]

I studied American Kenpo (popularized by Ed Parker, who starred in KILL THE GOLDEN GOOSE, a lesser known martial arts flick, and later by Jeff Speakman in movies like THE PERFECT WEAPON).  My work and travel schedule made it tough for me to attend the lessons frequently and I quit after about 2 years.

I really like this style because it's all about keeping your feet on the ground, maintaining balance, and using conservation of motion.  It avoids high flying, spinning kicks and other moves that look like ballet.  One thing my instructor said that made a ton of sense to me is, "Why kick someone in the face?  You wouldn't punch someone in the foot, would you?"  In other words, your foot is the farthest distance from the target, so it makes more sense to conserve motion and use your fist.  Also, when one (or both) feet are off the ground while you are executing some sort of wheeling, spinning kick, you don't have control of your balance.  So it's better to try to keep both feet on the ground.  Most Kenpo kicks are to the legs, groin, and stomach (although, they do teach you higher kicks just in case you need to use them).

Another concept I liked is when someone grabs you - - for instance, grabs hold of your shirt - - the normal reaction is usually to try to push them away.  Kenpo teaches you to lock their hands in place (if both their hands are occupied grabbing your shirt, why would you want to give your opponent a chance to let go?)  By locking their hands against your shirt with one of your own hands and forearm, you still have one hand free to throw a punch and your opponent cannot block it because both of his hand are pinned against your body.

Also, if someone shoves you, the natural reaction is to try to shove them back even harder.  (How many times have you seen a fight that starts with two people pushing each other in the chest a few times before someone throws a punch?  It's like "I can push you harder than you pushed me!")  Kenpo teaches you to take a step backward and to the side when someone pushes you.  Their momentum will take them stumbling past you and you can hit them before they regain their balance.

I like this style because it seems very logical to me.  It's all about balance and fighting within a small, manageable area rather than flying through the air.  I also took some Tae Kwon Do lessons when I was about 12 years old, but I don't remember much.

[lester1/2jr]

 Iused to study hung gar.  I actually studied at two different schools at the same time, one was form stuff, which was fun but didn't teach me anythign abuot fighting.  the other was more physical. 

I enjoy hitting the heavy bag from time to time but I now only pracice i chuan which is like an even slower version of tai chi if you can imagine that!


I would highly recommend everyone take 6 months or so and learn the fundamentals of boxing and wrestling at a brazilian ju jitsu / mma type place.  it's worth knowing.

[schmendrik]

I've studied aikido. Didn't go very far with it. I passed my 4th kyu and was working on 3rd kyu. I was at the point where I was expected to be able to throw and tolerate being thrown (as in head over heels, through the air), which I was learning. But I finally quit with regrets because (a) I was getting injured -- I'm not young, (b) my schedule didn't allow me to get to the dojo more than once a week and not even every week at times, (c) I couldn't keep affording the $100/month dojo fees, especially in light of (b).

But I have nothing but the greatest respect for my sensei and I'd be happy to recommend him to anybody who wants to study martial arts in Philadelphia.

This school of aikido also requires weapons work, with the wooden sword (bokken) and fighting stick (jo). I really enjoyed that practice and really miss it.

Explanation of ranking system: In aikido everybody below black belt wears the same white uniform. You are at first unranked, then pass 6th kyu, 5th, etc up to 1st. After that your next rank is black belt, which is called 1st dan, and they start counting upward to 2nd dan, 3rd dan, etc.

[indianasmith]

I've been out of it for about a year now, but I have studied Uechi Ryu, an Okinawan style, since I was 17 and reached the rank of Sandan (3rd degree).  I am hoping to get back to workout this summer.

Uechi Ryu emphasized close-in hand and elbow strikes, and conditioning of the upper body and arms to take incredible abuse without damage.  I've seen Uechi Ryu students break boards with the point of the toe and with the finger tips, and have baseball bats broken across their forearms without bruising.

Check out the numerous Uechi videos posted on Youtube, including this one of one of our oldest masters doing his kata . . .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdVd4sYcXOE&feature=related
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Man, just seeing that makes me determined to go work out again!!

[kakihara]

cool! i honestly didnt expect any replies. i have been studying tae kwon do for the last 9 months. i have always been obcessed with martial arts my whole life, im pretty sure that watching kung fu and ninja movies as a kid has something to do with this. i still watch them. i always wanted to study a martial art but never did. i really dont know why. then for some reason last year i decided to. i just started thinking alot about self improvment. ive looked into a couple of styles and have always really wanted to study wing chun, but the only in my area is pretty much karate or tae kwon do. karate has never interested me, it just seemed so boring and plain. though im not familiar with alot of the different styles of karate. in my area its just american karate. so, i checked out a couple of schools, about 4 or 5. some of them left a horrible impression on me. some were like daycare with lots of screaming little kids running around. some were ran by some cocky "master" who had lots of mma wannabe students. finally i found one who actually took them time to sit down and answer all of my silly questions. it turns out that my school is family owned the teachers that run it are highly ranked with lots of experience including international and military. i ended up settiling for tkd, it wasnt what i wanted in the beginning, but i am really enjoying it. my goal is to become a first degree black belt before im 30. when i reach that point i will consider studying something else. i want to sudy something really useful, like some kind of knife defense or grappiling. possibly hapkido or some kind of ju jitsu. maybe aikido, there seems to be alot of wrist control in that one,correct me if im wrong.

[wickednick]

I've been taking Go-Shin-Do Karate for about 4 years. Its a great hard hitting style, has taught me  a lot about my self, made me do things that I thought I could never do, and have lost a ton of weight sense starting it.

[asimpson2006]

I'm inactive at the moment due to health, but at the time I went inactive I was studying Freestyle karate and reached the rank of green belt.  I also have a 1st degree black belt in Tae Kwon Do, and a purple belt in Judo.  I probably would have been a 1st degree black belt if I didn't start having health problems that forced me to stop.

[schmendrik]

when i reach that point i will consider studying something else. i want to sudy something really useful, like some kind of knife defense or grappiling. possibly hapkido or some kind of ju jitsu. maybe aikido, there seems to be alot of wrist control in that one,correct me if im wrong.

Yes, the holds (ikkyo, nikkyo, sankyo, etc.) in aikido start from controlling the opponent's wrist. It's amazing to me that you can actually flip someone that way (kotegaeshi), and you can certainly bring them down.

One of the reasons I've always enjoyed Stephen Seagal movies is that much of what he is doing is classic aikido. Some of it even basic takedowns that you learn quite early, but about twenty times faster than I've ever done it. Here he is doing iriminage a lot slower than I've seen in his films, probably for instruction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dJm8yDnYoRQ
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[lester1/2jr]

I would caution that you need to take a class that teaches you how to fight!!  the forms and so forth are enjoyable but actual combat is very very basic boxing and wrestling 99 times out of 100