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I've heard a lot of people on the forums and in chat mention martial arts of various forms, so I thought I'd start a topic. :-) Basically to talk about what martial arts you practice, or if you don't currently practise, what you'd like to get into, and to ask questions if you want.

I'll start, with questions and answers:

1: What Martial Arts style(s) do you practice, what does the name mean, and what's the origin (if applicable)?

Judo, "the gentle way". It uses mostly throws, arm bars and chokes. It originated in Japan, the school being founded in 1882 by Dr. Jigoro Kano.

2: What level/belt/degree/stage are you at?

Yellow belt, which is the first belt that you earn, in my school at least. I've seen different ways of approaching it.

3: How did you learn about it, and how long have you been doing it?

In my first year of University, there were signs in my dorm to sign up for various things. I had been interested in karate after seeing my friend do it, but thought that might be too intense for me. Judo sounded like a better fit, so I went to the "dojo" (a corner of the Dalhousie University gym) to try it out. I loved it.

Technically, it would be over 5 years now, but unfortunately I haven't had a regular dojo to go to in some time. I hope to start it again soon, and currently do my best to practice on my own, and study what I should know for my level.

4: What do/did you like most about it?

I like how it doesn't focus on kicking and punching; it focuses on skill, techniques, and how good you are at using your opponents movements to your advantage.

5: What do/did you hate most about it?

Learning backwards breakfalls. That's for when you fall straight on your back. It took a lot of time - and letting others throw me gently, then gradually more forcefully - before I was able to really get used to it.

I also have trouble with some of the terminology. Sasae tsurikomi ashi (lifting propping ankle drop), hiza guruma (knee wheel), ouchi gari (major inner reaping throw)...etc etc. I'm a slow learner with japanese.

6: Are there any other styles that you've thought of trying?

I was interested in trying karate, but I'm not sure if I could handle it. I'd like to try kung fu, or kendo, or something else that involves a weapon.

7: Do you go to a dojo regularly? If so, what's it like? (size, the sensei, equipment)

I wish I could. My first one was in the corner of a gym, and part of the training was to help set up all the mats, then put them away again after class. I had great senseis there (it was different depending on the day of the week, 3 of them rotated the task.)

In the second dojo, it was just a small classroom in a college, which made me feel thankful for the gym dojo ^-^' It was a lot less disciplined than the one I had been at, and there were some kids in it as well (the first one was age 17 and up, this one was mostly age 11-22), so it was a lot to get used to.

8: What do you do outside of the dojo to keep in shape?

Running and weight lifting, as well as cycling when I get the chance.

9: What sort of gear do you wear for your fighting style?

I wear a gi, which consists of white pants that tie at the waist, a sports bra, a white cotton tshirt, white gi jacket, and a yellow belt. No socks or shoes, and I pull my hair back.

10: What is your favourite/best move?

Groundwork - Kesa Gatame (scarf hold). It involves me holding my opponent's neck in the crook of my arm, on the ground, and holding his arm with my free hand, and pinning with my body. It's more complicated than that, but that's the best description that I can give here.

This post has been edited by Elena99 on 2nd March 2004 03:52

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

1. Modern Arnis; it's philipino stick/knife/open handed fighting. it centers mostly around free flow fighting by training your body to respond to certain movements such as bendi-bendi. It involves what I might call small subtle movements that are hard to recognize unless you've used then yourself. It also focuses alot on locks and holds.

2.It has the standard white belt to yellow belt sort of thing, but the dojo I went to was very casual and nobody wore thier belts. I was a yellow belt.

3. Heard about it from a friend who showed me some of the stuff he'd learned. I did it for about one year till i decided to audition for theater and got in. After that my life ceased to be my own.

4. What i like most is that our sensei taught us to relax our bodies and minds when fighting so that we could move faster, and how we always worked movements and lockls in pairs with various different people to get the overall feel of the move.

5.I really hated it when we had to learn forms. I know that they're are essential for passing tests, they are still boring.

