Just curious really, I started about 2 years ago and I love it. I practice Kali Sikaran (www.kalisikaran.com) which is a philipino martial art. I enjoy it because it focuses on what really works, the fancy stuff that is more for show that practice doesnt come into training until 5th dan or something like that.

the questions:

Im thinking of taking up another martial art besides the Kali Sikaran, any suggestions anyone?

So what (if any) martial art do practice and why?


"Remember, its not about the kill. Its about the overkill" -Punong Guro Jeff Espinous

//Barduin

Self defence is like sex, its only good if it is nasty.

Mostly Capoeira these days, though its brutal on the body.

The combination of live music and movement is great.

Brazilian culture is alot more fun than Japanese or Chinese, too.

Maybe if I ever start to mellow out lifestylewise I'll head back to the Eastern arts.

hmm... Been doing MA for since 2000 or so..

change to MMA in 2003 I think.. out of a Shooters gym
Nice to see other martial artists here...

this thread might actually make start up playing again..
and that I might have some more time on my hands...

Increased agression

Increased mental acuity and toughness with reguard to survival situations.

Physical fitness.


I practice my own moves from time to time when I work out. I've found that in any fight I've been in, I used only the most basic stances and blows come into play.

With out rules, there seems to be only one martial art and it spans all peoples.

TaeKwonDo was my Martial Art back in the day. It was actually more of a sport than anything.

Well with Aikido, there is not increased aggression.

You will become more martial, but not more aggressive.

I've found that in any fight I've been in...

You get into a lot of fights?

It seems I'm in the right martial art then. Out of the countless Aikidoka I have encountered, I've rarely met anyone who has had to use their training at all, or if so maybe once, and certainly never had to hit anyone to protect themselves.

Maybe because part of Aikido (well, our Aikido school anyways), is to have a strong, but peace-oriented mindset.

It was not uncommon for me to get into a fist fight every weekend.

I had this odd way of looking at things back then. If someone "Dishonored" me, I would not back down from a fight. I would force them to fight me or give ground. I would never give ground even if I felt like I was about to get my ass handed to me.

It had a lot to deal with the way I viewed myself in the Role of an Infantryman. I thought it was important that I show my willingness to be the victor in any contest.

I used to train viciously back then. My Bag's even had wooden handle jump ropes on them that would flail around hard enough to egg my noggin if I was quick enough to duck.

I was an extremely brutal person. I don't recognize myself anymore to be honest.

Anyway, I wasn't civilianizing well, and I got into a Brawl of my own design with three guys and I got so badly injured I wasn't really that far from Convulsing. I had a bad concussion, and a back injury that still acts up. I was thinking to myself, But I got ONE of 'em and I didn't go down before the fight ended! and it occurred to me that I was hurt so ####ing bad that if I went to sleep I might not wake up. I started wondering if I didn’t have a fighting problem! =)

Anyway, My knuckles are scared from teeth, my own teeth are chipped and cracked, bones broke, arthritis in my right from hitting the bag to hard too often with out wraps.

The last illegal fight I was in was in 1998 or 1997 where I got into a brawl with one of my cooks. It was so bad and I was doing my thing that it scared a 17 year old girl who was like a little sister to me. Lost my job, lost her friendship, ended up in court.

I took an anger management course and it really opened up my eyes to how self destructive I really was. I never realized until then that anger let other people control me.

I've become a verbal boxer now and while my very profession gets me in tight spots I'm able to talk it down.

Aikido is a woman's art for the reasons you said.

No martial art makes you invincible and most don't even seem to make a person competitive when applied to any form other than it's own.

Hitting bags, shadow boxing, conditioning - these are all great things when coupled with repeated practical application. Whether that application comes in a bar fight or in an MMA ring, the experience is still 100% necessary.

Mike Tyson once said, "Everyone has a plan until they get hit hard in the face."

It doesn't matter if you're training in Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, BJJ or what - if you have never PUT IT TO USE, you don't know how your technique will function. I think 1/2 of fighting is how you well you get hit anyhow, and there is only one way to practice that. Yea, hitting bags/targets, shadow boxing, kicking the air in front of you... all great, but only 1/2 the picture. I'd bet on a guy whoes been in 50 barfights to beat a "Master" whoes never applied his technique on someone trying to apply theirs.

Aikido is a woman's art for the reasons you said.

Do you mean to say Aikido isn't for men?

If so, what would you say to men like Ueshiba Morihei, Mitsugi Saotome, Donovan Waite, and other very strong and martial men who have practiced or practice Aikido?

