Martial arts advice. Help me choose.

[Kryp2o]

Aikido is strictly Self Desense oriented IMO.
No competitions or sparring.
Lots of Wrist locks, breaking from holds and take downs.
Main goal is to reDirect the attacker without direct contact.
You must Learn flexibility and how to correctly fall first.

Find a School that does NOT stress the mystical, Chi and Mental aspects of Aikido.

You are correct sir, there are different trains of thought depending on who you go to and what form of Akido is taught depending on the organization that school is with. Some teach more on the spiritual aspects of Akido almost as a Buddhist type religion and some go as far extreme to the other side towards strictly combat like Aki-Ju-jistu (sp?) Akido but with breaking movements of Ju-jitsu.

All movements in Akido are done in a spherical motion design by it's founder O'sensei Morihei Usehiba to use your attackers energy against himself without expending your own energy to defend. There are also defense techniques against weapons but again nothing offensive. If your into a very spiritual form of self defense than this is a good choice. Where I went they also taught healing/first-aid, and meditation techniques. The benefits to this art is unlimited but there's no glory in it for the serious competitor.

 

[TC]

Bump

 

[acneman]

maxbiceps and latimer

ok last one

Divisive by nature, styles keep men 'apart' from each other rather than 'unite' them.


latimer i finaly agree with one thing you said in my akido school many people left when the head instructor halted people from meeting before class to practice escrima and western boxing.

ranking blue in akido i left (just when it was getting good)
thank you for the web url cool site
and last your opinion on what our friend should take is well taken only the disrespectful way you discussed the arts you dont like is in question but it appears to me everyone on the thread are becoming more tolerant of others arts.

peace brother and keep following the path.


max you and i are on the same page except one you wouldnt have this problem because of your background but lets put a purist wrestler against a western boxer or karate practitioner

what happens : if the wrestler wins he takes a lot of punishment coming in from long range to grapple range and being a wrestling purist (mabey college greco) mabey never gets past the punch that he has poor tools to deal with. my point is only to consider the range theory (a better purist wrestler would perhaps take 1 to 0 punches on his entry but were talking average practitioners but even an untrained man can usually come to a grab even against an ok boxer so who knows) and i agree about the highschool shit while i must say i have raised my hand against my fellow man in the past 7 years i do not consider them fights because it was my job and duty to do so. only one shove to a man that shoved me first as far as personal violence.

 

[Galen]

naw it's gota be Judo, judo know if i got a knife and judo know if if got a gun

 

[maxellyz]

maxellyz.....trust me, I know exactly what a good Kung-Fu instructor can make you capable of in a street fight. But my point was, that even Kung-Fu can be useless when taught by a sack of shit. It all comes down to the instructor........always!!!

Yes that is very true

 

[strengthmonster]

OK, as chairman and instructor of my own academies with 15+ years of experience in most styles here is my advice.
Most people will tell you their style is the best. It is only natural. However to truly become a competant fighter it is important to broaden your skills and look at many different styles. I would look for a good hardcore mixed martial arts class. One that employs distance striking, close up striking and grappling, trapping, locks, ground fighting and weapons defences. All of these are needed on the street and a club that also works real life situations would also be of benefeit. As you said Pecan Silat or even Kali Silat is very street orientated and you liked that so you will like MMA. Many clubs are going this way now and expanding into different areas so fighters are not limited to one particular style only but you will have to look hard for a quality class as many are also jumping on the bandwaggon, claiming to be freestyle but teaching predominantly one style.

 

[LeviathanX]

Just for clarification, it is Penjak Silat (or Pentjak Silat).

One thing most people don't seem to understand is that many martial arts systems have strong connections that you begin to notice as you progress through the ranks. The martial art I've practiced for the past 15 years, Tang Soo Do, is a Korean martial art with Okinawan and Chinese origins. As you progress you find that the martial art has aspects of both an internal and an external martial art, and begins to incorporate joint locks and grappling moves, and so on.

I believe this is the same in many other martial arts.

In my opinion, a master of any art is "street-fighting" ready if they have dedicated themselves to training and have a good instructor.

 

[The Varnsen]

Jui Jitso no doubt!

 

[MaxBiceps]

Re: maxbiceps and latimer

max you and i are on the same page except one you wouldnt have this problem because of your background but lets put a purist wrestler against a western boxer or karate practitioner

what happens : if the wrestler wins he takes a lot of punishment coming in from long range to grapple range and being a wrestling purist (mabey college greco) mabey never gets past the punch that he has poor tools to deal with. my point is only to consider the range theory (a better purist wrestler would perhaps take 1 to 0 punches on his entry but were talking average practitioners but even an untrained man can usually come to a grab even against an ok boxer so who knows) and i agree about the highschool shit while i must say i have raised my hand against my fellow man in the past 7 years i do not consider them fights because it was my job and duty to do so. only one shove to a man that shoved me first as far as personal violence.

Exactly....A decent grappler can take out a really good boxer almost any day.
Remember, boxing is not "self defense," it is a sport, at least that's what I
did it for. In any sport, there are rules, regulations, and referees, to break it
up. When you street fight, it's a whole differnt story. All that shit goes out
the window. Chances are you are drunk anyway.

The best way to prepare yourself for street fighting is to take an art that
most closely relates to it, i.e. grappling, shootfighting, jui jitsu, etc. We've
all seen what royce gracie and ken shamrock do to much larger opponents.
It's just fucking amazing.

 

[Garza]

I haven't read most of this but I would say go into either TAekwando or jui jitsu ( I can't spell) My dad got 3rd at the ATA grand nationals in 1980, he is still a real good fighter.