iolair

Judo has something of a reputation for breeding knee injuries, so I'd approach that and similar styles with caution... Apart from that, it's difficult to suggest anything without knowing what you want out of it ... self defence, sport, fitness, discipline, or the tradition/spiritual side, for example.

Which technique(s) do people here find difficult of the ones you want to or have to learn? For some reason, I find it really hard to develop power in my kake geri (hook kick)... And these days (actually, since I injured my right hip 10 years ago), I have real difficulty keeping the angle of my foot correct on a side thrust kick! My toes always seem to creep upwards!!

I never use the ball of my foot ... too worried about crushing my toes if I get the angle wrong I think. So, if it's long range I use the top of my foot, medium range shin, short range knee: I practice at all 3 distances on my punchbag.

The throw someone mentioned before is usually called "Tomoe Nage" (Stomach throw) To throw someone, you need to get in under their centre of gravity... dropping to the ground is one way of doing this. As I'm quite tall (190cm), when I used to do Judo I found sacrifice throws very useful in competition. The one that worked best for me was a side throw, where you slide up to the opponent with the inside of one leg against the outside of his leg, while pulling him down to the side... (the throw is "Yoko Otoshi" - Side Drop. See http://www.judoinfo.com/images/animations/blue/yokootoshi.htm) Though, while this worked quite often for me in competition, I wouldn't want to go to ground unnecessarily in a real fight!

1 electric epée that's it.... actually, I've practiced using leather belts as whips, I'm pretty good at it now!

Three or four years since I did that. I almost managed to break 5:30, but not quite.

I've had a few non-MAs that have seen me practice say that I'm very fast, but my basic answer is NOT NEARLY AS FAST AS I'D LIKE TO BE! On a scale from 1 to 10... I'd say punches 5, kicks 4, footwork 7.

What Red J said seems wise advice...

You say TKD doesn't suit you, yet apart from the weapons part, you could be describing TKD here (strong kicks, intermediate punching, basic takedowns). Most styles only add weapons for advanced students (Black Belt) anyway. How about Savate (Boxe Francaise) if you can find it... it's another kickboxing style, but I think it's more oriented towards kicking than Muay Thai. Having said that, it has no weapons work... Kung Fu again while having good kicks tends to be more hand oriented. Many styles include takedowns and a good number include weapons work (sorry, I don't really know the details of what style does what). From the sound of it though, Kung Fu (and also its "baby", JKD) are probably best suited to you. I'd suggest you visit and watch (or try) lessons at a number of the different schools near you to see which suits you requirements.

Personally I'd advise adding a grappling art to round off your fighting style (Judo if you're sport-oriented, BJJ if you want an effective street style, Aikido if you like the idea of the martial-arts tradition). I did see a site a while ago with video files of a ton of Judo moves (I DLd them, so deleted the bookmark) - if I can find it again I'll post the URL

I concur ... a good grappling art will (a) help counter his wrestling experience, and (b) let you deal with someone with minimum chance of breaking something. If you can't get to a BJJ class, Judo, Sambo or Ju-Jitsu may be worth trying. (I personally have no experience of Aikido so can't comment on that). If you are really serious, add boxing or another style that uses boxing moves (Savate, Muay Thai, Kickboxing). Most fights start off at punching distance, so to be able to at least "get by" at this distance is essential. (While western boxing itself isn't often listed as a martial art, it is actually a very effective one, and one that is likely to give quite quick returns on the training). BTW, if this guy does actually physically bully someone, or can be trapped into doing it without it looking like he was, then maybe the police could deal with him for you?

Somehow in my mind I've never thought of this as turning my back on the opponent... strange mind. But, at the distance you do a turn in, they should be too close to be able to hit you anyway, and it should be too quick for them to do anything else.

I find that comment very interesting, because in my opinion it takes a commited karateka about 3 years to start to become effective....

As policy, I never turn my back on an opponent - not even momentarily as part of a technique. (of course with multiple attackers, there's not necessarily a choice). I wouldn't dissuade someone from trying it in sparring though - after all sparring is a "safe" environment, and a good place to try things out and see if you can get away with them. If you think you're good, you might like to challenge your sparring partner - tell them you're going to try a couple of spin kicks during the session and they should try and grab your back while you're doing them...

About 6 hours a week, split between technique and general conditioning/fitness... I don't attend a club (haven't done for a decade, for personal reasons), so this is all solo training. I have a good gym at home though. Saturday - 90 minutes Sunday - nil Monday - 50 minutes Tuesday - 75 minutes Wednesday - 35 minutes Thursday - 75 minutes Friday - 35 minutes I do technique work every day that I train (practising a basic set of 20 techniques: 5 punches, 5 kicks, 5 throws - or the turn-ins anyway, 5 elbows & knees. Each is done 100 times on each side. Saturday is my main weight session. Monday is extended punch-bag work. Tuesday is plyometrics on odd weeks, isolation weight training on even weeks. Thursday is circuit training on odd weeks, and I go to my fencing club on even weeks. Unfortunately, my life is so busy that's all I have time for: I'm a science teacher, and have a wife and young daughter. I usually start my training around 10pm.

I can only do 176lbs. I train hard, but don't think I have nearly enough protein in my diet (my sports nutrition book suggest I should have around 110g of protein a day, but in fact I think I normally have 50 to 70g).

I've been practicing solo for 10 years, and have improved vastly in that time. I don't think (personally) I'd be able to do this if I hadn't had 6 years in a dojo first though...

It's one of my "core" kicks - very useful. Especially if you chamber for it - knee high and to the side, the recipient doesn't know if you're going to do roundhouse, side thrust or hook, so you can choose at the last moment according to their reaction. I find it quite difficult to build power into it though: any tips?

Generally, Senpai (meaning "senior") refers to a student at black belt grades 1st Dan to 3rd Dan, and Sensei (meaning "teacher") refers to black belt grades 4th Dan to 5th Dan. There are also Shihan ("master") for 6th Dan to 8th Dan, and Kaicho ("grandmaster") for 9th Dan or higher. Dan grades above 5th Dan are not given for Karate ability, but for "services to the art". I believe (though this is overgeneralising) that differences between different Karate clubs/schools is often more significant than differences between styles. I've studied Seido Karate (based on Kyokushinkai), Seidokan (mostly based on Shorin ryu) and Shotokan, and to be honest between the three there's not much different in technique. The only characteristic difference that makes it easy to spot a Shotokan practitioner is that they chamber their punches from level with the hip/waist instead of level with the nipples in most styles. Some other styles do vary a lot from the mainstream; Wado-ryu (I think, not sure) for example uses more circular techniques as opposed to linear ones.

I've studied Seido (an offshoot of Kyokushinkai), Seidokan (no relation!) and Shotokan, along with a few others. As I don't currently attend a club, the style I practise is a hybrid of the above.

Seidokan - 4th Kyu (Blue Belt) (was about to attempt grade up when a hip injury put me out of training for a year) Seido - 8th Kyu (Blue Belt) Shotokan - 1 year's study (no grading taken) Judo - 1 year's study (no grading taken) I've avoided gradings for 10 years now, in any case!