Anyone know a Martial Art?

[Hallmist]

Ok, so I'm going to use the lull in conversation to start a new topic.

Does anyone know any martial arts?
Care to share experiences?

I'm mostly asking this cause I just started learning Ju-Jisu. Which is making me quite sore these days (who would have guessed that falling hurts?), so its on my mind.

Also, does anyone know if there exists a martial art that teaches staff use? And if so, what its name is? Always liked characters that used a staff, starting with Donatello from TMNT, and now Tarrin.

[qhitch]

I  learnt some Karate when I was very young, and frankly I was very bored with all the hu-ha-hai boxing and stuff. I remember I reached something called a blue belt tho Afaik, most martial arts focus on weapon-less fighting; Kalari is an exception, though you'd be hard pressed to find a teacher where you live
Some links:
http://www.mkgkalari.nrksite.com/
http://www.tibetankungfu.com/indian_kalari.htm
http://www.meadev.nic.in/sports/mr_arts/kalari.htm

[negativecow 1]

umm yes there is a one wich focuses on staff and sword but i dont remember what its called ,
and there are lots of martial arts that have wepons as focus , kendo is just one among them ,there is one for japanise bows to but i dont remember what it is called ether

[David]

I do believe they practice using the "Staff" in Aikido.

though they don't use the staff exclusivly, they also train techniques similar to Jiu-Jitsu, though their style is more of a; use your opponent's "attack power" against him.

[Journeywoman]

Yes Aikido teaches Staff, Bokken (wooden version katana), knife as well as unarmed. I'm appointing myself resident Aikido... I would say expert but no-one is really an expert because you always continue learning so I think practitioner will have to suffice. And to your complaint about falling Hallmist, you just have to learn the to do it the right way . Aikido is similar to Jiu-Jitsu and as David mentioned you do use your opponents energy against them. As to how much weapons work we do, it really depends on the style and the Sensei.
One great thing about Aikido is that it teaches you skills which you can use outside a fight. For instance once a Sensei was carrying a peice of expensive technology in his hands and tripped. Instead of letting go of it and putting his hands out to break his fall, he did a roll, and walked on.

[Hallmist]

Yea, my teacher tells a story where he had his daughter on one of those baby carriers on his back, and was walking his dog over the winter.  There was a patch of ice on the sidewalk, and just as he stepped on it, the dog went  bounding off after something.  Fortunately, when he fell, he was able to do it correctly, and his daughter was unharmed.

Practice, practice practice.

[Taltos]

afaik:
figthing style with sticks is called Jodo
"martial archery" is called kyudo..

full acknowledgement to Journeywoman's posting..

(i've also been doing aikido for two years, and some ju-jitsu afterwards..)

taltos

[Mr_Alpha]

I've done a lot of pieces here and there.

About a year of karate but I didn't really like it.
A little less kendo, but I'd rather do kenjutsu, kendo is so ritualized, but kenjutsu then again is harder to find a trainer in.

I have nine years of aikido under my belt, but sadly my schedule put a stop to it, though I'm thinking about getting back into it next fall. I got the picture that the lines between aikido and other samurai teachings are a bit of a grey area, but that aikido was the non-offensive part of it.
I also think that the most usefull thing i got from my aikido was the ability to fall. I can fall like noone else i know.  :)
Its funny that about using the opponents strength against them. I remember my sensei demonstrating, the harder and faster you came at him the futher you flew through the air. You could end up flying over 5 meters.

I did a little bit ninjutsu which i sort of a mix between jujutsu and the original ninjaclans's ninpo. It was different, more brutal (quote: "and by here turning your enemy's arm backwards in a wide circle you can rip loose almost all tissue within his shoulder, so he'll need extensive sugery the ever heal properly") and offensive. It also included everything from wallclimbing to sneaking, loads of weapons and a "ends jusifies the means"-philosophy. I learnt a lot about nerves and knockouts, about hitting or mearly thouching certain places in certain orders making people pass out, without a mark if done skillfully. Sadly, the teacher moved away so I my time in ninjutsu ended early.

[straechav]

Yes, and no.

I have practiced kickboxing, some Tai Chi (one of the more external styles) and have some Wushu training under my belt. However, I still think that if I ever learned anything useful - it was at Wing Chung Kung Fu. I have yet to come across any martial arts that could actually beat Wing Chung when it comes to ACTUALLY fighting.

Unfortunately, Wing Chung looks about the dumbest thing you've ever seen, starting from the stance. But it works better than anything else. To make it short and vague, it more or less works in the sense that by using a special punching technique that allows you to punch even up to 80 times per minute, from VERY close range, with full power of your body behind the punch. You basically step INTO the opponents arms - so close that he can't hit you and pummel him to death. This usually takes about one to two seconds. There are no defensive movements (except attack) and I have yet to see anyone beat a Wing Chun master.