Even here in diverse California, the dojo where I train, which has been around 20 years, tested its first woman for shodan only 2 years ago.

Aikido does appeal to women more than other martial arts, and I'd say the fact that it appeals to women and men, mostly adults, makes it a strong and balanced martial art, not a "woman's art". Before I found Aikido, I admit I walked into a Tae Kwon Do dojo with an interest towards training. The throng of 12-year-old boys trying to earn their "camo belt" (I am *not* making that up!) had me out of there within 5 minutes.

The reason there is no competition in true Aikido isn't because the Aikido philosophy doesn't believe in competition, but because Aikido techniques (and in fact many martial arts techniques) are potentially so damaging that it is extremely dangerous to practice with anything short of compassion, blending, and restraint, which a "I must win" mentality conflicts with. A friend of mine just had surgery to re-attach his bicep that was torn away from his bone because someone doing a demonstration with him as uke decided, after opening his own dojo, that it was necessary to show his new students what "real Aikido" was. This man is a shodan, a body builder, and has *excellent* ukemi. The reason he was injured as badly as he was wasn't a lack of skill from either partner, but rather an overabundance of testosterone and pride. (Which he'll readily admit himself at this point.)

The women I know who train in Aikido are often constantly training to try to become more assertive and more martial, and the men more compassionate and peace-oriented. When someone truly gets that balance, it's a strong and beautiful thing.

Ultimately one doesn't train in Aikido because they want to kick ass in real-life situations, but I've never heard of a serious Aikido practicioner who had the art fail them if and when such an eventuality occurred. There's no fisticuffs though... just one technique and it's done.

Not trying to sell you on Aikido, but if you were training in any martial art and getting into fights every weekend, I wonder if you might consider embracing the whole discpline/budo aspect of martial arts training.

Akido is a form that attracts a lot of women because of it tranquility is one of it's selling points. That is appealing to a lot of people, but women seem to find their days more hectic than men do.

So a woman or man who is interested in protecting her/himself, calming their inner turmoil AND avoiding a physical conflict nature didn't design him/her for might very well be attracted to this.

Fight avoidance is a social responsibility/art form in and of it's self. It's a mater of mental conditioning that is sold as a marketing tool by martial arts dojo's.

That works well in an age that has done much to quash the reproductive rights of American men, and the roles we play in our society.

It used to be if you got hit, you mother would put a band aid on it and dad would scold you for not hitting back. Now, with dad's increasingly out of the picture more Band aids are applied and less tough love. On some level Moms still want to have there "Little Men" so they send them to these schools where many of them find surrogate fathers in their Dojo Masters. Even still "Your Boy will kick some ass!" might appeal to Fathers on some level, it doesn't to mothers and they are increasingly the only ones with decisional authority over their children.

So mommy sees the serine faces of people dancing slowly in a hall and they think, “Wow! That’s what my little man needs!”

Maybe he does, to each his own. I personally think it’s more akin to Ballet with Perks but who knows? I’ve never fought anyone in slow motion before.

I didn't train in A marital art other than a short stint in Taekwondo which is more of a sport. What I did do was train martially and did so heavily for a couple years. That was then, now I've considered doing something to help my flexibility and strength as I don't work out like I used to.

Nothing wrong with your choice Amaranthe, just not my cup of tea.

Video links below.

Funny as this is, It show’s the benefit of Muscle memory, while demonstrating you can still look like a tool.

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1331163394

Or this which is how I’ve seen the reality of most fights…
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1274046135

And finally I would never want to find out how I rate against these guys.
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1261570456


And finally finally….What a real ninja would look like!
http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=972814822

I personally train that with a second degree black belt who was trained by the Gracie's themselves. If you don't already know of the Gracie's, they invented the brazilian form of the ancient japanese jiu jitsu. Regardless, from a brief overview of what you study in martial arts, it seems to be highly striking oriented.

BJJ is grappling oriented, working with taking fights to the ground. It works on defense, offense and submissions. As you are primarily of a striking background it would help you work what most refer to as ground and pound while also allowing you to fight back against any knowledgeable grapplers you may face in a fight.

I would highly recommend studying the art, or at least looking it over to see if it is for you. If you have any questions, ill be checking back and you can reply to the post.

Undead_Irish

There any actual JKD schools in my area and I'm mostly just curious how much of it is hype and how much of it is practical information.

