italian_guy

Hi welcome to KF Deb

In my tai chi chuan school the main instructor does not admit you to test if he feels you are not ready ... and the admission after the minimal term (i.e. 6 months) is not guarateed at all. During the exam if you make big mistakes you do not pass but you are allowed to re-test after a month or so. Usually in the first test (6th to 5th chi) there is a lot of tolerance but the second (5th to 4th chi belt color change) is quite rigid.

Ok the problems with kickboxing are mainly: 1) the amount of fakes 2) the fact that is mostly a martial sport (not martial art). You can realize that your kickboxing is a fake if your technique show no visible sign of improvement after some times. Another way to tell your in a fake school is asking to some newcomers coming from other kickboxing school (we have quite many in my school) how do they feel about the practice they do now and watch them sparring. Once I meet a guy coming from a different school, he told me that the practice he does in my school now is much better than in the school he was before. Indeed when we sparred togheter I could see the difference; after one minute I hitted him with a nice clean cross in the face because he could not hold up his guard properly while attacking; after that he was passively defending being not able to throw any technique on me. So now I'm quite confident that my school is not a fake. The second problem you feel it after some time (it is the problem I'm feeling now). After a while if you are not going to compete you feel that your training becomes repetitive and you start feeling the lack of those elements which are present in the traditional martial art. You feel the need of the cultural elements that makes a martial discipline an art not only just a way to perfect your punches and kicks. I don't know if I have made my point, but this is my current feeling about kickboxing and this is the reason why I'm thinking to replace my kickboxing training with karate.

In kickboxing we do not have a belt rank (even if the instructor sometimes says we will establish one soon). In my Tai chi chuan school it is just White (6th and 5th chi) Blue (4th to 1st chi) Black (1st to whatever chieh)

Please feel free to tell about your sparring, whether it is full contact, or point based or somewhere between. In kickboxing I do light to moderate contact sparring, in Tai chi I don't spar for the moment ( I started only 3 months ago) do you perform breaking techniques? No what kind of hand strikes? elbow? knees? headbutts? No headbutt, in kickboxing we do only punches and kicks (also low kicks and spinning not flying not knees), In Tai chi we practice open hand, punces, elbows, kicks (no knees no spinning no jumping). pressure points? no in both self defenses? no in kickboxing not yet in Ta chi (maybe not at all) grappling? no in kickboxing, not yet in tai chi (I'm sure in the future we will do some) do you practice the native countrys' terminology? yes in Tai chi plain italian for KB. weapon use? what kinds of weapons? what levels do you learn weapons or special techniques? No weapons in kickboxing, In Tai chi we will learn: sword, sabre and staff I started only with the staff.

For Tai chi we have very light shoes. For Kickboxing we don't wear shoes we have foot protection but the part of the foot which touches the floor is bare.

Welcome to KF ...and welcome back to MAs

Welcome to the forum. BTW nice heavy bag you have.

Welcome to KF

Best luck to you!

Sorry wrong post!

I agree with WW if he is there only for the business and doesn't care about teaching well, talking with him will not change the situation

Here in Italy Wing Chun is not practiced too much... I would rather say that here northern/southern shaolin and tai chi chuan are the most popular

In kickboxing I have the problem that I'm the oldest in my class (almost 43 now) and the second oldest is 10 years younger then me and so the practice is tuned up for young people and this makes the class physically quite hard for me. Another problem is that Kickboxing is a martial sport and if you do not compete after some time loses some of this meaning. A good thing is that you learn the basic techniques quite fast and you can start sparring after a couple of months but I feel that is not a lifelong choice and I started to consider a change....

For those who stratches several time a day Do you warm-up before stratching? How?

I agree that your first choice (or attempt) should be Hapkido. If you want something very self-defence oriented (but with a lot of fun too) my advice is a combo of Jeet Kune Do and Kali. Which is the Inosanto's method. JKD is a very complete and versatile empty hand martial art (invented by Bruce Lee). Kali helps you to deal with everything you can use as a weapon (also flexible thing as a bathroom towel can be used as a weapon in Kali). You can check at https://www.inosanto.com for the nearest school to your place.

Hi, welcome to the forum.

Welcome to KF Gim

Welcome to KF. Good luck with your Karate training.

My advice is simple... start 3-4 of weeks of general aerobic training and add some weightlifting (not too much) then you can start your MT training, after a few weeks you will figure out what kind of additional specific training you will need... maybe you are out of stamina so roadwork or cycling can be an option. Maybe you lost flexibility and you will need to work on that maybe you will need more explosive strenght so high speed weightlifting may help you. So as a scheme: 1. Spend 3-4 weeks to prepare your body. 2. Start MT and figure out what kind of additional exercise you need. 3. Continue MT training with the addition of specific exercise.

I've already posted in the original thread anyway... I think that it is not a matter of when the art was established that makes it modern or traditional.The difference is in the attitude. A modern martial art teach you how to fight (in the ring or in the street).A TMA teaches you a way to achieve personal enhancement throu fighting. A TMA has more cultural aspects then a modern MA. On the other hand a Modern Martial art is more fight efficient, in the sense that you achive a certain level of fighting proficiency earlier than in a TMA.

Being traditional or modern is not a matter of date, it is mostly a matter of attitude. Modern MAs are focused on teaching you to fight (in a ring like Kickboxing or in the street like JKD, Krav Maga etc.) Traditional martial art also teach traditional values and philosophies. There is a cultural aspect in TMA that you won't find in any modern martial arts. Maybe a modern martial art is more efficent in teaching you how to fight but with a traditional martial art you enjoy a lot its complexity and the culture behind it.

This is true but doesn't cover the entire subject. Because there are some type of kickboxing rules that allows low kicks (round kicks to legs) and some other (like K-1) that allows also knee strikes... Some of the preparation has also merged so I think today Muay thay is an extreem form of kick boxing.

I see that now my shorei topic has become a Tai chi topic... Anyhow can someone tell me more about shorei?