Thaegen

I am a police officerand in my 1 year education/training I had exactly 20 lessons of 90 minutes selfdefence. Our instructor was a black belt JJ. So don't think you can defend yourself because you are a cop:), I've been also 5 year in the military and we had close combat. Again to few lessons. So being a soldier doesn't mean you can defend yourself:) You learn techniques which you can use to control your opponent, but don't count it to work:), because everything is trainined in a controled envirm. I do WT and recently started with MT. WT is good for me, It works.

Oh boy, after a week I've come to the conlusion that the guys I sparred with when I did my first lesson were really bad:). Those who do thai for over a year kick my * and damn my legs hurt;)

Aha I see. You could just ask him about it, maybe he was sweaty because it was warm in there..maybe the old man was getting near a heartattack and was sweating and breathing heavy...for that exact reason. I don't know Gilbert, it could have been anything. I think I walk around in this world with my eyes closed. Because I never see such things, never got asked to throw a punch at someone. I am not bashing your post, I like it that you share your experience, but why don't I see/experience those mystic powers? Don't I train hard enough? Do you get my point, maybe it is a good thing people believe in those powers. But if it existed you should ask this question, "why can't I do it?" People will say, you don't want it hard enough, you don't meditate...a lot's of blabla. But you know what the truth is, it doesn't exist. It's something people dream of, I also dream things I will never can do/be. That's why people dream. That's the meaning of dreaming/wishing. But reality still knocks on your face when you open your eyes

Hmm I would say swimming is good, it makes your longs big. But you have to swim crawl. I would say 3 times in a week 2-3km per training, Mostly you swim at 70% but a couple of times you go full. I do swimming, running, cycling. But I believe swimming is better than running and swimming. With the condition you get with swimming, you can do the two others easly. + to never run longer than 30 minutes is not the best way to go, Sometimes you only run for 30 minutes/interval training. But it doesn't do any harm to run 16km or more.

"the problem is that tma won't do it. the major difference between a sport system and a traditional is conditioning. the second is experience. When you fight guys (if you get to) that have had more training and several ring fights, you'll see what I'm talking about. That opportunity for extra experience makes all the difference. Other than that, it's pretty much the same - just a different way of doing things. I posted just yesterday on the chinese forum how we use tan sao, pak sao and other things in muay thai from a basic standpoint. also, the jab/man sao, but man sao has a different purpose than a jab." Hmm I don't see why a TMA won't do it, granted where I do Wing Tsun there is no conditioning. Like I said in another post, no conditiong and no getting used to getting hit. Yesterday I trained with the guys who don't compete, the guys who compete did their own training. I talked to some (not an instructor) and they told me that after a year I can ask to compete in fights. I don't see why I need to wait a year. Maybe I am to self confidient. But with warm up, I could easly follow the competion fighters. I do WIng Tsun, but I do together with my nephew condition training + I train for triathlon so my condition is not so bad;). There is ofcourse a differcene between duration sports and fighting in a ring. It are two different kind of conditions. But I train for both. You've got a point about sparring I was more concentrated to dominate the sparring match. I didn't try to incorporate the combos that we trained before the sparring. I did some hybrid WIng Tsun/ thai boxing. And the only explation why I think it worked is because with those big gloves, you marge for incorrect position of your hands/elbows is bigger. My stance wasn't very sideway(left foot in front, left hand a little bit furtehr then your strong hand). My stance was more like I stand in WT; Right foot forward, both shoulders aiming at the front of the opponent. Hands in man sau(left hand)/wu sau(right hand). But with the exception that my seeking hand was a bit farther than I would stand if I do WT and my wu sau, my hand stood on the postion where normally your wu sau is, but now there was that big red glove:). The 4 guys I sparred against all said that I had to protect my face raise those big gloves in front of my face. Which is probably true, but I am a little bit stuborn. The three sparring games where punching was allowed al had problems with getting past my mansau. + when I land a hit on their defence they dont give, hmm I mean they stay hard and take it, while I have more the urge to bring my mansau in bon sau or tansau and take over the attack. When we train in WT and some times we do latsau, where one is a boxer and the other one is the Wter, it is always difficult, because even if you are the one who is the boxer, you always have the urge to protect your centerline. Which yesterday wasn't, It sound stupid and the guys I've trained with were not the more advanced students but I always get through straight ahead... let them come, get from my centerline, front kick, back in my centerline and advance straight ahead. None of them could resist it. + when I tried to stick against their hands/arms, they also hadn't a clue what to do with it. Hmm what is the point of all this rambling:). Muay thai trains harder, agressive than most MA, but is it more dominant? I don't believe so, the style certainly isn't better than a TMA, the way they train their style is just thousand times better. But a muay thai fighter who only fights against MT fighters is also limited, I don't think cross training is the way to go, To train in 1 style extreme and test your style against other styles and than you adapt. I really don't hope that you think I am bashing MT, because that is not what I am trying to achieve. I going to keep doing it and it wil make me a better fighter and I really liked the sparring/ it was tense:D

