Thread: Different Martial Arts

Originally Posted by Bruno

We spend a lot of our time drilling basics because only through the basics can you really learn. Easily half our time goes to kihon (basic drills). We still do the same things, only much more thoroughly, but in the same traditional Japanese format. Not because of hubris, but because Japan is the source of what we do, and we like that approach.

Thaks for your post Bruno. All failures of any drill can be explained by mistakes in 'basics' so I also believe that to understand them is crucial.

Originally Posted by onimaru55

Thaks for your post Bruno. All failures of any drill can be explained by mistakes in 'basics' so I also believe that to understand them is crucial.

Ironically, that is one of the things that my sensei and his disagreed about; that we spent too much time drilling kihon and not enough time practicing the 'self defense' drills that he had choreographed himself. Now, I don't devalue self defense drills. But when they come from someone who only had a desk job and who has never been confronted with actual violence, and who has even choreographed the responses of the attacker because 'in real life, people would do x', ...

Yeah, no.

Interesting stuff. I took judo for about four years when I was young from guys who had trained in Japan. I also took TKD for about a year from a guy who had gotten his black belt in Korea after he got out of the Air Force. I trie it again a number of years later, but by that time, a lot of the schools had become glorified day care centers that gave black belts to 7 year olds. My original TKD instructor wouldn't grant a black belt to anyone until they turned 18 no matter how long that had been at it.
i was unaware until a couple of years ago that the Gracie BJJ is actually modified Kodokan Judo with heavy emphasis on the ground techniques. I read that at the time the Gracies first started studying, it was still called Kano Ju Justu by Western practitioners.
About 15 years back, I was in pretty bad shape, so I thought that I would take up martial arts again to whip my self into shape. I lasted about 8 months before I hurt myself elsewhere, but the school I studied at was really neat. They taught the DeThours style of Kuntao-Silat, Baguazhang and some pretty serious Tai Chi Chuan (not the exercise variety) Someone had mentioned training against multiple attackers and the Sifu basically said that with bagua, you really must have multiple training partners if you really want to do it right. i wanted to start up with him again when I lost a bunch of weight, but he moved out of the state and set up his school elsewhere. Even with my limited exposure, it seemed to me that bagua and the traditional fighting tai chi were VERY effective, but would probably take a pretty long time to master. The Kuntao-Silat hybrid was something that would be effective after a shorter time if you applied yourself. The guys at the school said that you could become proficient enough to extricate yourself from trouble with the typical drunken lout after 6-12 months, but as you would expect, it would take considerably longer to get really proficient. Even in its toned down for legal reasons Western form, some of the Silat stuff was pretty nasty. The Bagua was really interesting to watch done properly. It was like the teacher was coated with grease because you just couldn't get a grip on him even when he had 4 or 5 guys coming at him.
The only time that I ever really used any of what I learned was agaisnt a few bullies including two at day camp in one week when I was like 11. I guess that the second guy figured that what I did to the first was a fluke or that he was more of a badass. For a young person who was smaller than most of his contemporaries like I was, Judo is a great equalizer and a really good bully humiliation technique. I was mildly chastised but the director, but later found out that he and my dad had a big laugh over what I did to those two guys. LOL

Originally Posted by Bruno

Ironically, that is one of the things that my sensei and his disagreed about; that we spent too much time drilling kihon and not enough time practicing the 'self defense' drills that he had choreographed himself. Now, I don't devalue self defense drills. But when they come from someone who only had a desk job and who has never been confronted with actual violence, and who has even choreographed the responses of the attacker because 'in real life, people would do x', ...

Yeah, no.

I agree 100%. In reality, it's different, you can even stay a cripple.

Originally Posted by JDM61

The Bagua was really interesting to watch done properly. It was like the teacher was coated with grease because you just couldn't get a grip on him even when he had 4 or 5 guys coming at him.

Nice. Done correctly the attackers often hit each other.