Ozpunker

oh, There were only 3 guys in each of these events. I got 2nd in Point Sparring and 3rd in Full Contact.

Not until after watching these that I realised how sloppy my fighting was on the day. I guess the nerves did get to me. I kept dropping my guard and kept doing the same few moves over and over. I'm the yellow belt with black headgear. I lost this fight only by one point. I went really poorly in this full contact. wayyyy out of my league here. I ended up forfeiting because that kick nearly knocked me out. I quit before I got too hurt. It wasn't until later that I realised that I was fighting guys from divisions higher than me. I've only been training for about 8 months and this guy has been training for up to 2 years.

You could have taken the less honorable approach.... Preform a quick foot sweep or get him into a wrist lock and ask him where your gun was.

I started going to the optional tournament class at Karate mainly to work on my speed and coordination but ended up being really confident in point sparring. Only a few guys do this extra class. The instructor says I've improved heaps and one guy who hasn't been to that class in a while says he needs to come back if my performance is any indication of the training we get. My club is hosting a tournament next weekend and everyone form the club is encouraged to participate. I'm going in point sparring and continuous sparring (Full contact, punches to body only, kicks anywhere above waist). I'm so excited I think that everyone is sick of me talking about it. For a while I was worried about being nervous and screwing up in front of everyone but a few weeks ago our head instructor organised a demo fight at the local biker club (I know it sounds weird, but it was a charity event lol.) I fought in front of a whole bunch of loud biker guys with no problems so I don't think nerves will take hold of me next week. Because I'm so excited I've invited everyone I know, and now I just hope I don;t look stupid in front of everyone.

Fleasome, I found it interesting that at the site you linked, it states that nunchaku are illegal in some parts of America. As far as I knew your right to own guns were protected under the constitution. I may have this all wrong here, but I find it odd that guns are allowed but simple nunchaku aren't. I know which one I'd prefer to be attacked with. I'm glad that you understand my situation and I didn't come across as an ignorant thug who just wants to get into fights. One thing that I think that everyone here gets from MA is a huge amount of respect, It just makes me angry sometimes when people don't treat me with the same.

In sparring it's pretty much limited contact. You don't get hurt too bad but you sure as hell know that you have been hit!! We usually wear foot/shin guards, boxing gloves, groin protectors and mouthguards. Some people opt for the full face helmets. Kicks and punches allowed everywhere. No knees or elbows allowed (Although when I spar with the guy that used to teach me Mauy Thai, we usually throw in a few softs knees) When it comes to point sparring, We follow ISKA rules.

Last year when I was training Muay Thai I had a really hard training session and as I went to get a drink of water I took a step back and rolled my ankle. I thought that it was heaps funny that I was doing kick boxing and it was only simply taking a step that hurt me.

I'm only new to Martial Arts and during training a few weeks ago I got smacked a good one on the left side of my jaw. I saw 'stars'. I took it easy for the rest of training. The only thing was that the right side of my jaw where it 'hinges' just in front of the ear hurt for the rest of the day. The best thing to come out of it is that I never leave my jaw open anymore.

I haven't been quite as lucky as you guys. But my biggest claim to fame is that I got to spar with a guy who fought Wolverine/Hugh Jackman in the upcoming X-men movie lol. I think that maybe the scene might be getting cut though. The guy is pretty amazing in terms of the fancy spinning kicks and stuff he does but I think it's all too flashy and not practical enough..... In saying that, I could barely get a glove on him.

As I see this, He is probably choking me with his left and punching with his right hand. I'd attempt to block and keep blocking his right hand punches with my left arm. depending on how he is mounted, I'd try to hook his left leg if possible, with my free right arm I'd try to push his choking hand towards my left and then thrust my hips straight upwards. Hopefully this will cause him to fall to my right where I'd be able to roll out and get away. I have seen similar techniques to this, I haven't tried them too much but from what I've seen, they do work.

