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Ashenai posted:...and "perfecting what you know" is probably great motivation if you're like one of those dudes with the crazy eyes who decided their life is about martial arts now... TollTheHounds posted:...I guess it's just that what I have left to learn isn't really...enticing? Or to word it differently I guess I don't have the drive any more to perfect what I already know. I really love martial arts because they're so loving difficult to get just right and there's always a new thing to learn. I love doing a thing over and over and over, but it's the all-new stuff that keeps me going back to the dojo. I'm into martial arts simply because I love learning new exciting things and piecing them together to learn other new exciting things. Sound familiar? Because it really sounds like you've burned yourself out on a year of drilling the boring, fundamental stuff like jabs and footwork and ugh, so boring and tedious and competition-winning. Who cares about that when you could be learning something exciting like hip throws? I might be putting words into your mouth, but so what? It's not like you lose anything if you learn something new. Well, except time. Which you already don't have. So go out there and take a basic course in something all-new. I'm going to suggest aikido because that's what I started out with and found it fun enough to practice for three years. It's the complete opposite of muay thai: Soft and circular, calm and nonviolent, completely non-competitive (except for that one school). I grudgingly concede it's not at all useful in any sort of actual situation, but I'm positive that under the hood there's a ton you can take away from it into some other, headpunchier art.
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Jan 17, 2013 22:59
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 13:30 |
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For the first time in my martial artistic career, I was taught how to roundhouse kick earlier today at the karate class. So of course I then proceeded to roundhouse kick our teacher in the nuts.  He was holding a kicking shield between us, but I was kicking kinda hard and not thinking where I was aiming. So the moral of the story is, always wear your cup. Even when teaching. Particularly when teaching. On a more useful note, do you guys have an opinion on Everlast's MMA gear? I'm at the point where I need to pick up gloves, hand wraps, mouth guard and yes, a cup for sparring sessions. In particular, I'm looking for a pair of MMA-style gloves, since we do a fair bit of grappling as well as regular striking. There's an Everlast store pretty close to our campus and I'd rather not venture into the dingier local martial arts shops again any time soon. I live in Helsinki, so if you know any good local places to check, please let me know. All equipment-purchasing tips are appreciated.
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Jan 22, 2013 00:20
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Smoking Crow posted:Tape up your left foot tomorrow morning. Also, don't be afraid to scream your lungs out. Once you get over how silly it is, it actually makes breathing properly so much easier and is really fun as well.
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Jan 30, 2013 09:59
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KingColliwog posted:Bowing is basically a handshake and you won't be thinking about it after 2-3 classes.
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Mar 16, 2013 18:02
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Minclark posted:I've sent them an email about going to watch for a session to see what its all about, the classes I am looking into would have a majority of newcomers though I would imagine as its coupled with some college programs. as seen here http://www.oberlin.edu/stuorg/Aikido/ And if aikido does something, it will help you relax. The practice won't click until you learn to stand straight and relax, and the same things will help you chill out in everyday life as well. Just learning to drop your shoulders and tuck in your tailbone has a funny effect on anxiety. Plus getting thrown around is a lot of fun.
