jeffin

I crosstrain in many arts that are listed on my profile. The benefits physically are learning the most devestating martial arts I have come across and gaining the skills that come with these. I am developing good all over body strength and constantly finding weaknesses and striving to improve upon them. The same can be said for flexibility. These things my body will appreciate 20 years from now. Mental benefits are far more substantial. Training for 8 - 15 hours a week require will power determination, focus and concentration to learn the techniques. The confidence that goes with knowing the arts the skills and how to fight. (Kensai: But then again everything I have said should apply to every martial art which makes the question redundant I would have said IMO) pete,

COmpetitions will be legal if they go through one of the governing bodies mentioned. It was a hasty law and ill thought out. They are planning on revising it but you know government could take ages. pete

Kirves. Throw in weapons and its a whole different idea eh? So your good with sticks or knives or staff, would it beat my ak74 or glock? Do you see how ridiculous that premise is. These competitions are about unarmed combat and either you can step up to a MMA fighter and take him on with your fists or you can't. If you can't then maybey you should ask questions about your art and your training. pete,

"ChangWuJi" Buhaaaahaaaaa I can barely even bring myself to make a serious reply to your post, oh dear someones been watching to much enter the dragon and reading to many comic books. There isn't any mystical energy or secret shaolin techniques, the internal arts do teach in a different way focusing on alignment/body positioning and power generation/footwork/off balancing the opponent which is truly amazing. Its down to the person not the art but for damn sure there ain't nobody whos undefeatable. pete,

I like the shin block but if the kick is telegraphed then stepping into the kick with a shin block is highly effective. You are still blocking with your shin but moving into your opponent, this usually makes for a good time to knock out a combo or move into the clinch. pete,

Its the enormous over simplification that got me and the total innaccuracy not the last sentence. Your posts are hard to understand as well what is innfective?

Common misconception no 1. You don't see old muay thai people, you just don't see them compete just like any other MA. I have mentioned master sken before because he is the leading practitioner and trainer in this country and is no spring chicken I might add. He does however still do unbelievably athletic kicks etc. Common misconception no 2. Kung fu people train longer than muay thai people because of the heavy conditioning and brutal bone on bone contact. Check out one of the most popular kung fu's in china called choy lee fut (many modern wushu blends contain a lot of it) This art involves heavy amounts of conditioning on arms and legs and they strike with the shin as well. If you learn things like tai chi properly then yes you also do conditioning, believe it or not it really is a martial art and some of the latter stages of training are even more intense than most if taught by that particular teacher. My info on that one is from wong kie kit "the art of shaolin kung fu" if anyone knows more about it let me know.

ashtanga yoga once a day or even once every other day if you haven't the time helps to keep flexibility all over not just in the legs it also increases your back strength and balances your muscle development. Great for BJJ as well.

Thanks everyone and happy new year!

My first was against a JJJ who was a weight lifter which Ithink actually gave me an advantage as he seemed less agile, anyway after getting submitted by some wierd locks and holds (one where he ended up on his knees with me behind him pulling my arm up and in the end it was a lock on my fingers which I tapped out at) I managed to move him round into a rear mount he rolled over but I held on and got the choke. The problem with BJJ I find is if your a beginner your usually the only one and everyone else has trained for 6 months or more, consequently it was about 4-6 weeks before I got that far.

Hello everyone long time lurker I've been reading through the forums for a while now I thought I'd start putting some input in. Started training wado ryu karate and aikido when I was a teenager but changed to kung fu when I realised I wasn't training enough then switched to MMA to be able to dedicate a bit more time to a few different arts, hopefully be able to start putting about 20 hours a week+ if I can balance the work with the training. I live on the sunny shores of england .

The main differences between thai fighters and western fighters is experience. When you see the westerners fighting the thai's take a look at the fighters stats, in the last UK VS Thailand promo they had 4 fights with most of the uk fighters having had about 10-15 fights whereas the thai's fighters averaged around 50 fights. Western muay thai has a lot more handwork thai's focus more on the clinch. You'll see a lot more movement in a western trained fighter whereas a thai will not waste the energy, they will just move in and possibly take a pounding just waiting to get to the clinch where they can finish it with a knee or elbow - often using leg kicks to slow the opponent down. On saying that in the last uk vs thai match we won one match of 4 which is not that bad considering all our fighters only train part time, the match we won was a KO from 3 punches in the 1st minute very impressive. pete,

Personally BJJ is top of my list, pick a heavy handed partner and those chokes really start to hurt. In what way is kali or escrima intense, I always see that as the relaxing part of the night because they're not that physically taxing. pete,