[aldo_14]

The Irish are almost as nuts as the Scots.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by aldo_14
The Irish are almost as nuts as the Scots.

[color=66ff00]Thankyou good sir, now take it back before I break your face.

The martial arts in general is one of my main areas of interest, hence I've done an awful lot of reading on the subject. The only problem you'll come across on the whole is that everyone thinks their martial art is the best and martial arts history, as a rule of thumb, is not to be taken as fact.
My main interest is the chinese martial arts (not to be confused with the marital arts which is a whole different kettle of fish ), specifically the 'soft' styles that Stealth has mentioned previously (Hsing-I, baguazhang and taiji chuan) I don't pretend to know the actual arts to any degree of proficiency though.

I study Wing chun as I read a lot about it and it seemed to be the most sensible art for me to learn, I also did 2 years of ninpo taijitsu, a japanese martial art that is more commonly called Ninjitsu or Ninja by american film makers (I didn't actually get to the level where I could spontaneously flip out and kill people though ). My friend is an avid practitoner of Ninpo taijitsu now (he's far above the level I attained) and he does Tae kwon do regularly too, I've learned a lot about both styles from him and from reading I've done on my own.

The more I study the martial arts the more I realise that ultimately there are fundamentals that exist in almost every style, Bruce Lee wrote a great deal on this subject, especially what makes an art effective...
I'm going to stop now because I could write pages on the subject and I simply don't have the time.

As for who has an informed opinion; I have an objective opinion, informed opinions are for those who think they know everything about what they're talking about and I'm sure I'm only at the foot of a vast mountain of information that I've been pursuing for the last 6 or 7 years.
[/color]

[an0n]

Didn't Bruce Lee steal all the best bits from other martial arts and combine them into modern Kung Fu?

And Ninjitsu has more political bickering than a meeting of the UN.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by an0n
Didn't Bruce Lee steal all the best bits from other martial arts and combine them into modern Kung Fu?

And Ninjitsu has more political bickering than a meeting of the UN.

[color=66ff00]True on both counts, unfortunately ninjitsu suffers from McDojo syndrome, all these idiots running around claiming the ability to vanish and other such nonsense.
Most of the problems seem to lie in the fact that the traditions that the arts were founded on are under-emphasised by some, over-emphasised by others, ignored by quite a few and concocted by (thankfully) the very few.
Then there's all that clan business which makes for interesting 'discussion' too (our substyle is better than your substyle).
[/color]

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]Thankyou good sir, now take it back before I break your face.
[/color]

http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/nedagotchi/glaSurvivalGame.html

[Kazan]

if you've expirience tae kwon do and tae bo to be almost the same thing then you went to an ITF-style tae kwon do school (most of the US is ITF style), ITF is 'sport-style' redesigned to only be a good workout and not an effective combat art.  Part of the reason why it's soo light contact in sparing -- they don't have the endurace to last through a real match, nor do they have the proper technique to last out a moderator (or full) contact match without hurting themselves


I train under grandmaster Pak, he teaches WTF style -- ITF is nothing next to WTF -- we regularily have WTF orange belts (3rd rank) beating ITF blue and brown belts (5th, 6th ranks).  When I was a mere orange belt I personally knew a couple ITF dans (Dan = black belt) that I could beat.


Tae Kwon Do was invented aroud 3000 to 4000 years ago by a korean general, he designed to be highly effective and to be able to be learned quickly, and mastered with practice.  Modern WTF Tae Kwon Do's techniques are optimizied and revised by the grandmasters taking [mostly] the physics of the technique into accou to maximum damage potential while mimimized stress on the person performing the technique.  ITF is designed to be a work out.  Despite WTF and ITF basic differences in the philosophy driving their fundamental design they do share the same fundamental techniques, althought execution of said techniques is very subtly different.  Those subtle differences in execution make a world of difference though and a skilled practititioner can feel the difference in the potential of the technique immediately.   The largest commonality throughout Tae Kwon Do is it's leg-centrism.  The legs are used as the primary means of attack with hand techniques used primarily for defense, but some highly effective hand techniques exist.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by aldo_14

http://www.glasgowsurvival.co.uk/nedagotchi/glaSurvivalGame.html

[color=66ff00]Priceless mate.

BTW Kazan have you ever heard the story about the sport tae kwon do guy who was mauled? He turned his back in a street fight assuming that the attacker would back off (as per the rules of that form of TKD).
Saw it in the news somewhere.
[/color]

[Kazan]

my grandmaster would say "moron"

idiot got what was coming to him.. jackass..... a someone backing of as per the rules of any sport when it's a real fight.. rotfl..

You know what Pak would have us do? quickly and efficiently kick the guys ass, then leave

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]Priceless mate.

[/color]

That is true to life, too.

[an0n]

Darwin Award?

[magatsu1]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]As for who has an informed opinion; I have an objective opinion, informed opinions are for those who think they know everything about what they're talking about and I'm sure I'm only at the foot of a vast mountain of information that I've been pursuing for the last 6 or 7 years.
[/color]

If that was for my benefit, I just tried to give DG an idea of what I had figured in real terms. I don't claim to know everything about fightin'.

Hey, did you know of the 5(or so) guys outside of the US fully trained to teach Bruce Lee's style (Jeet Kun Do, Intercepting fist or something) 2 are in Edinburgh and one in Manchester !

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Another bunch, trained by Dan Insanto (one of Mr. Lee's students) are out teaching as well. Supposedly one of them teaches in my town at a sports club. Never took the time to check it out though.

And you got the translation spot on magatsu1, it's the way of the intercepting fist or foot.
[/color]

[diamondgeezer]

There's a jeet kun do school in Kettering, if you believe what they print in the Yellow Pages.

I'm going to attend a karate class tomorrow eveing, to see what happens. They claim to be the 'official' Leicester karate club. THey better be good after a statement like that.

[vyper]

They might be able to break Yellow Pages books in two...

[Kazan]

Tae Kwon Do is "The way of the hand and foot"

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Kick, punch, block. Says it all really doesn't it.
[/color]

[Stryke 9]

Eh. Crowbar beats karate in a fair fight every time. Or, for that matter, any martial art that doesn't involve flying and that freaky force-ball thing those guys did in Street Fighter.

[01010]

I tend to like "Way of the exploding shrapnel"

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Stryke 9
Eh. Crowbar beats karate in a fair fight every time. Or, for that matter, any martial art that doesn't involve flying and that freaky force-ball thing those guys did in Street Fighter.

[color=66ff00]Quarter circle forward and punch. HADOKEN!

You could do that if you hid an aerosol up one sleeve and a piezo sparker up the other.
[/color]

[diamondgeezer]

Oh believe me, I'll be learning how to do hadokens. Obviously start with a beginner class, but eventually move up to advanced classes with weapons and fireballs