DokterVet

Well guys, it turns out my University doesn't have any wrestling. It just has karate (which I'm already a part of), kung fu (wing chun and wushu) and fencing. So I might go to the local judo club. I haven't been able to find a wrestling or sambo gym anywhere yet.

I think everyone is suggesting that yeah, you know your style, but you don't know enough about the other styles to say yours is the best. Shotokan is fast and powerful, but some of the other styles might be JUST as fast and powerful.

You'd get credit for it? Awesome! I'm probably starting judo in the fall.

He did 300 man kumite! That is, 100 man kumite each day for three days in a row.

Are you going to start judo, TJS?

I know I can wreck my TKD friends on the ground!

I've personally never trained with any jujitsuka, but in a fight I would try to move around and uses hand strikes mostly so I could maintain my ballance. I have, however, trained with wrestlers and I've done very well (tapped out one of the top high school wrestlers in my region the first time I grappled him). We encorporate grappling into my karate style so I am decent on the ground. I also have a mean hip toss. My sensei for most of my karate career worked as a bouncer for many years and showed us how he used to control unruly customers. He was a small guy, but tough as nails and used to grapple everyone in the class one after the other until he had easily defeated all of us.

Thanks for the advice guys. I think I would enjoy both styles, so I'm going to base it on convinience. If there is wrestling at my university, I'll probably do it, otherwise I will make the drive to the closest judo club.

I would definately like to be able to translate any skills I learn to any type of clothing. Are there any judoka here who ever practice without gis?

Yes, I have noticed some judo techniques in the wado katas. You're right, that might be a better fit.

Give it a day or two before you panic. Little things like that happen all the time. If it persists, see a doctor. While it's healing, don't punch things.

It's possible to do it in 3 years. My attendance isn't always great and for some reason the head of the organization is being really tentative about letting me go for my test, which is weird because he is a family friend. In fact he let me take karate for free for years. I know I am better than some shodans, so maybe he just wants to make sure I'm not an embarrassment because he personally knows me and teaches me.

Hmm...although aikido does interest me, I'm itchin for some competition, which I know both wrestling and judo have in spades.

I'm looking to take a grappling art to complement my karate. I'm decent on the ground but have no formal instruction. What I'd like is a style that does some ground work, but emphasized devastating throws (ie hip toss) more than 'taking the fight to the ground.' I'm considering wrestling or judo and am wondering which will focus on this more/be the most powerful in this regard. Thanks. EDIT: Mods, I just realized I posted this in general martial arts when I meant to do it in comparative styles. Feel free to move it.

I remember seeing one fight in the early UFCs in which the sumo guy was dominating, and it looked like he was going to flatten his opponent when a stray punch hit his nose and broke it, ending the fight. I think if he had done some conditioning to withstand the blows, he could have done quite well. Also, the sumos were beaten by strikers if I remember correctly. I wonder if a grappler would have been able to do the same. I wouldn't want to have a 400 pound man in my guard.

I got my brown belt in the spring of '99. In the spring of '01 I was promoted to Shodan-ho, which is in between brown and black. It is a dan grade but not quite shodan. I still hold that rank, and I'm itchin for a shodan real badly. It's been SOOO long and I really can taste it. I know it's just a piece of fabric. But it's a piece of fabric I've been working on for 7 years. I hate having to explain my rank to everyone who asks. I want to just be a 'black belt.'

Backfists will never replace punches, but they are a useful addition to your arsenal. That 8th dan does sound pretty bogus, but never assume that someone of a high rank is a poseur. My sensei is an 8th dan in wado. I think he is the highest ranking non-oriental in any japanese style (going from memory - don't hold me to that). So they are be rare, but still existant.

I train with the ball of the foot, shin, and top of the foot/instep. I think the latter two are the best methods because you have a lot of leeway in terms of range. If the opponent is a little close, no big deal, you hit them with your shin. Likewise, if they retreat a little, or you start the kick further away, you hit them with the top of your foot/instep. Either way they are in pain. I have broken the skin on someone's leg with an instep kick to the shin because of my shoelaces. So that's another thing to keep in mind when you are wearing shoes. The ball of the foot, in my opinion, should thrust in on a 45 degree angle, kind of like a sideways front kick than striking the opponent from the side like most roundhouses. Otherwise the toes get in the way. It's good for driving into the body.

I've never been really hurt my whole life, including 7 years of training. THe worst thing that has happened to me was just recently the nail on my big toe got caught on someone else's foot and was pried up from the toe in a rather disgusting manner. I've never had anything broken or sprained.

My understanding is that Jackie Chan has studied many arts at this point, but started out learning to fight for performance in plays at the opera house where he and Sammo Hung, etc. learned. I imagine it was modern wushu they learned at the opera house. All very acrobatic stuff.

Really? What are the odds that they would both be world class fighters? And I always thought they looked similar too.

I have an aunt and uncle in Scarborough, and one morning they woke up to have a stolen car dumped between their house and their neighbours'!

Fair enough.

Beer-monster, one of the four main styles of japanese karate, Wado-ryu, was founded by a Hironori Otsuka, a grandmaster of jujitsu, who studied karate under Gichin Funakoshi. Wado-ryu includes sweeps, locks, takedowns and redirection. It is essentially a hybrid of jujitsu and shotokan karate.

The hyperlink I posted ended up working fine. My internet explorer has trouble playing media, so i needed the link to right-click and save the target. The quote "if a wrestler can't grab his opponents hands, what else can he do" seemed a little weird to me.