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Post by AlvaroWang on Feb 6, 2016 4:23:54 GMT
Based on recent threads, I felt that this could be an interesting thread. Let's talk about martial arts you practice, or wish to!
I basically practiced for a long time snake fist kung fu, but had a few months worth of classes of muay thai. Since the school where I practiced closed, I am now enrolling at a MMA school.
Something that always bothered me is that kung fu in general seem to be very close minded and sparring was not seen with good eyes, so, I always wondered if what I learned could at least keep me a bit safe. With my recent incursions on others styles, I was gladly surprised when I could hold my ground to some extent. I feel like the key to be a little bit safe is understanding how your foe fights, instead of learning a thousand ways to kill someone.
So, tell me your experiences and what you think of cross training!
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Post by billwolf on Feb 6, 2016 4:46:43 GMT
I studied Shotkan Karate for quite a while, then Shito Ryu. I enjoyed it as exercise, and it increased my response time, but I only ever once used it in the real world, I'm largely a pacifist. I think it's good for someone to learn self defense, it encourages self confidence and is great at getting you into shape. I avoid the arguments over what is better, I'm not qualified to make a judgement, but then you didn't ask that either.
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Post by AlvaroWang on Feb 6, 2016 5:36:06 GMT
Yeah! I didn't mean to start a "mine is better" argument! Were your Dojos heavy on sparring?
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Feb 7, 2016 5:37:25 GMT
Cross-training can be really useful, but it's possible to make it pointless. Not a fan of cross-training for collecting another form or two, if that's claimed to be "mastery". Cross-training for diversity is good. Want good hands? Do some boxing. Want good grappling? Do some BJJ or judo. Etc. Few martial arts are all-in-one, and those those claim to be usually don't do as well as the specialist MAs.
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Post by AlvaroWang on Feb 7, 2016 6:25:13 GMT
Cross-training can be really useful, but it's possible to make it pointless. Not a fan of cross-training for collecting another form or two, if that's claimed to be "mastery". Cross-training for diversity is good. Want good hands? Do some boxing. Want good grappling? Do some BJJ or judo. Etc. Few martial arts are all-in-one, and those those claim to be usually don't do as well as the specialist MAs. I agree with you, I hardly call learning forms as learning the art. Specially if it is chinese. Summarizing an entire system in a few forms is really not smart. (I may open an exception for weapons forms, they tend to be pretty straightforward). Anybody have experience with cross training from early stages of learning? Some say it may hinder the evolution. I myself started playing around very late. It's been very interesting to compare the styles.
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Post by DigsFossils-n-Knives on Feb 8, 2016 13:15:13 GMT
So, tell me your experiences and what you think of cross training! If you mean cross training as studying the best moves from different forms and combining into one form then I highly recommend it for the purposes of MMA style fighting. If I listed all the different forms of martial arts I've studied you'd probably think I was showing off, so I wont do it. But I will tell you I studied many different styles but I think a true mixed martial arts school is the most effective. My favorite MMA dojo (closed for many years now) did just that. He showed a variety of different moves of which he thought were extremely effective. He constantly showed a new move he learned while traveling to different schools. Or new moves by bringing in different guest teachers. Of which I only incorporated the moves that worked for me into my repertoire. The down side is you are not learning any one specific style but the upside is (1) you are learning the best techniques from the best MA styles (2) you become familiar with the best techniques and therefore it's harder for your opponent to get them on you or you might know a reversal/counter move.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Feb 8, 2016 14:17:53 GMT
I began with Shotokan,(age 17) moved to Wing-chun at 18, then Mian Chuan for many years, my mentor moved back to China in the late 80's giving me the title of teacher, he died a few years later. Still even later I learnt from a consummate street fighter, have never had to really fight, just a couple of drunks and some chicken semprini kids giving a girl a hard time. My two sons want to learn but they are products of the new millennium, they wish to learn without effort.
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Post by DigsFossils-n-Knives on Feb 8, 2016 14:22:11 GMT
... My two sons want to learn but they are products of the new millennium, they wish to learn without effort. :( Same here, my son wants a medal or trophy, but doesn't want to train.
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Post by aussie-rabbit on Feb 8, 2016 14:39:29 GMT
... My two sons want to learn but they are products of the new millennium, they wish to learn without effort. Same here, my son wants a medal or trophy, but doesn't want to train. I hold out some hope for my 13yo, without the influence of his 17yo sibling he may be able to focus, and thereby pass down teaching within the family.
