italian_guy

Northern shaolin kung fu is spectacular with high kicks and lots of acrobatic movements.

I think you should decide first if you prefer a striking MA or a grappling MA and then decide accordingly between MT or BJJ. I think that kali can be done in both cases it will not clash with any of the two because it is a completely different thing. Doing 3 at the same time maybe is possible but I would not raccomend it unless you have a lot of spare time to put on those thing.....

Congratulation keep up with the good work.

Congratulations, your brown belt now worth a lot because your earn it the hard way

What are they ?

At the beginning I started because I was tired of aerobics, steps and things like that and my gym opened a new kickboxing class so I tried.... Now I start to enjoy the value of a traditional martial art ( I switched to karate and Tai chi chuan) in terms of physical and mental developement.

Karate dojo is on the basement of a university building (It's a university dojo) it has two large trainig halls but only one with tatami. It has two changing rooms with showers Tai chi chuan is inside a kung fu school with two training halls one with a wooden floor (where we mostly train) and the other with padded floor for san da and some shaolin lessons, two changing rooms (guys and gals) with showers and a room for massage and medical center (our school hosts also chinese massage courses).

I agree with Rotten Head Fok and I also think that escrima is a good complement with any other MA.

I agree with those suggesting to talk about that with you instructor. You know him try to find the best way to ask (the 6-pack beers idea may work or maybe not but you'll find a way ). If you are not satisfied with the answer and your main purpose is learning to fight you better find another school or.... as an alternative you may start to cross train with a self-defence based MA (JKD, krav Maga etc). Hey Saltchrome your signature rocks .

My father did boxing and greco-roman wrestling, so I can say I'm 2nd generation even if we never trained togheter or he tought me anything about boxing or wrestling.

We have 6 levels before black in both the systems I study. 6 actual belts in karate (white,yellow,orange,green,blue,brown and then black) and 6 levels with one change of belt (white to blue) from the 5th to the 4th in Tai Chi Chuan. I think the focal point here is how many exams before the black belt level one should have. The colored belt to show in the dojo have little importance to me. I think that one exam every 6 months to 1 year or so and 6 exams in total are about right. Focusing the preparation on the exams is important time to time but should not be too frequent.

Congratulations Ramy.

Yer what you heard is true.. it gives also enphasis on conditioning and appropriate breathing, the kata Sanchin is a powerful breathing exercise. I practice it since short time (Yellow belt) but I like it a lot!

Welcome to KF. ...And good luck with your MA search.

Thanks Bob. A fusion of Karate, Judo and Aikido...It sounds interesting.

I would consider karate as semi-combative. Regarding Tai chi chuan even if I take the martial version at the beginning is mostly form and basics and it will be like that for the first 2 years so I consider it as temporarely non-combative.

My story with multiple martial arts is the following (in brief): I started with kickboxing (3/2003). After some time my Gym opened also a JKD/Kali-escrima course I joined and I liked it a lot because it was very self-defence oriented and matched very well with my kickboxing which was somehow sport-oriented. Unfortunately after 1 months we were only 2 students and the class was closed. Later on I tried Tai chi chuan and I found it interesting because it is a great exercise and it is an art which also complements well any other art (although it takes very long to be self defence effective). Then I started to consider a more complete art, kickboxing is (as I said) quite competition oriented and if you don't compete you feel you are missing something so I changed my kickboxing with go-ju ryu karate which I also like very much and I think match quite well with TCC. On top of this in my karate class we have one instructor which also is a JJJ instructor and holds a black belt in aikido, so he often does grappling seminar in order to broaden our instruction. I feel quite well with my MA instruction now and I think that cross-training is beneficial.

Ok I give you some arts names then you can check what's available in your area. Kickboxing (with additional self-defence application, quite quick to learn and effective) Muay Thai (similar to kickboxing maybe even more physically demanding) Jeet Kune Do (a modern martial art with striking and also grappling, sometimes associated with Kali escrima which teach you how to use ordinary objects as weapon). San-da (Chinese kickboxing it is like kickboxing with some grappling added). Krav-Maga (Self defence modern martial art). Those are my favorites for self-defence. If you like something more traditional Karate (basically any style) is still a valid choice but don't expect to see visible improvements in self-defence after two months of practice.

I don't but I know it is somehow similar to Go-ju ryu They both have their roots in Naha-te

I agree with markusan about Okinawan karate forms (I'm doing an Okinawan karate style). Check out also for chinese martial arts Northern Shaolin has very nice and acrobatic forms, and if you like grace and fluidity in forms I raccomend you also Tai chi chuan (which is my second MA).

It is hard but I'll try. Apollo 13 My name is Sam Metropolis (F.Lang) Forrest Gump The Blues Brothers Milagro The good the bad and the ugly Once upon a time in America JFK (even if I do not fully agree with the version of the facts presented there but still a good movie). All movies by Bruce Lee Space Balls Some italian movie never translated into english like the ones directed by Luigi Magni (mostly movies about italian history). The star trek serie Blazing Saddles..... (surely I have forgotten some, anyhow I'll re-edit this message)

Welcome, is Shuri-ru similar to Shorin-ryu?

Hi, you can contact Rotten Head Fok which is studing this style here.

Hi Bob, welcome to KF. Can you tell us a little more about your style, is it striking or grappling? Is it japanese or what else?

Welcome to the forums