omnifinite

No reason not to try, right? I'm sure after months of practice you'll look back on a technique you consider difficult now and wonder why you ever had any trouble with it.

There are plenty of ways to disable an opponents arm or prevent him from moving with pressure points. They all hurt like hell though. Someone (I think it was Kensai?) here mentioned an extremely advanced Aikidoka using a ki strike to prevent a person from breathing momentarily. I don't know how far that person's capabilities go in that area, or how far it's possible to go, but maybe the lore and movie exaggeration you're talking about stems from those sorts of things.

What fits you mentally is probably more important than what fits you physically. We could probably help you more if you explained why you're interested in martial arts, what you want to achieve with it (physically and philosophically), what sorts of things relating to martial arts do and don't appeal to you, whether you'd like to focus on power/speed/fluidity/etc or punching/kicking/grappling/etc... that kind of thing. Explaining your preferences is probably easier than cataloging every available martial art and every type of person who teaches it .

Let him know your reasoning for leaving and how much better it is at the other dojo... maybe he'll go with you, maybe he won't. Communicate. I'm sure your relationship is strong enough to have different MA priorities.

I'd be nervous about the name I think. I don't think naming your art after an inside joke is the best route to credibility.

The Aikido person I know wears a hakama and she's at 5th kyu or so. I guess it varies a lot out there. The website below has dogis made especially for Aikido but I guess for you it would be an overseas order wouldn't it. Well, I'll add it anyway. https://www.bujindesign.com

Go diagonally . Or were you talking about diagonally? In which case are you training in a closet?

My Hapkido class used: white yellow green (two degrees) blue (four degrees) red (six degrees) black The degrees weren't stripes on the belt or anything, I think that's actually taking it a little too far. They were just stages within the belts really. There was no physical indicator of it. Now in Kempo and Jujitsu both it goes: white yellow orange blue green purple brown (three degrees) black various red and white belts (which I don't quite know the rules of yet... haven't really asked beyond casual conversation) I tend to prefer belt systems without belt degrees before black (stripes seem tacky and contrived to me, but that's just my own preference), without a lot of colors (I kinda like BJJ's limited use of them), and then nothing but a worn, frayed, beat up black belt beyond that . I've also heard about some systems returning to white belt at "mastery". That sounds appealing to me too but I don't know much about it.

If your gi is all white you can probably use it for Aikido. You'll have to get a hakama at some point though. There seem to be a few recent discussions on people interested in or starting to take Aikido lately... you should take a look at those, especially this one: http://www.karateforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=5426

I'm having trouble with a certain kagi on the wrist and finding various pressure points quickly. And I always used to have trouble with a spinning hook kick. I could do it in the air just fine but somehow with my feet on the ground I just couldn't pivot quite right, bend over far enough, get my leg up there, all sorts of problems. Don't care so much about that one now. It'd be about number 138 on my list of techniques I'd actually use.

Self-defense is a tricky matter... short-changing yourself could have dire consequences and there are plenty of instructors out there who will short-change you as well without caring or realizing. I wouldn't take cardio kickboxing for self-defense... not when you can do so much better and learn so much more with muay thai. But it sounds like you're way beyond that point in your decision-making already so... good luck .

Sometimes it's the best/only option that comes to mind at the time, or is available at all. Ideally you both end up on the ground, but you're still in a better place than they are. Sometimes it's just a throw where you use your own body weight as a tool to take them down. This would be a pretty bad example, but you see similar moves in pro wrestling all the time.

Originally in sparring I was taught to use the top of the foot so we wouldn't hurt each other as much. So that doesn't give me much confidence in that method .

Funny how real Karate contains the things the naysayers say their arts are better for having .

Straight bos are heavier... wonder if that's why people started tapering them. The might have also wanted all that power focused on a smaller striking surface. I don't know. I'm sure someone here has the answer.

I want your library . Mine is pretty nice but I wouldn't say they have anything hard to find... especially where MA are concerned .

