Martial Arts - Do you train?

[Master_Craig]

Just wondering if any one here trains in any forms of martial arts or self defence?

Do you still train? What do you train in and have you trained in anything else? What got you started? If you don't train any more, why'd you stop?

For me, I've been training in Judo for the past four years. I tried Wing Chun Kung Fu for just over a year back in 2010/2011 but I found that trying to work full time, go to the gym, Judo and Wing Chun was just too taxing on me. Was very draining in both body - and wallet. Plus it's nice to be able to relax every so often.

I got started in Judo because I wanted to learn a martial art after getting assaulted back at the beginning of 2009. It helped me gain confidence, greatly increased my fitness and I lost so much weight from it. Best decision I ever made. Shame such decision had to involve two guys attacking me.

I took up Wing Chun because I wanted to learn a second martial art and my brother wanted to try it, so I went with him.

What about you guys? Do tell.

 

[Optimus-Crime]

I mastered E. Honda's 100 Hand Slap technique with help of the NES Power Pad.
But I can put a mean choke hold on you. Well, not you, a judo master, but nearly anyone. I like boxing, but damn it's so easy to choke people out when you're taller and bigger than they are. It's pretty ridiculous how easy it is. I've always hated when boxers become all hands and no arms, no hips, just a flurry of flashy hand movements and wasted energy dancing back and forth, so those are prime moments to take advantage of my size and swarm in for the easy kill.
Not in a very long time, however. But I doubt much has changed in the choking out assholes scene. Hey, gentlemen box, but there's no rules in a street fight. Since there isn't, I'd probably just grab you and drag you around in a choke hold, using my leverage and a hard-cinched jerking vice across your throat to keep you under control. Cheap? Yes. Effective? Yes. Maybe throw in a few Yoga Noogies while I'm at it.

I haven't been in a fight in years. Probably over a decade. I heard a story from my cousin about how he saw a fight at school and one of the kids tried pulling out a Hadoken. When nothing happened he said, "Oh, shit!" and ran away.

street fighting? E. Honda? hmm...this post was presented by Capcom.

 

[Master_Craig]

I've never been in a "real" fight. I hope I never have to. I'm no "Judo master" but that would be sweet as. I'm pretty good - but I do get cleaned up regularly.

By the way - E. Honda's hundred hand slap is bad ass.

Not much has changed in the ways of choking people. I'm pretty sure it's relatively the same as before.

Funny thing about size, it can either be greatly used to your advantage, or greatly used against you as a disadvantage. I guess it all depends on how you handle yourself and how those trying to give you a hard time try and handle you (e.g. if they know what they're doing, or if they have absolutely no clue on what they're doing).

I've always wanted to try boxing. Ever since I dropped Wing Chun, I've determined that I can't punch for crap. I'd like to learn, or perhaps "re-learn" how to punch, as silly as that sounds. Boxing looks simple but I've heard it's actually a lot more complex than we're lead to believe.

 

[Optimus-Crime]

I make for good choker/grappler, or wrestler, but Boxing is my l love. An overhand right (or left) is beautiful and devastating. I have shitty speed, or at least I think so, so that's when I use my bullying size to my advantage. Which is a great way to get KO'd, you are right about size sometimes being a disadvantage. So leverage yourself, and tuck that chin in. Never underestimate your opponent, Sun Tzu, aye. jab jab jab jabOVERHAND RIGHT BODYSLAM INTO CHOKE HOLD POWERBOMB OFF THE TOP ROPE
PIN HIM! 1-2-3

The winner and *NEW* World Wrestling Champion is... sigh.. maybe one day, but not today.

 

[Master_Craig]

I have no idea who Sun Tzu is.

Speaking of smaller people... at my Judo club, we temporarily have this guy visiting from France. He's a small fella, maybe 5'8 or so and about 60kg (120-130 pounds). He's 22 but he's been doing Judo since he was 5... plus France is massive when it comes to Judo.

I'm 6'3 and 220 pounds (100ish kg) and I've only been doing Judo for four years. This guy, his technique is so good and he's crazy fast. He wipes the floor with me.

