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

There's this Judo game also, called: 'David Douillet Judo, which looks pretty good.

The only thing i used to know about this style is that Elvis Presley trained on it, also he trained Kenpo Karate with Ed Parker. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4CaFntgb2nQ&NR=1

This is a very good disscusion. Lots of valid arguments from each side. I support the opinion of MMA starting as a set rule and turning into a style in its own right. The Style of having your own style using what works for you, without having a standar system, that you can train for itself or added to other stablish styles. While it's true that the core of MMA techniques comes from muay thai, boxing, wrestling and BJJ many fighters come from other backgrounds such as TKD, karate, capoeira, etc... and many of those fighters incorporate those techniques into his or her arsenal. So it's very difficult to create a standar system for MMA. That's why the first "M" of MMA stands for MIXED.

I pay $25.00 a month for Karate lessons, 4 times a week. The Kung Fu school charges $5.00 a day, which means, you can take every activity the gym have that day for that amount, ex. you can take the kung fu class, the sanshou class, tai chi class, boxing class, lift weights, use the cardio machines, whatever you want that day for $5.

hi, Right now im training 2 styles. Karate and Kung Fu. The main reason is schedule issues. Due work problems i cannot go to the Kung Fu class more than once a week. I have a little more time a couple of mornings a week but the Kwoon isn't open until 4 pm. So i started to take Karate again 2 or 3 times a weeks in the morning, since i already have studied karate for a number of years isn't all confussing. Now, the karate school also offers Kendo and i've been very tempting to enroll in that class but my wallet said "NO". lol I'll also like to take Jiu-jitsu someday. I think in the end it comes down to Desire, Capacity, Time and money. If you have all that, then you can take 3 or more martial arts. Just my opinion.

My school does Tan Tui. im learning 1 and 2. We train Northern Kung Fu and my instructor says the tan tui is often taught in northern kung fu styles as a foundation for other forms.

I think there are just 5 arts that are the most popular and most practiced worldwide. Karate Kung Fu/Wushu Judo Tai Chi Taekwondo The other arts doesn't come closer in number of pratitioners. I think its because these arts has been promoted as sports, fitness and educational for children. KravMaga is popular in US mostly. BJJ is popular but doesn't have all that many practitioners as compared to the arts on my list. Many of my friends have heard of BJJ. They know about Royce Gracie, Vale Tudo, etc.. but none of them trains in it.

I think Sanshou is great. The Kung Fu school im attending now do have Sanshou classes on diferent days of the Kung Fu classes. But that doesn't mean that Kung Fu is a form class, because in the Kung Fu class you do have to spar as well, but not with the same rules of Sanshou mainly because in Kung Fu sparring don't use the boxing gloves so allows other techniques. So, in the Kung Fu class, you learn the complete art ( conditioning, basics, drills, forms, sparring, meditation, weapons,etc..) and the Sanshou class is conditioning, drilling, sparring for competition.

Solely on competition??? and what about the people who don't want to compete???, i think its not fair to force people to compete to get a promotion.

well, from what i've heard about... you Do have to learn some specific technique per rank but the promotion is base on how you perform those techniques while rolling instead of just knowing the techniques and doing them on a kata fashion. It something like if you are white belt and can hang with the blue belts then the you pass.. Also, some instructors don't even do a formal exam. they test you by see you rolling and ask you to bring you belt next class.