You have a great selection of MA there... I doubt I have that many in my area. Chances are not all of those dojos are worth going to though... that's another factor. I'm with Red J, shotochem, and KSN Dough on this one though. If he terrorizes everyone then rally everyone together and have them all go to the boss about getting rid of him, one by one or all at the same time. I don't know much about unions, but find where to put the pressure (boss, union rep, police, wherever) and lay it on hard all at once. If it's a big group of people objecting to the bully and he doesn't know who got the group together, he won't know who to go after if he has some kind of revenge on his mind. In fact, if you don't want anyone pointing fingers at you you could say something to your coworkers like, "I heard someone's sick of this guy and wants to do this, we want this guy gone too so why don't we help out?" In any case, the responsibility of the actual actions against the guy should be on the boss/union/police, and not you if at all possible. You don't need him having a reason to come to your house or something if he's that violent.

You don't have to take American Kenpo either. You might be able to find an Okinawan strain of it somewhere.

It focuses on both power and speed in my training. My instructor could put me down with one punch. Or he could put me down with many many strikes in a short period of time . Combine the two and you don't always need many following blows... but at least you're ready to use them if you need them.

I tell my friends not to tell other people I'm involved in MA at all. It just contributes to the conflict if you ask me. And the more they underestimate you the better.

Well, there aren't kata in WC because kata is a Japanese word but if we're talking about long solo forms, then you are mistaken, WC has them. Several of them, usually consisting of more than hundred movements each. It also has lots of Chi involvement, though as my other post already suggests, they don't try to do magic with it. That's true, I remember seeing video of one of those solo forms now. Brain fart I guess . Ok, Wing Chun is off my recommendation list.

No, I don't think Aikido is what you're looking for. Some types of Aikido focus about as heavily on ki (chi) as you can get. Judo or Jujitsu are probably good bets. If you don't want katas that will eliminate most forms of Karate. I'd suggest Muay Thai or something but it'll be brutal on your head ... or your body at least. I bet Wing Chun would be good for you. I don't know it especially well but I believe it's very practical, kata-less, and won't infringe on your belief system. Other Chinese arts might be good too but I don't know too much about them. A good Hapkido school would also include all those joint locks and takedowns and put a lot of focus on kicks as well... it would fulfill both your Aikido and your kickboxing desires. I believe some Hapkido schools have forms but not all (mine didn't). Considering my background I don't know why it took so long for that to occur to me . Yes, I'd suggest Hapkido I think.

Hmm... if you're looking for martial sport Aikido probably isn't for you. My jujitsu training (not BJJ) is fully practical... just because a martial art is asian doesn't make it fluff . Any art you find that's taught well will be effective in combat.

I'm not sure Aikido and kickboxing quite go together. Kickboxing would probably go against the philosophies that the inner workings of Aikido all draw from, and if those philosophies aren't really something you agree with you might be better off looking at a different art (Jujitsu might be one that would complement kickboxing better and still contain the locks/throws/takedowns you're looking for). If you're looking to hang on to kickboxing-type strikes in your training you probably won't do as well in Aikido as you could simply because you'd be trying to go in two directions at once and not giving yourself the chance to fully appreciate what Aikido was trying to instill in you... you'd be distracting yourself from the area where Aikido gets some of its true strength. The Aikido practitioner I know comes from a very long background of some sort of Chinese kickboxing, and she's having to unlearn all of that aggression and tension and forcefulness because in Aikido they simply work against her and make her less effective. I've also never heard of "sparring" in Aikido, but maybe you're looking at a different variation of it I haven't seen (which is most of them ). I'm sure Kensai will have a much better answer for you here, so I'll pass the advice-stick to him now .

Thanks for bringing that point up - who does actually use zai now? I thought that the weapon was obsolete now. I doubt they all suit up and take them into battle after work , but I guess people who use them when they train and know the history of them and what makes or breaks them as a weapon will do a much better job. I don't know who makes the cheap ones... do you think they're even martial artists themselves? I don't even know where those come from.