Bama Crimson

Isshin-Ryu seems like a good art. I visited a school in my town, and it was real quality from what I could tell. I wanted to join but.... Class are Tuesday and Thursday during the day and Tuesday and Thursday nights. It does not work out with my schedule. I have BJJ on Tuesday night, attend school Tuesdays and Thursdays, and play hockey on Thursday nights.

I think that self defense is what I am looking for. Most of the guys I am going to do BJJ with are more in it for sport and are therefore interested in training in MT and Western Boxing for stand up. My goals are different, I think. I see BJJ as being useful for self defense or sport, but only effective in one on one situations, and not as effective against multiple opponents. A well rounded stand up art would be good for that, IMO. Thanks for the heads up about instructors. Thanks to everyone for your responses.

BJJ seems like it is an extremely effective MA even when one only knows the basics. One does not need to be a master to be effective with it. What do yall think?

I have just begun to study BJJ. I enjoyed my first lesson. But I also want to completement my training in BJJ with a stand up art. I have looked in Muay Thai which seems to be a good choice. But I also got interested in Krav Maga by glancing through a book about it tonight. It seems to use elbows, kicks and punches, and have good self defense technique. How effective is it? Will it complement BJJ well? How well rounded is it? Tell me everything that would be relevent as far as becoming familar with the techniques of the art.

I attended my first BJJ class last night and loved it. I am going to stick with BJJ as a ground martial art. But what about standing up. I know Muay Thai is good, and have also looked at Krav Maga. Both seem to use punches, elbows, knees and kicks, making both seem effective.

I seem to want all of the above, but mostly to be practical and get in shape. Having thought through it some more, what I think was/is lacking in the training I did was a sense of organization and being "official".

One thing that can effect a person is their religions position of non violence. I am an evangelical Christian. I have no problems with martial arts and those who practice them. Personally I would not be involved with any martial arts that use practices that smack of eastern religion....such as arts that encourage a person to channel "chi" energy or required eastern styled meditation. If an art made meditation optional and also allowed prayer and personal reflection in place of eastern meditation, then I would have no problems.

Thanks for your replies, you seem very knowledgeable about Martial Arts. As for Karate, I know that close to me in my town there is a pretty good IsshinRyu school, and I believe in Chattanooga (further south) there are some Shotokan schools. I don't know of any Hapkido schools in the area, either in my town or Chattanooga. As a side note, the Muay Thai school in Chatt charges 130 dollars a month. That is the problem my friend is facing. He enjoys MT but cannot afford to go the MT school. Is 130 a month normal for MT schools? It seems a little expensive. At the IsshinRyu school in my town its only 70 a month.

That is the key. The answer is sort of. I have always wanted to train in martial arts, and know that if I found one that seemed to fit, I would love it. What I have been doing is not quite doing it for me, but I don't know if it is art itself I don't like or the training methods. I honestly believe that I would enjoy something more traditional (like Karate, TKD etc...), but I am also a practical person. I want are art that will work, and MT and BJJ do. But I also desire to train in a setting that is maybe more organized, and has a more objective means of measuring progress, such as with belts. This is why I quit training in Kung Fu when I was 12....the ranking system and/or the means of measuring progress were not made clear to me.

I thought so. IMO, the best way to practice knees would be with some kind of punching bag/dummy. MT and BJJ are good arts...maybe I need to discuss with the group what each of our goals are and what we want to get out of training, so that we can modify our methods based on our diverse goals. Injuries will come with martial arts, but how often they come and how severe they are often can be determined by training methods. I know from playing football that better conditioning and smarter training methods meant less injuries and less severe injuries both in practice and in the games.

Ok, what are the differences

Yeah, I know that injuries could occur in any art....its sort of like driving a car. If you drive safely and wear a seat belt, you are less likely to get in an accident and get hurt, but that does not guarentee your safety, since you cannot control the actions of others. It sounds to me that I need to modify my training if I train in MT or BJJ to meet the goals of self defense and fitness rather than training myself to fight in no holds bar contests.

I am not sure if we were training properly or not. Honestly, no one in the group had throughly studied Muay Thai. I did not see that as a problem because the goal was only to get the basics down before formally training in Muay Thai....which I did not have the desire to do. Do you think that Muay Thai will own any Karate more because of the training methods or just because of its effectiveness. MT is an effective art but all have weaknesses.

What are the similarities between Isshinryu, Shotokan and Kyokushin Karate.... Also, I may begin training in IsshinRyu Karate soon. But if a train for say 6 months or so and get an orange belt, and then move, and have to find a new school to train at, will that school acknowledge my orange belt that I earned previously at another school?