It sounds a bit vague and  maybe even a bit questionable style, but it really works. Aikido, Karate, Capoeira, Kickboxing, Tae Kwon Do, or any other martial artist I've ever came across has never had a change against Wing Chun. Well, I am of course talking unarmed combat here .

These days I am practicing WESTERN swordmanship. Shortsword, Longsword, and such. I consider most of japanese swordmanship to be rather useless and flashy. Especially since Katana slices very badly (yes, this is true - don't believe those Kung Fu movies. Unless they're using something else than Katana. Katana cuts shallow cuts only, it is difficult and pointless to chop someone's head off with katana. Instead use longsword or some other cutting weapon.) and is too concerned with style and not concentrate enough on results (which would be getting the opponent dead).

HOWEVER, if there was one interesting martial arts I would like to learn, it would be Petjak Silat. It's one of the most pragmatic and more useful unarmed combat techniques I've ever seen. It reminds me of Wing Chun in some ways, but it is quite different. One of the "good" points in Petjak Silat is that it is the ONLY martial arts that has actually been used in real fights recently. It is malaysian, and has quite a lot of influences from various other styles and is highly practical. And there's thousand different variations of it - so ... (shrug)

And what's the odds of ME ever finding a master in europe willing to teach it? Yeah, right.

As for staff, there are numerous martial arts that teach it. Wushu has some staff training, but if you want to learn fight learn something else. However, if you want to look cool and do those poses like Jet Li, learn Wushu. Of course, please, don't try those moves in a fight. You'll get your ass kicked.

Ah, I gotta go now.

[negativecow 1]

I've done a lot of pieces here and there.

About a year of karate but I didn't really like it.
A little less kendo, but I'd rather do kenjutsu, kendo is so ritualized, but kenjutsu then again is harder to find a trainer in.

I have nine years of aikido under my belt, but sadly my schedule put a stop to it, though I'm thinking about getting back into it next fall. I got the picture that the lines between aikido and other samurai teachings are a bit of a grey area, but that aikido was the non-offensive part of it.
I also think that the most usefull thing i got from my aikido was the ability to fall. I can fall like noone else i know.
Its funny that about using the opponents strength against them. I remember my sensei demonstrating, the harder and faster you came at him the futher you flew through the air. You could end up flying over 5 meters.

I did a little bit ninjutsu which i sort of a mix between jujutsu and the original ninjaclans's ninpo. It was different, more brutal (quote: "and by here turning your enemy's arm backwards in a wide circle you can rip loose almost all tissue within his shoulder, so he'll need extensive sugery the ever heal properly") and offensive. It also included everything from wallclimbing to sneaking, loads of weapons and a "ends jusifies the means"-philosophy. I learnt a lot about nerves and knockouts, about hitting or mearly thouching certain places in certain orders making people pass out, without a mark if done skillfully. Sadly, the teacher moved away so I my time in ninjutsu ended early.

[negativecow]

I got the picture that the lines between aikido and other samurai teachings are a bit of a grey area, but that aikido was the non-offensive part of it.

i thought that aikido was made for a samurai who has lost his sword ?

[Journeywoman]

Okay, I'm not the only Aikido practitioner round here and not even the most experienced since I've only been training about 3 1/2 years.
I just have to say what is it with Aikido and Ninjutsu? One of my sensei's from the previous Aikido club I trained at was also the local Ninjustsu sensei. I tryed it out a few times but I didn't like the brutality so a try out was all I gave it. Remember, I'm not trying to put anyone off it as a martial art, it is cool, but with any martial art  it's your own preference.
I've also done a bit of Taekwondo but that was a few years ago now. In a nutshell it's a Korean martial art where you learn a lot about kicking and a little less about punching.

[Mr_Alpha]

These days I am practicing WESTERN swordmanship. Shortsword, Longsword, and such. I consider most of japanese swordmanship to be rather useless and flashy. Especially since Katana slices very badly (yes, this is true - don't believe those Kung Fu movies. Unless they're using something else than Katana. Katana cuts shallow cuts only, it is difficult and pointless to chop someone's head off with katana. Instead use longsword or some other cutting weapon.) and is too concerned with style and not concentrate enough on results (which would be getting the opponent dead).

Personally I'd choose a longsword over a katana but don't sell the katana short. Kendo might be a flashy, ritualistic, "spiritual way" (-do), self-inprovment thingy, but kenjutsu is for war. Oh, an intresing link: http://www.thehaca.com/essays/knightvs.htm

One of the "good" points in Petjak Silat is that it is the ONLY martial arts that has actually been used in real fights recently. It is malaysian, and has quite a lot of influences from various other styles and is highly practical. And there's thousand different variations of it - so ... (shrug)

What about savate, which most western armies uses (their own version, but savate non the less)? The US army in Iraq for example?

