Sinbad

Agree with Morgay - you may kill someone with a single karate blow if the situation was totally impractical. In any kind of real fight, you are deluding yourself if you think you will pull this off. The only potentially vulnerable points you could target are parts of the neck and parts of the skull, and then you would have to be inch perfect. Not easy when the target is moving and covering up.

Surely the best way is for the instructor to invite students to test when he feels they are ready. Also, particularly at coloured belt levels, is it really so important to do a technique perfectly and to be able to defend yourself? Lots of older people (or even not so old) aren't well coordinated or flexible enough to achieve this. It is their attitude that is important. For these people, I think that the coloured belts are to help them realise their own true potential and develop the right attitude that 'I will be the best MA that I can be'. If someone never moves past white belt because they can't do a good roundhouse kick, they may lose motivation before their eyes can be opened.

Almost forgot. There are some cowboys out there who are more interested in taking your money than teaching you useful MA. The main rule is don't join somewhere where you have to sign up for tons (in some cases, several years) of lessons before you can start training. Always ask lots of questions and enjoy your training.

S-G the most important thing is to ask yourself really honestly, what you want to get from training in martial arts. Most styles will get you fit (fitter!) and give you some basic self defence skills. You say you want to be a fighter. Is that to compete in competitions? If so then judo and TKD are olympic sports so you could try those if the thought of working for an olympic gold medal appeals to you You also said you wanted something real, practical and efficient. Does that mean you want something that is highly effective on the street? In my view, street effective depends more on how you train rather than the style itself. If you train with a lot of contact and fully resisting partners, you will be more used to what a real confrontation is likely to be like. Even more so if you occasionally simulate real situations with padded attackers, adrenaline responses etc. So check out different clubs before you commit yourself to many years of training. Don't fool yourself though about becoming devastatingly effective on the street. I don't think it is realistic for most people (anyone?) to think that they can defend themselves if they are attacked by multiple attackers who may be bigger, stronger, have weapons, and take you by surprise. That's often how it is in street situations. The best self defence is your awareness and the ablity to avoid the situation in the first place.

Bitseach loved your 4 reasons for not being keen on sparring! <> I pretty much agree with you However, despite that I think all martial artists should get some sparring under their belts for obvious reasons. I do think that LOTS of sparring makes you a better fighter, but fighting is not the same as self defence.

Hi, looking for some advice. I train in karate and want to cross train in a grappling art. I wondered what the relative merits of a predominantly ground based style like BJJ were for self defence compared to one that focuses more on standup throws like judo? I know BJJ guys train predominantly for the ground so once the fight goes to the ground, they rule. However, to gear this for self defence, presumably you would have to practise with strikes a lot of the time. Do most people here do this? Also, does grappling on concrete rather than a mat affect the guard much? Also, one of my main thoughts for self defence is to make sure I DON'T go to the ground and I figured something like judo would help me stay on my feet while helping my attacker to lose his Finally, do any of the BJJ guys here find they can pull off the arm locks, chokes etc that you use so effectively on the ground when grappling standing up against a resisting opponent? I'm not trying to diss BJJ - I know it is an effective style. Just trying to find out which would be best for me in a self defence setting.

Taikudo-ka Another question. Where do you get a copy of the bubishi from? Is it a book, if so who’s it by. I looked up pages on the web and they talked about ancient fighting techniques, but I didn’t find them fully illustrated. Perhaps you could point me towards a good website or book distributor. Radok – that sounds great! How do you practice these moves? Is it prearranged or do you move on to trying them against a resisting uke? How do integrate these techniques safely into a sparring session? Would love to hear your comments on these. Phantasmatic - I’m also taking judo classes in addition to my karate but at the moment I’m not sure how best to incorporate the two arts into realistic practice together

Taikudo-ka, thanks for all the information, I will follow up on it. I think that considering the enormous number of locks, takedowns and throws in the katas, it is really a shame that we don�ft practice these realistically in most dojos. Especially when combined with karate�fs usual powerful strikes to set up the opponent for the takedown or joint lock! Imagine a kick-punch-elbow combination followed by a throw - ouch! I guess training these safely yet realistically will be a challenge but I intend to start out slowly

Hi I was wondering if anyone had some advice or ideas on how to train in karate to maximise street effectiveness. My main reason for taking karate was for self defence. However, I wonder whether a lot of what we do in the dojo would be effective. Clearly the lack of clinch/close in work and grappling practice is a disadvantage. In addition to my regular classes I will be supplementing my training with a weekly session with a partner where I want to concentrate on more of a 'jutsu' approach to karate. So any ideas on drills or ways to practice would be welcome! Don't get me wrong, I really enjoy all the traditional aspects of karate too, and don't want to give up basics, kata etc to go and do just Muay Thai or BJJ.