theswarm

what styles allow you to pick up a weapon earlier on? i'm doing karate at the moment that has no weapons, i'm curious because i always wanted to know how to use a staff or a sai - by earlier on i mean in the first 6-8 months?

most weapons are illegal where i live the cylindrical part of my bike lock would be a good weapon, a tightly rolled up newspaper can be used as a weapon

i started at 20 been training 3-6 times a week since (almost 22 now) i wish i started when i was like 10

i'd love to do Tai chi chuan, im certainly not laughing you guys use swords don't you?

headlocks are easy to get out of what you do is you swing your arm over their shoulder and meet your other hand from the other side grip both hands and roll your body weight towards the person doing the headlock (I'm not sure how much sense i've made this is more something i have to show how to do) you can bring the person to the ground. The alternate way is to bring your arm from behind their body to the front of their face and push their head back. But i prefer the first method. Karate is really useful as a beginner art, i'm not necessarily talking 'self defence. I just think (much like any other art that you could be enthusiastic about - so i think the important thing is it's not necessarily karate...but an art that you can become spirited in) that what it has to offer for your body is great and mind is great. For me I've gained so much flexibility, conditioned my body to be stronger, learned how to react to a count, to something my sensei said in an instant, learnt how to react to a strike or combination of strikes in an instant. Built my confidence etc. I think what I get from karate when I move on, or add on another art will help me alot.

word but we're talking about confident techniques i like the technique combo of starting with a left lunge punch (most people always expect a strike from the right hand and I can't say i blame them) right hand reverse, right foot round kick to the floating ribs. if i got in a real situation i imagine i'd use front kicks an awful lot (the front kick to the solar plexus) i use it ALOT in sparring and I'm good with distancing and timing with it, and I've watched the frustrated look in people's eyes that can't get near me.

TKD gets picked on for the exact same reason Judo and Karate get picked on

but that's not really relevant to actual strength and endurance that's just to do with technique in theory the more muscles put into a technique the more powerful it'll be, hence why most arts bring stuff from the hips (hence using your back, your abs, etc etc). I tend to find that alot of my home exercise doesn't always feel like real strength, there's nothing like some good hard work that gives you a bit of a workout. If anyone in your family needs their garden revamped - and it involves chopping or digging it will work wonders for your upper body.

you've gotta keep in mind what those aerial kicks are aimed for Joon how do you do Aerials? (the handless cartwheel) that's a Wu shu move and a gymnastics move....I wouldn't mind doing an art that had it those fly kicks were designed to dismount cavalry riders. as someone who does karate I can say after sparring a friend who does TKD - it is ABSOLUTELY necessary to have leg flexibility in TKD to get the leg speed you require for those techniques to work. Otherwise your easy picking. Fortunately as my friend showed me you guys have some nice stretches and things that i've added to my at home stretch and condition repitoire (spelling?) the jumping while holding your ears thing, the lying on your back bringing your legs up and doing the splits on your back and in the air thing is awesome too. I gotta admit though when I saw the TKD horse stance I went what the fuck?!?! but anyway I actually thought this thread was gonna be one suggesting how to get extra power in kicks. I recently got myself injured doing a powerful roundkick (stupidly doing it in a soft contact style too) just as i was applying the snap of my technique and I was sure i'd opened up that floating rib my opponent blocked with his elbow. I'm still feeling the pain 2 weeks later, feels like someone dropped the corner of a brick on my foot. So i guess power isn't always good, speed and better control ( which I tend to find difficult from rounder techniques...) are highly important!

i'm anti gun to the people that were talking guns beside me and kaju what i'm saying is if self defence is the only thing you care about buy a gun. I'd rather spend time at my dojo improving my body, and mind etc. I think the perfect test of animal style is to pit animal stylists versus their respective animals

we had an ex kyokushin red belt join our school he wasn't bad to say any style of karate is complete is a bit silly... i don't really think it's a complete art from any school (although i don't know about kempo) but that's not what karate is about 'being complete' - its a standing rigid art. although it tends to vary from school to school the attacks are generally fairly linear (although we fight laterally, the attacks themselves are linear) The most deadly style of karate is the one that gives you the false sense of security to make you feel invincible the most effective style of karate is the one that your mind and body work well enough with, to make you feel enthusiastic enough to train hard and increase your skill level. I don't honestly think there's a huge difference even when comparing full contact, to more controlled styles. It just depends on you.