6. I've always wanted to learn Shoalin Kung Fu, Brazilian Jujitzu, or Ninjitsu. It would rock to be a Ninja.

7. I haven't been able to for the past three months. I really miss fighting, but I tried doing Arnis and everything else and I had to drop Arnis cause eerything else affected people other than myself.

8.I run, shadow box, meditate, and lift weights. plus I gave up carbinated beverages, with the exception of IBC caus ehtta stuff is the drink of the gods.

9. I just wore black gi and that was it. I love my gi simply becaus ei don't think i could kill it if I tried, kinda like my car that's been in about three accidents and runs perfectly.

10. I would call my favorite move the center lock, because you can bring some one to their knees with the smallest of movements and that alwasy makes me happy.

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"Like an Angel from the underworld, or a devil from paradise" Faye Valentine: Cowboy Bebop

1. Tien Shan pai kung fu, basically translating into the Tien Shan style, or the style that originated in the Daoist monastaries of the Tien Shan mountain range in China. It's a Northern external style of kung fu that emphasizes footwork, counterattacks, circular and angular motion, and quick reflexes.
Taekwondo, a popular Korean martial art whose name is roughly translated to "the way of unarmed combat." The style is characterized by fast, high, and spinning kicks; it relies almost exclusively on the legs and feet for offense. Sources point to General Choi Hong Hi as the man who invented and popularized the style, though it draws influences from many Chinese, Japanese, and Korean martial arts.

2. We don't really go by belts or any other sort of distinction. The master basically just tells us what to learn, then says that we can go on if we've progressed enough. I guess I'll just say that I'm at intermediate proficiency for both kung fu and taekwondo.

3. Martial arts are part of my Asian heritage, and the concept was always appealing to my personality, so it was a given that I would take interest eventually. My parents provided me the means to learn taekwondo when I was younger, and I now learn kung fu out of my own volition.

4. With kung fu, I like basically everything, but I really appreciate the way that every motion means something, and the complexity and subtlety of every move and aspect of the footwork. I also like learning about strategy and history from my master, who is a very knowledgable person.
In taekwondo, I loved sparring the best. Breaking boards and drilling kicks is useful and everything, but nothing can really replace the thrill of testing your skills against another living human being.

5. I think my ability to study martial arts is a privelege in and of itself, so I don't really dwell on the things that I dislike. I will say that some aspects of conditioning can be very difficult, seeing as they essentially involve punishing your body in all sorts of ways in order to make it stronger and more durable.

6. There are too many to count. I really want to expand my horizons, to gain experiences and improve my skills. There are a number of different styles of kung fu that I'd like to try, especially drunken boxing. Ninjutsu also sounds interesting, though I don't know if I could find a good school. I've always had an interest in Brazilian jujutsu, though I'm a little too tall for it. And of course I'd have to say Jeet Kune Do, seeing as I'm a huge Bruce Lee fan. I think I first want to go back and finish my taekwondo training, which was unfortunately cut short in earlier years.

7. I meet up with my master regularly alongside the other students, in order to show him what we've practiced and learned throughout the week. Our lessons are free of charge; he basically teaches me as a personal favor to our family, with whom he is very close. At first, our class was very small and personal, with only three people (including myself) acting as his students. Now he's taken on several more students, and we act as advanced trainees.
I remember that my taekwondo class was also regular, once a week. We would meet in a rented out room with the other students. It was also a very small class, so we would learn a whole lot in a short period of time. My taekwondo master was a very personable man, and an excellent teacher.

8. I train a lot every day, going through all of the forms and drills at home. I also lift weights, though my master tends to discourage this practice in favor of insane kung fu conditional drills that would probably kill me. If making a conscious effort to eat right and stay in shape counts, then I guess I do that too.

9. I just wear whatever. Like I said, my master's not really into formality. It has to be comfortable and flexible though, for obvious reasons.

