italian_guy

Hi Kivikala, welcome to KF... I'm also an over 40 MAist.

FIJLKAM which is the italian branch of WKF for karate. AKEA for JKD.

I think the taikiouku is a very good choice as a beginner kata each one has only one striking and one blocking technique and two staces only... It's not the most beautiful kata but it's ok for a beginner... starting from gekisai (like some school do) maybe is too hard.

Nice read thank you... and bart do you know our language?

Because the most important JKD (IMO) lineage is connected to Dan Inosanto, who is a Kali/escrima/arnis instructor, he integrated JKD with kali and other Filipino MAs like Silat etc.

why aren't tkd and kempo popular there?I don't know, hystorical reasons play a major role maybe. TKD has gain more popularity due to the fact that is an olympic sport, much less then karate, Judo and Kickboxing anyway... Kempo I think is something more related to the connection between Asia and USA... I don't know I would like to hear also the opinion of other european members. Is kempo popular in your country?

We do practice 3 Taikioku kata as white belt, the first real goju kata (Gekisai dai ichi) comes when you are a yellow belt.

Probably none of the two. But if you ask me about a comparison between the two I would say that Bruce Lee has given a larger cotribution to the art. The concept expressed in Tao of Jet Kune Do are of great historical importance, BL was an innovator. Chuck Norris was a very good MAist who was also an actor but on top of that he left nothing that can be compared to what Bruce Lee left

We do have sparring... in our school at the beginning is like light contact kickboxing sparring (with low kicks) then gradually becomes something like MMA with some padding and full contact. At some stage (not beginners) we also have stickfighting sparring.

In my town there is about everything.. much Kickboxing a lot of karate, Judo, Ju Jitsu (recently they opened also a BJJ school) Aikido, 2 large Chinese MA schools (one mostly specialized in Northern styles the other more related to southern styles). Then there are places for Muay Thay, JKD,TKD,Capoeira. Kempo and also TKD are not very popular here.

If 2 weeks off is considered a break, yes I take the usual school summer stop which is 1 and half month because in summer, here in Italy, is too hot to train... and ok I just restarted and I feel a little off condition but I'm sure I'll be ok in a few weeks.

Congratulations GMC

Welcome to the forums

Welcome back, I also remember your nice avatar.

Hello and welcome.

Welcome to KF

Osu!

Hello welcome to KF... about styles see signature

Hello and welcome. I'm also an Orange belt (In Goju)

WKF rules (light contact point sparring).

I think that if your main goal is self-defence, I would restrict my choice to MA optimized for self defence. I mean all arts are great but some teach you to defend yourself earlier then others. When you reach black belt level (or let's say after 4-5 years of training) every art is effective but some arts are more efficient and get to the point earlier (and this is payed by losing some other benefits). My (probably incomplete) list of these arts are: Muay Thay, JKD, Krav Maga, BJJ, JJJ, Karate (any full contact style), Wing Tsun (if done with full contact sparring).

Exellent article indeed, it clarifies a lot of discussions we had in this forum about christians and martial art. I perfecly agree with it. The biggest issue to be clarified was about turning the other cheek that can be easily misunderstood and I think this article clarify it very well.

Very good article. You are keeping your training alive even if not in a formal way. Congratulation for your success in wrestling... this says a lot on your foundations on Martial arts. Even if you come from a mostly striking martial art you succeded very well in grappling. Keep going and hope you find a way to get back also to formal training.

Is it pure-cotton or Poly-cotton? If it is pure cotton it will shrink a litte the first time you wash it... and after that you can make some adjustement but make all reversible adjustemets (no cuts) otherways you have no way back.

The ages of total loyalty to one dojo are gone since long time.... and you always benefit from cross-training expecially (like in this case) if the two arts are totally different.