 

[Optimus-Crime]

could you use your size on him as an advantage? or would that be against the rules or "out of bounds" for the sport? Like, if the guy that size tried hip tossing me, I'd completely sandbag him and/or bring him down with me. This is the problem I have with some martial arts. But Judo seems to take the side of the big man. But, like, Kung Fu?.. pfft, please. I'm not letting some wacko dance all over me with his crane style. I'm slamming his pitiful ass asap.

 

[Master_Craig]

I could certainly try and use my size and strength and believe me, I have tried, but it honestly does not work. He has far much more experience than I do, absolutely beautiful technique and he is -very- fast. He's very good at "feeling" his opponent, e.g. feeling and predicting where your balance is, where your momentum and moving is coming from etc - very good at manipulating it.

So despite the size differences, he is just honestly very good at what he does. He smashes me and everyone else easily. Despite this though it's good for all of us at my club to have such an experienced player there. We'll learn a lot from him and we will all improve. It's just a shame he's only here for a few months.

It's like trying to fight Yoda.

[Edit] I should add... with Judo, it really doesn't matter what size you are. As long as you have the right physical conditioning, technique and mentality, you can take on people bigger than you. Usually yes, bigger people tend to have an advantage, but it's certainly not always the case.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I never did Eastern Martial Arts for a long time. Little bit of Kenpo, little bit of Judo. I'll second what Craig said about Judo. My old instructor was like 5'2" but he could make the big guys in class fly at will.

I just had too many other activities going on and lessons were/are expensive. But I spent 10 years of my life wrestling (collegiate, freestyle, Greco-Roman) and did Grappling (wrestling with joint locks) for about 2 years.

I've only been in a couple of fights, but I almost always drag it down.

 

[Master_Craig]

I've heard wrestling is very popular over in America?

I see a lot of guys using wrestling in mixed martial arts. It seems popular, it looks very effective in terms of grappling. Looks very powerful.

I once fought a guy at a Judo competition who was new to Judo but was a former practitioner of Greco Roman Wrestling. Very big, powerful guy. I beat him in the end but... he beat the absolute crap out of me.

I agree... that's my only problem with martial arts. It can be expensive. I guess it depends on who runs it. Clubs that are non-profit are usually pretty cheap... but man, the clubs that are run as a business? Wow. Expensive.

 

[intoTheRain]

I heard a story from my cousin about how he saw a fight at school and one of the kids tried pulling out a Hadoken. When nothing happened he said, "Oh, shit!" and ran away.

that's actually an awesome way to get out of a fight.

i have boxed, and am looking at getting back into boxing. no interest in learning MMA though, boxing is all you need unless you're inconveniently up against someone who is REALLY good. but it'll get you out successfully the majority of the time.

 

[Master_Craig]

I like the sound of that.

I'd also love to see a guy actually do a Shoryuken in a real fight.

"SHORYUKEN!"

 

[Bretimus_v2]

I remember one of my friends loved Bloodsport and when he got in his first fight he tried to do the hands in the air, Muay Thai pose. The other guy threw one down the middle and destroyed his nose. The rest of us laughed about it for months. (Sidenote: teenage boys are compassionate.)

Wrestling is indeed pretty popular in different areas, but suffers a lot because of the uniform. It's a great sport cuz it teaches center of balance, motion and body awareness, but it operates by different rules than Judo and Jiu Jitsu and other Eastern Grappling styles. When I did my grappling class I had to spend a lot of time untraining myself on my natural instincts from wrestling.

One of my coworkers trains boxing and BJJ at a MMA gym. I'm kinda jealous, but...I'm also not at a point where I could spend time or money on that kind of stuff.

 

[Master_Craig]

Owch! Poor guy... That musta hurt, but to be honest that does sound pretty funny.

Bloodsport was a cool movie.

I heard there's a new "Belt Wrestling" sport or something... I watched a few videos on YouTube and it looks VERY hard.

