Formal training in TKD, some military hand-to-hand, self-taught combat with a variety of weapons.

When i have the time Brazilian Ju Jitsu (Helio Gracie style) and JKD (which is taught as a mixture of Muay Thai, Filipino Weaponry, BJJ and Wing Chun). Unfortunately i smoked for eight years and just recently quit so training is hard on my lungs. Makes me feel alive though.

I used to do Tae Kwon Do very seriously, now I'm just starting to get back into it. I have also practiced Hap Ki Ye and found that to be one of the most useful martial arts to know. I became fairly high ranked in both, but the fitness and mental benefits that each gave me were worth far more than any black belt.

I haven't studied any yet. I am seriously leaning toward starting soon[finally--I'm only 37]. There is an Aikido place nearby but still not sure it it is what I'm looking for out of martial art--looking for disclipline and some physical activity--not looking to kick ass, unless I have to.

Any ideas?

Thanks!

Aikido is about 99% defensive in nature. I train with a guy in Tae Soo Do who took Aikido for a few years and he said there was really no sparring involved because there are no offensive techniques in Aikido. I haven't taken Aikido, so I cannot attest to the amount of physical activity, although I am sure it will not be like a high school gym class.
Currently, I take Tae Soo Do/Hwa Rang Do and it definately has the disipline and physical activity you mentioned. Just about any martial art that you study will offer disipline and physical activity. Best thing to do is to research and then try out a class or two at a school in your area. One of the things to look for when trying a class is how many instructors they have on the floor during class. When a person is trying out for the first time in one of the Tae Soo Do classes, the head instructor will usually appoint one of his assistants (who are just as knowledgable and capable) to train with the prospective student exclusively for the entire class.

This summer I restarted in Shorin-Ryu Karate but about 3 week ago had a bit of awork accident and lost 2/3 of my left big toe. It will be interesting to see how recovery goes over the next few months.

been doing martial arts for 12+ years
here's a list of them, in approximate order of most experience to least experience:

kenpo
tai chi
wushu
changquan
nanquan
bagua
hsing-i
kali
somba

wow thats a lot huh?
i also taught little kids for a few years until i had to go to college. very rewarding. teaching made me a different person.

also, right now in college, i'm a highly comeditive sport fencer. though its not really a martial art , i think its technically classified as one.

Fencing is definitely a martial art. It may be little lacking in the side of spirituality and philosophy, but it's still worthy of being labeled as a martial art. :)

Full contact Kyokushinkai Karate.
http://www.ikohonbu.com/
Trained 'on and off' from 1985 to 1995.

Reached quarter finals of British Championships, the first and only time I entered.
Reach quarter final of Welsh Campionships, once again the first and only time I entered.

Intend to pick it up again as soon as my new fitness regime gets me into good enough condition.

Did two years of Kenjutsu.

Self taught (books and magazines) nunchacku practitoner for about 5 years.

Attended 2 ninjitsu (so they said) classes but wasn't impressed.

Thai Kickboxing here, only just started. A close mate of mines dad owns a kickboxing camp in thailand so he got me into it. Enjoying it so far

Bruce Lee utlitized the stance from fencing amoung other martial arts in developing Jun Fan Gung Fu

I am starting Gio Ryu Kenpo tomarrow :>

I went and saw the class on tuesday and loved it. I cant wait till tomarrow to finnaly get my ass up and do somthing.

Sucking cock, heh.

I've done several arts in the past but T'ai Chi is the only one I've really stuck with.
The style is described as "Traditional Yang Style" and I really enjoy it. We've been doing some Hsing Yi as well lately, which makes for a nice change of pace. Some Pa Kua as well.
Most important thing: Do something you enjoy for it's own sake, whether or not it's "street applicable". If you don't enjoy it, you won't get good enough to use it anyway.

Second most important thing: Find a good teacher. Mine still makes mistakes and still takes instructor lessons from higher up in the organisation. I like that he doesn't pretend to know everything.

I comprehend what the statement means I just dont understand why you posted it.

oh i know all that stuff dont worry about it :)
but modern sport fencing is as much of a martial art as point sparring is a valid street fighting style (i'm pretty sure that makes sense). not saying that a point sparrer or fencer couldn't do what they do and win. its just that its not really the same.

kick boxing
 

i have been kick boxing for about a year now, it is the best thing i have done this year

I studied Kenpo for years... but it's Gracie Jiu Jitsu these days.

Ive been doing Kickboxing for about a month. Its a pretty humbling experience to tell you the truth. I love the fitness side of it especially. I feel heeps more flexible already.

