Martial arts discussion thread

[KalEl]

Thanks. The martial arts there is more competition based. They do a little bit of self defence. I'm enjoying it a lot. I did karate (kempo) for 4.5 years now switching to a more competition based martial art like Muay Thai, it feels like a fresh start and I look forward to learning more and blending the styles I've learnt together.

What are you training in at the moment?

Body building atm

[GoktimusPrime]

Found this article while looking up stuff on the relationship of energy in boxing dynamics. The article talks about why weight training doesn't increase punching power, but how it's more related to grounding (i.e. stances!), plyometric movement, muscle groups etc. Not to say that weight training isn't beneficial -- as I said, I wasn't even looking up anything to do w/ weights when I found this, but I find the aspects of the article that focuses on what does actually work in issuing power to be quite good. The article is talking about boxing training, so the illustration shows a peeled rear heel (which traditional martial arts never does unless you want to make yourself an easier target for grapplers ), but otherwise I found it a rather interesting read.
http://www.expertboxing.com/boxing-t...g-power-part-2
And yes, it should be f=ma (force = mass x acceleration), not F=MA

[Bartrim]

I haven't read the article but we hold 1Kg weights when we do punching drills to help develop speed.

[Bartrim]

Did shadow sparring on Thursday night. Zigged when I should of zagged, now I've got a black eye and a nice cut on my cheek

[GoktimusPrime]

It sounds better if you tell people that you headbutted an incoming punch (and that your sparring partner now has his hand in a cast ).

[Dkaris]

Out of interest does any one here do kendo at all?

[GoktimusPrime]

Out of interest does any one here do kendo at all?

Nope. Certainly isn't a cheap martial art to do.

Be aware that Kendo is pretty much a competitive sport rather than a fighting art. It's fine if you're more interested in the sport/competition aspect, but if you're more interested in the actual art of Japanese swordsmanship, I'd recommend looking into martial arts like Kenjutsu, Battoujutsu, Iaijutsu etc. They're also not cheap, but cheaper than Kendo (cos you don't have to purchase the armour!).

These clubs pretty much require you to pay for a year's worth of membership before they even let you do any training -- no free trial lesson. You are also required to purchase all of your own equipment too, so with Kenjutsu you'll need to pay for the Gi uniform (including hakama) and a bokken/bokuto (wooden sword). With Kendo you'll need to purchase these same things, but also the armour set (which is quite dear) and a shinai (bamboo sword) -- you'll still need the oak bokken too, as that's used for practising kata, whereas shinai are used for sparring and competitions. Don't let the fact that bokken are made from wood fool you, they can be extremely dangerous. During the Meiji Period when it became illegal for any unauthorised persons to carry metal swords and the samurai class was disbanded, some samurai began carrying bokken and some of them actually recorded higher kills using bokken than they did with metal katana! Part of this is because while a katana is a hacking/slicing weapon, bokken deal more blunt force trauma injuries which can cause greater internal damage (and infections), which can become fatal. A person who has his arm chopped off can continue living as an amputee, but there were cases of people dying from internal organ damage caused by bokken. So for this reason, nobody spars or competes with a solid oak bokken, only with bamboo shinai which are hollow on the inside and are designed to collapse to absorb the shock (much like the crumple zone of a car). They still hurt like hell if they hit you though! (like a massively bad caning... ouch!)

[Tfiguy]

Sorry for my ignorance as I didn't feel I was up to the task of going through the 75 pages for this massive thread- Wow! But are there many people on here that do muaythai?

[Bartrim]

Sorry for my ignorance as I didn't feel I was up to the task of going through the 75 pages for this massive thread- Wow! But are there many people on here that do muaythai?

Yep. I switched from karate a few months ago when my karate school closed down.

[Tfiguy]

Yep. I switched from karate a few months ago when my karate school closed down.

Ah cool man, which city are you based? Are you enjoying it? Is it a good gym? I've been planning to move to Brisbane soon, so I can start again. I've been getting nice and fat while not training.. ... I miss it sooo much, esp my years over in Thailand.. I can't wait!