Anybody with Martial Arts Experience?

[Anvilbrother 0]

Red belt in T-Quando

Postes r made from an iPad or iPhone. Spelling and gramhair mistakes guaranteed move along,

[Nightingale 0]

17 years martial arts experience in: parker kenpo, and have dabbled in: TKD, Judo, Aikido, Hapkido, Tang Su Do, and Kung Fu. Personally, I wouldn't touch TKD. I took TKD for a year, so I do know what I'm talking about. TKD is a good sport, but it (at least the way it's taught in most schools) isn't taught in a way that is really geared towards self defense. Those high kicks are really pretty, but if you try that in a real fight, you'll get knocked on your ass.

Personally, I'm a fan of Ed Parker's kenpo. It's practical and it's saved my life.
Main points of kenpo: it's staged. we practice techniques that can cause a lot of damage if you finish them, but you can stop whenever the threat is neutralized.
it's practical. feet stay mainly on the ground, and you never turn your back on your opponent. no high spin kicks...kick them in the knee and get your ass out of there. It's self defense and it teaches you how to fight dirty, because if you're concerned with a fair fight you're going to get your ass kicked or worse, because your opponent isn't going to fight fair. Someone who attacks you on the street has no honor, so they're not going to pull any punches, and neither should you.

If you want to try kenpo, I can ask a few friends of mine who know practically everyone in the kenpo world for a good studio near you. There are about 80 kenpo schools in texas, but, of course, not all schools are created equal, so it's good to get a recommendation from someone who knows.

Try going to www.martialtalk.com for more info. MartialTalk is the dropzone.com of martial arts.


Edited to add: I'd stay away from combination martial arts schools. They're too spotty. Too many of them are started by guys that have earned one or two belts in several different styles and decide to mash them all together. If there's more than one or two styles on their sign, I'd pass them by. Kenpo did start out as a combination style but was evolved by Mr. Parker into the art it is today, and it's been street tested by many people. Kenpo is street fighting that's been turned into a martial art rather than a martial art that someone's tried to adapt for the street.

[AggieDave 6]

Your typical "karate" places as well as a LOT of your American Tae Kwon Do places tend to teach a combination of styles instead of the traditional form.

Personally I've studied Tae Kwon Do for a good number of years as well as some Akido and a good bit of no-name martial arts designed specifically for self defense and use of force in regards to a profession.

Its all good, but I'm a big fan of having a good base in a single martial arts to build the rest of your ability, skill and knowledge on. Its the foundation.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[AggieDave 6]

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Personally, I wouldn't touch TKD. I took TKD for a year, so I do know what I'm talking about. TKD is a good sport, but it (at least the way it's taught in most schools) isn't taught in a way that is really geared towards self defense.

One year? Only one year? Then you barely knew what was going on in TKD. One year in a martial art is like a 100 jump wonder.

I've taken TKD for 13 years as well as what I talked about in the previous post. TKD, like any martial art, is only as good as your instruction and your ability. There is no magic self-defense art that works well for everyone.

Kicking high and its only pretty? HA! Find me a real martial artist that uses anything over about belly high in the real world, no matter what the style. While sparring I'll kick you in your head, in the real world I've never kicked over about 4ft, definately not head high.

I'm not saying that Kempo is a bad style, its a great style, just that you sound like a 100 jump wonder saying "RW is outdated and pointless, if you don't FF you don't know how to fly your body."

I'll be sure to tell my Sgt about those comments, he'll laugh his butt off. He's only been a cop for nearly 25 years and is an 8th deg black belt in TKD. As a guess I bet he's used his martial arts training a few more times then you and I have combined.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[murps2000 86]

TKD, like any martial art, is only as good as your instruction and your ability.

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While this is true, I'm sorry but Nightingale's right. Ed Parker's Kenpo style is way more practical in the street than competition TKD. American Kenpo practitioners don't care about points. They just kick ass. Brazilian Jui jitsu is more formidable a style than either Kenpo or TKD when it's one on one, but it is not useful against multiple attackers. Kenpo is quite good for that. TKD is pretty to watch.

"RW is outdated and pointless, if you don't FF you don't know how to fly your body." ***

This is also true

[SudsyFist 0]

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Personally, I wouldn't touch TKD. I took TKD for a year, so I do know what I'm talking about. TKD is a good sport, but it (at least the way it's taught in most schools) isn't taught in a way that is really geared towards self defense.

