Hi all,

I was wondering how many people are doing some sort of martial arts here. Also of course for how long, which graduation they have and what their sport is mainly about....

I do Taekwondo for about 4 years now. Taekwondo means "the way of the kick and the punch" (tae = kick, kwon = punch, do = way)

Taekwondo is mostly about the kicks. We like to do fast, low and high kicks, sometimes with jumps and turns etc. Fists are only used to punch somebody away from you so that you can kick him again (believe me, it works haha).

Here are some pics to give you an idea:


Very dangerous kick. You throw up your leg as high as you can and let if fall as hard as you can on either the head or the neck of your opponent....I made some KO's with it too haha


Nasty kick, you're only allowed to hit your opponent above his belt...so the torso and his head are where you can make your points. Still, this happends during the heat of the fight when things are going so fast that you might even run in to a kick like this....


A very much used kick is the one that blue does. You kick someone from the side. It's a pretty fast kick and you can combine it with a lot of other kicks.


Red has got a point here haha. Nice pic


Nice view of the kick we saw on the first pic too


OMFG that's me! Haha it took so long to get this pic right (as kicking goes rather fast which makes it hard to photograph)

Hopefully this gives an idea about taekwondo....now what martial arts do you practice?

Martin

Hehe

Im training Aikido for more than 4 years now (previously 6 years of kyokushinkai karate)

Some pics of me "in action" :-)











enough???

Hi Martin
I practice Taekwondo to. I have been practicing for almost 18 years. I am a 3 dan closing in on 4 dan.

Cool

Mirko, you look pretty dangerous with that sword haha

Another pic of me, taken one week ago....sorry for the bad qualitiy, the pic was taken by someone who doesn't understand how my cam works haha...Anyway, it's me, just after I hit the red thing...

Cool pics.

A couple years back, and four days after passing my brown belt test, I blew my back out, -- the end of my martial arts career

To be honest I was too old for this anyway, (as flexibility was always an issue for me), but it was great fun. I met some great people, and was probably in the best physical shape of my life at that time.

The school taught a blend of karate along with a large dose of judo, forms and weapons, (mostly bow staff work).

I miss it.

Steve

When I was young I used to study Karate. But because of Saturday academic classes, I have to stop Played it only for a year and I was about 6-7 years old. Right now I'm studying judo. I'm also interested in Wushu and Taekwondo but due to academic reasons, I have to take it one by one

Mine was Kenjutsu is the samurai's sword art. It requires the use of blades such as the katana, wakizashi, and Daito. Kenjutsu involves powerful, high commitment strikes to selected targets in order to kill the opponent. There is a strong side of spiritual and philosophical study also.
This art was studied and praticed by the Samurai since the 11th century. Kenjutsu is the ancestor of Kendo its very rare to find a specific Kenjutsu school and is not recognised as a sport persay (so no Dan or grades involved just tons of meditation) ,these being left to Kendo and Aikido respectfully . you could almost say its a section of the above really with more emphasis being placed on attack and swift victory rather than form ,I had to stop studies many years ago
Due to a Spinal Accident

I study something a little different. I study S.P.E.A.R. It could best be described as the art of the streetfight. It is a real world technique that is teaches more about results than Kata. I have been studying this for about 3 years now.

My son does a traditional Okinawan Karate, he is a 12 year old Brown Belt in Uechi-Ryu Karate. He will be testing for his Black in Nov of this year.

The only photo I have of him is from a New England Regional Tournament from 2003, He won this trophy for Kata. The second place medal around his neck was for Point Fighting (sparring).


He's the one on the left w/ the black pants.

Dave S.

I dabbled in a lot of different arts while I was at the University. There were many different free student clubs, wellm not exactly free, they were paid for by my student activities fees, so I tried most all of them.

2 different kinds of Karate, Hopkido, Aikido, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Jujitsu.
I ended up with a green belt in Judo, orange in Matsubyashi Ryu Karate, and a yellow in Hopkido. Most of the rest I just played with and was not on a belt track.

Then I left school (graduated) and moved around a lot working in several pretty rural areas, plus I had to pay for my lessons...

Now that life is more settled again, I'm going to try to get a black belt before I'm 50.. I've got a few more than 10yrs to do it. The only question is in what.
I really liked Judo and Aikido, so we'll see.

Mike

I used to practise Tae kwon do when i was a cop in Aussie very handy for self defense but I preffered the 12 gauge Winchester Riot gun far more persuasive :-)

Howdy Martinnnn,

Interesting question, and one I'm surprised hasn't been asked before (or has it?). And thx for the even more interesting photos....

Real short story...I first took and American form of American Judo called, at the time, Amdo (their word not mine).
After I went in the serviceI began to take , and then finally taught TaeKwonDo and HapKido for seven years (the first two while stationed in El Toro, Ca.).
Kept up with it sporadically for the following 5-6 years and then just stopped....

Almost a year ago I stumbled across a new fighting technique being taught somewhat covertly at a local dojo that the instructor simply called "Plains Indian" technique. The instructor was honest enough to tell us that the technique was new to him as well, but had had enough training in it from a fellow associate that he wanted to refine the craft while sharing the experience with a few students at the same time.
The technique itself is, in a word, 'brutal'. There is no prettiness to it, nor is there any 'chi', meditation, or religion.
It is an ages old technique that is quite decisive in it's outcome.

