italian_guy

You said it

Congratulations!!! Purple belt ... How your belt system works? My system has no purple belt.

I train only twice a week now until my karate class restart from summer vacation ( around 1st october) then I'll be training 4 times a week as usual.

I pick Dual style system because now I'm learning two different style but I do not mix them at the moment so I don't consider myself as a MMA. However when there is an overlap of the two style I benefit fron yhis cross training....

Hello and welcome, good luck with your training.

I think that TSD is quite a good art to start with, I don't know if they will teach you weapons... If you look for something more spiritual maybe a chinese system is better, something like Shaolin kung fu. Northern shaolin has weapons, kicks punches,throws, fast movements, chi na and in some school also chi kung exercise.

Books are only to complete your knowledge of martial art, you cannot learn an art from a book (especially as hard as kung fu) you need a real teacher that can correct you, see if your stance is good if the technique is done in the correct manner, you need classmates to spare with. BTW the "Idiot's guide to karate" (very good book I should say) is a sort of guide to what you actually learn in a dojo, not an instructor replacement.

Welcome to the Go ju ryu community, You'll enjoy yourself

In Italy you just won't see kids in a Kickboxing class because you can start it only if you are an adult, while karate you can start at (almost) any age, of course the method of teaching in the kids class is different from an adult class. But after the kids finish their class there is not a big difference between my present karate class and my previous kickboxing class as a matter of intensity in training.

Welcome to KF

Welcome to KF.

Hi welcome to KF

Yes ok Northern California is much better... Even if there are places in Texas that I like quite a lot. I like Galveston and also San Antonio.

It's a pleasure for us to meet you too. Welcome to KF

Good article WW, you touched an interesting subject. Since now (I'm in MA since March 2003 so a relatively short time) I saw only a few problems related on control during sparring. Once at the very beginning during drills (not even during actual sparring) a guy with a very cocky attitude lost the control of one of its uppercut knocking down his partner which reported a small injury in his mouth, I have the feeling that sometimes you can tell people you can trust from people you cannot, you can tell by their attitude. On the other end there are some people that are too upset about getting injured that it is a real trouble sparring with them. During my first karate lesson (late April this year) the instructor allow me to spar since he knew I had more then one year kickboxing experience. I was paired with a white belt; as soon as we started he was going towards me holding his guard too high so I hit him with a mae geri in his stomach and he started moaning something I did not understood, after a few second I counter him with a sequence of pounches the latest to his mouth, I'm sure I did not hurt him but he started screaming at the instructor to stop the fight, in order not to make a bad first impression I started to apologise but he did not accept that and walked away, now I think I will try not to spar with him in the future for two reason the first is that I think that no matter I hit him softly as long as I hit him he will start complaining, the second is that he may try something dirty to look for some revenge. Just my two eurocents.

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Kali or escrima is a mostly-weapon art (at advanced level there are also some bare hand technique especially if your teacher can teach you pentiak-silat) It is a Philippino MA. The first weapon you learn is the stick the you go to double stick, knife, soft weapons like bandana etc. Basically the aim of the art is to teach you to use any object as a weapon. It is sometimes teached in conjunction with JKD because one of its master (Dan Inosanto) learned JKD directly from Bruce Lee, and then invented its Dan Inosanto Method which incorpotes JKD and Kali-escrima.

I'm also studing Okinawan Go ju ryu (since few months only, started end of april) and I like it a lot. I don't know if is perfect... for me is good enaugh to stick to it for long time; but maybe 47MM and doubletwist are right it may have some shortcomings but at the moment I do not see them. About other styles I know better: Tai chi chuan (yang) Pros. 1) Very healty physical activity. 2) Fun to learn. 3) Very complete style it has both striking (also with elbows) ,grappling, healing, weapons, breating exercise etc. 4) Can be started at any age. Cons 1) It takes ages to be learnt in such a way it can be self defence effective. 2) little or no (at the beginning) free sparring. Kickboxing. Pros 1) Easy to learn. You can start light contact sparring after 2-3 months of practice. 2) Very good Aerobic/Anaerobic exercise. 3) With few additional skill it can become very self-defence effective. 4) Lots of sparring. Cons 1) Purely striking style (no grappling at all) 2) Too much sport-oriented if you don't compete it can become boring. 3)Not many technique to learn and this, in the medium term is a disadvantage. This is my 2 eurocents

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Welcome to KF.

Welcome to KF!

Welcome and enjoy KF

I do Go-ju ryu Karate and Yang-style Tai chi chuan , I'm a beginner in both, and I have no conflict. They are too different, I think that aikido also won't clush with any other karate style.

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think that Go-ju ryu is the karate style that resembles more the chinese styles ( Circular movements, enphasis on breathing exercse etc.)

Hello and welcome to KF. You do not like judo so you prefer a striking MA for self defence. Try something like Kickboxing, Muay Thai or Karate.