MAfreak

kata don't know. not sure if there are rules for staged choreographics teached nearly the same way since many decades. kumite there's a lot. allow a reasonable guard and infight (hooks, uppercuts, knees, maybe elbows, its anyway light contact), more throws, grappling/ground fighting and not just stop the fight after every theatrical punch with a silly pose and insane scream to show the ref "look, i hit him, i hit him!". then it would be a serious style instead of a ridiculous one.

take trial sessions in clubs nearby and join the one you like most.

when going further you'll build your own grappling dummy. but thats a good thing. any photos?

nice thread. enjoyed watching how other members are doing.

the advice is you should learn how to "thai box". this means how to block low kicks (raise a bent knee), improve hooks, uppercuts (look how they do in boxing), elbows, knee strikes and mostly form a good guard (look also how they do in boxing). the "open" guard of shotokan can "kill" you in a close combat. but learning that shouldn't be a big problem when you already have a karate background. i sparred with practicioners of different styles too when i was still in a shotokan club. but fortunately at that time i already was interested in practising (kick)boxing and grappling too, otherwise i would have been lost. disappointing harsh truth.

@ op: sounds like a bad instructor without well knowledge on physiology etc. every person is different. one can't push them all in the same way. for one its no problem, the next one might collapse and i guess he didn't know the anamnesis of every single student.

just read the first topic. taekwondo mixes very well. there is no big difference in technique details but tweaking up the kicks like they do in tkd (spins, training methods etc.) helped me alot in my beginnings when i was still interested in kumite.

thats the problem. if he is willing to kill you, in most cases i think he would just shoot and not come close and aim on you. no chance then. imo its most relevant for not getting to captivity or when the guy says things like he will kill your whole family and such. its easy to talk about that and to train gun disarm but acting in a real situation, not that simple.

@patrick what i meant was, when people are watching a specific sport on tv then there's an interest for this sport. but not in doing it themselves, thats strange to me. that baseball is that popular out of the usa surprises me. but here in germany at least there's a similar game called "schlagball" which means something like "hit ball" or "strike ball".

there's a guy around the internet with the "fastest gun defense", sounds like what you described. while krav maga gun defense technically is easy and fast, this guy just slaps it out of a lose one handed grip. just for show off purposes i guess. when held with two hands it wouldn't even work in that direction since the second forearm is in the way. there are better, but slightly slower disarming techniques in krav maga that work no matter if held with one or two hands. and it must be as simple as possible, not 1000 techniques you have to chose from in such a stress situation. however i think the op thought of amok runners, not of guys who come close and hold their gun to our nose so we could take it away.

imo martial arts are sports. some chinese styles are kinda gymnastics, others include combat sports like kumite in karate and kyorugi in taekwondo. even styles described not to be a sport but a self-defense system, like krav maga, include fitness training and sparring.

interesting stories here. i thought that stupid stuff just appears in films. here are many local clubs of different styles, 3x karate, 2x judo, hapkido, tong-il-moo-do, (kick)boxing, mma and more but when they/we meet, then it is for friendly cross training or sparring or public charity show events.

ah, baseball. the sport no one outside of america knows how it works. just a saying. watching sports but don't be interested in doing it self i don't understand but many (or most?) people do so. or play it on the playstation without feeling like trying themselves. maybe from a specific age its just difficult to learn something new. so when i was standing on a skateboard some month ago i must have looked like a clown.

we had a similar topic about our non-martial arts related hobbies, but i wanted to be more specific, what other sports do you like and are they in any way a good addition to your martial arts training? i guess we all do a general fitness training for gaining muscle mass etc., i personally also like playing basketball, volleyball, badminton and such, which can be a good agility training. furthermore i love to cycle my mountain bike through the woods which is a good cardio and leg strength training. that doesn't mean i do it very often or i am overly good at all that, but it can't always be. however when i think i can do something funny with it, i like to make short videoclips. http://home.arcor.de/flash666/sports-vines.htm now you.

