Fat Donkey

I was a little fat kid too. Hence my moniker? I got picked on and beat up so much during the first week of high school I started karate and have been addicted to MA's ever since. It's the best way to lose weight because you are having fun. After a while u don't even think or care about the weight, all u think about is getting better. Jiu Jitsu is great, any MA is great once u a)are having fun b)have a good teacher c)make friends at your dojo. Good Luck

Welcome to the Club of people who like to get beat up regularly. I also remeber my first judo class because they put me with a giant guy who had'nt washed his gi in a month. It was like breathing ammonia. I think theyb were trying to teach me the Skunk school of Judo.

:lol:I also have been developing my own MA. Similar to Combat ki. Here are some of the moves. Cry Like a Baby kia: Weep, beg, plead and slobber till the opponent is so disgusted he walks away. Bullet spitting Cobra:Take the first punch right in the teeth then spit the fragments in his eyes. The Hemophiliac: Dripping, spurting, oozing blood everywhere making your opponent faint in horror. Headless Chicken of unberable fright: run around screaming gibberish while soiling yourself. The Flamingo: Stand on one leg while covering your head screeching "Not int the FAce!" repeatedly. I lost an Eyeball, nobody move: Similar to I lost a contact, nobody move. Compound fracture of Invincibility: Break your own arm till the bone comes out, nobody will touch u after seeing this, except the EMT's.

Ceck out the thread under the Korean arts section. We discusssed this there too.

Theres also a lot more MA's to choose from now! And Karate has been getting a bad rap because of MMA's events where no pure Karatekas has succeded yet. It's also not a soft trendy style like Tai Chi. It's middle of the road euphemisticly speaking. Karate organisations need to start co-operating fully like the WTF and ITF schools have. They are gigantic and yes many of them are McDojos but their unity means they actively promote a unified front of massive support for their MA. In stead it seems Karate organisations are splitting even futher apart with everyone and their dog inventing his new style.

That's the MA way! We beat each other up and then go for a beer.

Dude, I think she'd talking about the Thai style metal cups which u wear on the outside, not the western Jock strap deally. Or maybe she is a perv as most good MT practitioners are. Fight hard Love hard.

Tommarker thats hilarious and true. I stopped telling the jerks who try to pick fights with me that I do MA's. It seemed to infuriate them more, so now I just turn and walk instead of trying to warn them off. They always offer to insert my non-existent belt into an uncomfortable body orifice and end taking up my foot in the same. The McDojos really steam me. 10 year old black belts in 3 years of training. It took 6 to 8 years of training and two or three international competitions to get a black belt in my old TKd school. And back when I did Shotokan I met 1 of the 9 10th degree black belts out of 90,000 members of JKA. Now every one is a tenth Dan and a lot of people get their * kicked because they think a belt bestows some magical ability. It also gives that form of MA a bad name. When I did Hapkido there was no belts. Thank god for MT where we fight and fight and fight some more, only student and master, no other ranks.

Okay, yes, I was baiting u, and no disrespect intended I agree with u about Master Parker, being as he was one of the founding fathers of MA's in north America. Also I'm not saying I can't get taken down, I was just answering your question as to how I try to avoid being taken down. Everything u have said has been well thought out and backed by experience. However my experience has been different I used to do these prepared attack routines in Aikido and Shotokan, and we used to do a little in our MT self defense. I just don't think they work and I think time is much better spent practising combos and sparring than going through these hypothetical situations. Muscle memory will determine survival in the opening seconds of a conflict, not complicated and lets face it slow techniques. In my MUy Thai classes we deliberately did not start at arms length even as beginners. We always tried to maintain fighting distance, ie where blows connect. Yes we got hit alot but the constant focus on realistic fighting, is in my opinion the only way to go.

No, if its at the side of the face it's bad. The guard your friend taught u sounds like the right one. What other MA's are available to u?

:lol:PER CLASS??? R u nuts? Don't u mean per month. The Average price up here is between $45 (kid) to $85 (fighters) canadian per month. Also depends on the contract u sign. $24 a class is the highest I've ever heard.

Yeah, as Mart said practice. Heres a good exercise. Minor deflecting. Stand in your guard and have a friend throw punches at u, slowly at first, and building up to full speed. Tap his hands away as he throws. Don't block, just slap them out of alignment from your face. Do the same for ducking, slipping and dodging. U get used to looking for the punch instead of closing your eyes.

:lol:Dude, go with the MT. I did Tkd for 3 years and I liked it and It did work for me on the street. But MT is way better for self defense and really pushes u to the limits. Fighting is easy, training is hard. Don't kid yourself MT training is one of the toughest and most painful. As Mart said see if they have any ranked fighters, but be careful as a lot of people compete in kickboxing and say Muy Thai. Another good indicator is the guard they use. If their hands are up on both side of their head like in the movies beware. It should look almost exactly like a good boxing guard. I thought Hawai had tons of good MA schools? I've seen a few fighters in MMA's come from there. If u have no other options then take the TKD. It's still useful.

