Acid King wrote:I've been thinking of taking up boxing but I don't know exactly how active I could be with it. I've had 2 back operations, including one where a few vertabrae were removed, leaving my spinal cord with nothing more than a layer of muscle to protect it. If I took a good shot to the back, god knows how fucked up I'd be.
I would talk to a doctor, physio and chiro before considering ANY form of sport in your situation. I'm sure I don't have to tell you what spinal pain, or worse, spinal injury is like and how it can affect your life.
I've known women who wear various forms of chest plates for striking arts and boxing. Something along the same line (a lightweight plastic "shield") for your back might be something you could get made to help you.
All the same - see a doctor first! Although be warned that a great many doctors are anti martial arts. About 5 years back I broke my foot when someone did a low check block on one of my kicks. The break wasn't painful, but 6 weeks later it when it had healed by itself, it grew a large callous around the break which pinched a nerve in my foot, and left me with no feeling in 2 toes. I went to the doctor not even having realised that the foot was broken at all, and after an x-ray he informed me that I could either live with it, or have it re-broken and set. He then asked me if I recall anything that could have broken it, and I told him about my training. He got quite upset, and kicked me out of his practice!
Anyways... I'm sure not all doctors are as vocal about it, but you will probably get a few who tell you flat out not to do it. Whilst I still think you should seek a medical opinion, do take it as just an opinion, and not gospel.
Fighter17 wrote:The best move in fighting (well not really) is to kick somebody in the nuts and run!
Heh. It's generally agreed that it's best to avoid fighting all together if you can. (a) You risk less harm to yourself and the innocents around you (including mates, if they are out with you at the time) and (b) People are vengeful creatures by nature. Kick someone's arse today, and there's a good chance the emarrasment will outweight the bruises, causing them to do something very stupid like seek vengence tomorrow.
Never underestimate the ability to quicktalk your way out of a situation, but backing it up with the knowledge of how to fight is never a bad thing.
As the saying goes: "Walk softly, but carry a big stick". Wise words.
I'm a semi competitive amature in Mixed martial arts been in real fights and competitive ju-jitsu, from reading this forum listen to Elvis and pacrappa they have trained and know what they're talking about.
I'm into weight training, running pad work, wrestling, bit of kick boxing pretty much everything, been training hard for about 18 months with varioius experts in UK. I'm mainly a grappler but if you want to learn martial arts be very careful about 'limiting yourself' don't just think there is one ultimate martial art that if you learn you can kick every ass in town.
I've checked out 9 different martial arts clubs in the past year, think what do you need to do in a fight? either attack or defend those are your options, by defense I also mean run as its 99% of the time your best option.
What you learn must be effective regardless of style that depends mainly on the instructors in the club, the guy you learn from should inspire you, maybe even scare you regardless of his physical prowess, the training must involve physical resistance i.e. real punches, throws and kicks in as close to real life fighting as possible eg live stand up sparring at 50-70% full effort trying to punch your partner in the ribs or kick the hip with wrestling to the ground and throws in close. Unless you have 'real-life' elements in your training you will not pull if off first time on the street. look for a club that satisfies these requirements.
Regarding style, What build are you? if your a big guy grappling always a good choice, styles using your weight are always good. don't forget the fight situation what kind of fight are you most likely to get into, over here its often 1 on 1 bar encounters where you are it might be 1 on 4, times like that you want to run, taking one to the ground where the others then proceed to kick you on the head is not the best tactic. Kicking 2 in groin fast then running would be more preferable.
In general the more knowledge you have the better of you'll be the best way to attain that is to learn as much as possible i.e. multiple methods of combat, Thats why I'm in a relatively low level almost UFC directed club, still really a beginner, but I've learnt alot from my coaches + seminars.
Regarding karate, yeah powerful physical styles, great punches, but I find the blocks not much use, they get killed on the ground, big difference in clubs chose carefully, great competition atmosphere + olympic inclusion will only make the art more competitive.
Kick boxing, Brilliant learn it, muai if you can, hard to find a bad club knees and elbows destroy people, some of the clubs include throws and weapon work so almost universal style very good I will focus on it someday.
Chinese martial arts, Well massive diference in styles some are completely impractical others are joked about and called death arts, really a mixed back lot of good stuff in wing chun, nice circular motion blocks and attack redirection. You need to be lithe flexible and quick for wing chun good for smaller people, I can't recommend it or advise against it.
Judo, actually been forced to learn it to make myself harder to throw and unbalance! people who practice this are pretty tough use to being thrown about and some can kick pretty well, powerful muscles are a guaranteed result from it seriously physical. works on street however I'd advise you to learn a striking art in conjuction with judo. A v good competitive style judo practioners have beaten me with throws a few times. Recommended although your limited by this style its very good.
Boxing, yeah you'll put em down but not with one punch, 1 hit KO's don't really happen unless you hit the chin or your a dam hard puncher. excellent fitness required even to last a few minutes. works well anywhere although I beat better punchers by trapping arms and taking em to the ground.
Ju-jitsu Really my foundation style, pa crappa and ramus are brazillain practioners I'm a mix of their ground elements traditional jiu-jitsu, kick boxing and wrestling elements, my club isn't a real ju-jitsu club anymore but the instructors stay true to their decades old routes. The style you should learn is Brazillian ju-jitus if you have the choice, thanks to UFC and pride this style has been battle proven a good one to learn.
Don't bother with weapons, seriously a [insert weapon name here] dosen't magically appear the instant you get attacked.