I live in Australia where nunchaku are classed as prohibited weapons. I was reading up on the law about this and it says that you may own them if you get a prohibited weapons permit. I went to the local police station to ask about the correct legal way to go about getting these. The officers just treated me like some kind of idiot trying to tell me that I should try training in Kendo or something like that if I wanted to use weapons. The were also giving me a hard time saying that I should wait until I'm black belt until I even consider touching weapons. And even then the jerks still wouldn't tell me what was required to get a permit. I think that it is extremely irresponsible on their part to not give information to someone who was trying to do the right thing. I just hated the fact that they started treating me like a criminal when I was asking advice. They just couldn't seem to get it through their thick skulls that I wanted to learn a new skill and improve my co-ordination and didn't want to go around starting trouble. One cop said to me that it was better for me to learn hand to hand self defense techniques than to learn how to use a weapon on other people.. My reply to that was simply "I don't ever intend on using any of my Karate techniques on people" It seems that if I want to train with weapons I'm going to have to do it illegally. Has anyone else here been faced with similar issues or have any view on this subject?

Oz - I'm from Australia Punker - I love punk rock This name started mostly as a joke on a band forum, I now use it for all usernames.

white yellow orange purple blue green brown black 1st dan 2nd dan etc. Grading usually occurs every 6 months (sometimes every 3 for the lower ranks). I think Black belts and degrees only grade once each year.

I have been in a similar situation. I was with a few friends and some guy started talking to us in a similar fashion. We tried to leave a few times but he didn't seem to want to let us go. In the end I just had to be very assertive and tell him that we were leaving. We were in a somewhat busy street so I didn't worry too much about him getting aggressive. It sounds to me like you handled your situation perfectly.

The thing I love best about the style I do is that we have no set form. The motto is "If it works, Use it". The more commited people from class get together on Saturday mornings for sparring and to share different techniques. Starting this weekend we are going to alternate different styles each week (We have a black belt Jiu Jitsu and a highly skilled Muay Thai guy in class) Even though these guys aren't teachers, Renshi likes the idea that we are making ourselves more well rounded Martial Artists.

I've always been told "That with technique comes power" It's been drilled into my head since the first day I started training. When we talk about full contact here, what is meant by that exactly? When we train we have shin/foot guards and wear boxing gloves and mouth guards (Some wear head gear). We don't punch/kick with full strength but you make sure that your opponent knows they've been hit. I find that when I have to spar in non-contact fights I usually do rather poorly, I spend more effort in making sure I pull my punches/kicks up in time than perfecting technique. I also find myself fighting slower. The thing I like about contact sparing is that it conditions my body to be able to take hits properly and it makes learn how to focus after you've been hit in the head.

I'm not too familiar with many different styles but I'd have to go with: Mauy Thai, BJJ, and maybe Akeido. Maybe the weakness in this is takedowns? Perhaps substitute Akeido with Judo?

I'd recommend Muay Thai. It's one of the best workouts that I have ever done. The important thing to remember in any sort of new training (especially if you're not very fit to begin with) is to stick with it. I reckon for the first few weeks you'll feel really sore and drained after training but after your body starts to get conditioned to it you won't be able to stop going.

Where I go we have two classes during the week as well as specialist classes. The specialist classes involve weapons, tournament training. We also have free practice on Saturday mornings where anyone can come in do what they want. That usually involves everyone taking turns to spar with the black belts who are training for their grading at the end of the year.

Hi everyone. Just thought I'd introduce myself. I'm a 22 year old guy from Newcastle Australia. I started training Muay Thai with a friend last year sometime, After realizing that there was only so much we could do only training with each other we joined a local freestyle karate club called Kaizen Ryu. I had my first grading on the weekend where I got my yellow belt with tips, I will hopefully get my orange belt in a few months as well as competing in my first tournament in August. I've also looked into doing BJJ to try to cover most aspects of fighting and self defense.

I don't know if anyone has mentioned this already but the worst thing it can see with this is that it's too easy to predict what the other person is going to do. Once you block the 2 punches you get ready for some sort of kick and counter attack it.