Kodiak

TKD for 2 and a half years. Western swordfighting for a year (no real style, we just whacked each other with wooden swords and did the occasional dagger wrestling), Wado Ryu for about 6 months, and Kenpo for the last 3 months. Now if only that wasn't spread over a 16 year period.

I just think its more fun to see the different ways people would deal with a fairly easy scenario than address the insanity that lead to the thread. And there's a good position for a two handed choke?

ideally: Easy groin shot, sweep my other arm against the choking arms (outward block motion) while I do the shot , then get the hell off my knees while clearing his arms. It took me a whole 30 seconds to come up with all that though, which is too long, so probably just a repeated groin shot in a real situation.

I had an instructor who would really hit you, without pulling punches (much) if you didn't try to dodge or block. He made it fairly easy to do (no real speed), but it kept me on my toes after he laid somebody out who didn't block a couple weeks after I started.

I didn't do it for self defense when I started (though that's more on my mind these days). But at the same time, if you don't have some kind of goal you'll never get anywhere, so either you train for self defense, or you train to get in a ring or a cage or whatever and beat the crap out of a willing participant.

That was also probably before phone books existed.

My instructor uses a regular belt and does electrical tape for the bars.

I'm not necessarily claiming that Parkour is a martial art, because there's no clear definition of martial art, it meets some (IE, self defense method) but not others (IE, it has no attacks). I just think that claiming its 'not martial' is silly when it was developed for combat operations.

It was developed my the French military. I'm pretty sure they count as a martial organization.

Why don't you think its a martial art?

Why?

What the title says, as well as other combative martial arts that lack the philosophies of more traditional arts.

I'd suggest the ice for two days heat after that doctors recommend for bruises. I've had good results building forearm muscle with those grippy things and wrist pushups.

Do you have any preference on kind?

I couldn't stand it. Mostly because of Jaden Smith.

Kohai is the lower colored belts right?

A lot of small businesses haven't caught the memo that you need a site with your address, phone number and a couple photos at a bare minimum these days, its not limited to the martial arts places.

I'm not entirely sure what the upper dan tests would be like in my Kenpo organization. It's not curriculum though, 6th Dan and up is based on contributions to the art rather than skill as a fighter.

I never actually bothered to look anywhere but the internet when I was searching for a school.

Trying this, I have no real problem going into a front crossover side kick, no torque on my knee at all. It's slower but more powerful than how I do a stepping sidekick now (no crossover, bring the rear foot up to meet the kicking foot). I'm doing it from a neutral bow stance though (haven't kicked out of a horse stance since I quit TKD a decade and a half ago), the different stance could be it. Edit: I feel old.

I haven't witnessed any, but Ed Parker wrote in one of his books that they used to be quite common. More studios+more people believing that martial arts are effective meant that they were rare by the time he was writing (the early 80s).

Prior to my current studio, both my second best and my worst experience. It was originally very good, the Master was one of the best instructors I've had, and it was probably the only place I could go as a kid and have a culture of mutual respect. Then the master retired, and another instructor moved into his place, I lost all of that, at one point I actually ended up taking instruction from a white belt because he was an adult (which was the last time I showed up).

Ok, I have to ask about this, no matter how long ago it was. The Prince is one of my favorite books, but wouldn't say, Art of War (same author) be more appropriate for the subject?

Woah, that's actually way more common than I thought, I figured 5-10% (for teenagers). Also, can somebody move this to General Martial arts? I messed up posting it apparently.

Does anybody know how many people in the 'west' (for lack of a better term) practice martial arts?