Teras Kasi Archive

Charonazzar , it sounds like you may enjoy some of the more philosophical branches of akido, or perhaps tai chi. There are many "internal" martial arts that do focus on meditation in addition to the actual martial aspects. Depending on where you are located, there are likely quite a few schools and teachers to choose from. Are you looking for somewhere to learn forms? Spar alot? Practise applications? Learn meditation? Different schools have different training approaches and fighting focus; I would recommend knowing what you think you would like to do prior to shopping around. In the end, it isn't the martial art style that is most important, but the martial artist teaching it, and people you train with. (Though obviously some styles offer more practical benefit than others)

Just because you are a bigger guy doesn't preclude the effectiveness of any given style; though I would argue to try to find a style that is balanced between standing, grappling, and ground fighting. I personally dislike ground fighting for street fights because of the risk exposure, however, the reality is many fights end up there; being able to control and finish quickly is very important.

Visiting schools, and speaking with students and instructors about what their school's offer is the best way to find what you are looking for. Additionally, most schools have some form of 2-week or 1-month trial program. If you have any questions about a school, instructor or style, please feel free to ask. Perhaps someone here can assist or point you to a more authoritative resource.

This has been an excellent andvery informative thread! I'll add my two-bits.

I took Hapkido for 3 years. Physically it focuses on graples, pressure points, striking (kicking, punching, etc),patterns (katta),and overall fitness. How much you get of each, will vary from instructor to instructor and school to school. The school I studied at had a pretty even balance between allof those aspects.Hapkido also tends to be non-competitive.

A lot of this (if not all) has been said already, but I'll repeat the points I agree with the most. And maybe I'll add one or two of my own .

1) Do not attend a school that hands out a 'black belt' (or comparable rank) in 2 years or less. Look for a school where it takes 4 to 5 years to aquire a first degree black belt, and then has something to offer after that... like subsequent degrees. Even better than that, is a school that has no rank system. Ranking systems can in certain cases can lure you into a false sense of security.

2) Watch as many classes as you possibly can, at a wide variety of schools. This is a decision that is for you, and no one else. You need to be as informed as possible. If you have the opportunity to participate in a trial period or class, by all means do it.

3) Make sure you attend a school that is taught by a real instructor. The more experienced the better. I've seen a few schools where the warmup exercises are done by a video cassette. I mean, c'mon! An instructor chasing you with a practice sword is far more motivating than a video tape.

4) Attend a school that offers a lot of different classes. You should be attending at least 3 classes a week while you're a junior colored belt, and at least6 classes per week when you reach black belt.

5) Train at a place that makes you sweat! BUCKETS! I've heard the fitness aspect of martial arts downplayed a bit in this thread, but I can not stress the importance of it enough. From my experiences, the person who 'wins' a confrontation (no one truly ever wins, except maybe in sparring) is the one who tires the slowest. I guarantee you I lost 1st Place in my first tournament because I got tired in the last 20 seconds.

This thread has been fantastic! I've been out of training for 4 years now, and I'm looking to start again. Instead of Hapkido, I'm thinking Aikido or Jiu Jitsu. I want something a little more spiritual this time, and something that does not emphasize on strking. I enjoy the striking aspect, but I enjoy the graples, throws, holds, and pressure points a whole lot more.

Baedm is quite correct, we haven't touched on the actual training aspects of different arts. From my personal experience, YMMV, I have found a regimen that promotes body strength (through calisthenics, weight training, etc), aerobic fitness (through sparring, forms, calisthenics), and mental focus (through forms, meditation, push hands, etc) to be the most effective.

In the end, you will only get out of any martial art what you put into it; all the theory and knowledge will be rendered almost useless if your body is unable to do the motions correctly or if they are done while fatigued. I will back Baedm100%, apart from sparring with our more senior students, I get tagged most often when I am tired; when I get fatigued, I make mistakes, have bad posture, cannot follow up with power, let my guard down,or get generally sloppier.

I strongly encourage anyone who is interested to try martial arts. If you do, please stick with it for at least 6 months at a good school to see if is something you want to do long-term (read lifetime). If you get frustrated, confused, or feel like you are hitting a plateau, this is normal. Discuss it with people who have done this for a long time, they often have very good advise and insight.