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Post by Timo Nieminen on Feb 8, 2016 20:37:26 GMT
Anybody have experience with cross training from early stages of learning? Some say it may hinder the evolution. I myself started playing around very late. It's been very interesting to compare the styles. As already said, it's very common, in the form of MMA. Early MMA was essentially just cross training is suitable striking and grappling arts. One could now argue that a specific MA called MMA has developed, but fighters will still cross-train in MMA, probably because the specialists at individual arts like boxing are better at them and better at teaching them than MMA generalists. Cross-training early can slow down your progress in the individual arts. If you're training 3 times a week, and you train in 3 different arts once a week, your progress in the individual arts will be slower than if you train in one of them 3 times a week. OTOH, and depending on the arts, you are likely to make faster progress as a well-rounded fighter. Doing two very similar MAs can maker it harder to get technical things correct, if things are done in very similar ways be different enough to matter. To a technical purist, this slows down your evolution in the arts. I don't think this is a big deal. I've seen 4 (5? 6?) different ways of stepping forward in front stance taught (not even worrying about differences in the stances themselves - weight distribution, length, width, foot placement). I don't think any of them are terribly worse than the others, and stepping forward in front stance isn't something normally done in fighting anyway, so the details aren't very important. You can learn useful things about how people can move, some of which can apply to quite different MAs (e.g., weapons vs unarmed). This can be a benefit of early cross-training. This is the flip-side of the previous point. If you learn 2 (or 3, or 4) slightly different ways of doing essentially the same thing, which one works best for you, and why?
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pgandy
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Post by pgandy on Feb 8, 2016 20:54:11 GMT
I found that I could carry over and mesh what I learned from school into another and felt richer for it.
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Post by ph00se on Feb 10, 2016 19:34:42 GMT
I used to do some Kyokushin Karate.
Have been out of it for quite some years, but I'm thinking to see if I can get back to some FMA or Wing Chun. :)
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Post by Deleted on Feb 10, 2016 20:04:04 GMT
Did bjj, judo, and kempo for a couple years each. Most recently I did Krav Maga for 4 years. Got injured so I had to stop. Looking to get back into martial arts, probably muy Thai
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Post by ph00se on Feb 10, 2016 22:32:58 GMT
I'm keen on looking into muay boran, hoping this will focus a bit more on the mental (kata/forms) aspect of the art. :)
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Post by LG Martial Arts on Feb 11, 2016 1:12:11 GMT
I started like most kids in the US with TKD when I was around 12... didn't last long. Skip ahead a few years, and I again took up TKD, but at a different dojo and a different instructor. Both my younger brother and I took TKD for about a year (I was 18 at the time), and then saw that the dojo also offered Tomiki Ryu Aikido, so I decided to try it out. Needless to say, I became enamored by Aikido and quit TKD - my brother just decided martial arts just weren't for him While studying Aikido, I also started training in Shindo Muso Ryu Jodo. I eventually received my Shodan in Aikido back in the 90's, and was one test away from Shodan in Jodo, but had to leave Texas to go to college. Unfortunately, there were NO Aikido dojos in Western MA when I was there, so had to go without JMA training for a couple years. After graduating from UMass-Amherst with a BA in Medieval Lit., I moved back to TX and became a high school English teacher... skip ahead a few years and I found out there was an Iaido dojo that had recently opened in the town next over to where I live. As a life long lover of knives/swords/martial arts, I immediately researched the dojo and joined several weeks later. Best decision I could have made, since Iaido became my newest passion, leading me deeper into the Samurai culture and traditions, seeing as the dojo was (and is) owned by Kunio Miyake (Shuko Kai International), who moved from Japan to the US. As it stands, I'm the highest ranked Iaidoka student at his Hombu dojo, although he does have higher ranked students in California. Eishin Ryu Iaido, Kempo Aikijujitsu, and Karate-do are all offered by Shihan Miyake, and I decided to try all three, plus work, and my online business, and my family on top of that. In case you're thinking "man, he's NUTS!", it dawned on me that it was too much to do, so I dropped Aikijujitsu and Karate, sticking to Iaido. I'm close to being proficient enough to test for Nidan, but will take my time before going ahead with the test. Over a decade later, I started taking up Aikido again with the same owner of the dojo I had gotten my Shodan in, but at a different location. Great news was that Dr. Clif Norgaard was a regular guest instructor, which was fantastic! His technical knowledge is second to none, having earned his 9th degree in Aikido while he was training us. He's no longer teaching, but my sensei visits with him regularly. I recently tested and earned Nidan in Aikido (back in October). I've never had to use any of my training, and don't intend to outside of the dojo, but feel confident enough that I can take care of myself/others if I have to. My plans are to open up my own dojo at some point, but that'll come in its own time. For now, I'm content to train when I can in the arts I can.
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Post by Cos on Feb 13, 2016 15:18:30 GMT
My first girlfriend was a Muay Thai BB and always teased me that she could beat me up if I ticked her off, so I said hey let me try it out. I had wrestled in high school so I wasn't in bad shape and found a gym locally. The MT and BJJ classes ran concurrently so for half a year I stuck to MT but one day decided to jump on the BJJ mat and really found my sport. I trained pretty heavily for a few years and had a lot of fun competing in and out of house. For me personally it was a big help to have a solid base in different disciplines before linking them together into MMA. While I prefer nogi, starting traditonaly helped me develop the fundamentals and other necessaries(grip strength, cardio, spacial awareness) much more completely. While I have really fallen out of serious practice I still maintain ties and some of my best friends are from my training days. I say I'm to busy these days but I've really just let that be a convenient excuse for not going back. Ah well, there's always the future I suppose.
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