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Jan 16, 2014 17:15
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Okay so a couple of things I'm convinced are true about aikido and a lot of  about aikido as a people-hurting art:First, the techniques (takedowns, throws, whatnot) taught are generally sound; They're based on well-tested jujutsu techniques, and similar crap is still being taught to police and even as combatives to soldiers. As an anecdote, a friend of mine started aikido when I did, dropped out about at the same time and works currently as a security guard and often needs to wrestle with untrained but aggressive "customers" - and he often mentions that the stuff he learned at the aikido club actually works. Second, the way aikido is taught is basically poo poo for learning any actual self-defense. The way I was taught was very technical and formal, and I'm under the impression it won't be until way into the black belts that the speed and force of the drills will actually represent "the real thing". Aikikai aikido (which is the most popular style taught around the world) is said to be the style Morihei Ueshiba (the founder) taught to Tokyo's white-collar workers in his old age, when he was more concerned with flowing technique and softness and spiritualism so on and so forth. (On the other hand, there's also a style of aikido called Yoshinkan. It was founded by one of Ueshiba's earliest students, and it's apparently hardass enough to be taught to the Japanese riot police. I should read Angry White Pyjamas, a local historical fencing teacher recommends it.) Anyway, the way I see it, learning martial arts as a means of self-defense requires also learning a certain, I dunno, frame of mind. A willingness to escalate, maybe. I mean, that's why police officers carry both a baton and a gun. Aikido doesn't teach any of that. Third, I'm 100% certain of the techniques carry the implication that if the attacker refuses to play nice and go along with what you're doing, he'll get kicked in the nuts very hard. Anyway, that's a lot of embarrassing couch martial artism. Let me tell you about the bad time I had at karate class today: Trying to pick up karate after a long break is loving awful. I've got no stamina, no strength, no control and all the drills I learned less than a year ago are only fuzzy memories. On Monday I gassed out in the warmups and later sprained my shoulder trying to force a technique through. (Thank God for ice packs.) Today I flubbed a takedown and twisted my back a bit, and now it's all stiff and annoying. My knee hurts. The ankle I twisted back in July still hasn't healed. I got a love-tap straight in the nose and I hate the taste of blood. I kept hyperextending all my punches and kicks like a moron. And I accidentally kneed a pajama-bro in the face.  It really doesn't help that the reason I took the long break was that I had a panic attack during a class. We were training a kata for an exam later that month, and it just wouldn't click for me. I kept forcing it and running into a wall, and eventually I just had a meltdown and fled into the showers. The frustration I'm feeling right now is dredging up the frustration from back then. It's my second day back in the saddle and I feel like poo poo. I guess it's only to be expected, but I'm seriously considering dropping out and giving the university aikido club a second try.
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Jan 16, 2014 22:12
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It's not a martial arts thing. You shouldn't practice hurting people with people you don't feel comfortable being with when they're not trying to choke you.
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Jan 22, 2014 08:52
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Raenir Salazar: I'm an aikido guy, not a competitive judoka, so take the following with grains of salt and so on. You've got it right: The under-the-armpit move won't work if the other guy isn't doing anything. Why would it? It's not like you can leverage much strength from that position. It also obviously doesn't work if the other guy decides to pull at you instead - then you just stick your head in their armpit and ask them to headlock you. But next time you're at the dojo, ask someone to lean on you with all their weight. You don't even have to do anything, they fall over if you just drop down to your knees. You were their point of support and then dropped out from under them like an rear end in a top hat, of course they tip over. That's why sweeping the leg works: You remove a support they're leaning on. That's why hip throws work: You take the place of a support they're leaning on. That's why you get stuck in randori: Because both of you are completely fine supporting yourselves, thank you very much. This is the key to victory: Make your enemies lean onto you for support, and you will go undefeated. No, but seriously, I'd try asking people to attack you with exaggerated and sustained force. It should help you figure out the timing and force vectors and stuff. Once you get the hang of it, you can start experimenting with attacks of different strength and timing.
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Feb 4, 2014 21:22
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1st AD posted:Are you seriously suggesting that in order to do a technique properly you should rely on the other person basically bullrushing forward and not defending? But yeah, I guess post was kinda useless in hindsight.
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Feb 4, 2014 22:18
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Yeah, I guess randori's a thing of it's own. So what the hell, I'm going to go try it out. The university judo club started its beginners' course three weeks ago, so I just sent 'em an email asking if I can come try it out next Saturday. The class is conveniently right before my karate club's free training session, at the same gym! (Augh, it'll be three hours of rolling and stuff, I'm going to puke and die.  )
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Feb 4, 2014 22:38
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So I went to check out the judo course, and what do you know, I had the greates time. Getting thrown around a lot with ippon seoi nages was really refreshing. ...But then, at the very end, I twisted the ankle I messed up way back in July. And then again when I slipped on ice on my way back. Now it hurts. Do you guys have any tips on supporting a sprained ankle during practice, or should I just start packing ice packs and being careful with it when at the gym? Tips to strengthen it are also welcome.
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Feb 8, 2014 17:15
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I guess the moral of the story is, don't play basketball. It's not a safe sport. 
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Feb 8, 2014 18:39
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It was kind of a shock to go visit a basic course on judo and immediately get introduced to seoi nages. I had to do aikido for something like two years before learning the koshi-nage (o-goshi to you judo folks).