@Acid king , I know about the back problems man, my brother in law used to be a half decent kick boxer had to get a vertabrae opp a few years back still has numbness in his sciatic nerve, exercise wise avoid straining your back, swimming cycling or running might be the best bet, not heavy weight lifting or throws from high testosterone youngesters in martial arts clubs.
Apologies if I come across as an asshole or some hard man wanabe, I take training serioiusly and enjoy what i do + its tied to my profession so it compliments my choice of life, physical conflict is common place where I come from, you hit a guy and not get arrested or sued over here, being able to block is useful. Whatever you choose enjoy it first, if you don't like the instructors go somewhere else.
I once tried wado ryu karate the club was very small the guy who ran it was a former world champion or something, one of the highest qualified in europe I'm told. Anyway turned up on my own to train with these guys, half the dam class was black belt lowest grad was green.... no new guys in a while. The session was the most physical I'd ever had almost like a fitness audition to judge worthyness to join the club, I could tell because the lower than black belt grades were surprised at my higher than them fitness, could tell they didn;t train like that every night. Subsequently the old master guy paid me attention corrected almost every move I did in front of the class, every punch i did was wrong too much shoulder turn not enough hip movement. We did this punching thin air crap for awhile even did that wrong, He then took me and the only other 2 student to consider joining that year for a knee/kick exercise, where he did his impress us with mighty skills routine, 4 knees in 1 jump was jaw dropping.
At end of class he asked us to join, I paid for the class and said I'd have to think about it. I never went back.
I posted the above because i think its important people don;'t get put off too easilly, yeah i never went back i then realised how good my own club and instructors were compared to that guy. moral of story shop around.
Humans are all animals when attacked, so if you're taking this for self-defense, keep in mind that when you get attacked probably the last thing on your mind will be which smooth martial arts moves to pound your opponent with.
"Farewell to false pretension
Farewell to hollow words
Farewell to fake affection
Farewell, tomorrow burns"
Jeet kune do is a great martial arts concept, but its flawed, it worked for bruce lee because he developed it to suit himself physically, few people can actually do well with the style let alone teach it. big downside is its really a concept of attacking the opponent first while they attack you, basically you need to be fukkin fast with all of your body.
Bruce Lee gave the concept strikes that were a means to the end of striking the attacker namely the lead leg kick and lead jab. big downside there is you need to have trained up those strikes to a high level my jab is pretty bad couldn't put anyone down with it quickly let alone intercept a full blooded cross and still evade. I think JKDs something you learn after you've practiced for a long time to even get close to using it effectively, never tried it myself but the books on it are worth reading good strategy, the guy was a genius in his own right, maybe if he was still about he'd have perfected it, and made more fun of karate experts.
Sorry Pa, I couldn't make the 4hr event due to work comitments but I got to the 2 hour seminar 2 nights previous(Watched not taking part) Hes a big guy, not what I expected very friendly, no one in my club could break his guard not even the irish 90kg bjj silver medalist, but he got close! he described it as rolling with liquid air, completely effortless motion no energy wastage. made alot of points about conditioning and training as often as possible, grip strength was fearsome, just toyed with everyone. he focused on everything! and in what situation to apply them, wish I could have participated but it was either him or bob-breen and I feel the stand up game is were I do better so I'm content with my decision between the seminars
Diabollokus wrote:although I beat better punchers by trapping arms and taking em to the ground.
Heh... that reminds me of my first session with a JuJitsu guy. This was WAY back in my early days of training. I was all cocky because I "knew" Muay Thai and thought I was some unbeatable god or something and taht no other martial art could ever compete (yeah, even the best of us let our egos go too far sometimes). This buddy of mine comes along to the class to add some Muay Thai to his style.
We spar for a bit, and I keep him at a distance with kicks and knees. I see him give me a funny look, like he's looking for an opening. So I come in with a flurry of punches. All of a sudden he traps my arms and *BANG* I hit the ground hard. No idea what he did, but one moment I'm standing, and the next I'm looking at the ceiling. He's got me in some crazy lock, and I can't move. Meanwhile he has a big smile on his face.
I learned an important lesson that day, I can tell you. That also inspired me to start looking around at other styles for influence and weaknesses in my own.
Diabollokus wrote:
I once tried wado ryu karate the club was very small the guy who ran it was a former world champion or something, one of the highest qualified in europe I'm told. Anyway turned up on my own to train with these guys, half the dam class was black belt lowest grad was green.... no new guys in a while. The session was the most physical I'd ever had almost like a fitness audition to judge worthyness to join the club, I could tell because the lower than black belt grades were surprised at my higher than them fitness, could tell they didn;t train like that every night.
Again, similar experience to me checking out a local TaeKwonDo club.
After my Muay Thai club closed down, I went looknig for other styles. I checked out the university TaeKwonDo club (I think it was the "Rae" or "Rhee" style... I forget). They asked for a demo of the style, and from that decided I should join the higher belts in training. We did some kicks and a sparring session, and it was farily obvious the guys there weren't trained with any sort of great discipline. Not very strong, no speed, and no fighting smarts. It was all about points and competition stuff. Very little real fighting. After going probably a bit too hard on the guys (habit from my old training) and leaving a few bruises, I thanked the instructor, paid for the lesson, and never returned.
Diabollokus wrote:
Apologies if I come across as an asshole or some hard man wanabe
On the contrary, it sounds like you really understand what you're on about. You've come this far in only 18 months? Very impressive.