I've never really been into Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu... I'm not too fond of it to be honest. I can see the appeal and I understand why it's popular, plus it does look like an effective martial art for one versus one fighting, such as mixed martial arts or grappling in general. I won't go into why I dislike it though 'cuz... well, don't wanna piss anyone off.

That's a problem about trying to do martial arts - time and money. I'd love to learn more than just Judo, but I don't have the time or cash for it.

 

[Bretimus_v2]

You probably don't like it because it's really ineffective at teaching crowd control and leaves you pretty isolated and vulnerable if there are more than 1 attacker.

 

[Master_Craig]

Read my mind.

I'll spill then, ha ha.

I see the appeal in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and I understand why it's popular. I can also see it's effectiveness in one versus one competition such as mixed martial arts. As a self defence though, I don't think it's a good idea. The goal of BJJ is to be able to take the opponent to the ground and fight them down there on your terms, right? I think that's a horrible idea "on the street". As you said - the practitioner may be left vulnerable for other potential attackers and it's not that great as a method of crowd control.

I'm sure this doesn't apply everywhere but, in my own personal experience I've found that people who practice BJJ are very arrogant, especially toward Judoka... now again, I'm confident this doesn't happen everywhere and I'm willing to bet there are Judoka out there who are arrogant against BJJ... but that's just what I've experienced.

I've never tried BJJ, but I've seen a competition of BJJ. To be honest, it looked very boring and one dimensional. It was just people grabbing each other, having no idea how to take one another to the mat other than trying to tackle (or "shoot") each other, or swing each other around with no control, hoping to generate momentum to make 'em fall over. I was told BJJ has "all" the throws Judo has, but in that competition I only saw one throw - and that was by a guy who used to do Judo.

In that competition, once the competitors were down, it seemed to be a cat and mouse game of who could get the "guard" position first. I've never been fond of the idea of the "guard", to me it doesn't feel very protective at all and so far, it seems easy to get through people's guards.

I've trained with guys who do BJJ before. They used to get me on occasion, but over a short period we found that their techniques were limited and predictable. It became easy to figure out and then they get frustrated when they can't do what they know. Now, I get them all the time on ground. Their stand up is horrible too.

Maybe it's just the BJJ clubs here aren't too crash hot... and maybe there are much better clubs out there in this big massive world. But so far, this is what I've experienced.

My rant is over. Sorry.

 

[Icepick]

I boxed, through AA my father became good friends with a golden glover named John Lawson, who took me on when I was 12.

Was pretty intense, he also ran training programs for the local hockey team, the intention was for me to become competitive, however after a very lackluster amateur attempt, it clearly was not in the cards for me.

I did manage two wins, although it's hard to be proud, one was someone just starting out, his father called quits after half a round, which to be honest there wasn't much action beyond some good ol schoolyard flailing, and the second victory was a quit on the stool between rounds 1 and 2 (of the 5 round amateur junior event)

My other 3 fights were sound defeats, including one TKO where I was knocked down too many times in one round for the "ref" (owner of the gym) to feel confident in my ability, so lackluster may be too light of a word, that being said I did pick up a number of skills that stayed with me

I also briefly flirted with taekwondo, however classes were too expensive for a lower middle class family to keep up with

 

[Master_Craig]

Nice. Well two wins are two wins. Least you had the guts to jump in there and give it a go on multiple occasions. Boxing must be a very challenging sport.

 

[Icepick]

It is and it isn't, some find it natural, it's a sport that has an amazing amount of rhythm to it, if that makes any sense, and I had about as much rhythm as terry schivo, hence my failure

I was proud over my first win, my father put it bluntly I didn't win so much as the other kid quit

 

[Master_Craig]

Not to sound rude but I kinda disagree with what your father said. I believe you won that fight regardless - because the other kid's mentality, was to give up. He couldn't take it, he didn't want to continue, he gave up, you however were willing to continue and see the fight to the end, win or lose. To me, that sounds like a win.

Despite how brutal boxing looks, in my opinion there is a finesse to it and it can look pretty elegant.

 

[used44]

Posting just to see if Master Craig can continue his reply combo.