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Feb 19, 2014 16:04
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Raenir Salazar posted:I have the seven standing techniques and the five hold downs I need for my rapidly approaching yellow belt exam; but the judo rolling is still something I haven't quite gotten the hang of, especially (I'm a leftie) I roll on my right hand side and I just spazz out and tumble like a potato.
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Feb 20, 2014 20:56
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Gravitas Shortfall posted:Do you phsyically strike people with shinai or bokken in Aikido or FMA? At full strength? In the head?
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Feb 21, 2014 12:50
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You've got me confused with Cardiac, haha. I just popped in to talk aikido.
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Feb 21, 2014 13:56
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ImplicitAssembler posted:FWIW, I've never seen any strikes in aikido, asides from the movie style overhead karate-chops
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Feb 22, 2014 12:27
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I've always lived under the impression you're supposed to let it shrink It's not like it's going to wink out of existence if you wash it too much, so just buy one with room for shrinkage. Mine dries on a regular coathanger and is doing pretty fine. Hell, I wish it'd shrink more, I went and bought too big a jacket.
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Feb 25, 2014 13:56
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What are you going to buy it for? A karate gi won't stand up to grappling like a judo one, and a judo competition will probably not let you compete in a fabulous tie-dye BJJ gi.
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Mar 5, 2014 16:58
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Pretty much. Everyone should try kendo at least once, just to learn to scream shamelessly.
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Mar 11, 2014 17:27
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It honestly sounds like you could pick any other gym in your area and end up better off. You shouldn't train at a place you don't have fun at, and never somewhere you don't feel safe in.
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Apr 7, 2014 22:38
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Not a medical professional etc.  It might be someting serious, possibly related to your scoliosis. If you've really pulled something in there, it might take a long while for it to recover. Listen to your doctor and go have that x-ray if it persists. However, if it doesn't hurt all the time, it's more likely something in there just knotted up when you had that scare and just doesn't know how to un-knot. In other words, you might just have a stiff back. Since you're posting on Something Awful, I'm going to take a wild guess you sit a lot and have tight hamstrings. Start stretching them daily, and maybe look up some lower back and side stretches as well. Long easy stretches, no jerking.
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Apr 24, 2015 07:37
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I actually developed a sore lower back after stooping over my keyboard for a couple of months straight and not exercising regularly. Early this month it finally spasmed badly enough to have me crawling on the floor. The doctor told me to gently work it out and eat painkillers regularly so the soreness wouldn't make me tense my back further put of shape. If it's just a stiff muscle, a painkiller before exercising will probably not leave you crippled for life. I hope. Now I'm hitting the gym three times a week, and it's slowly easing up. Still sitting too much, though, so starting next month I'm also going to pick up the sword again.
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Apr 24, 2015 20:18
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Novum posted:Maybe he is right and we should all consider taking a cooking class.
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May 4, 2015 21:44
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Since you're on the topic of gis, are there any videos of people doing full out MMA stuff in gis? Do people even do that anywhere? I'd love to see how wearing actual clothes mixes stuff up, since I've gone back to HEMA recently and the wrestling manuals are written with properly dressed gentlemen in mind.
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May 7, 2015 20:07
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Cheers, both of you. This is exactly the sort of stuff I was looking for.
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May 7, 2015 21:08
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"Real competitors are totally more humble than delusional egotist jerks.  "Aikido is actually cool and fun, and it's alright to practice a style that doesn't actually test itself beyond graduation exams or whatever. I mean, sure, it's gonna suck if the people at the club mistake their cool meditative thing for some kind of Real Samurai Action, but it's not cool to paint all of us fantasy martial artists with that brush. 
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May 18, 2015 18:35
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Dairy Power posted:Anyone here have experience in getting back to martial arts after a herniated disk? I haven't been in your situation, but your plan sounds solid. You could try a kung fu style like tai chi or baguazhang. Both are very big on form and motion, and great for body control. Or you could try a weapon-based art like iaido or the various historical European fencing styles. HEMA curriculums typically include at least a bit of grappling, but if you explain your situation to the instructor, they ought to know how to help you out.