like the last person said get into kiba dachi turn your feet 45 degrees sit low i generally have just over a 90 degree angle on my knees when i sit in sumo stance remember to keep your back straight and make sure you don't lean in i see alot of early belt levels in my school seem to fall in the habit of like pushing their knees forward and leaning backward its like the worst habit to get into because it actually makes shiko dachi more painful to not sit in it straight

when you are bowing in stare right through your opponent and pull a poker face when you are in the fight, don't ever rush in to attack - this rush says 'please front kick me in the stomach' I generally do point sparring by moving in, attack 1 - 2 -3 -4 techniques, move out of range - that being said I also mix up my agressive and defensive fighting styles with the attacker I deal with. In my last tournament the last guy I had to fight was being really overconfident because he'd beaten someone 2 belts above him, he was very agressive. I started off sort neutral - exchanging attacks with him then I went defensive to see his attack style. Then I went defensive again and started to score front kicks on him (picking up on a weakness of his), then instead of relying on front kicks as I would have expected him to adapt I adapted my own fighting to aggressive. Throwing fakes is alright but be careful not to concentrate on fakes too much - sometimes i find myself when I do fakes concentrating on them - as I don't normally think about my normal techniques but i have to think about fake techniques. All so fight laterally! don't just fight forward and backward, remember when your in a tournament you're in a circle/square not a narrow corridor. Use your space. Also short low stances work a charm. Remember also to use momentum - roundkick with a right leg comes perfectly after a reverse punch with a right arm.

kake uke makes an excellent grappling attack when the opponents guard is high I find.

i do karate, i'm 6'0 when I come across someone a considerable amount taller than me I lower my stance and come into their guard it takes away alot of their attacking options and makes it pretty easy for me to continuously hit their solar plexis. Alternatively versus a small person I tend to just kick alot to distance them from me in tournaments they don't score from hitting my leg. Then every now and then i'll pull fake leg movements like front kicks that convert to round kicks to throw them off

i would never do something like that in a tournament blocking requires your eyes to register a movement, your brain to process, and your body to react. Attacking requires you to attack a strength/weakness or opening while keeping your body guarded. Which is harder to do? (even though I tend to fight more defensively when i spar)

Sorry Kaju I misunderstood your words, the message it seemed you were emitting was that unless you take your martial art into the street you are not a real martial artist... I saw this as a pretty macho attitude, where I saw a real martial artist would not create the conflict. So apologies for the misunderstanding. What I also meant by the gun comment was that if street defence is your only goal then you might as well have a gun, takes little time to learn does it's job in an instant. (Understand I'm actually very anti gun). In relation to the question at hand and I think the last poster summed it up. Fighting like an animal is a deceptive art that puts the opponent off guard, just like drunken kung fu, and things like capoueira

i think heaps and heaps of it is experience in sparring i just relax and focus along the shoulder line but not focus too hard because otherwise i focus on that area too hard, my arms kind of naturally react now but it's not entirely natural because for a split second i know i think where the attack is. I find kicks incredibly easy to read - but lately i've been looking for weaknesses in kicks themselves because of that ease and because of the way a kick changes the body weight (especially the round kick or spinning back kick) so I try particularly if the technique is not good to spin the opponent around with a block to get their back facing me. I'm still not that good at reading fakes, but sometimes I can tell. Like I said alot of it is experience, i've been training up to 6 times a week for 9-10 months, and it wasn't until a few months ago I started being able to read, process, and react to combos that attempted to open up my guard. As far as real life being jumped experiences go, I haven't really had it happen to me. But I often have instinct when I can tell someone is up to something whether it be in relation to me or someone in my viscinity. I don't know how I guess I just read their body language or something, you can tell when people act dodgy.

if someone 'jumps you' that means they have what... jumped on you physically? then i'd be looking at aikido/judo/jiu jitsu/ brazillian jiujitsu - an adept at these arts would have them on the ground pleading for mercy jumps in front of you demanding a wallet, probably the same above arts but i'd say wing chun kung fu, karate, i suppose any art will help you any martial art is better than no martial art that being said if self defence is your only reason for doing a martial art you could save yourself the money and buy a gun

my school Go kan ryu karate do white (10th kyu) white yellow stripe (9th kyu) yellow (8th kyu) yellow orange stripe (8th kyu ho) orange (7th kyu) green (6th kyu) that's me! blue (5th kyu) red (4th kyu) brown (3rd kyu) brown 1 black stripe (2nd kyu) brown 2 black stripes (1st kyu) black -( shodan ho) black first dan shodan etc etc

i think what jiu jitsu fighter said is of importance that's why I think it's always good to study a second art or to do something like boxing (even though i'm not the worlds biggest fan of boxing arts) just to get used to fighting different opponents or getting a group of other martial arts friends together and having a bit of a go.

i'm not looking necessarily to complete my art with groundfighting grappling although i might decide to I just really want an art that will encourage me to be extremely fast with my body (like i've heard shaolin kung fu does and the taijutsu in aikido does). plus i like doing forms/katas.

i love my club i train at 3 different dojos though for the one school, I learn different things from different senseis.

i do go-kan-ryu the weaknesses are linear attacks (which is kinda like most karate styles) although we do move laterally and defence versus low kicks the only real defences to them we have are sweeps and moving quickly.

i always found that lowering your stance when someone tries to sweep you is helpful. Also i've found that you can sometimes lift their leg with your leg and try and get them to lose balance. Works with some people.