One year? Only one year? Then you barely knew what was going on in TKD. One year in a martial art is like a 100 jump wonder.

I've taken TKD for 13 years as well as what I talked about in the previous post. TKD, like any martial art, is only as good as your instruction and your ability. There is no magic self-defense art that works well for everyone.

Whilst living in Korea, I sparred a lot with Korean soldiers who had been doing Tae Kwon Do all their lives. And I routinely kicked the crap out of them, with much, much less formal instruction than they had.

Personally, I wouldn't touch Tae Kwon Do, either. For all the reasons Nightingale explained, Kenpo should do quite nicely.

Sorry, Dave.

[rasmack 0]

My background is 16 years of Shinson Hapkido training.

Two points:

1) When choosing a style or school I will tell you the same as I tell any parent when they ask me about what to choose for their kids: Go there, take a lesson and talk to the instructor. You will quickly figure out if it is a place where you want to be. They will not (or should not) be offended that you are just "shopping" around. They are used to it (at least I am).

2) As for TKD it is a mixture from the 50's of a number of Korean schools. There is no such thing as "standard" TKD, at least there didn't use to be. It is thus very much different what you will experience depending on who is the teacher/master and what his/her background is. Some places merely take bit enough of the Kukkiwon curriculum to be able to do competition fighting, while others take a shall we say more complete approach.

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[Scoop 0]

When I had my officer safety training for the police, I wasnt taught to fight. Taught to defend ourselves, incapacitate someone violent and get them restrained quickly. If your looking at self defence thats the best type. Its fast, dirty fighting. Me and a guy who had supposedly done 'a martial art' for 6 years had a bit of a spar and I dropped him pretty fast. Its just a funny non technical type. Elbows, knees, feet, fists everwhere. It doesnt look polished but its effective. If you kick someone in the shins at full speed wearing your boots. They go down very fast! Its proved vey effective on the street too in similar situations. Course I can always use my ASP baton or pepper spray if im really worried! MWAHAHA!

All joking aside, its a really good techinque for self defence. Try getting on one of those courses. Or join the police then quit after your safety training. hehe

[udder 0]

I've had to use my very individual style of self defense a few times. Eye gouging, putting a boot to genetalia, something heavy or hard to the head, punching for the throat, the odd knee(teeth leave terrible marks) and biting all serve well. Followed by running like fuck.

Give running a try. Shoes are much much cheaper. And there is the bonus of inner peace to be found in working for long periods of time at your anaerobic threshold

"In one way or the other, I'm a bad brother. Word to the motherf**ker." Eazy-E

[rasmack 0]

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Give running a try. Shoes are much much cheaper. And there is the bonus of inner peace to be found in working for long periods of time at your anaerobic threshold

Wise words. The best defense is... not being there

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[Tonto 1]

I liked your reply.
I'd like to add though, that once you're in shape, have self confidence and can incapacitate someone in under a second, Traditional arts still have their place. It is so, so easy to break something, but it's much, much harder to look beautiful while you do it.

t

It's the year of the Pig.

[AggieDave 6]

Murps and Sudsy,

Wow, you both glazed over my response.

I didn't say that TKD was the end all, I said it was a good style though. What I did say was it doesn't matter the style, it comes down to your ability and your instruction. If either of those two aren't good, then you're not going to be able to defend yourself.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Vallerina 2]

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I didn't say that TKD was the end all, I said it was a good style though. What I did say was it doesn't matter the style, it comes down to your ability and your instruction. If either of those two aren't good, then you're not going to be able to defend yourself.

I agree. My bro's good buddy kicks some booty in the UFC and uses his TKD while kicking (literally) such booty. Actually, quite a few mixed martial arts fighters draw on their TKD knowledge quite a bit.....so, if someone who has extensive training in many different martial arts is using TKD in real fights, my guess is that it has its place.

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[Diversgodown 0]

Thanks for all the opinions, Sound like there are quite a few out there. I guess I will just have to pop in a few schools and see which one I think will best fit what I am looking for. -Kickin ass and takin names-

***Glory Favors the Bold***

[gmittar 0]

Ugh, I hate how every martial arts thread on this forum breaks down into the macho "I can kill in under a second, can you?"