10. I'm not sure, since I'm always learning. I've been told that my kicks are quite good, probably because of my taekwondo background, and that I have a good head for memorizing forms. At this point, I'm not sure I'm entitled to presume that I'm exceptional at any one thing until I get to the stage where I start specializing in different techniques and weapons.

This post has been edited by Super Moogle on 2nd March 2004 03:31

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"I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
~Dorothy L. Sayers

"The truly remarkable thing about television is that it allows several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely."
~T.S. Eliot

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality - in your own mind!"
~ Bruce Lee

1: I bareknuckle box with a bunch of drunks every friday. It means boxing drunks barefisted on fridays. They were drunk, I wasnt, we were watching fight club, and bets started to be taken on who would win if some of us went at it.

2: I can take apart big tom caravello. Thats advanced as far as im concerned.

3: It just sorta happened. I've been doing it for a couple of months now.

4: You just might get hurt. Its a rush.

5: Losing teeth, breaking knuckles, getting knocked out against the basement door.

6: Jiu Jitsu.

7: Nah, it all goes down in a basement 2 miles from my drummers house.

8: Box my drummer. i stay away from my bass player, hes a beast. i lift a lot of weights.

9: Hands, feet, forehead, elbows, knees.

10: Left hook to the jaw.

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You watch the world exploding every single night
Dancing in the sun, a newborn in the light
Say goodbye to gravity and say goodbye to death
Hello to eternity and live for every breath

Your time will come...

I used to practice Tae Kwon Do from (S) Korea. I was in it when I was like nine, when my mom signed me up for it without even asking me. She pulled me out of it later when I got in a fight at the school bus stop defending a friend from a bully, and she blamed the incident on the Tae Kwon Do lessons (though I used none of the skills from it). I only got to the second belt, orange. I remember almost nothing and wish I was still in it.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

I used to do Tae Kwon Do when I was young, and trained up to brown belt (just two belts away from black). I was decent, not the best, of course, but I won an award with my skills. But that was years ago. I'd like to relearn martial arts, but preferably Kung Fu.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

I practiced Judo for some years back in my junior high years, until I got a very bad neck injury. After that I didn't do anything for around 4 years, and then I started Jeet Kune Do and Kali Philipinno Escrima.

I own a brown belt in Judo, wich does not reflect by any length my current abilities at it. My master in JKD was starting to come up with a grade system when I stopped practicing last year, so I don't own any grade in JKD. I however filled in for my master half a dozen times, but I'm nowhere near his skill, being that he practice since around my birth.

I learned about JKD through Bruce Lee lore, of course, being that he invented the concept. Jeet Kune Do basically means "the intercepting fist". I found my master while I was running in the park nearby my appartment, and he was doing some moves I recognize from "Bruce Lee's fighting techniques" (probably not the english name...), a set of 4 books I bought for my best friend as a birthday present. As it turned out, we started taking classes with my master the following season. He also is a Kali master, Kali being a philipinno martial arts, involving techniques with sticks, knives and bare hands, and is often teached alongside JKD due to the complementarity and the fact that the Inosanto Academy teaches both of them together (Inosanto being a major academy in USA for JKD and philippino martial arts).

I liked the variety of techniques I learned in JKD&Kali, and the fact that my teacher, a fairly overweighted man, could do everything with amazing speed and energy. Altough weight always matter in martial arts, in here it was definitely not everything : I could kick ass of others way bigger than me.

I don't practice anymore, simply because I spend half my month in college and the other half at work so I don't have the time anymore. If I could, I would try to do more JKD and Kali.

