Do you practise Martial Arts?

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But we're not talking about a woman and her handbag... we're talking about JK and a teensy-weensy bat.

 

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Due to dodgy knees (no high impact activities and even swimming properly hurts!) I no longer train.

A variety of mainly soft arts

Judo (1st Kyu BJC and 1st Kyu BJA ... never competition minded enough to get the points for my 1st Dan). I preferred BJC style, having first trained under one of Abbe Sensei's students (Kyu Shin Do - Birkenhead) but appreciated spending summer schools with Hosaka Sensei to *really* get into the fun side of things. Assistant Club Instructor awarded.

A few years of Tomiki Aikido whilst at school was good fun (2nd Kyu and assistant instructor) and would recommend it highly.

Whilst at Uni I too fell into the Shoranji Kan Jitsu (The Jitsu Foundation) too ... based in Crewe & Alsager we enjoyed a good time. Having already done the grading side of things I avoided it as long as I could ... but so that I could be covered for insurance purposes to assist the instructors I had to do some, but stopped once I had my Assistant Club Instructor award. The best fun I had was turning up to the national randori comp and confusing people by wearing white/yellow/orange belts and having to be put in with blue/brown belts not to break people (all because I strangled out someone during the gatamae-waza because they would not tap and the ref, in spite of me warning my opponent was going under, did not stop the fight!) When I dropped out of Uni I continued as much as I could but instructors moving on from the Uni meant the club folded. A real shame.

I dabbled with a few other arts over the years, mainly to improve aspects of my Judo.
JKD
TKD
Kyokushin
Goju Ryu
Ninpo / Tai jutsu
Fencing (yes ... it is a martial art. Just ask anyone who has had his knuckles broken whilst fencing with an épeé)

The difficulty I find now is that when I talk to others about the arts I just have never found a school / instructor that gives me the same feeling that I had when I was younger ... that sense of awe is gone, I am too picky of the differences to the habits I already have. I found this when getting back into fencing locally with one of the instructors ... it was me, not him ... I was not happy to have to unlearn things and really struggled with sabre.

I am still on the look out for a decent Tai Chi school in the area ... I did start but the school shut down as the family running it moved. It is my one hope for something my knees might be able to handle.

 

Very surprised no one has said boxing yet or mma with it being the new "in" thing.

 

I find that the MMA crowd attacts a... particular attitude in that they expect it to be your life and they frown upon it if its not.

 

Is that anything like No Kan Doo? I've been into that for a while now.

 

Wing-Chun Kung fu.

Been doing it officially for 2 years but had a break for a few years and back to doing it for the last 7 months.

I find its the most accessible out of the ones i've done, (also Karate and taekwondo) Great for general street self-defence and can involve quite a lot of fitness
, but my classes tend to concentrate on the techniques which I like as you can do fitness in your owntime, makes the most of class time.

No long/high kicks, it focuses more on the centre line theory, with power that comes from accuracy and speed and economy of what you are doing. You practice forms for health and to perfect the movements, blocks and attacks. It can be quite ferocious if taught by certain people but not so by others which I like for the balance of ways of practicing. Also, quite a lot of pad work which is good.

About to do my 2nd grading in a few weeks in front of the "master"! And he really is a master, chinese in origin and not only a master of wing-chun, but a 6th dan brazilian ju jitsu black belt!

 

Sounds like the pit I first trained at. Left pretty sharply. I'm with Trojan Freefighters now. Excellent credentials. One or two thugs try and join up but they never seem to enjoy being submitted my guys way smaller than them so never come back.

I'm injured at the moment - as usual -
Sadly MMA does attract the "wrong" kind of people

 

I have been doing Wado Ryu Karate for just over two years now. Good way to keep fit and learn self defence techniques at the same time. Really enjoy it although find some of the more advanced moves (or rather joining them up!) a bit tricky, but I guess it's practice, practice, practice....

 

Can I jump in and defend my sport a bit here.

I think it doesnt reall attract the wrong type of people anymore than any other sport you get to hit people at boxing is maybe the best example.

I train at Volcano fight team and all the guys are pretty decent and the coach wouldnt allow any aholes to ruin his academy.

we train tai boxing boxing and BJJ gii and no gii i love it to be honnest

its a great sport to train in and to translate to self defence

 

Sounds like I've met my master.

Cisco lab rat seems to also be a master of No Kan Doo too.


Seriously though I did quite a long time of Judo and started Wing Chun before I left Oz. Did a couple more years of Judo here in Switzerland too before I slipped a disc.

 

It's a traditional style of karate with long stances (generally) and whilst good for keep fit it's not as "intense" (and in my opinion less risk of turning up to work with a smashed nose!) as Kyokushinkai - although I would like to do that one day too!

 

Richie

I was only saying that in my experiance. I have seen a couple of gyms round here which have been the wrong sort, from the instructor down - perhaps I have let that colour my perception, or myabe you just found a good one

 

maybe a bit of both id say unfortunately itll always be thought of as a blood sport.

ive seen some dodgy places but the one im at is good.