That's only part of what martial arts are about, and if that's all your looking for, then don't go for martial arts, go for fighting systems. They're not the same thing.

If I visited a Dojo where people talked like you guys, I'd be out of there in under 5 minutes.

|>.<|
Seriously, W.T.F. mate?

[skydiverbc 0]

5 years of kali

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[Ashtanga 0]

I sent my gerbile to Ninja School. He can kick ass.


See pic.

[Luv2Fall 0]

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Ugh, I hate how every martial arts thread on this forum breaks down into the macho "I can kill in under a second, can you?"

That's only part of what martial arts are about, and if that's all your looking for, then don't go for martial arts, go for fighting systems. They're not the same thing.

If I visited a Dojo where people talked like you guys, I'd be out of there in under 5 minutes.

Well said and very true.

[rasmack 0]

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Ugh, I hate how every martial arts thread on this forum breaks down into the macho "I can kill in under a second, can you?"

That's only part of what martial arts are about...

Sadly not everyone agrees with you. They will never know how much fun it is to spar with someone from another style. That takes mutual respect and a biiig smile (Although I do think it is funny how long you can keep a moderately experienced Judoka at a distance simply by knowing how to kick. Once they get to you, you're dead meat though)

HF #682, Team Dirty Sanchez #227
“I simply hate, detest, loathe, despise, and abhor redundancy.”
- Not quite Oscar Wilde...

[popsjumper 2]

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Ugh, I hate how every martial arts thread on this forum breaks down into the macho "I can kill in under a second, can you?"

Being a male-dominated sport, you can expect lots of testosterone-induced gabbing.

My reality and yours are quite different.
I think we're all Bozos on this bus.
Falcon5232, SCS8170, SCSA353, POPS9398, DS239

[Diversgodown 0]

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Ugh, I hate how every martial arts thread on this forum breaks down into the macho "I can kill in under a second, can you?"

That's only part of what martial arts are about, and if that's all your looking for, then don't go for martial arts, go for fighting systems. They're not the same thing.

If I visited a Dojo where people talked like you guys, I'd be out of there in under 5 minutes.

I don't know where you got that out of reading what I've posted. Maybe some of my comments that were meant to be a lighthearted jokes. But to set you straight maybe you missed this post.

Goals-equal- Get in better shape, learn to incapacitate 1 or a number of foes if put in the situation, possibly compete, gain some inner peace through discipline of the body and mind (corny I know) but I think it would help calm me down.

and yes I would like to be able to kick some ass along with it. If I'm put in a situation that I can't walk away from or to protect somebody else. Have fun on that Highhorse

***Glory Favors the Bold***

[gmittar 0]

It wasn't you I was responding to, in fact, I almost used your original post as something that people should be responding to, and what they should be looking for in martial arts.

|>.<|
Seriously, W.T.F. mate?

[Diversgodown 0]

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It wasn't you I was responding to, in fact, I almost used your original post as something that people should be responding to, and what they should be looking for in martial arts.

Oh Sorry!! I just assumed since it was a reply to me and right after my comment. -kickin ass and takin names- it was directed towards me. My Bad!!! Carry on

***Glory Favors the Bold***

[ladyskydiver 0]

4 1/2 years in Uechi-Ryu Karate. I instructed as well as trained. Achieved Shodan rank prior to leaving the dojo. Uechi-Ryu is a full-contact style of martial arts and practices body conditioning for the belief is that you can not always block every single hit/kick coming at you so you had better be able to take what is thrown and do what you need to in order to survive.

My sensei was also trained in other martial arts so we practiced some Aikido and Hapkido as well as other styles that he would toss in there.

Unfortunately, it is very hard to find a dojo in this style.

Although I don't formally practice the style anymore, I am definitely going to be on the lookout for another dojo. The inner peace that comes from it is worthwhile as well as the fitness aspects of it.

Life is short! Break the rules! Forgive quickly! Kiss slowly! Love truly, Laugh uncontrollably. And never regret anything that made you smile.

[GARYC24 3]

http://www.learnkaratenow.com/

What's anyone thoughts on this.
DVD's to learn at home.
I checked out local places and cannot do the nights for Adult classes.
BTW, used to do TKD, many years ago.
Kenpo would be what I would pick, next.