Karateka_latino

Karate: Because it was the closer thing to Kung Fu, the style i really wanted to train in the first plalce. Now, i can't picture my life without karate in it. Don't regret one thing about getting into karate. Kung Fu: Because now i found a school and jumped into the oportunity to train in the style that made me love martial arts in the first place. I feel a natural progression going from Karate to Kung Fu, the mother style. Now if can get into Judo would be nice.

$180 - $250 too high for martial arts instruction for me. Id pay that if my plan were fight in MMA competitions. Not all the time, the higher price, the best is it. Instructor who charges a lot of money, take it ease with there students in order to keep them in the gym paying. ive seen a lot of that. Ive also seen Instructors who charge $30 a month and they produce excellent students. You can pay 1 million a day and still get killed in a real life confrontation.

you know you'r a martial artist when ... you are walking alone in the night and then you listen something walking behind you and your first reaction is to jump into a fighting stance and yell ..."kiaaaaa"...

you know you're a martial artist when you can't help but practice your "bruce Lee's impresions" in the mirror of you bathroom using your towel as a nunchaku....

Good! where can i get it?? lol

The day before the competition in the Mexican channel in cable, they hada little documentary about this guy and it was really impresive. He comes from a very poor comunity from a province in Mexico. He works driving a mini-bus after work he goes to school and after school he trains. All this effort really paid off for him.

At one point of my life, i had to do this question to myself and i choose "going with" instead of "overcoming". Im just 5' 4", stocky with short legs. I had a LOT of problems when i did Taekwondo. When our instructor stopped to teach and i had to find a new school, instead of finding a new Taekwondo dojang, i went into look for a Karate school. That was MY choice. Not because of laziness but for effectiveness. I thought " why work 3 times harder to be an average TKD practitioner when In Karate i can work the same amount and i'll be great at it ??" lol "Going with.." doesn't make it easier, just more efective. I guess its up to the individual.

You know, i thought i'll have that problem doing Shotokan and Shaolin Kung Fu. but actually, i don't have problems, i don't get confuse or anything. Maybe because i've done karate for more than 10 years or because i can split my mind in 2, or i don't train both the same day..

I'll add also the flashiness of TKD. Many kids see those guy doing flying, jumping, spinning kicks, etc.. they see those moves on TV and they end enrolling on schools. When i tried to get into martial arts for the first time because of the kung fu movies. I tried to find a Kung Fu school and there wasn't a single school. They few Instructor to teach, didn't accept westerners, etc.. so i had to take Karate. Its just a few years ago that Kung Fu people started to share there systems with the rest of the world. In China, there was a time in which they almost lost the arts of Kung Fu. Thanks God they are starting to change a little that close minded attitude.

I go 2 or 3 times a week to Karate and 1 or 2 to Kung Fu. It all depends on time available and money.

There's not a particular MA that can quickly give you a black belt. That depends more on the School and organization. In some karate school you can test for a black belt in 2 years while in other is 6 years and that applies for most martial arts. Right now, as a far as i know, BJJ outside Brazil is the martial art that takes the longest to give a black belt which is 10 years or a little more. I've heard that in Brazil you can get your BB in 5 years.

And you are right. People tend to believe that because you do a sport martial arts you can't be effective in real fight. That's not true, in fact, i think that people who do contact sports are more prepare for a real self defense situation that a person who knows all the "killing hands" but they never do any real drills and sparring against resisting oponents. There'll always be that "what if it doesn't work?" ... You practiced certain technique like 1,000 times in the gym with the colaboration of your partner and when you find yourself in a self defense situation you try the technique and doesn't work... You lost the element of surprise and now your oponent knows you train some sorth of MA and he's not going to attack you straight forward. A person who train with a live resisting oponent in a sparring fashion. If he fails to perform a technique, he's used to chain techniques because of his training. He just needs to adapt that sport training to a street self defense. Not easy, but can be done.

Well, i always thought that the title of the this forum "combatives" was about the arts that doesn't train for sports or have no use in a ring. There are a few arts around there that doesn't have ANY sports like drills.

Hi.. To me a warrior is a soldier. Not even a cop or a fireman is one. Warriors are the ones who go to War. Modern martial artist aren't warriors either, because we really don't train for war. The fact we train in ancient warriors arts doesn't make us warriors. We try to develop a "warrior-like" mind set that's going to help us in our personal lifes. That's why all the gendai budo arts changed from "jutsu" to "Do" because they realized that this arts weren't going to be used in warfare anymore. Not even the MMA fighters are warriors. People call the combat sports people warriors but they are more Gladiators. My point is behave "warrior-like" doesn't make you a Warrior in all the extend of the word. that's only my opinion.

Good to hear you are starting Muay Thai. Stretch if you want to, still the first few clases are going to hurt but don't be scared that's just in the beggining after that the body get used to exercise. Well, when i did muay thai, we didn't wear any protetion but gloves, a cup and mouth piece. The coach said that we needed the body get used to the contact. The protective gear makes you hit harder and feel less. The idea of my coach was that hit less hard but correct technique and that you condition the body to feel those impacts. Yes, training any martial arts will raise your confidence, but overconfidence is worse. Know your skills and avoid physical confrontation on the streets. If you want to fight, do it in a ring and get paid for it. lol