you won't really argue if it matters of being handgun, rifle or whatever. to me english is second language, so inconfused the terms and i meant shooting weapons in general. you confirmed, what i wanted to say, thank you.

even if its true and i personally wished to own guns myself since terrorists are conquering europe now, i think many americans are too much enthusiastic of rifles. its like the example of a student who runs amok in a school shooting kids and what would the american say? if these kids have had guns too, they could have defended themselves.

yes the katana is the equivalent to the longsword. since i personally don't focus on perfection in what a specific style wants to force me, i also would adapt european sword fighting basics when training japanese sword. like i did with the korean hapkido sword style which fits me more than what i saw in the japanese. but maybe it was just that specific kata and others are more flexible. @tallgeese what is PTK and what is FMA? i know fma just als shortcut for "fake martial arts".

i'm also thinking about ma that often that its sick. sometimes i wake up in the morning and have an spontanous idea for a combination or whatever and want to try immediately. or when i'm in the supermarket or discotheque and there are strange/dubious looking guys, maybe bigger than me, i think about how i would fight them etc.

i didn't read the whole thread but to answer the topic, i asked that to myself as a karate beginner too and the answer can't be found in traditional martial arts. it can just be found in (kick)boxing, escpecially the peek-a-boo style is recommended.

googling keywords brought me this: http://wowvirals.com/texas-woman-creates-booby-trap-bras-that-are-designed-to-conceal-a-knife-or-pepper-spray-for-protection/ but it's no weapon, its just a bag so what makes it better than having these sprays or blades in the trouser pocket?

for self defense its important to make every technique as easy as possible. for loving it to make an art out of everything, asian styles make for self defense ineffective training out of the basically great techniques. so for example from kata you won't learn how to "do self defense". sorry, but thats the truth. therefore it mustn't take long time to make applying techniques effective. i personally had "just" two dangerous situations so far (except of brutal brawls with taking kicks to the back or squeezed throat as kid long long time before training martial arts). one was with threatening jerks and i had a young woman by my side, so i stayed calm and it didn't came to a fight, i didn't want to get her evening ruined by that. avoiding to fight, when possible, is also self defense. the other was that an old man grabbed his wife and hit her with the other hand. while it would have been easy to just throw him or beat him up like he deserved, i didn't want to be the "hero" who bet up and injured an old man so i made a "figure four" wristlock to release his grip from his wife and let her go. this was after about 6 years of being martial artist, if thats answering your question. but occuring situations then doesn't mean that it wouldn't have worked earlier, we don't test every now and then techniques on people in the street, i gess.

good luck and please let us know when the hapkido guys and you found techniques.

at least, i tried https://twitter.com/tobias_kilian/status/329181069817569281

from a research years ago i have notices with terms for kicks and punches in english (like in kickboxing), japanese (like in karate) and korean (like in taekwondo). since it could be interesting or useful for others, i'd like to start a thread with what i wrote down. if you can, please copy it and add missing terms, so that at the end of the topic theres always an updated table. chinese and thai terms would also be interesting. kicks english | japanese | korean front kick | mae geri | ap chagi side kick | yoko geri | yop chagi back kick | ushiro geri | dwit chagi round kick | mawashi geri | dollyo chagi hook kick | ura mawashi geri | pandae dollyo chagi axe kick | kakato geri | naeryo chagi crescent kick | mikazuki geri | an chagi punches english | japanese | korean jab | kizami zuki | ? cross | gyaku zuki | ? hook | kagi zuki | ? swinger | mawashi zuki | ? uppercut | ura zuki | ? backfist | uraken uchi | ? hammerfist | tettsui uchi | ?

not sure if i get everything right (english is my 2nd language). i guess you already tried orthopedical shoes with a sole to "make both legs equally long"? maybe sharpen the end of the cane could make a strike more effective so it could compensate the lack of reach and strength a little bit.