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First, men who know nothing about martial arts may see a woman leading the class and immediately think that they (the men) could beat up the female teacher. So they think there is no reason why the woman could teach them anything about fighting.
Second, some men might not want to train with women at all (students or teachers), because it would be awkward ...
12
There is a famous zen story, one of the variation is this…
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a
university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on
pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is ...
answered Aug 7 '17 at 12:56
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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10
Aikido sounds like something you should check out. I would seek a ki-aikido school, if such existed where you lived based on your comment on "spiritual peace". Aikido generally relies on re-directing the attackers' momentum (and creating opportunity to do so) to either throw or pin. Technique is more important than strength and I have seen tiny females ...
answered Aug 12 '13 at 16:37
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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10
There's a few things to navigate and untangle in your question, but the short answer is YES, there are martial arts out there that do this.
Mostly it comes down to instructor rather than specific style, although obviously certain styles tend to be grouped around testing, you can find instructors who do not participate in that manner.
Holding Back ...
10
Long answer short, no it shouldn't influence your choice. Your body can be shaped in any form you want, and even if you are heavy, light or middle weighted you have to learn how to use your body anyway to be succesfull in any martial art.
Long answer:
If you are looking among all the wide array of martial arts this can be a great question, take for example ...
10
I have had the occasion to spar with a national senior champion in karate (the guy is a little over 60). I am 30 years old and reasonnably fit as well, and I have 10+ years of practice of light contact karate (and a few in full contact).
I wouldn't have been surprised for the guy to beat me because of superior sense of distance, timing, etc., but to my ...
8
All martial arts—if properly understood—can lead to "spiritual peace" (that's in quotes because in context, this would mean [the second half of] "calm"; but explaining that is a whole chapter of a book).
Examples
Ju Do "judo" (the gentle way). Understand its concepts and you need not exert any strength at all.
Tai Chi: ...
8
Virtually all of the martial arts use the hands in some way. Even Taekwondo, which uses mostly kicks during sparring, will use the hands to block and punch. Whereas, grappling arts use the hands to grab onto the gi or wrists or whatever. It's not uncommon in Brazilian Jiujitsu or Judo to sprain your pinky and ring fingers due to the fact that your grip ...
8
I've always considered non contact tournaments to be a lottery, but even in full contact matches you will get calls that go against you that you don't agree with - that is the nature of the sport.
I would (politely!!) question the organisers and determine whether they have a review process for decisions. If they do then the referees/judges will have to ...
8
I think that when something is a sport, you obviously can't learn all the things, as someone who is better at something and is competitive, she/he won't teach you the best techniques as you could use that against her/him at some competition.
Your assumption is wrong. Plenty of coaches teach all the techniques of their style, either because they're trying to ...
7
There's a good reason why an instructor pairs two students of unequal skill together. The student that is of lesser skill will begin to accelerate their knowledge when exposed to someone of greater skill. The student that is of greater skill, on the other hand, improves his/her knowledge of the art by being put in a position to explain things to the lesser ...
6
Quite surprised by all these big NOs.
I would say: it depends.
If competing and consequently having better chances at winning competitions are your goals, then your body type can definitely give you an edge.
As common sense goes, grappling-based disciplines is more suited to stocky, strong people. There are notable exceptions: Paulo Miyao is a 64Kg bjj ...
6
First things first, I think you should see a doctor that could give you a "go". A specialist could tell you if he thinks it would be safe for your knee if you restarted doing martial arts. If the doctor says no, you're putting yourself at risk if you restart. Let's face it, even if you feel your health is deteriorating, it is much better than with a ...
6
MMA
Go to your local MMA gym's sparring sessions. We have beginners come in all the time that just want to fight and not learn technique. They get absolutely destroyed and never come back, but whatever, if that's what they want. Remember to tap early, even to strikes. You're going to get hurt.
Answering your question aside, you should instead sign up for ...
5
Marc MacYoung's No Nonsense Self Defense is a good place to start. His advise is reasonable, easy to follow, and does work. It won't teach you how to fight but it will teach you how to stack the odds in your favour when avoiding danger. He has a whole section with books and DVDs that should be good but I cannot recommend anything from there.
