italian_guy

I agree on this. My karate class goes for 2 times a week and I have additional 2 days to train (Fri to Sun I'm off) I pick an art which is compatible with my schedule first... Second I agree with Sevenstar if you cross-train your second art should be different frm the first so you don't get actually confused and you learn something actually different so I complement a Japanise mostly striking with some grappling external art with a chinese mostly grappling with some striking internal art. So I think I've made a good mix.

Ah It has to do mostly with endurance training. It's a total of 151 pushups broken in sets of 20, (the first warmup set is made by 10 pushups only) between each set there is about 1 min of rest but during rest we do abs work or some other workout exercise. It is a quite challanging experience!!!

Hi Nick, Welcome to KF I'm 43 and I take 4 classes (1.5 hours each) a week. So I don't think that 2 classes of MA a week + 1 Gym session would be a problem if your health is OK. I'm not too athletic either.

Welcome to KF.

Why you think you will not like karate? I did kickboxing before karate. Karate has a much wider range of techniques then kickboxing.. it includes all strikes (punches,open hand, elbows, knees, kicks) and also some grappling and ground fighting, it is quite a complete system... Of course there are other complete fighting system as well in the market (kempo,jujitsu, JKD, etc...) but I would not discard karate.

From the website it looks cute, it is wado with some extra skills added keep us informed about your further impressions

Thanks for the link... Looks cool.

I'm of the thought the 'older' masters may not be in-touch with modern technologies, as most older folk aren't. I'm leaning towards the idea that us more 'technologically' aware practitioners/students could step-up and provide alternatives for these masters. DVD video, Flash & Shockwave interactives, scanned-notes libraries, taped and videotaped interviews, etc. Thoughts? Yes, I agree that technology can help in this operation and some master are aware of that... since there are recorded performance of those master that were alive when multimedia started to appear.I'm thinking about Morio Higaonna, Mas Oyama etc. However, what I think is more important is to find a new way to teach directly to the most dedicated and proficent student, now that the old models are not viable any more. I think that the old masters should find those student and work out with them some schedule and some way to pass the art to those that should be the masters of the future. They should invest their time and their availabilty in this effort. Multimedia are useful reference tool but you cannot create a Master with them.

the thing I would do is to try to keep him at distance and snap back very fast my shots.. because he will try to grab my hands or feet... avoid using techniques that can be more easily grabbed ( avoid round kicks, use snapping side kick or front kick instead). This is what I would do in order to maximize my chances of success if is much better then me... bad luck.

Tuesday we did our infamous 151 pushup exercise.... at the end nobody was smiling.... Yes I agree with this.

Complimenti allora....

Congratulations then!

I think that training in self defence is always a matter of improving the chances of survival. The actual self defence situation depends on too many factors: your skill, your opponent skill, your fitness, your opponent fitness, available weapons both for you and for your assillant, the number of assillants, just to mention a few but there are a lot more. So whenever a system is too complicated from the deterministic point of view it should be studied statistically.This is why I say that training in self defence is always a matter of improving the chances of survival. What I wanted to say is this: 1) I agree with MJ and N_UKWC that thre is some dependence on the martial artist.Expecially on the importance that the martial artist give to self-defence in its own training. 2) It depends also on the art, there are arts that teach you self defence in a more optimized way however they usually lack of some other appealing aspects of TMAs. This was my opinion.

This is also a good suggestion! I agree with it.

Self-defence is not my primary reason why I'm doing MA but I think that kata practice togheter with their bunkai (or oyo whatever) are useful for self defence. Even if the pattern are pre-defined at least they teach you how to move against some attacks.

I'm glad that it isn't just me who does things like that. I've been known to accidentally say "Osu" and call my Sifu "Sensei" in Wing Chun class... I was the same when I was at school, though - I used to take French, Latin and Spanish classes and I'd regularly 'invent my own language' by getting them all confused. three latin or neo-latin languages at the same time? That can be really confusing!!!!

29 but feeling like 79 last few weeks Aaaahhh don't worry then, just be a little patient and You'll regain your flexibility and then also improve it.

I agree about the utility of the internet site for a MA school, when I decided to take karate I did a web search on the web for the school in the area and I contacted the head instructor via e-mail... so at least in my case it worked as advertising tool. Then the sites of my schools have useful info about the program and the events. From the internet site I know that they re-opened my former school of JKD where I used to train... unfortunately it's too late I'm already doing 2 MAs no space for a third one.

Welcome to KF, ....yet another monkey

This I don't agree. All taikioku kata start with a block.

I don't see the connection between the poll and the post but anyhow.. I think that cross training is always beneficial so I started it as a beginner. About your friend, it is not an uncommon case unfortunately. I don't know directly persons who behave like this but I heard stories about it. I think that you, as a friend, should try to convince him not to behave like this, but I expect it will be hard to convince him at least it worth a try. You should also pay attention to yourself when you are with him, because you can easily be involved in a brawl so always try to dicourage this behaviour when you are togheter.

Very interesting post AngelaG. I think that the problem that you rise has two solutions depending if is a student who rises this issue or if he is a head instructor or senior instructor, anyhow some quite high level expert. If it a student you must decide what to do depending of what you want from MA. If you want pure self defence without any formal aspects there are lots of modern arts that teach you good self defence skills without any traditional aspects. The same if you are interested in the sporting competition or just as a physical discipline. If you are interested in the art as a whole with all its values and aspects you should choose a traditional martial art... even in the frame of traditional martial arts there are school were the tradition is strictly followed and school where the tradition (meaning both techniques and etiquette) is more relaxed. I practice in two schools... in my tai chi chuan school traditional etiquette is quite strict and also the training method is quite traditional, if you read the books that the founder of our school wrote in the mid 80s you see that very little have changed and that was already traditional Tai chi chuan. In my karate school the etiquette is more relaxed we do all the bowing and the salutation but if you do show up in a training suit instead of your gi nobody will complain. Regarding the training method also is quite modern we don't do makiwara training (just heavy bag) and we don't practice katas all the times but still I think we learn traditional karate. In conclusion I can say that from the student point of view the thing you can do is selecting the school that has the level of tradition you feel confortable with. From the point of view of an Instructor you can choose if you like to stick to the traditional values or add new things or even in the extreme case found your own style. If you are a knolegeable instructor also your personal style will be good. It does not necessarely have a lineage in order to be effective. This is my personal opinion please tell me if I miss the point

My interpretetion is a little different (not much), I think what you should do is avoiding the fight until the very last instant in order to do that you should not attack first, however once attacked you should immediately counter, this is why all katas begin with a difensive movement (as far as I know). This is my interpretation however...

In principle this is partly true but Kickboxing and Sanda training has quite a lot of differences... Sanda enphatize also throws which are completely neglected in kickboxing... and this changes the training and also the figthing style as well. For example kickboxer tend to use round kicks a lot more than side kicks while Sanda practitioner use more side kick because round kick can be more easily grabbed.

I did JKD for just 1 months so I'm not entirely qualified to give my point of view but anyway... I studied JKD in combination with kali escrima (Dan Inosanto Method) I see from the webpage that is the same lineage of the one I studied (both come from Inosanto). Yes it can be your first art.It wasn't my first art for me but there were some absolute beginners in the class No they start from the early basics. No, it is fairly efficient for self defence. We did also case study self defence applications. It is somewhere in between a self-defence course and a formal martial art, it is formal because they teach you the basics with some accuracy but they also teach you self defence application like in a self-defence course. From the little I could see I can say no it is not an acrobatic style it has no forms (except if you do also kali). My 2 eurocents.