Most of what you hear about any art is hype, but JKD does have some solid principles. If you go in expecting it to be the be all and end all of reality fighting then you'll be dissapointed. But a good JKD school will teach you some good skills and concepts that you might be able to apply if you get in a fight.

I believe JKD varies more widely than most martial arts because it's not really intended to be a rigid set of excercises and such. Therefore the quality of the JKD will be even more dependant on the instructor than for most arts.

I don't do JKD however, so an actual practitioner may be able to tell you more.

which can be found here.

Hapkido, which I studied it about 5 years while I was at Iowa State, is my love. Our club was filled with aikido and judo practitioners, and so we had an interesting clientelle who strove to meet two goals: to move like a whirlwind and make their partner(s) hit the mat hard enough to get heads to turn. We learned no katas and preferred throws, joint techniques and sweeps over kicks and strikes, and practices were organized around scenarios (multiple attackers, wall and ground, weapons defense, 4 directions attacks, and blindfighting). If I get requests, I'll put a clip from a testing up for viewing.

I've formally studied TKD and Judo and played around with a few others, but I've gotten a lot more mileage from my hapkido: learning how to fall properly has saved me from serious injury on our damnable winter sidewalks, and I've been in the unfortunate situation where I have had to break up fights by immobilizing a student. Hapkido has been very practical.

I also have a Hapkido black belt. I think it's a great system in conjunction with some solid striking - also took Judo and Jujitsu - and TKD of course.

Where do you live now?

As my Avatar hints, I train/teach Muay Thai. Which is (for me) the perfect art.
Choosing an art is like choosing shoes, not everything will fit, and what looks good on others doesn't might not look good for you.
Best advice I can give is to spend some time trying different schools and different arts.
Finding the right teacher can make the world of difference too. Once you find something that fits you will know it.

By the sounds of it the concept of 'what works' appeals to you, which will mean a style like
Muay Thai might be for you, no frills, no kata, just what has been tried
and tested on the battlefield and in the ring for two thousand years.

http://www.plymouthtkd.com/howtochoose.htm

He sounds like the kind of instructor who would say 'well I think what your looking for is XXXXX you should check out Someotherschool and see if you like it, the guy is a good instructor.' Even when he could sell the student on his own school he wouldn't.

I personally have sent students to other schools plently of times after talking to them. It just isn't worth it for me to have students in my class that are looking for something else.

Thats a great link Stunna, so much of what he said I have said myself on occassion.

asdf

My web site is out of date, and only reflects the one. We teach Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido, but the website only talks about TKD. Also it pretty much says nothing about the art or the teacher, just talks about the benefits of studying.

You also might like to read the part on "how to choose a martial arts school."

My advice from almost 20 years of experience. (since I was 7)

www.plymouthtkd.com

I have been taking Wing Chun and Kali since the beginning of 2003. They really mix together well and I would strongly suggest you look into Wing Chun. Also a small amount of Tai chi, Dim Mak (they are supposed to be taught together but good luck finding someone to teach you how its "supposed" to be), and a small amount of chin na for if I get in a real jam.

Been in Judo for over 10 years. Used to wrestle in high school and its basically wrestling cept we get to use armbars and chokes. Juso is a gentle form of Jujitsu which is an Olympic sport now. I like it because you actually get to compete full contact. Throws/Chokes/Armbars that is. Can win matches by pinning the person too. I have my black belt. Travel all over North America to various tourniments. Its a good sport and no one gets hurt. No punches or kicks/ anything real dangerous.

Hope is the worst of evils, for it prolongs the torment of man.

Any martial arts other than TKD in the Olympics is not an Olympic sport, but an Olympic Exhibition. Hopefully it gets upgraded - it would be nice to see martial arts get a more clearly defined role in society.

Tae Kwon Do remains the only official Olympic sport.

Both Judo and Taekwondo are both Olympic sports, as is stated in the Finnish olympic committee page:

http://www.noc.fi/olympialajit/kesalajit/

or in International Olympic committee page:

http://www.olympic.org/uk/sports/index_uk.asp

Judo is an Olympic sport and has been regularly one since 1972. Taekwondo was an exhibition sport in Soul Olympics in 1988 and has been Olympic sport since the year 2000 Olympics in Sydney.

You know, I've tried to find Judo in the Olympics before - I wonder why this is the first I'm seeing it.

Judo is really an underrated martial art. I was only able to learn some because one of my TKD coaches was also a Judo Master. But within the 30 mile radius of my school there are no Judo schools. We have a lot of BJJ now though.