My favourite move...well, it's hard to pick. I guess the simplest of moves in JKD, wich really sum up what it is about : it's called Pak Sao Da, and occurs when someone try to throw a punch at you, you block it and in the same time punch him back. 'The intercepting fist'. Mwuhahahahaha

This post has been edited by Mr Thou on 2nd March 2004 17:49

I did Tae Kwon Do through Middle School and a little bit of high school. Its origin has already been discussed more thoroughly than I ever knew. I achieved my blue belt with a brown stripe (and nearly broke my hand getting this belt), which was the ninth belt for us (White, white w/ yellow, yellow, yellow w/ orange, orange, green, green w/ blue, blue, blue w/ brown, brown, red, red w/ black, black), though it seems the format varies from style to style, as other people had different orders. My favorite part of the martial arts style was the forms. I would practice and practice them outside in the backyard until I was as good as I could be with them, simply to impress Master Kim. Unfortunately, he decided that playing solitaire on his office computer was more important than teaching us, and we were taught by instructors that did not know what they were doing, and I left shortly thereafter.

To keep in shape now, I run, play basketball, tennis, racquetball, DDR, etc.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

i took tai kwon do, It was hella cool. Then the School ran out of money. So i havent taken it since. Red Belt N00bs! Kidding.But yeah.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
~Frank Zappa

Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

Quote (Super Moogle @ 1st March 2004 22:26)

6. . I've always had an interest in Brazilian jujutsu, though I'm a little too tall for it.

Brazilian Jujitsu all the way I always love talking about Gracey in the UFC, and how badass he was. (And at 5'5 or 5'6 I'm certainly not too tall for it!). If not Brazilian Jujitsu, I think I'd like to learn to box, I've always been interested in it. Right now all I have time for though is weightlifting, running, and playing soccer in preparation for next season.

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

1. I took Shorin-ryu, an Okinawan form of karate, the ryu refers to a individual school of thought/teaching while the Shorin, if my research is correct refers to a translation of the Chinese Shaolin, from which the basics of the art come

2. I actually earned my first degree black belt, despite the huge number of people who think me the clumsiest person on Earth.

3. I learned about it from my mother when she first thought me that I was *going* to start. I started about 8 years ago, but haven't been to the dojo in a year, so let's go with 7 years.

4. Gives a wide variety of options within this, there is no focus on any one kind of strike, either punching or blocking, and we have some takedowns and grappling which can be used. Also, my sensei made sure to teach us how to apply things we were learning against non-martial artists, such as the easiest way to deal with the haymaker punch.

5. I hate doing balance drills, I didn't earn my reputation (however embellished) for no reason. I'm horrible at them and generally make myself look stupid. In a close second is being paired with the newest people in the dojo and having to play human punching bag due to lack of control.

6. I would love to learn Judo. The concepts intrigue me and the efficiency is amazing. One of my instructors at my dojo was a second degree black belt in Judo in addition to his third degree in our style and he really showed me just the best reasons to take it.

7. Like I said, I have been regularly in a year, I've been really busy. When I did go, the class was held in an aerobics room in the local YMCA. Very little equipment was used, most of the stuff was very standard: pads, bags, etc. The most exotic equipment we used was a set of rubber knives used for practice in disarming an opponent. Our sensei was a small, fiery man who made sure we followed many of the traditions (bowing in and out, the short rituals at the beginning of classes, addressing him as sir, respect of instructors), but for the most part was lax with discipline.

8. I hate to admit it but not much since I came to the University of Florida. Unless you count gathering carts in the Publix parking lot (part of my job) or running to class when I'm late (Matherly Hall is too dang far away from my dorm).

9. In our dojo, we only wore the gi with the belt. My gi, unlike most others in our dojo (except for other high ranking students) was made from canvas, hot as anything to work in, but durable and makes a cool sound when you're really doing things properly. Just like Elena, no shoes, no socks, as a matter of fact, the brief amount of time spent in the gi with shoes on felt weird.

10. My favorite move was one that was not actually taught by our sensei, I had to come up with it and work on it myself. This is a duck underneath a head-high strike with a lunging punch directed to the solar plexus, using their own momentum to add to the impact. This was definitely put to best use in sparring situations, where I usually scored with it.

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"I was using a metaphor. Someone shut him up before I do it with a knife."- Black Mage, 8-bit Theatre

"I found out what zombies are weak against......Point Blank Annihilation"- Black Mage, 8-bit Theatre

"You'd be paranoid too, if everyone was out to get you!"