Thread: Tell me about your martial art

I've been thinking of picking up judo, or brazillian jiu-jitsu or muai tai or even boxing. I've been doing tai chi for several months now, and I want an "external" martial art to compliment it. Suggestions would be helpful and greatly appreciated!

EG: What do you take, how has it helped you (mentally, physically, in confrontations etc.) or why should I take one over the other?

Fencing~
I'm certainly more flexible, my club is very relaxed, it's a calm experience more often than not.
The goal is to hit someone without getting hit. It's not hard to learn, just another way to see everything.

Perception has changed, I suppose

I can think from a ready-to-fence stance one second, then sitting on the floor the next

I can change perceptions. Hooray.

Flexibility and constant changing view.
Not really sure if fencing even counts, now that I look at it

No no, that's an interesting proposal. Fencing is just as much of as a martial art as any other, it just involves swords and is more of a sport. Kind of like Take Won Do

Not sure if there are any fencing places in my town, but yeah, the fencing state of mind "hit and not be hit" reminds me of Lyoto Machida (UFC LHW Champ) He uses that same state of mind it seems, as he is patient, tactful and waits for the perfect time. Sometimes it can make for a boring fight, but it's still amazing technique.

Originally Posted by grasshoppa

No no, that's an interesting proposal. Fencing is just as much of as a martial art as any other, it just involves swords and is more of a sport. Kind of like Take Won Do

Not sure if there are any fencing places in my town, but yeah, the fencing state of mind "hit and not be hit" reminds me of Lyoto Machida (UFC LHW Champ) He uses that same state of mind it seems, as he is patient, tactful and waits for the perfect time. Sometimes it can make for a boring fight, but it's still amazing technique.

Of course, that's pretty much the whole game
if you can wait for your opponent to mess up, and stay ahead of them, it's hard to lose

but then from your semi-philosophical point of view, it all depends on what kind of metaphor you put behind it

A game of waiting

Wing Tzun.

Im no master, but I love it.

It has helped me by giving me a new attitude towards fighting. Its very direct.
The first rule of the martial art is,
"When, and where, the way is free, strike".

Its taught me that fighting is evil and if you ever get into the situation, you have to end it as fast as you can. The longer a fight goes on, the more chance there is that you will be seriously injured.

To give you an idea of Wing Tzun's attitude towards fighting ill give you the other 3 principles;

2. If the way isn't free, make it free, and strike.
3. Stick with what comes (as in, go with the flow) and when and where the way is free, strike.
4. Follow through as they retreat, and when and where the way is free, strike.

The last one always makes me laugh.

Here's a video to show how the good guys do it.



Come to think of it, that video makes it look like he's just giving the guy some really fast highfives on the chest - but Im sure hes doing more ;P

Traditional Taekwondo, not WTF.
There's a large difference in training, from what I see. WTF is sporting, traditional TKD for me brought the attitude of how well to really fight, not to score points.
I don't know much about WTF honestly, but from many videos I see, and from people I've trained with, self defense seems minimal in comparison.

Originally Posted by Dizko

How the fuck do you defend against that? fast hands moving like that is much easier then predicting their movements and blocking it.

I wanna learn chi but i am a lazy ass. Same with Qi Gong. A guy at my work said he sensei who was 4 feet tall could levitate. I dunno about that one though.

Just stay away from places that advertise that they are MMA. They are utterly useless for self defense situations. Also stay away from ones that are just for sport, also useless in self defense.

Find yourself a nice traditional tae kwon do (make sure it's traditional) or a karate class. As a rule of thumb, the older the instructor, the better the class because they are less concerned with things like the UFC and fighting as they are self defense. That's not always the case, I'm only 24 and I teach real self defense, but I'm always weary when I see a master instructor who's under 30, makes me wonder how he rose to the rank of master so quickly.

Thanks for the input guys. I've heard Wing Chun is similar to tai chi in some aspects. The video looks a lot like push-hands which is used to cultivate usable technique in tai chi.

Yeah, TKD seemed cool to me at first, but a lot of places do it as a sport and not as a martial art. Which is useless for self-defense as you said.

I think MMA gyms would be cool to go to, but again, it's for sport and doesn't teach self defense. I'm a big fan of the UFC, but I'm personally not a fighter at all which is why I want to learn self-defense. Not to mention fighting as a sport means you'll most likely suffer brain damage if you do it for long enough.

There's only one martial art that looks this cool. Tiger and crane.

I was surprised to learn that archery is officially recognized as a martial art after I had
started taking it, but there you go. I trained some with a bare 35# recurve, and I loved every
moment of it. It's probably way out of the way of what you're intending to study, but you
never know. You might enjoy it if you can find a range near you. I would be taking classes
with a dear friend of mine who has studied ninjutsu diligently for the past several years now,
but financial constraints prevent me from doing so.

There's another one. Like fencing it is also a martial art.

I've used bows before, I was younger, but I remember them being very hard to use. Not only was it hard to pull back, but hard to aim. Must take a lot of practice.