[straechav]

Personally I'd choose a longsword over a katana but don't sell the katana short. Kendo might be a flashy, ritualistic, "spiritual way" (-do), self-inprovment thingy, but kenjutsu is for war.

Well, I didn't say Katana was useless as a weapon. I was in a bit of hurry so I left out a lot of explanations.

But I was actually referring to most asian styles of fighting with sword (or with anything or without). And yes, Kenjutsu is for war, but it still has a lot of stupid moves and some rather questionable (when it comes to pragmatic things like surviving) moves and stands.

And for western swordmanship, These days no one really knows how the 15th to 17th century's ACTUAL fighters fought, so the recreation of western swordmanship is half-way guessjob and half-way careful reading of historial material. But one thing permeats the whole damn thing: practicality. If your knee can reach the opponent's crotch, use it. There's no rules.

As for the hardware, Katana is easily just as good as longsword (when it comes to unarmored opponents). But where longsword is cutting weapon (i.e, you can hack someone's limb off if you hit hard enough) Katana is slashing weapon. If you fight correctly with Katana you'll be using only the tip of it the weapon. The heavy "wedge" shape of Katana's blade does not allow for cutting, unless you aim for exact joint, and even then it's iffy. So, whenever you see someone in a Kung Fu movie to cut three in to two pieces, first check what kind of sword he is using. If it's Katana, someone hasn't taken a good look at the sword before writing the script. If it's some of the more "western" style sword - okay, good. It's theoretically possible.

What about savate, which most western armies uses (their own version, but savate non the less)? The US army in Iraq for example?

Har. You got me there. I wasn't thinking about military styles, since I don't really consider them as full martial arts. Soldiers are trained rather briefly and in very specific things, I wouldn't call a soldier automatically a "martial artist" if you know what I mean. Savate is nice, but it's not actually much more than glorified boxing. But it is infinitely more useful than Karate or Judo when it comes to real fight. And still, it's rather rare for US soldiers to actually fight face to face from day to day. They've got guns for a purpose.

Petjak Silat has been used in actual fights between "martial artists" in recent years, and thus it tends to be rather practical and disregard all flashy acrobatics and concentrate on more how to win the fight than looking cool or perfecting your form.

[Sancria]

Wow, my first post.  Here goes nuthin.

I have studied martial arts on and off for the past 18 years or so, I started when I was 9 in Judo.

I did that for a bit and even got myself a niffty yellow belt.

Stopped judo, and started with TKD (Tae Kwon Do), both the ITF and WTF styles more seriously when I was 11  Achieved some competence with those forms. (I like the WTF better, but ITF has some interesting concepts as well)

I started the study of the sword, both Japanese and Chinese styles (Kendo with my uncle and Wushu at the local community centre) when I was 15 but sadly, I lacked the focus for the art at that time. (Girls were not very impressed with my ability to slay dandelions with one quick draw of my sword.  go figure)

I started university and I started up with Jujuitsu, which is just a more combative form of judo.  It emphasis self defense on a street level.  It incorparates various striking techniques of foot, fist, and elbow, with a lot of different joint locks, and foot sweeps, and full body throws. (As opposed to say an Aikido wrist lock that happens to throw a person because it hurts too much to resist.)

I was able to get to my brown belt quite quickly, but then I moved away from that university.  I took up Judo instead way up north.  I finally achived my first black belt at the age of 20  Having achived it, I felt immediately invincible, and actually participated in the BC Northern Winter Games, which I enjoyed lots, but in the gold medal round, I had my ass handed to me by a more aggressive style of judo.  Oh well, there's always someone better as they say

At the age of 22 I started Aikido and Kempo and I achived black belt in Aikido at 25.

As you can probably tell, I don't like to hit people, but I do like to grab them.  Don't get me wrong, I am fully capable of doing a Mike Tyson on someone, but given my body type and my personal preferences, I'm much more likely to counter attack and go for joint locks and chokes, strangulations.

Now, I'm involved in the SCA and do recreational bouts of sword and shield fighting, spear fights, as well as axe and dagger fights.  

All in all, I'd say I'm a pretty capable person, but there are a lot of people in this world who'd whoop me in a few heart beats.

As to fighting cross styles, I've done it a few times and honestly I have to say every style has something to offer to everyone, but not everyone is suited for every style.

Some of the ladies I know absolutely suck at judo and Aikido, simply by the fact that they are too small to take advantage of the leverage they can exert, but I taught two of the knife fighting skills and both of them I would wager could widdle just about anyone to size with short blades.  They are familar with the more common knife defenses, the best of Aikido/Judo/Jujuitsu unarmed counterattacks, and best of all, one my girls likes to hide her "little surprise" in her bra when she goes out on the town.

Both are fast enough to capitlize on the fact that you just wouldn't EXPECT such "nice harmless girls" to be able kick your ass to do just that.

So...when it comes to a fight, plan for the worst, hope for the best, and maybe you'll live to see another day.