Well I did my first lesson and I liked it. The warm up was great, but I didn't had a problem with that. Then we did with a partner combos... left/righ jab..low kick..uppercut, hooks, middle kicks.. very intense. Then I had to spar with someone, only boxing, the guy was a head shorter than me and hmm it was easy... I just attacked with my first hand and get so close as I could and punched rapid (somekind of chainpunching which was not so easy with those big gloves:)) him of the mat. Second sparring (other guy) was only feet and there I had some problems.. because I know three kicks in WT and hmm our front kick is better, when we both frontkick, I always came better out it, but that is because I try to stick But headkicks, middle kicks where painfull:) I can't headkick and my middlekick you see from a mile away coming 3and4th sparring (with another guy) punching and kicking I was constant controlling him, they all were rookies 1 year training or so. I used always the same tactic, let them attack first, frontkick, stick to him and punch him in defense position ...some guy even turned his back to me.. Summary their condition/warm up is better. Are they better prepared for real fights than other MA. No I don't think so. Do they know how to take hits, they sure do. If TMA copied the training program and modified it to a TMA, you would see something. Anyway I liked it a lot and it's going to make me a better MA, so I signed in and now I also do Muay thai.

Yeah it's hard to show something with Wing Tsun... nothing fancy about it... but when I am with my nephew we can do latsau or some basic chi sau...

I have WT gloves, but also a pair of 12oz gloves, I needed those when I did a half year kali arnis escrima. I know the basics, low kick, combos (jabs, swing, hook...). In two hours the class starts. Hehe I am little bit nervous . But hey, I like to compete and maybe I can kick some *, you never know;) (joking)

I do Wing Tsun, all things I said above, I already have.. I expect to get it hard, but I want it hard. I only hear things about how good Muay thai is and now I wanna feel the experience myself.

Tonight I am going to my first Thai lesson, I am a bit sceptic about it, the club is runned by Danielle Somers, a previous world champion by women. A lot of teh best fighters in Belgium train there. I have no idea what to expect, So far I tought about this. Bring a mouthguard, gloves, shin protection, a springrope and groinprotection.

If you want to be good at knife fighting/defense. You should do eskrima.

Nope the MMA arena showed not much. TMA takse longer to master. + it is not if you see something on TV that it is better. Each human is different and not everyone has an interest in UFC thingies or other tournaments. I totally agree with the fact that TMAs were owned in MM arena's but in my opinion this is why. 1) TMA takes longer to be used effective in combat 2) They trained wrong for the MM arena's, you can't expect that if you train in a TMA for ten years and never fought an opponent you can defeat someone who trained less years but fighted a lot more, who actually knows what adrealine is, who knows to take hits, who knows how he reacts under stress/pain. So that is what was pointed out in MMA fights, TMA training sucks, not the style, but how it is learned to people and how they train it. It's not because you are a grandmaster in a chinese style (who never fought, who never tested his skills, who didn't adapt his learned techniques in a fight). that you are good at fighting against others. All styles are useless, all grades, blackbelts, titles are useless if you can't fight or don't train to fight. Sevenstar the groundfighting against mutiple opponents.. is still hard to believe for me. But if you go to the ground and you are fighting against mutiple opponents, you're still in a beter position than the person who doesn't know groundfighting I indeed know very little about groundfighting. I sure don't want to go to the ground.