Now, from your ...
answered Jul 14 '14 at 6:48
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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5
Yes, power training will positively affect your grappling. It's important to understand how.
All techniques require a degree of physicality. (Muscle is, after all, what moves your body in the first place.) Physicality includes strength (the ability to produce force), power (strength applied quickly), conditioning, and other attributes like balance, agility, ...
5
This might make a few people here unhappy, but I would say look into Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) and other western martial arts systems.
There are three kinds of SCA weapons combat categories.
Heavy list/Weapons. This is the modern sport equivalent of medieval combat. It is fought with armor, either 1 on 1 (tourney) or group vs group (melee). ...
5
There are no "secrets" in martial arts.
Do you really think that when you reach black belt, some weird man will come at you, hidden in shadows, and teach you a more powerful secret technique that will allow you to beat the best of the world? We aren't in a bad 60s kung-fu movie ...
There are techniques that aren't shown to a white belt because they are ...
5
Should my body type influence my choice of martial art to learn?
No.
Your choice of martial art should be tailored to your preferences, subject to your physical abilities. Body type is only relevant if you're missing limbs, senses, or other capabilities that require special modification of a style.
As for what people tall, short, wide, thin, muscular, or ...
5
There is something rotten in Dojo A and B…
You seem to have hit some nasty politics within martial arts. It happens, it is disheartening, and not worth anyone's time.
As a side note, you (as an untrained person) has no way to judged if someone is doing a technique right. What looks similar might be utterly different to someone who knows what they are doing....
answered Nov 3 '16 at 13:42
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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5
You're looking for a way to connect your karate with jujitsu. There actually is a very deep connection, one which you might not be aware of.
All of karate kata are based on classical jujitsu. I spend a good amount of time explaining this at the answer here:
Why is more time dedicated to exercises and very less for sparring? Is it for the fee?
That answer ...
5
There are countless paths you can go down, so I'll cover two of the most popular.
"Traditional" Jiu Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu: Theory and Technique by Renzo Gracie and Royler Gracie
This book covers BJJ from the most simple techniques, to the more advanced stuff. You not only learn positions and submissions, but little intricacies that help you hold the ...
5
I infer from your tone that you consider this repulsion towards dirt slightly irrational, but are unable to overcome it. If that is indeed true, you may like to try these minimalistic options, which I have adopted from barefoot running considering the similar spread of foot:
Elastic bandage
Crepe bandage
Duct tape
They are cheap, no-frills and easily ...
5
For kickboxing, the main concern is that you don't want the shoe to be used to hit the other person. It can make the impact stronger and can really do damage. So it's usually forbidden, during sparring at least.
During normal gym activity (not sparring), it might be okay to wear shoes. I recommend wrestling shoes, because they stay on tight, aren't bulky, ...
5
Judo is about liveness
Judo's success is due to its free-play (randori) training model, where partners practice with each other in a non-prearranged manner with varying levels of resistance up to full force. Judo dominated the contemporary jujutsu because randori was more effective than the prearranged form (kata) exercises that were then common. Judo's ...
5
Yes, a trained 60 year-old can outfight an untrained 20 year-old, provided they maintain a healthy body. The average 60 year-old has already lost joint flexibility and mobility, which causes the body to start to become decrepit. A decrepit 60 year-old will always lose, even with training.
You should have no illusions that this is easy. You are probably not ...
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Adaptive Jiu Jitsu
It is definitely possible to train and progress in BJJ with a spinal cord injury. Pete McGregor has the following advice when looking for a place to train:
I will note that my disability is a spinal cord injury. I am a complete T-7 paraplegic so all of my jiujitsu is done without the use of my legs. [...]
Before we even get to the ...
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Your plan does not account for messy realities of life, anyone you may meet, or anything you will learn along the way. Although most everyone has a preconceived idea of what training martials arts will do for them, these ideas often do not match up with reality.
Arbitrary time scales
Although you can request to be taught in a shortened one-year period, this ...
5
This actually happens quite a bit. I don't have statistics on how often it happens, but there are a ton of martial arts schools headed by people who essentially started their own school and declared themselves a 10th dan grandmaster. They may have something worthwhile to teach, or not. But because of the competitive nature of martial arts schools, few of ...
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