I'm a first-dan in Goju-Ryu Karate. I actually had the opportunity to learn from Saikou Shihan Yamaguchi Goshi, who's father founded our school.

I did Karate for 3 years before realizing that the kata's and robotic punches/kicks were extremely ineffective. Plus I was surrounded by 13 year old black belts, I did not realize it at the time but I was trapped in a McDojo.

I've done Brazilian jiu-jitsu for about a year now and still wear my dirty white belt with pride.

Tae Kwon Do through Red belt, then Aiki Jujitsu until I moved to Dallas a few years ago. Now I fence but if I could find an Aiki Jujits school I'd do that again. Thinking about starting Aikido, I really miss practicing something.

My dad was trained by Grand Master Simon himself, of Temple Kung Fu*, in Calgary during the early and mid 70s. He became a instructor for a number of years. He began training my brother and I shortly after we could walk.

I did about two years of praying mantis Kung Fu, but I lost respect for the sifu and I wasn't enjoying the 'tournament point direction' that things were heading. I moved into a year of Mui Thai and the only reason I quit that was because my instuctor moved back to Thailand.

I was quite enjoying Akido untill I tore up a couple ligament my knee (unrelated sports injury). Haven't been back since I've recovered though, so I guess I didn't enjoy it that much.



*-apparently, Temple Kung Fu has since become quite the commercial chain. While the style is sound, I am told that the current instructors and classes are not worth the time or the money.

I took Tae Kwon Do about 12 years ago I enjoyed it but the power tools in the class made it hard to really get into it. I am now into Okinawa Kenpo which I really enjoy. I signed up for a leadship class and assist with teaching the kids in the family classes. My yougest daughter 8 years old is in the family class. Very enjoyable and rewarding.

Currently studying Hung Ga Kuen... a Hung Family Fist... a southern style of kung fu. Been doing it and still doing it for little over a year now.

Great solid style... powerful in my humble opinion ^_^ found a great school as well. You know you've found a good one when you find it in the middle of no where in some part of down town next to a dunken donuts...

A direct lineage as well straight from the source I'd be 5th generation now... for a 400 year old style thats pretty cool... my sigung comes from China a couple times a year for seminars and all... but enough of my rambling... you can take a look at the site:

http://www.yeeshungga.com/clifton.htm

I did Tai Bo for a few weeks...does that count? :lol:

I've done Karate Do, Kenpo and now Krav Maga

Aiki-Karate-Jutsu. I've been going to the classes since October, and it's a lot of fun. Testing for yellow belt next month (they only do a couple of belt tests a year.) Good stuff. Makes me feel more graceful, and more capable of yet less concerned about being a badass at need.

I did Tang soo do as a boy, then quickly went into Vale Tudo in my teens to now. Vale Tudo is my favorite because you can ground and pound or stand up and fight.

I've been doing ITF Taekwon-do for five years and I was assistant instructor at the club I used to train at. At the moment im drifting from club to club trying to find a good one

I used to be ITF Tae Kwon Do, now I'm in WTF (not "what the fuck"). The new school let me keep my belt level (almost), but I'm hard-pressed to catch up and learn all the forms...they are completely different from the ones I know, so I get them confused.
I've studied a little Kung Fu...Wang Chung excercise called Chi Sao. It's really cool, like a 5 element push-hands. I've also been exposed to a form called Xing Ye by a friend who also started showing me some animal forms. Love the Drunken Monkey!

Woot! The martial arts thread is back. Getting close to two years and I still have my white belt in BJJ :cool: .

Yeah, great to see its still breathing.

In local martial arts news, lunchbox7, a former tfp member (who has contributed to this thread in the past), has finally got his instructor license/ level in muay thai. This is the result of years of training and application.

Muay Thai rocks.

I did a 6 week judo course when I was 9... but, if it came to it, I might be able to do a little pub car park brawling.... the trick is, if its a serious fight, you hurl your car keys straight into the face of the person attacking you, then punch them as hard as you can in the stomach, then smash your elbow round the back of their head as they double up.

I've never tried it in practice, but it sounds a good theory.

Is 4 too many? ;)
 

I wasn't expecting to see a post like this...alright..well, here it goes...:)

Just before my 12th birthday, I was enrolled in Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do (Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art of defense; Hap Ki Do is another form of a Korean martial art of defense, one based on grabs (being grabbed) holds and chokes, for those not familiar).

I studied Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do for 7 1/2 - 8 years, formally (i.e. attending class, in uniform, by instructors, competition training). During that time, I received my Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do, competed in two formal competitions where I won third place and first place, respectively. In the 18 months before I stopped attending, I was training in bo-staff, height jumping (with a short run of four feet, I could jump-and-roll above my own height of 5'4"; my last jump was measured at 5'10") and dual-board breaking.