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Jul 17, 2015 16:47
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Aikido is a dumb useless art for cool people. Have any of you goons read Rory Miller's Meditations on Violence? I picked it up recently because our teacher recommended it, and I found it a really good read. Miller's style is very rambling, but he writes well enough that I didn't mind, and his anecdotes from his prison guard days were pretty interesting. The book's about preparing for violence from a self-defense sort of view - what kind of violent threats there are, how people end up in self-defense situations, that sort of stuff. Miller makes a pretty compelling point that unless you're training in a specifically self-defense context, pretty much all martial arts do kind of a poo poo job preparing people for unexpected violence. Mostly because it's unexpected, natch. The book kinda killed my interest in arguing whose pet art is the least bad at not getting stabbed with a sharpened toothbrush. Aikido is good for you and you get to wear a sweet skirt.
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Jul 26, 2015 15:18
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Ask Us About Martial Arts: Spar or Get Out
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Jul 27, 2015 11:18
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KingColliwog posted:What are the rules for the grappling in that HEMA thing? Are they just "bad" at grappling since that's not what they do most of the time or are the rules very different from something like judo? We're just super bad. The university judo club's got a beginners' course starting in fall and I'm seriously starting to consider picking it up because oh God I don't want to look like that. If they keep the same hours as they've got right now, it wouldn't even interfere with my longsword.
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Jul 27, 2015 21:47
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02-6611-0142-1 posted:Judo would be super good combined with a swordfighting art. You can tell that a lot of japanese jujitsu stuff is built with swordfighting in mind, all the wrist-grabbing arms-length grappling stuff, and judo is the best possible version of it.
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Jul 28, 2015 09:24
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All this talk about aikido made me curious, so I took a peek at the Finnish aikido federation's graduation requirements. Turns out you're expected to know counters to the techniques at the second dan exam – in other words, your uke doesn't start actively countering you until you've been training at least six years and received your black belt. Until then, it's all just memorizing kata. Which, for fairness's sake, I honestly believe are mechanically sound. They might not be entirely tactically sensible, but that doesn't really matter because it's six years before your partner starts resisting anyway.  Man, I miss aikido all of a sudden. I should go back sometime, I still have about three years to go before my black belt. In any case, I'm cheering for you, LionArcher! Keep us updated.
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Jul 30, 2015 12:22
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Dysgenesis posted:I think this is a good summary. Aikido can offer an experienced martial artist something, the techniques can be sound but the methodology of teaching is poor. Basically, I learned aikido as a fine motor skill akin to music or shooting. I didn't realize it at the time, but the way I was training did a brilliant job preparing for the belt exams, but also made me really slow. Of course, tactics-wise I don't know what the gently caress, either, so it's all a mess. Some random dude from the 15th century got an opinion on the matter: quote:Here begins the wrestling composed by Master Ott, God have mercy on him, who was wrestler to the noble Princes of Austria. Edit: Out of curiousity, what do you regular grapplers think of the medieval wrestling article above? Did old man Ott get it right? Siivola fucked around with this message at 23:30 on Jul 31, 2015 |
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Jul 31, 2015 23:00
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All I know about boxing is that all the gyms are poorly lit, there's old-rear end posters everywhere and everybody's working on their own random thing scattered around the ring in the middle. Y'know, just like on the telly.
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Aug 11, 2015 07:49
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Angry White Pyjamas is pretty good, yeah. If you're just starting out martial arts, you might also find Fight the Good Fight by Catherine Fox pretty interesting. It's a story of a middle-aged British vicar's wife and her journey towards a black belt in judo.
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Sep 4, 2015 10:00
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The university martial arts clubs held a demo night tonight. Twelve clubs all did quick introductions and then held short lessons so that all of us got to try six different things. Doing that tiny bit of aikido again after so long felt like coming home.  Judo still won out, because they were cool folk and I really need to learn to grapple. Time to wash my gi for next week, I suppose.
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Sep 7, 2015 19:28
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Sniper Party posted:This is in Helsinki, right? If so, I just signed up for the same judo class as you.  I'll be the goony guy with the topknot and the beard. You do HEMA stuff too?
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Sep 8, 2015 07:37
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Time to get a couple of copies of Jessica Finley's Medieval Wrestling and be the most obnoxious cross-training nerds. 
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Sep 8, 2015 10:34
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| # ¿ May 15, 2024 13:30 |
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Yeah, once a week makes for slow progress. You end up with the double whammy of forgetting more and learning less, since people's ability to learn many new things at once is limited. Three new things per session is the magic number I heard. Training multiple times a week means you have less time to forget things and you get to start on more new things.
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Sep 8, 2015 19:38
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