Anyway, sorry to be so long-winded.
I have been taking classes there on and off for the past several months and must say that it fits both my lifestyle (now) and my limited flexibility because of age.
At the same time, just as with some of the more agressive TaeKwonDo kicks, mastering some of the moves has once again elevated my confidence level, and at least in some small way, brought back my physicality of 'youth'.

Tread.

P.S. WeWillHold, you mentioned you had flexibility and back 'issues' ( I have these as well), you might want to give this technique a go, since it really doesn't concentrate on a high degree of either...........just a thought.
Just one word of caution tho', it's a deadly serious physical artform. One to be kept 'in the drawer' .

Easy Co, I am with you on that one! In my line of work, if I am going hands on with someone I am already behind the curve. I am a certified handgun and shotgun instructor in my state and nothing will get someone's attention like the sould of a freshly "racked" 12 gauge shotgun

Wado Rryu Karate was my thing a few years ago,fast and hard,the trouble was i have a very short fuse,and in one competition i was told that head butting wasn't in the rules,that was the end of my club days :-)
Arthur

Howdy IndyCopper,

If your callsign is an indication of your "line of work", then you have my respect and admiration for doing what you do day after day. I'm not sure I'd have the patience for it.
As to your statement about the scattergun. I have to agree with you on that. For anyone who's seen first hand the damage they can do, a healthy respect for that 'sound' is a good trait to have.
And fortunately for you, you have the ability to ride around all day with one within easy reach when needed. But for the rest of us, that is not an option, and with the ever elevating pervasive presence of violence, the ability to defend or diffuse a situation armed only with your hands is also a healthy trait to have.....

Tread.

EDIT: Hey Arthur! I can VERY much identify with your "head butt" comment! Suffice it to say, when I first came to this country (in 1964), NOONE here in the U.S. knew about headbutting....I can't tell you how many schoolyard scraps I brought to a sudden end with that simple move.....

Hi there

I use to do Judo when I was a kid and, to be honest, I just got bored with fighting every week. It didn't help that my brother was in the army at the time and kept teaching me "really cool moves" that were instantly disallowed in competitions.

I suppose it goes without saying that, on those (mercifully) few occasions when I've ended up being the wrong guy in the wrong place... it was those illegal "army" moves that I've remembered subconsciously and which have got me home safely... just...

Rowan

I remember the time I snuck up behind the school bully, put a garbage can over him, and pushed in down a flight of steps.... :-) :-) :-) blood all over the place by the time he stopped, and just like a well mannered little puppy the next day..... :-) :-) :-)
I called it Garbagecando..... :-) :-) :-) :-)

lmaos, best martial art ever... i remember the biggest bully in the neightboor hood made fun of me because i was english... well the funny part is iam actualy french but attended english school. instead of using a gardbage can i jsut nailed him in the face and watched him fall liek a tree :-)

seriously, i did about 2 years of karate, was okay, at first, but hated it after a year. then i tried judo, and foudn it even more boring, and i quite when i found out i failed the exam lmao

Frank

:-) Dave your a laugh.
Well i did Go Ju Kai Karate for 4 years and 6 months, reason i gave it up is because i trained every single day of these 4 years, for 3 hours, no days off unless it was a public holiday and the dojo was closed, so i guess i just got sick of it.
I would also take a 1 week break during X-mas holidays.
So i guess it got way to much.
I was brown belt 4 tags, the next step up was black belt... spose i shouldve stuck in their a bit longer.
But it was good fun, lots of memorys, i was in a few tournaments and things, some of those werent so fun :-)

Got your ass kicked mate? :-)

I haven't done any tournament yet, and if I start now, I'll have to fight against people with a red belt that have much more experience....I think I can't do a thing against them haha :-)

Oh well, just training two times in the week now, improving myself.....must say that I have the last few months, I've learned a lot!

Btw, reading the posts here, most of you have done such a sport but have stopped.....and you all miss it :-)

I used to take Karate when I was a kid, I would have earned my novice blackbelt when i was 9 or 10 but the place went out of business.... my favorite thing was sparing and board breaking. I was good at sparing because I was quicker than most of the bigger guys, and I could jump high enough to get a few kicks on their head in. Wish the place didnt close down as I was doing pretty good, even got to wear a special uniform and everything....bummer

I had a black belt in kareokee... could sing anybody to death at a few yards. This is the one sport, unfortunately, where you progress and get less effective.

Never took any formal 'martial art', but did 'unarmed combat' as part of my army training. A good kick to the 'soft and squidgy' bits works pretty well, followed by a knee in the face as the other guy clutches himself and doubles up - especially if a clenched double-fist lands on the back of the head at the same time!

Yes - I did try it once when three guys jumped me outside a pub after closing time - the first guy's screams of agony got rid of his friends with no effort on my part.

I have used my skills in taekwondo only once......we wanted to go home from a disco when we met a group that was blocking the road and didn't wanted to move. This ended up in a fight......as I don't like to fight I only kicked 2 guys and got the hell out of there before the rest of the group jumped me and my firends (we were outnumbered)

Well I always try to avoid the fights......pretty succesfull so far, but here in this part of the Netherlands it isn't safe anymore on the streets, especially at night....just got back from a friend of mine and I nearly had another fight because again a group of people was blocking the road (they weren't blocking it till they saw us coming....so they were just looking for a fight, must always be carefull with this as they're armed with knifes most of the times....and defending against knifes is very, very diffcult)

Martin