At each advancement testing (new belt, higher rank) we were required to know an abundant amount of korean terminology, history of Tae Kwon Do, perform well in several different areas, as well as be able to break a 1' x 1' (1" thickness) board; 2 boards for both of the last three belts (blue, brown, and also red), as well as, our Black Belt. I (my hands/feet a.k.a. "deadly weapons") am currently registered nationally, here in the U.S. and also in Korea with the Kukkiwon (Federation).

During the middle 2-3 years of training in Tae Kwon Do, I was privately instructed in Tai Chi and Aikido. I would test formally with a class, but train privately (school, martial arts, homework, band, flag corps, etc. prevented me from attending a regular class in Tai Chi or Ai Ki Do). I currently hold a Green Belt in both. :)

Sorry for the monologue, it was and still is, a very proud time of my life. I miss it dearly.

When my knee heals again and i get my muscle mass back im going to make an effort to start doing Aikido again

I did TKD for 2 years, tai chi for half a year, and various others for like a month or two. Reason I've jumped around so much is that my schedule is always changing (for now) and I still havn't found an MA that really fits. Though I still do train by myself right now, but my training is closer to boxing than MA.

Can't wait till I have a better schedule and money is less of a problem.

Ive wanted to try fencing but its so darn expensive (like $1000 for weapon and armor).

I myself have been doing martial arts for all my life.
Currently im studying muai thai kickboxing, jeet kun do(sorry for my horrible spelling), and brazilian jui jitsu
But the other forms i have done were akido and kenpo
Theyre all very fun ^^

I've tried a bit of everything seems like - black belt in TKD, brown belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, and studied various other martial arts through the years which helped fill in the gaps - hapkido, kendo, iado, karate to name a few. I found a mix of the "hard" and "soft" martial arts was the best solution for me. I've never had to use it, but I know from those that have that being able to deal with any variety of situations can be helpful. It's fun, too!

Took Tae Kwon Do for four years to get about as much out of it as I could... and only then did I discover that a friend's dad is a martial arts teacher! So now it's Jiujitsu all the way... it's very fun, interesting, and practical. I'm also interested in Judo but I've never learned that.

Old post, I know, but hey, I wanna put down my experience too.

Some Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under Cesar Gracie's acadmey in Pleasant Hill. He's trained Nick Diaz, Jake Shields, and Gilbert Melendez to name a few.

My instructors were Sergio Lourenco and Vinicius Magalhaes.

I also did an introductry class with Enn Fairtex over at Fairtex San Francisco. Top notch guy. :thumbsup: Very patient with me dispite the fact that I was overweight, slow, and didn't know how to jumprope. Not good for a Muay Thai student. :lol:

I have never taken any martial arts, but read a lot of this thread. I am so surprised that so many of you have done/do this. Honestly, I thought martial arts for something that the kid whom didn't want to play little league did, and with only a handful of adults doing it. I guess I was wrong. What I find most fascinating is the names of these martial art, so interesting.

i did shotokan for 8 years.

then i moved on to muay thai and i'm starting to train in submission wrestling.

if anybody is in the toronto area i'm thinking of joining up at toronto bjj at bloor and christie, any thoughts about the school?

Did judo when i was young, but kinda grew outa that.

Also did muay thai for a few months, but i just didn't really like it that much.

Now i'm looking at something like ju-jitsu or whin chun

Why not? Care to share your experiences? I'm considering taking MT classes.

I have done Uechi Ru Karate for about a year. I stopped about 2 months ago, but I plan to go back.

It was good fun, great exercise, but whenever the fights got in close, i always had this huge hankering for groundwork, which muay thai doesn't provide.
That kinda put a lemon in the whole experience, so i stopped (i'm odd that way).

Ahhh, I see. I suppose the clinch is a lot like groundwork, only standup. Just imagine yourself flipped 90 degrees and you're good to go! Ground and pound! :thumbsup:

I've heard that it's hard to train a grappler to be a striker, rather than the other way around. Would that (wanting to go to the gorund) be the reason?

I had a little Jujitsu. I also learned using a Bo. I wasn't in a 'class' though. I had a friend who had other students but did it for me on the side as a personal favor. I count myself lucky to have been there.

Pretty much, all my blows just ended up taking me towards the opponent, i could never really get the idea of ranged attacks.

Ahhh, okay. My problem is that I tend to lean with my punches... it puts more power behind the impact, but apparently that's a bad idea (easier knockouts).

I don't have any official muay thai training, but hopnig to start next month at http://www.pacificringsports.com/

Really looking forward to going back to BJJ though. :D