Martial Arts

Chryenth

A thread in which we discuss martial arts of all kinds, so we can stop derailing Player Pics.

@Jesbar @Mishgul @Trey @Kresslack

I think I got everyone.

My martial arts experience: I've studied Shito-ryu karate for eleven years now, teaching for five or six years now. Loving every second of it. Should be looking at grading for 3rd dan sometime soon, university notwithstanding. We do weapons training too; Daien-ryu Jo-jutsu (staff fighting), using Sai, Nunchaku and Bo, and Iaido. There should be pictures of at least the last one floating about somewhere.

University club is Wado-ryu, though, which annoys me greatly because I can't stand tournaments, and that's all we train for. Urgh.

Tvistor

Is fencing a martial art?

Chryenth

Sure. If Iaido counts, fencing kinda has to.

I should add I fenced mostly saber for a year.

Tvistor

We are going to throw down if you're ever in Melbourne.

My couch is a brilliant sabreur from Poland who has trained a bunch of gold medalists. Awesome dude, and he's a clinical psychology (also like 60 years old).

Chryenth

I trained with a guy who did internationals at some point.

Again with the not-too-fussed about competitions, though.

Jovolo

No you did not cover everyone. 

>(

Chryenth

I knew I was going to miss someone. Sorry, Jov.

Tvistor

How dare you forget my love? </3

Mishgul

I studied tang soo do between the ages of 13 and 19 but i left the federation after it turned into soo bahk do. I still have my moo duk kwan passport so i assume I can return to the federation studying any of the martial arts with my dan number. It might have expired, I can't remember the fine details.  

I stopped doing anything productive when I went to university as Achaea consumed my life entirely.

Jespar

i am not jesbar XD

Chryenth

My brain is bad at people. Deal with it. (Sorry).

Jespar

hahaha its fine but yeah i'm actually so stoked about getting my brown belt! so proud!

Chryenth

Brown belt is pretty awesome. ^^ How long have you been training?

Whilst I'm asking, Tvistor: How long have you been training saber?

Jespar

well i started in year 3 did it for 3 years slowed down cause i was young and was trying like every sport imaginable, got back into to it about 2 years ago and have been working at my brown since then!

i have to fight black belts to get my black belt :O this will be interesting so im doing alot of training about 4-5 times a week so by the time im 18 i will be ready to kick some butt

Tvistor

Six months now, but I train six hours a week (hoping to amp it up to 9) and I never miss classes. I can do a decent number on 1-2 year old sabreurs at times.

Chryenth

Our grading are so badly scheduled, we never get to do the kumite part. Which means everyone always gets ~full marks on that part.

I was doing 12hrs a week of karate over the summer. Was good. Now back at Uni it's going to be 3. Haven't missed a class (save one for illness) in four years. /smug

Only ever got to do 1hr/week of saber. Tvistor's going to cut me to pieces.

Tvistor

Man, I basically live for my saber classes. Also the guitar classes, singing classes and uni classes.

Life is good, essentially.

Averi

I still hold that epee is better.

-runs away really fast-

Tvistor

I hate you. </3

Averi

Sadface

Trey

Good idea, @Cryenth. I've done such a smattering of things. List time!

Shotokan - When I was a lot younger, probably closer to 11-12. Green belt.

Chinese/American Kenpo - More recent. Purple belt equivalent.

Modern Arnis - Nothing fancy, just starting out for a few months so far.

Kuntao Silat - The guy teaching me Kenpo kept throwing in things from Kuntao that were similar, since even though it's still got the Indonesian core the root art is Kenpo.

Kosho Shorei-Ryu - See above. James Mitose taught this in Hawaii circa WW2, one of his disciples being William Chow, whom Ed Parker trained under, who trained the Tracy brothers, the Tracy's and Parker being the American Kenpo system we learn from. Instructor is big on not just teaching us how and what to do, but why and where things come from.

Edit: Also Aiki/jiujitsu, krav maga, but neither of these even close to what could be considered learning anything in. I do have to give 100% credit to my friend who'd done Aikido for 12 years for teaching me how to take a fall properly. That skill has made itself useful on a number of occasions.

Chryenth

Wow, that's a whole bunch of things. I have a hard time just separating Shito-ryu and Wado-ryu. 