Just want to thank you guys for some thoughtful posts, it helps a lot. I admit to being a very lazy man, but I'm also super competitive, so I think sparring with master and/or fellow students is the way to go for me. I'm going to sit in on a class or two for sure now; I hadn't thought to do that. It seems to me that the grapplers win all the intra-style competitions, but I have no idea which of the ones I've seen are real and which are staged. I'm not really planning on fighting anyone with this stuff per se, i'm looking for the elevated awareness & the accomplishment of honing skills. Well, off to SWG to see what they did to my TKA in the patch.

I took TKA because I wanted to represent, I myself am only bout 5'6 5'7 and about 150 pounds and 17 yrs old (Bully target basically growin up). I've been training since I was about 5 or 6 and Have armed myself with a WIDE variety of arts that includea variety of focuses kicking punching grapling etc. And I have also equipped myself with the knowledge of a variety of melee weapons including Swords(Again Many varieties) Knives Spears, Staffs, Tonfas, Knives daggers Sais that kind of thing and have also been practicing the Kusari-Gama(Not sure of spelling) But its a chain with an attached Blade and one of my favoritesChakrams, yes CHakrams they are great close range fighting tools and given the right design can be great throwing weapons.

Grpplers do win many of the interstyle competitions for several reasons which can be misleading.

First of in the original UFC's which really got the whole recent interstlye debates going the Grace family who were world class competitors were facing off against some really second rate talent. Some of the competitors did not even carry the belts they claimed to have (I remember the Taekwondo guy lied just to get in). Why second rate talent? Well for striking martial arts be it kicking or punching there are already DOZENS of other higher paying avenues to compete in. Only in thelast few year do I think we see some of the better talent come in to that area.

Secondly grappling does favor one on one styles. If you have someone willing to taked a hit or two to close on your it is very hard to stop them. But realistically how often do you expect to fight one person becomes the question. If you get into a bar fight do you want to take them to the ground and roll around a bit to incapacitate them? A stiking style would suggest that you cannot control that situation and his friends will be kicking you in the head or worst whipping out a knife to poke you while you are wrapped up dominating their friend. Thus the logic is in multiple opponent situations you need a good defense and strike or quick standing locks / escape pressure points and a **edit** fine pair of Nike running shoes.

tonight I am resurecting this post, Im am bored and i am sure that some people havnet see it before so....

BACK FROM THE LOWER LEVEL OF THE TKA FORUM HERE COME MY MARTIAL ARTS THREAD!!!!!

When you fight are you more of a defensive or more of an offensive type of person?

I am going to take Hapikido. That is what i chose.

I now study Shotokan wich is a more lose form of Japanese Karate. The idea of Shotokan is to be a more logical type of martial artswhere tradition does not lessen ones effectivenesson the street.

I also studied for a very short time a style of KungFu called Pukolan which is and Indonesian style strictly for killing. I quit the Pukolan style because the calisthenics before each class wouldtire me out so bad that by the time we were ready for the learning part of the class I was drained of energy and could not perform my moves with precision.

A now useless TKA,

DrBonzai.

Took 3 years of Seven Star Praying Mantis. Often seen as a "soft" style but far from it. My instructor studied under Sifu Ortiz in NY city.

My feeling on the UFC have always been mixed. I never saw it as "no holds barred" fights. I mean who is really gonna use leathal strikes? Submission is so much easier without them.

I started studying Tang Soo Do (or Soo Bahk Do) about a month ago. Itoriginated in Korea.I never had anymartial arts experience before this, so I was a total noob. It's going great! I love it!

I'm an instructor for Shaolin Kung Fu, and i've been studying Hap Ki Do for about 1 year now...

I noticed one post in particular, in regards to "how to pick a school." It mentioned that if the students aren't allowed contact sparring, to not learn at that school.

This is a grave misconception, and the person who made this comment has no idea what the fundamentals of traditional martial arts are.

If you are looking for "sport," or competition, sure go to a fighting school. But if you want real traditional martial arts, authentic martial arts, don't pass up schools that do not allow contact sparring.

I could go on and on about this but i'll end this shortly. The goal of traditional martial arts is to improve and balance your life mentally, physically, and spiritually. It is a way of life, not a sport. You cannot improve your health if you are engaging in full contact sparring. Look at Muhammad Ali, or Mike Tyson... see what happens when you get hit a lot.

Sparring is required in the martial arts, but not full-contact sparring. There are different types of sparring such as free-sparring, etc.