Here is my dilemma. Last spring I started training in Muay Thai with a couple of friends of mine. I liked it ok, but thought I was really going to like it alot. We started to just get the basics down. But my friends goals seem to be different than mine. I want to study MA for physical fitness (Muay Thai has a great workout techinque). He ( I am not sure of the others) want to do MMA type training, doing Muay Thai and BJJ. I have no desire to be an aspiring MM Artist. But to be honest, I didn't like the training we did in Muay Thai that much. Why? I would like to train in a way that has less risk of injury (ie not taking knees to the fact so we can learn how to take knees...I don't know if it is even possible to "take" a knee to the head in a real fight). We had a lot of contact. Another guy that trains with us had his arm broken while doing BJJ. I want to train in an art that is pretty effective at helping be fit, but also one for self-defense, and has less risk of injury. Why do I want to avoid injury....I am in the process of becoming an officer in the Navy and I probably will begin my training this summer. I just got medically qualified and any injury could delay my training or cause me to become medically disqualified if it was bad enough. I went an watched an IsshinRyu Karate school here in town and it looked pretty solid. I was wondering if this would a good alternative, while maybe cross training in boxing technique and/or BJJ techique only to avoid injuries? How effective in self defense is IsshinRyu?

Just keep looking. As one said don't dismiss TKD because you did not think the friend's school was that great. Ask yourself what you are interested in. Do you want to do a more traditional art, do you want to strike or grapple/wrestle, etc.... Then find out what is available near you. Chances are you will keep with it if the school is closer to you.

Have you narrowed down what art you want to train in yet.? When I get back into town, I am going to look for a Karate school, because the art is available in my area. I would recommend looking in the phonebook because a lot of schools don't have websites. Start in the phonebook and see what schools are available, and what arts they teach. That will help you narrow down what art to train in. But if you want to go on the web, you can try what I did. Try going into google and yahoo and typing something like, "Karate schools (or Martial arts schools, Muay Thai schools, Ju Jitsu school) in Cleveland, TN (replace Cleveland with the town in which you live) Do you know anyone who studies any of the arts that you want to study? If so, do they know of good places to train? Asking around to people you know might help you find a good garage dojo to train in that might not be found in a phonebook.

Well the only experience I had with tournaments is I went with a friend of mine who trains in Brazilian Ju Jitsu (a white belt) to a tournament in December so he did not have to go alone. The organization was laughable! Not to mention there were people who were clearly sandbagging openly (for example a blue belt would take off his blue belt and put on a white one and compete in the white belt division.) The integrity of the competition was shady at best. Tournaments aren't necessary for me, I just think it would be fun to compete. I have looked in my small town for Karate schools and most of them seem to teach the Isshin-Ryu variety of Karate. I won't be sure of all of them until I call them or visit. What is the difference between Isshin-Ryu and Shotokan styles....as one person said Shotokan is tends to be more common?

To be perfectly honest I don't know who the instructor is affilated with if anyone at all. I know the instructor has *no belt* because he has never tested for one officially....but he has done well in tournaments-he has made purple belts tap out. I imagine he would at least be a purple if not brown belt in BJJ if he tested. My friend is just a white belt.

Thanks for the warm reception

Where is Rocky Top? Have you ever heard the song "Rocky Top" by John Denver? Rocky is the hills of East Tennessee. I live in a small town, Cleveland TN, in South Eastern Tennessee.

Seventh Star-Where in Tennessee are you, and where do you train?

From what I know BJJ is white-blue-purple-brown-black. I have a friend who trains in BJJ( a white belt) and that was the system used at the tournament he entered in December. I don't know if this is the system used for all BJJ, but its the only one he or I know about.

I'm new to the site, but have posted some in the Karate section. Just a few things about me. My real name is Brad and I am a 24 year old graduate student. I attend a Theological Seminary and I am working on a Master's of Divinity degree. My user name comes from my love of the Alabama Crimson Tide. My experience with Martial Arts...I trained in Kung Fu when I was 12 for about a year. Last year I trained in Muay Thai until my training partner dislocated his should in practice. I have always been mildly interested in the martial arts until my friend introduced me to UFC and Pride MMA competitions. I enjoy watching those a lot.

If you really want to know..... The man made my friend do push ups (nothing wrong with that) but he also beat him over the back and shoulders with a sparing staff at near full force while he did the push ups. Yes, the staff was padded but if you hit someone hard with those things it still does not feel good at all.