*sigh*

If I remember correctly, Kenpo, was a japanese
art, founded by a Mr. Odo whom I actually met when
I was probably in 3rd grade. It is a very fast hand
moving, close combat fighting style. It's focus and
tactics were developed by a small sized man, whom
did not have the option of raw power to overcome
his opponents, and rather utilized quick, pressure
oriented strikes. This probably wasn't the best
thing for my parents to involve me in at such a
young age, because I applied it in school.

My longer studied art, Yoshukai, I picked up in
my early teens, and studied all through out
high-school. I think this was founding by a
japanese man also, named something like Kicho
Yamamoto, who also, I not only met but trained
with, which was very cool on both occassions.

This style is more of a powerful fighting style,
being it's founder was a much larger man. It is
very similiar to mui tai. There are full-contact
competitions held, called Kumite, which I used
to participate in succeedingly well. Probably my
favorite style I've studied under. I later gave
up martial arts for football, wrestling, boxing,
and later in highschool, chicks.

Now? No thanks, I had my share of physical stuff
in the army. Going for walks with my gf, and all the
other things that ecompass that wear me out enough.

There's a lot of CFers who do martial arts. Sometimes I think 80% of the CF playerbase is programmer martial-artists.

I study Uechi-Ryu and have done some BJJ, Aikido and Kempo. Uechi-ryu is a simple (in terms of not having a huge number of core techniques and katas) utility-oriented stand-up martial art. It is a close-range style that heavier on hand strikes more than kicks, though there are both.

Historically, it's a descendant of pangainoon, which is a style of chinese kung fu. It was brought to Okinawa by Uechi Kanbun and to the US in the fifties by George Mattson.

There are a number of variants and organizations these day. I've been in the IUKF under sensei Vincent Christiano for 5 or 6 years and my rank is shodan. Different Uechi dojos have different levels of discipline, though they tend to be less regimented than many traditional styles. There are some that are strictly formal however. Where I study we tend to dispense with most of that, we still bow in and out and to each other when doing drills, but we call the teacher Vinny instead of sensei and it's generally a relaxed atmosphere as far as formality goes.

I've been looking into studying Judo at a place nearby that has a good reputation.

Edit:
I've also done a little bit of Kali in seminars and found it interesting. I've done it with a guy named Raffi Derderian and with Wes Tasker whose style is Pakiti Tirsha (probably mispelled). It's neat stuff.

I've been training in Aikido for just over a year now. I love it. My only regret is that I can't go more than 2-3 times a week.

It's been called the "thinker's" martial art by some, and I think that's true. It is not immediately practical as you describe Kali Sikaran, but since I really have no intention of getting into any physical confrontations, that is irrelevant to me - though I will say over the course of a year it has given me at least half a clue regarding self defense. Even just learning how to fall, get out of the way, and increased awareness is huge for just about any "real life" situation. It is all about redirecting energy and physics in a strange sort of way, which is what makes it appeal to academics and the like. But for those who train a long time, it definitely "works".. there is a Shodan I train with (about 7 years training) a 50 year old woman who can't weight more than 110 pounds, and gruff ukes with something to prove do not get past her.

I enjoy it for a lot of reasons. We have a physically large, beautifully kept dojo. If you've ever seen Donovan Waite's ukemi tapes, they were filmed at our Dojo. Here's a picture of our dojo, incidentally my friend Luan, the 110 pound woman I previously mentioned, is the nage there.



So I love going there, usually 6:30 am, getting away from my usual ruckus of my home life and starting my day. I love the problem solving, the contemplation, and the physical rush of active practice, especially as I've just now started to get to where I can do continuous practice without freezing. I love how, even though I still struggle to lose those baby pounds, I've gotten more fit.. I can roll, run, tumble, and even do the occasional breakfall and be not much more exhausted than those who are seemingly more fit. As someone who started this at age 30 only 8 weeks after having a c-section with almost no previous athletic experience, I feel what I have accomplished so far is something to be proud of. It has really changed the way I think about movement. I love the way it has taught me to deal with confrontations in a physical way that can translate into an emotional/verbal way.

I would personally recommend Aikido to just about anyone. Those who come from "harder" martial arts might not like it, but in my opinion, are those who could benefit most from it. If you are interested in learning about large, sweeping motion, learning about an approach that focuses on compassion for both uke and yourself, and an art that uses both open hand and weapons training, Aikido might be worth looking into.

nt

"Then hunger proved more powerful than grief." - Count Ugolino and the Tower of Hunger