I started karate when I was 8 or 9, and quit a few weeks into it because it was football season. I want to get back into it, so I want to ask you guys which of these you like the best. Just a general poll. I have no idea what I want to get into because all martial arts interest me.
Submission Grappling
Muay Thai
Kickboxing
Aikido
Aikikai
Karate
Tae Kwan Do
Shaolin Black Dragon Kung Fu
Iron Dragon Classical Kung Fu
Judo
Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do
WU Hsing Chuan Shaolin
Hapkido
I’m pretty familiar with many styles of martial arts, but some of these are just over my head. Anyone know anything about these?
Also, any suggestions as to which one YOU would do?
I do submission grappling/shoot fighting and I like it a lot. I tried aikido first but it wasn’t for me. Aikido is all about using your opponents energy against him. It’s a real fluid martial art but not practical for law enforcement. I need to be able to put somone down in a hurry and break something if necessary. I guess, like everything else, it just depends on your goals/needs/wants.
Submission Grappling
Muay Thai
Kickboxing
Aikido
Aikikai
Karate
Tae Kwan Do
Shaolin Black Dragon Kung Fu
Iron Dragon Classical Kung Fu
Judo
Shorin-Ryu Karate-Do
WU Hsing Chuan Shaolin
Hapkido
I take it that you are in this at least partly to get some sort of workout and/or to be able to kick people’s ass for whatever reason.
If such is the case it is absolutely necessary that you choose something which includes a lot of full contact and near full contact sparring. The fewer rules the better (within reason).
I.E. Judo is good, submission grappling is better. Boxing is good, muay thai is (probably) better. If there is a club in your area that trains for MMA that would certainly be the way to go, if that sort of thing is your bag.
Some JKD schools are decent, but most are Bruce Lee place’s of worship, and you don’t need that.
If you are just in it for the cultural experience and to “become a better man” any of the ones not mentioned in my post may work out for you.
Check out a few different schools and see which one strikes your interest most. Personally I like a combination of submission grappling and muay thai, but you gotta go with what interests you.
I definitely would like submission grappling, but I would also like to do some sort of traditional fighting. I’ve read tons of stuff about JKD and Bruce Lee, and I don’t want to start that because no one really knows how to teach it.
I think I might mix submission grappling and muay thai, as suggested.
Yeah, I know Lee started out as Wing chun, and it would be cool as hell to have a wooden dummy to beat on, but no one around here teaches it.
I think I am going to learn a mixed style. Just something I’ve always been interested in. I’m a lover not a fighter, but when I need to, I can hold my own.
Just be carefull when you pick a hybrid martial art, many places try to teach too much at once. You might be better of taking something like boxing and judo. The two of them together offer a great combination of striking and both stand up grappeling and ground grappeling as well. Lets you learn two different styles that compiment each other nicely. Also one other advantage is that both are full contanct.
Just to make sure you realize this. Even if someone did teach WC in your area, most likely you wouldn’t learn to fight by going there.
Bruce Lee was cool in that he taught people the value of cross-training. However most people quickly forgot, and instead of finding out what was effective for them they tried to copy Bruce Lee.
If Bruce was alive (and young) today, I’m fairly certain he’d be getting his ass handed to him in the first UFC’s and then either catch on or watch his sainthood fade.
Bruce Lee never intended to fight UFC style. His methods were meant for quickly ending a street confrontation without being on the ground. Completely different idea and a much more practical one than grappling in a real world application. Although my street fighting days are long over, I never saw anything more effective than a sucker punch and a head butt. Forget all that BJJ stuff. It would just get your head kicked in by the buddies of the guy that you were rolling with.
I think people should be weary when preaching about what Bruce Lee could and couldn’t do if you haven’t read all about him and studied the same or similar philosophies that he did. And if you are wondering yes I have and I have been doing Wing Chun for the past 7 years as well as learning the Daoist meditation of Qi-Gong. Lee actually was a very accomplished Wing Chun pupil but found what he thought to be flaws in the style. He developed and used his own style of Jeet Kun Do which used the basic principles of Wing Chun with many variations and adaptations. I could preach forever about why Lee would destroy any of the UFC or anyone really but I won’t because peolple have their views and they usually stick to them. But I will leave you with one thought - Wing Chun will teach you how to read opponents movements before they happen, you will be able to see what they will attack with next before they actually do it because you can read the energy movements in their bodies where their next movement is coming from. The only problem with Lee was that he was obsessed with the western capitalist ideals instead of just using fighting as one of the tools to reach enlightenment and self betterment - in this respect he was a bit of a sell out. Its the little Shoalin monk living in the temple on the hill somewhere in China that you would never fuck with!!!