Sevenstar: "I disagree. It is your style's fault. part of the reason that bjj, wrestling, thai boxing, boxing, judo, etc. have the respect that they have is because of the training they offer - they get you in fighting shape. If a style does not do that, then IMO, that style is flawed." No, it's not. The style isn't flawed, maybe they way the classes are set up is. I don't like the fact, that there is no condition work like MT in our classes. An avarge MT fighter will have a better condition than most other MA fighters. The reason is simple, cause it's provided in the classes. In the school where I train WT it is not provided. In my opinion this results in weak fighters. So an avarge WT practioner would get his * beaten by a MT practioner. Simple because the training method of MT is better. But this is not the fault of the style. What happens is that there is a great difference between the persons who do take it serious and train outside the classes.. (in my example triathlon, rope skipping, push ups, pull ups, medicine ball, bag work) are better than who only do the classes and have a worthless condtion. Even if their techniques are better, they can't win.. for teh simple reason they are exhausted way to fast. They started with a better technique..but cause they have no reserve/condition their techniques becomes extremly bad/sloppy. Now you can say, that their condition don't have to be good, because a fight in RL doesn't take long. Which is true. BUT in a RL situation you will almost never fight against one opponent. Atleast two opponents (it's not that a thug will say." Ah there is someone walking with his gf. Let's take him one a one." Reality is this. 'ah let's take rob that guy and harras his gf, I will try to distract him and you hit him from behind. " And this are only two opponents. It will go fast, they will try to surround you which is easly doable with just two opponents. And here is the fact why WT shines in my opinion. It's brutal and effective. You unleash your rattle/spring and you advance and keep attacking. While other sport MA have a better condtion than other MA, they "maybe" fight different. You can't deny that MT/KK/Taekwando/boxing works like this. Try to get inside the defence/find an opening/ hit a couple of times, retreat a bit.. tries to seek again for an opening... Now you can say that it isn't true in your case, that you aplly your art different. But the avarage fighter will fight like he fights/spar in competions. You fight indeed like you train. But training doesn't exist merely out of classes. Now about ground arts. It is good if you know some groundfighting, it is only USEFULL when you fight against 1 opponent. Like I said in RL situations, you are extremly lucky if you are fighting 1 opponent which is rare. So if you are fighting two opponents and you get to the ground with one opponent the other would just kick your head to pudding. I am rambling:) But here is something else... they say you can always run. Which is true, I can run long and fast. But you are not always alone. You are with your gf/ you are with your little children.... running is not the best solution. So again what gonna help you the most in a RL situation a MA which is effective/brutale, where you fight/train without rules and your only goal is to destroy. No fancy kicks/ no jumping/ no stumbling on the ground.

Wing Tsun

I don't mean the kettlebell

Ah medicine ball:D yes, that's it. It's great. It makes you fast, explosive..gives you more power...

WT is only good if you do only WT, Punching, kicking, stances are different. The Wt uppercut is different..elbows are different. WT can only be effective if you do only WT. WT is very precise, Our shoulders are always frontal aiimed at the opponent, the use of the centerline. No the only good combination I see is with a grappling art.

I don't know how you call it in english.. in dutch it is called a krachtbal. It's a ball of 5kg and I am training with it for a month now and it is amazing. You can train so much with it. We only throw it with keeping our elbows narrow. I love that ball! Other fans of the heavy ball ?

I didn't believe if first, but it is true. MT is a great MA and those who train mostly have an excellent condition. I do WT and most students except me and my nephew have a lousy condition. In our lessons there is no work out. I find it a shame, because they say "I do WT, but they look pathetic and aren't good at all". It gives teh art a bad name. Anyway MT is good because their training methods are extremly good, but if other MAs would copy the workout of MT.. I think you would be amazed of teh results. I would train MT if I could, but WT and MT are not compatible. But I believe my work out is at least the same as a MT work out.... the only difference is.. we don't do it in class.

No, it doesn't. But I like to read most posts. It's a great forum with some very interesting persons.

A good teacher let you test when he knows you can do it.

Damn that's expensive. I wouldn't do it. I pay 25-30 euro a month for Wing Tsun.

So many questions.. thoughs.. would I defeat a streetfighter? Yes, I would. Why would you think you would get a beating? You don't know, so why would you assume that you would lose? I believe you always have to be thinking that you are better and you will win. If you don't believe you can win, you already have lost it. + something important. In a RL situation losing is not an option. That is the simple truth. If you lose, you lose maybe everything (life...)

I can run 5km in 16minutes +- 30sec, but I do train for triathlon.

To the one who wrote that you can block a stick if you condition your arms, well that is rubbish:). Hard against hard, I will bet my money on the stick