Comment

Comment by Joseph Casson on March 24, 2012 at 4:10pm

Hello all! I have been a martial arts enthusiast pretty much all my life, and I have dabbled in arts over the years. After brief stints in Shaolin Kung Fu, Taekwondo, Judo and Karate, I settled into a Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu Dojo. I've been there for almost 3 years now. Each year there is a theme set by Hatsumi Masaki (the head of the system over in japan) we focus on taijutsu, such as joint manipulation, bone breaking, nerve damage and throws, as well as open and closed hand fighting, weapons (thrown or hand held) and some small aspects of stealth (however, this section is left up to us to learn on our own, sadly, since some of the 9 founding schools of the Bujinkan are not formally taught as they are deemed impractical in our society, like the fighting on horseback syllabus for example).

On the side, I'm reading up on other arts, such as thai boxing and jeet kune do, because various arts have different thoughts and ideas, philosophy and principles. I also think that knowledge is an important weapon in a martial artists arsenal, and things like that should not be overlooked. If any of you have some comprehensive references for any arts you would like to recommend, I would be most grateful. Thank you in advance - Jospeh 

Comment by John Risley on March 13, 2012 at 8:28pm

Greetings! I just joined this group and it looks like I made the right decision! I'm enjoying the commentary already! I am born, raised and still live in Chicago. Chinatown/Bridgeport area to be precise. As a kid I was a boxer and now I study Northern Shaolin Eagle Claw Kung Fu. Eagle Claw is primarily offensive and focuses on clawing, striking, punching, joint manipulation, and muscle and tendon destruction in quickfire succession. It does have defensive techniques too. It has been referred to as an ancient predecessor to jiujitsu. I enjoy it thoroughly! I would eventually like to compliment my Kung Fu training with some of the Filipino Arts-Kali, Escrima, Modern Arnis. Does anyone have any recommendations for teachers in the Chicago or Chicagoland area? Thanks- Doje!

 

Comment by Peyton Quinn on February 22, 2012 at 12:46pm

I know many people think of martial arts training as being self-defense training. And of course there is some overlap there. But I do not see MA training as really being self-defense training as it is concerned with 'techniques' and while these are needed (though not many for real sd situation) there is so much more to self-defense training that techniques.

Most martial arts techniques have no place in a real fight in any case they are just part of the classical art. Understand I am a member of the Black Belt Hall of fame with advance rank in three Asian systems so I am far from 'putting down' martial arts here at all.

But my work a bouncer in the seventies and other combat experience showed me very clearly that MA does not really prepare the person for the adrenal stress affects which can make their technique knowledge and skill irrelevant and inaccessible, it does not teach the person how human predators think and thus how to avoid them and de-escalate them and avoid it getting physical. This is why I feel MA training, regardless of style is not tuly comprehensive SD training.

I also see very mistaken trend toward seeing what occurs in prize ring as being an actual 'fight' and people drawing conclusions about 'what will work in real fight' from these athletic. I certainly respect the spirit and skill of anyone who gets in that NHB ring, and long ago I trained some of them. But you can not draw many valid conclusions regarding anything you see in prize ring about what a real fight is like.

NOTE: this window seems to only allow and HTML post, and not a 'copy and paste' post, perhaps that is why people have not been able to post here?

Comment by Beowulf87 on November 14, 2011 at 10:55pm

Hello,

 

First time visiting this group, looks promising!  Anyone know how to use dit da jao?  Can it be used for sore muscles?

 

Thanks, Spencer