Anyone study Martial Arts?

This is a great point. In terms of self defense, it can be less about what training you have and more about the choices you make in the first few seconds of a conflict. This would include of course the wise choice to avoid conflict in the first place.

A guy in my Jiu-Jitsu class is a repo man. Apparently at one of his last repos, some big guy slammed him against the wall by the throat. He was telling me how he just froze at the sudden onset of conflict and couldn't even begin to think of what to do.

Anyway, good point.

Avoiding a conflict is the better choice most of the time of course, but I wasn´t talking about a situation where you could...
Thing is are you willing to catch a broken bottle with your left arm, while slamming the others larynx with your right...?
(I´m not trying to play the tuff guy here, I just want to point out that if you´re taking on self defence training, you should understand that this isn´t sport.
Unfortunately there are a lot of combat sport instructors out there teaching self defence without actually knowing what they are talking about...
This ends up in 50 kilo woman trying to armlock a 90 kilo guy, which may work in a dojo with a willing sparring partner, but will probably get her raped on the street:thumbdown...)
 
The last test I took was almost 2 hours and I was ready to vomit my intestines, but in the real world you need that kind of stamina to stay alive in certain situations.

For sure. Our tests are about 3-4 hours. Obviously gets harder the higher the level you go for. A friend of mine, for her black belt test, it was a full 2 days (or 1 day, not sure), old traditional style.

Jon,
how would you describe your personality?
Like, can you get real pi*sed or are your always the calm, in a shyish/frightened way, guy?
I´m just asking because, I´ve trained with a lot of guys and gals who were eager to learn any technic thrown at them, but simply lacked any fighting spirit. When you´re in the situation to defend yourself from physical harm, than you should be ready to harm back.

Oh for sure. I know I'm a bit shyish. I prefer to avoid a fight, and everyone agrees that the best way to win a fight is to avoid it all together. But I know I need to work on it and been trying to ever since I started Karate. I still have no clue how I'll react in a situation where my life depends on my reaction, but I'm trying to work on my attitude and confidence so that hopefully I'll react the right way when I get into a situation.

------

I've been talking to my friend and it seems like Brazilian Jujitsu might be the second MA that I'm looking for. I'll take Karate while I'm in University, and only Karate. When I'm out of Uni and have the money and time (hopefully) I'll take Brazillian Jujitsu with Karate. Perhaps try to get some self-defense classes in like Krav Maga eventually.

I want to be able to do stand up fighting and ground fighting as well, just to be an all around prepared fighter.

Karate and other styles may teach a lot of sport, but it depends on the Dojo and teacher and style of course. One Dojo may be more about the sport, and another about street defense.

Also, for being a "sport" MA, Karate seemed to help this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEv6i-lhIWc
 
Karate and other styles may teach a lot of sport, but it depends on the Dojo and teacher and style of course. One Dojo may be more about the sport, and another about street defense.

Very true. Even within the same association, you'll see differences from school to school. My former instructor is great, but he teaches a lot of kids and gears his teaching more toward the sport. Advanced students get more of a lesson in street defense.

When I taught as a part of that association (I taught for about 10 years), my school was geared toward real life situations. I taught only adults and had several police officers (including a SWAT guy) in my class. They weren't interested in tournaments, so I catered my teaching to what they needed.
 
Also, for being a "sport" MA, Karate seemed to help this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YEv6i-lhIWc

It maybe also helped, that the pimp didn´t seem to be very sober judging from his way of moving and that besides being angry at the karate guy he wasn´t prepared for anything, no keeping distance, no lifting his guard...
Besides that we saw the second rule (after try to walk away in time...):
try to strike hard as soon as the way is free to go...:happy:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h_vvI26NnwE&mode=related&search=
 
This is in another thread, but it is still interesting. I still haven't figured out why/how the guy hit the girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6OtvSHYzN4&NR=1

Here is a decent BJJ vs. Kempo example. This is NOT to say that BJJ is better or anything of the sort. It is an example though that once a fight moves into a realm that a specific discipline does not focus on... then the techniques are not very effective. I think Karate, BJJ, and a "lethal" self defense style would be a great mix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFCwdBEOS1Q

On a side note, the place where I train BJJ focuses on the "sport" of BJJ. There is some street technique taught, but for the most part the focus in on BJJ and MMA competition. Even still, a lot of the guys are cops, repo men, bouncers... and they put their skills to use often. Of course, their goal is not to kill the other person... I hope :huh:
 
This is in another thread, but it is still interesting. I still haven't figured out why/how the guy hit the girl.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6OtvSHYzN4&NR=1

