Martial ArtsFollow

Try Krav Maga and Ninpo.

Skip the Gracie Jiu Jitsu and just take good ol Combat Jiu Jitsu. Nothing makes an attacker pull out a weapon faster than an opponent on their back.

lol thanks. Jujitsu is fun. In my dojo we mix alot of styles so we get a sense of what others are out there. We do grapleing/shootfighting (sp?). Youll like it if you like wrestling.

Lefein, I would love to. I actually had been hoping to take Aikido again, but without a car, my choices are limited. A bunch of my friends take gracie, so I'm just going to tag along. Besides, its a much shorter commute. I'm more worried about the exercise right now anyways, and I'm just thrilled to be getting back into ANY martial art.



Aikido is amazing. As far as I'm concerned, the way I was taught, it was basically everything I could want from a martial art. We started class with a few minutes of meditation and ritual, and then we would spend time working on breakfalls, swordplay, throws, jointlocks, etc. It was based mostly around using your opponent's force against them - and it does an amazing job of it.

Tai Chi is.. well.. slow. It was almost too slow for me. When I was learning, we basically learned katas. You'd just step through them, slowly. It almost made me wonder how it could be considered a martial art. The instructor said to imagine the kata sped up to normal speed, and the effectiveness becomes a lot clearer. Most places teach tai chi as a theraputic thing though nowadays, as opposed to an actual martial art. Keep that in mind. That ultimately led me to leave, just because I was the only person in the room who wasn't suffering from some sort of major ailment.

Right now I'm wishing I lived close to DC. A friend of mine just started taking Capoeria(sp? - i'm not that up on my Brazilian) there, which has always been an obsession of mine. Shame there's not a single place in Pennsylvania to learn.

When I was in my Teens and early Twenties I dabbled in Judo, Aikido and Tae Kwon Do. That was 10 years ago and I was a little fitter and slimmer back then.
My oldest son turns six this year and I'm planning on signing him up for Tae Kwon Do and/or Aikido. I just have to find the right instructor and I'm hoping it'll motivate me to get back into training and finally achieve my Black belt.
I also have a good friend who teaches Boxing at our local youth center and I'm thinking of taking myself and my son and getting him to train us a few times a week. Boxing training would certainly get my fitness level back to what it once was...

Hehe... I can't imagine ever again being able to get my fat *** low enough to the ground to try and do full splits. <ouch!><ouch!>

Edited, Wed Jan 5 17:54:54 2005 by lagduff

www.capefearisshinryu

This is my school. I have been in Isshinryu since 1987 and I was recently promoted to San-dan. (3rd degree) I am also working on Chanbara certification as well as training in Goshindo (military sword drawing and cutting)

I am not a particular fan of Aikido. Any style in which you can self promote by telling your associates that the grand master appeared to you in a dream and told you do so is a little sketchy in my book.

I have owned this school since 2001. I would probably be a 4th degree black belt but the same personality that I express on this forum is true to life. My mouth has more than once gotten me into trouble.

I have also had past experience in ********** Shorin-ryu, Taekwondo and a bit of Jujitsu.

Tacosid

Edited, Wed Jan 5 18:34:20 2005 by Tacosid

I took Aikido and loved it. I went almost every day for the first month. 24 classes in 30 days. At the end of which I was so sore I could barely walk. Add into that I was also working a crappy night job it wreaked havok on my body. I ended up only going a dozen or so times in the next 3 months due to injuries. Gah I miss going. Class was so fun. My only problem was the instructor, albeit good, he spent zero time on meditation and the reasons behind the moves/movements. Simply teaching to do them and hurt the person attacking you. Not what I feel Aikido is intended for. But the martial art impressed me alot for it's simplicity once you learned it and for it's flexability.

Edited, Wed Jan 5 23:46:26 2005 by Drayfitt

one thing to keep in mind, the belt around your waist has nothing to do with the power of your sidekick or reverse punch.

since i made black belt i have yet to test on schedule. i have always gone at least 1 year longer then is required of me. this is because i do not belive in being average with my technique for forms or power (board breaking) and so i will put that extra time on the floor before i get in front of the judges.

had i tested on schedule id be more then half way though my 5th Dan already and only 2 years out from 6th. i am glad i am not there, or wish i had had more time to dedicate to training harder to test faster, either way is good.

for any whom are interested here are a set of clips from my testing in June. keep in mind they are rather large (smallest is around 5M) and the quality is soso. they were not taken from a camcorder, but from a digital still camera that can take up to 60sec of MPG format. they are more then good enough to see what im talking about.

5 board jump spin side kick.
http://www.sunstatemartialarts.com/test/5_board_jssk.mpg 5M

me Backfisting a guy i had to fight after getting pumeld rather hard by him earlier. fun match he is a great guy and far more tallented then i am.

http://www.sunstatemartialarts.com/test/backfist.mpg 15M

first combo break. yes the last kick was intended to be that slow and held in chamber for a bit before i hit the boards. i normally do 4 boards like this, but my Master only wanted to see 2.

http://www.sunstatemartialarts.com/test/first3.mpg 8.2M

my speed break. hard to tell, but this is a jump away half spin heal kick. the boards are set about 30in off of my back shoulder so i have to jump backwards, then get my back foot to spin around to catch the center of the boards to break em. someone did the calculations for me a while back and that kick is generating around 700psi due to the speed to break the boards. i can now to 3 consistantly with it and 4 i have done 1 time.

http://www.sunstatemartialarts.com/test/speed_break.mpg 7M

enjoy. i kind of wanted to do a lot more boards, but thats all my master asked me to do on testing. he was down about 6 months prior to my testing to give a board breaking clinic for my students and had me do a bunch of boards that day for him.

I took Hap Ki Do for about a year... I didn't like my instructors so I quit...

I wish I didn't.

I'm a teach of the Brazilian Martial Art: Capoeira. Atlantic City area. www.NINJAKARATEACADEMY.com

I'm 19 years old, never done any martial arts training before. Do you think I would still be able to get something out of Aikido?

Most people I've talked with, started training at a young age.

I feel almost old for a newbie :S

Edited, Thu Jan 6 07:11:37 2005 by Chazra