Are these all taught by one group of people, or do you have several different instructors or what? I'm losing track already.

(I was Googling things to make me look smart, but I got distracted by Matsumura Soken.)

Kuntao looks cool. Chinese-influenced martial arts are pretty interesting - our founder, Shihan Mabuni, trained under a Chinese guy for a few years and picked up some kata and things from White Crane kung-fu. Modern Arnis, as well - I've never encountered Filipino martial arts before.

We might need some kata videos.

Trey

Chryenth said:

Wow, that's a whole bunch of things. I have a hard time just separating Shito-ryu and Wado-ryu. 

Are these all taught by one group of people, or do you have several different instructors or what? I'm losing track already.

(I was Googling things to make me look smart, but I got distracted by Matsumura Soken.)

Kuntao looks cool. Chinese-influenced martial arts are pretty interesting - our founder, Shihan Mabuni, trained under a Chinese guy for a few years and picked up some kata and things from White Crane kung-fu. Modern Arnis, as well - I've never encountered Filipino martial arts before.

We might need some kata videos.

Mostly the same instructor, everything but Shotokan, Krav and Arnis is the same guy. I didn't comment on it earlier but I have to say I'm impressed with the Shito-Ryu. 11 years with the same school shows a level of dedication that I have nothing but respect for.

Edit: On that subject, the Arnis guys have the best attitude I've ever seen when it comes to other schools of thought. Most of the time you talk to people and they have, at least on some level, contempt for schools that aren't theirs, a 'we're the best' mentality. The Arnis guys hear about your experiences and are like 'Oh, you've got a great background. Let's see if you like what -we- do'.

Fitz

Used to do shotokan karate when I was real little, along with the gymnastics, tap and jazz classes. And soccer and football and baseball. (Yay 90's childhood, farm your kids out yo!) 

Then in my early teens did some 'Combat kickboxing' with an ex Green Beret from the area that opened up his own self defense gym. It was more of Barfighting 101.

Been looking into HEMA and ARMA lately, trying to find folks in my area.

Have some interest in learning Krav Maga as well.

Trey

Fitz said:

Used to do shotokan karate when I was real little, along with the gymnastics, tap and jazz classes. And soccer and football and baseball. (Yay 90's childhood, farm your kids out yo!) 

Then in my early teens did some 'Combat kickboxing' with an ex Green Beret from the area that opened up his own self defense gym. It was more of Barfighting 101.

Been looking into HEMA and ARMA lately, trying to find folks in my area.

Have some interest in learning Krav Maga as well.

I would so go to a class called Barfighting 101.

Chryenth

I was nine when I started karate. I don't think my parents would have stood for any 'I don't like this club; can I try a different one?' bullshit. After a few years, the very idea of leaving said club simply made me confused - whenever someone left I'd be like 'Wait, what? Why?'

Modern Arnis sounds really good, then. Might have to look around, see if they have a UK branch.

Barfighting 101. I'm in Wales, that could well be a legit thing.

I did a Krav Maga seminar once. Hooly shit did that hurt, but it was seriously fun.

Fitz

Yeah, basically the mentality he taught for the Combat Karate was, do whatever you can to get them to the ground as quick as possible, and then kick and stomp them till they stop moving.

Antidas

Tai-Kwon Do for 10 years, although it was technically just mixed martial arts. We learned techniques from Judo, Jiu-Jitsu, Karate, and of course Tai-Kwon Do. Unfortunately circumstances forced me to quit just before I would have received my brown belt.

Ellodin

I won't get into this conversation on forums, but I once drove past a store which had "martial arts" misspelled in the window so it said "marital arts" and below it a list of some things they sold, like bo, nunchucks, swords.

Fitz

Ellodin said:

I won't get into this conversation on forums, but I once drove past a store which had "martial arts" misspelled in the window so it said "marital arts" and below it a list of some things they sold, like bo, nunchucks, swords.

Well...I mean you could use all those for marital aids.....

Sobriquet

I did Savate and Kali for about three years but quit after snapping the ACL in my right knee, that was 6 years ago. Now I'm so old I just poke people with my walking stick.

My brother in law is a 2nd Dan in Shotokan Karate and is teaching my boy, so hopefully he can do better than I did.