The Impass of an Amature Martial Artist Trying to Improve

[The BB of C]

As far as my back yard goes (school, general neighborhood, and Kuk Sool Won class), I'm among the best their is as far as martial artists goes. Second only to my father, my older brother, and a friend at school with who has studied Ninjitsu for a few years and has a lot of street fighting experience. However, I know the second I leave my back yard and go into the city I am among the weakest, poorest excuses for a martial artists that the Wing Chun, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Aikido, and Kyokushin artists/instructors have ever seen. Those are just the people I've fought too. There's also a Shiolin martial arts school in the city and a Tae Kwon Do school by the name of Cain's Tae Kwon Do that I've never been to.

Lately I've been getting to know these schools in a search for better training than those poor excuses for instructors at the Kuk Sool Won school can offer. I have narrowed it down to two possibilities. The Wing Chun school and the Kyokushin school.

The Wing Chun school would not offer much fitness for me. Not the way they teach it. But the speed they get over time is very impressive and what I'm looking for. It costs about $40 per month. The Kyokushin is very hardcore, full contact, without a doubt made for street fighting. Here, I would become a good fighter. My reflexes would be tuned like a violin and at the rate I usually progress I would be able to take a hit from a wrecking ball within a year. Kyokushin would cost me $65 per month.

This all wouldn't be a problem for me but now I don't know which one I want to do. I know where I want to end up but I'm not sure what I need to do to get there. I would some day like to merge my acting with my martial arts to create a career in the film industry along side with a writing career. And if either/neither of those work out, I would like to fall back on teaching martial arts. But if I'm going to use my martial arts for anything, I need to be fast and good. Certainly more than I am now by a longshot. And I need to get there quick.

Brother Dan says I need to be a great fighter in order to qualify to be in any kind of action movie. He may be right. So I would go with Kyokushin to become a good fighter. But I'm afraid in the midst of all the fighting, I may lose track of my goals and go down a path of hardcore fighting and injuries for both myself and my opponent that I don't want. That may be the only reason I am heasitating to chose Kyokushin, and part of the reason I'm still looking at Wing Chun. Wing Chun would give me my necessary speed to look good on camera and I don't think I'd have to worry about getting distracted from what I really want to do with my life. But I'm not sure, the way they train it at this particular place, it would be as effective on the fighting aspect of my martial arts (Wing Chun Grandmaster Steve Lee Swift used to teach in my town, I wish I could have forseen all of this so I would have joined his class and learned this stuff earlier, I hear from my father he teaches real good).

Please take a couple notes about me. I have a plan. I get a job. My parents support my Kuk Sool Won and my father says as soon as he finds work I may join gymnastics with my little brother. I would do Kuk Sool Won on Teusdays and Thursdays, the second martial art (Kyokushin or Wing Chun) on Mondays and Wednesdays, and work to support the secondary martial art on the weekends. All this while doing school. I do not want to work on weekdays during the summer and vacations unless absolutely necessary to preserve my social life.

All this possibly irrelevant jabber being said, I am looking for some advice. Any advice will be helpful. But the primary questions are; Should I start Wing Chun or Kyokushin when I have obtained money? Do I need to be a good fighter to accomplish my goals? Should I be worried about being unintentionally diverted from my original goals?

[Feathers of Doom]

I’m not sure what to tell you about the 2 schools other than to visit each of them for a month and after you visit both see what class you like better. I personally have never studied either so I don’t have advice to that end.

As per your goals; if you’re serious about becoming a martial artist for TV or movies then you shouldn’t worry about it. Just keep taking steps toward that goal.

Maybe you should study the popular martial arts movies out there. See how the people move in those movies and then go with the art that is closest to what you see.

[bushido_man96]

A note on your goals: As long as you stay focused on your goals, then you should not have any trouble working towards them. The art that you study should not make you change your goals. If you plan to use them as a means to the end, then I think you won't have a problem.

As for the style, I would recommend spending some time with each school, and perhaps share your goals with each of the instructors. They may be able to give you some insight as to what their goals as instructors are, and then you can see if you will be able to relate to them through your training.

Best of luck to you.

[James Bullock]

I agree with Brian on all points...

I would spend at least a month at one then a month at the other school...so you can make an informed decision.

One thing you will have to be is "athletic" in every sense of the word if you are wanting to get into the movie business as a martial artist. Look at Jet Li, Tony Jaa, and Jackie chan.... very athletic individuals to say the least.

[rmclain]

You don't need to be "a great fighter" to be a martial arts action star or stunt man.

It helps to have some background in martial arts, but acting training, stage combat, and great gymnastics skills will be the most important these days. Good martial arts doesn't necessarily look good on film. So, you need to study what does look good on film.

There are schools around the nation that instruct specific skills for film. I think Karen Shepard even started one of these in the past few years.

Take a look on the internet and you can find them.

R. McLain

[The BB of C]

I've searched the internet for schools that can help me and I have been to multiple college fairs. I've found next to nothing. Do you know what a good school for me might be?

[mantis.style]

If you really want to perform in martial arts movies then go to a wushu school. If the wing chun school you looked at doesn't have sparring of a semi-serious nature then skip it.

[The BB of C]

There's no Wushu near me. Though I would love that. It seems the three most popular styles rising in the movie industry these days is Wushu, Capoeira and Muay Thai. But I don't see any of those around here.

[ps1]

Remember that movies are fake. If you remember the movie Only the Strong for example. Mark Dacascos plays a Caporiea instructor. It's important to note that, at the time, Mark had only 6 weeks of Caporiea instruction in order to prepare for the movie. Yet he looks like a pro. My point is it's more important to get a very strong skill set for the basics that are applied to every art. Then, be sure to take stage combat classes. They're more important than you might think. Also, learning some basic gymnastic skills in a good school will serve you well. You don't have to be a good fighter at all to get into movies. You just need to be in excellent physical condition and look pretty when you do things. The last two things you need are connections (there's about a million martial artists trying to get into Hollywood) and the drive to keep trying even after failing about a thousand times.

Good luck and train hard.

[The BB of C]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I have decided I'm going to go into the Kyrokushin school as soon as I can.