Wow! Thats quite the reply, I guess we do have to be a bit obnoxious to really get the strings going. First let me address the quote from master Parker. He is waffling and he stole the idea from Bruce Lee's famous water analogy. Second, the extremely unlikely way the instructor was attacked in the video and his idiotic response will immediately humor anyone with streetfighting experience. C'mon, fall to my back on the floor? In a Bar, a parking lot in winter, with a dozen potential enemies ready to boot me in the face. Who performs a bear hug like that, leaving the arms free. No arms no grabbing the bloody leg. Are u fired up yet In essence everything u said leads up to being flexible when practicing crap. In the end u have really good looking crap that u can apply at any Mall demonstration. And will eventually lead u to the ER when u try to use it on the street. By the way I'm not BJJ, I did Judo. And in Mt we use the sprawl, elbows and neck clinch to prevent the guy from taking us down. Keep it coming!

Dude, I just lost all respect for Kenpo. These prepared defense * teaches people a lot of crap. I don't mean to insult u or the style but isn't this a way to sell crappy videos? These scenario fight sequences are just preparation for getting your butt kicked in unpredictable real life situations. I appreciate the work and trouble u went through to post this though. Lets start debating

Ok Djita and Telsun I agree with both of u. I've only taken Shotokan and fought Shito Ryu, Gojo Ryu and Wushu Ryu fighters. The teacher is who makes the difference in how effective a fighter a student is. All I'm saying is that MT is extremely basic when u start and teaches good footwork, guard, punches and low kicks. All extremely effective in real fights. No katas, no horse stance. And no offence Djita but the fact that u guys dont allow head shots sucks. It develops bad habits, especially since most goons on the street aim straight for your face.

:lol:Have fun! Because it will be something u remeber for the rest of your life. You'll do great!

When I trained TKD it was as delta1 said leg checks and footwork. For some reason it's really hard to get rid of that sideways stance now that I train MT. We also do alot of modified clinching in TKD were u move in to get inside the kick. Don't discount the stance though. It alllows for very powerful application of certain kicks such as side, spin, back and axe.It also presents a lot less body area to attack. Like u MT prefers the square approach but because everyone uses it this makes the side attack a good method of temporarily confusing your opponent.

Yeah as Mart said, in MT we deliberately aim for the forearm. Try blocking shin kicks and youll get a broken arm. But back to the topic, yes, karate if effective if u have a good sensei. However it takes alot longer to become effective in Karate than it does in styles like MT or BJJ. It takes years to become a good karate fighter whilst u can learn effective techniques quickly in MT or BJJ because they are simple and u spar alot.

I totally agree greek D Uno. There is also the opposite side of the spectrum where everyone and their dog is developing their "own new combat effective Martial Art". Some of these guys are downright scary. They "prove" their effectiveness by beating the crap out of their own students yet never enter MMA tournaments or accept challengers. Which is worst? I can't tell! However, back to the subject, I do believe TKD with the caveats u mentioned is an effective and viable MA.

Thanks to Djita I've had the oppurtunity to look at Kyokushin sparring videos. I loved it but I got to say with the exception of the low kicks It looked alot more Like TKD than the other traditional styles of karate that I've trained in and seen. Alot of the kicks seem like TKD kicks. A lot of spinning, jumping roundhouse and ax kicks. Now I know Mas was korean, so are there elements to TKD in Kyokuhin?

I find the hardest thing in teaching female students is instilling aggressive confidence in them. This may sound * but what I do is let them hurt me a little. I find when they complete a good tehnique and it connects and causes damage (to me). They get wowed. The problem is they want to keep practicing it

Yeah I Know. I'm 5'8" and I weigh 200lbs. When I fought WTF I dropped to 156 and the guys were still 6'2". The style that worked for me was basically the constant circle. I keep circling until the guy adjusts to face me then I attack. As the little guy I always attack first because I can't wait for long legs to get his range or I'm dead. Also I'm either close or too far away, never within range of his kicks. What really works being shorter are punches to the body. The tall guys couldn't adjust because I was so much lower than them. If your shorter don't do the typical TKD thing were 2 guys face off bobbing up or down. Always circle, it confuses the crap out of them and lets u dictate the fight.

Yeah Thuggish, here in Canada it's almost worst to win the fight than to lose. If the cops judge that u hit the guy more than necessay for self defense then they charge u with assault. Also the jerk can sue u. It good to have a style where u can control the guy without leaving (visible) damage.

I know this topic first hand having trained with a traditional WTF TKD master and a WTF sport master. The traditionalist emphasised POWER with punches and kicks the emphasis being to knock or hurt your opponent. The sport guy was about scoring points on the designated areas. Needless to say I quit the sports guy. And I have used TKD in street situations and won. I also use many of my TKD techniques when I spar in Muy Thai and they often work. The sad part is that TKD is becoming "watered" down especially here in the west. Its a big money and sport franchise were success is measured by trophies. The same thing happened to Shotokan back in the eighties and is probably going to affect BJJ and MMA in the future.