Here is a decent BJJ vs. Kempo example. This is NOT to say that BJJ is better or anything of the sort. It is an example though that once a fight moves into a realm that a specific discipline does not focus on... then the techniques are not very effective. I think Karate, BJJ, and a "lethal" self defense style would be a great mix.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFCwdBEOS1Q

On a side note, the place where I train BJJ focuses on the "sport" of BJJ. There is some street technique taught, but for the most part the focus in on BJJ and MMA competition. Even still, a lot of the guys are cops, repo men, bouncers... and they put their skills to use often. Of course, their goal is not to kill the other person... I hope :huh:

Hehe the first one I knew already and yeah no clue why he hit the girl in the first place, but what we discussed more was how both guys took all these punches and what happened after the view was blocked by the trees:undecided
Without judging if the boyfriends reaction was justified or not, I think I would have made sure the guys weren´t able to follow me...

For the second clip I can only say "Don´t f*ck with the Gracies:nads:!"
I have great respect for BJJ, especially in the form of Luta Livre or Vale Tudo, I´m sure even ol´papa Gracie can still take me out, but I have to repeat: I don´t want to end up on the ground in a streetfight, not even in mount position - you just never know who´s still around...
This was still a gym and the kempo guy looked like he was only prepared for a little touch´n stop half contact sparring...
 
Good points brought up here. I feel confident in the choice to do BJJ as soon as I'm able to while still studying Karate. My friend is going to learn it, so hopefully he'll teach me some basics. :)

What frustrates me is how people compare Martial Arts. There are only really sport MA's and non sport MA's, and then there's stand up and ground. It's as simple as that. It frustrates me to see people comparing and battling martial arts, claiming one is better than the other, especially when they're a lot alike. People will compare Jujitsu to Judo, Muy Thai to Tae Kwon Do. I've seen classes (not in my dojo) where the teachers claim that they're style competed with a school of another style and came out on top.

It's simple, it all has to do with the teachers, the dojo, and more importantly, the individual, the skill level and the techniques they chose to use and practice.
 
However it is true that a style like Tae Kwon Do is predominantly legs, and it's easy to trap a leg if you're quick enough. Some styles can definitely take advantage of it. I've seen it.

My Kajukenbo instructor explained how his previous class was no longer invited back to spar with a Tae Kwon Do class after their students kept getting trapped and taken down for ground work for which they weren't prepared.:)
 
Good points brought up here. I feel confident in the choice to do BJJ as soon as I'm able to while still studying Karate. My friend is going to learn it, so hopefully he'll teach me some basics. :)

What frustrates me is how people compare Martial Arts. There are only really sport MA's and non sport MA's, and then there's stand up and ground. It's as simple as that. It frustrates me to see people comparing and battling martial arts, claiming one is better than the other, especially when they're a lot alike. People will compare Jujitsu to Judo, Muy Thai to Tae Kwon Do. I've seen classes (not in my dojo) where the teachers claim that they're style competed with a school of another style and came out on top.

It's simple, it all has to do with the teachers, the dojo, and more importantly, the individual, the skill level and the techniques they chose to use and practice.

Well, I partially aggree with you here.
First, most karatekas I know, would never admit that it was a sport.
On the other hand boxing is consider as a sport by most, but a 120Kg boxer is a hard subject to take down (same goes for wrestlers)...
And yes of course, the competence of the individual practitioner always is the determing factor, but I would say someone practitioning a "no holds barred" style, always has the better start, than someone doing a "limited" style with eg no ground fighting, no locks, no kicks aso...
But hey, you made your decision, good luck and don´t get hurt!
 
Well, an update since page 8 of this thread. I went to the North American Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Championships this last weekend. I competed in both the adult (age 18-29) and masters (age 30 +) divisions. I lost my first fight in the masters division, so that was it for that one. I did take 3rd in the adult division though. I think there were 16 or so guys in the adult division. I should have won my last fight, not sure what happened. I just wasn't in the right frame of mind. Still happy about it all of course.

It's funny, the guys in the masters division always feel very strong, while the guys in the adult division are always very quick. Anyway, my wife was there with her new lens and was able to get some decent pics. Thought I would share with my fellow DVXusers/martial artists:

Working for a sweep here:
IMG_5492.jpg


Was going for an Americana, but missed it:
IMG_5597.jpg


Getting ready to pull guard (looks like he is pulling my hair):
IMG_5589.jpg


Pulling guard:
IMG_5670.jpg


Listening to some advise from Master Dunbar:
IMG_5682.jpg


3rd place:
IMG_5693.jpg


That's it....
 
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