I should add that you really need to find out what works for you. If you have short legs and long arms don’t kickbox. There was an article on t-mag a few months ago that sort of applies. It was “Fight Muscle” by Shugart. In it Shugart interviews coach Scott Sonnen and one of the things he said was
“Both the tactical and combatives community would go a great deal further in survivability, effectiveness, and liability conscious performance if they concentrated on general athleticism, joined a local wrestling and/or boxing club, and jettisoned the donut fetish”
Hopefully you don’t even need to lose the donut fetish.
I think I’m very proportionate in my build. Neither my arms or legs are extremely long, nor are they stubby. My sleeve length is 34/35 and I wear a 34/30 pant at 5’10". I could easily wear a 34/32 if I hiked them up to where old people do - ha, jk, not that high, but a little higher.
I think I might try muay thai or kickboxing plus some sort of wrestling. I think working hard enough to become a black belt would be awesome, so I might try kung fu or karate or tae kwan do.
I agree with what Magnus said. find something that interests you.
If however you want to fight, submission wrestling and Muy Thai are the way to go. That is what I study now, and it is very effective as a fighting style (and i have dabbled in just about every style you listed with the excerption of the Kung Fu styles, though I have studied some Wing chun) . It will teach you to stand and brawl, but if it goes to the ground, you will have the skills to win.
And arguing about what Bruce could do today is pointless.
I have a funny story. One of my old coaches told me this story. He had a friend that he said could bench well over 500 lbs and he was extremely large. Well they were at a bar one night and this guy came up to them and started talking shit to my coach and his friend. the guy that walked up said “I heard that you thought you were pretty bad. Well i know karate and i bet i can kick your ass.” So my coaches friend stood up and said lets go outside. The went outside and the karate guy tried to hit him and my coaches friends stepped to the side, grabbed him by the seat of his pants and right behind his collar and threw him down the hill to where they throw the trash. My coach said you could hear the trash cans rumbling around. I just though that was funny,.
I know we all agree on Bruce Lee basically introducing martial arts to the mainstream of America. Without him, a lot of us would still wonder what those crazy Asians are doing!!—> not meant to offend anyone, and asians aren’t crazy.
I too used to do Karate and liked it way back when. Then I got into a hybrid of kung fu/karate/kickboxing. That was ok.
Since coming to Korea, I got into Hapkido. Since many people have no idea what hapkido is all about I’ll give you a quick run-down. Hapkido and Aikido come from the same parent martial art - Japanese aiki-ju jutsu. Since the founder of Hapkido brought it back to Korea, it has evolved into more of a combat art, adopting some kicking from Taekwondo and many strikes from other disciplines. Aikido has stayed passive, as someone else said previously.
The reason I like Hapkido is simple, it gives you practical tools to use if/when you need them. TKD and (some forms of) Karate are useless in my opinion unless your assailant agrees to stay a body’s length away so you can kick them. With Hapkido, you can use your limbs for striking, but if the opponent gets in too close, there are countless ways of taking them down and making them pay/breaking something/ending it quickly. I like to think of it as a TKD/Aikido/Judo hybrid.
But the things is, it all depends on you. What I’d recommend is for you to find some clubs of styles you’re interested in and go watch a class or two to get the feel of it.
Does anyone know of any websites where I can learn about the differences in the different styles? I can’t seem to find any, and I am really interested.
JWright: Well, THIS Asian chick is cuh-razeeeee. hehehe
Anywhoos, reading up on the styles of MA is one thing(and won’t help you); but you need to go and SEE them. Do check out the different schools in your area. Just plan a day or two of going visiting and observing at the different schools.
That’s the only way of doing this.
And trust me, there will be schools that won’t allow you to observe. If that’s the case, then just leave and forget 'em. They’re not worth your time. TRUST ME.