Welcome aboard !! Glad to have ya, and I am sure you wont be dissappointed. TTYL

Hey Tim - yes - could certainly go on all day (no worries - I don't plan to!)... Wish I had started when I was a kid: it's so much more natural and easier then. Got my kids started when they were 5. They've drifted in an out of it, but in general are doing really well and can take care of themselves pretty well without realizing they're using "technique" - it's just natural now (but they're aware of the responsibility that goes with the knowledge). I also spent a bit of time in some of the more ritualistic styles, and like you found the more "practical" styles very appealing. JKD teachers tend to teach techniques out of styles like the ones you mention. Wing Chun (Ving Tsun), Philipino and Indonesion (thanks to Guro Dan Inosanto for introducing those to JKD!) and styles tend to be very direct and effective - and quite a bit of fun to practice! We've been blending in more and more jujitsu (some "classic", as Wally Jay might have taught, but more BJJ). It's a real treat when we have guest instructors like Ron Kosakowski (brilliant with edged weapons and grappling) or a few of us spend time at a seminar with somebody like Guro Dan (even in his 70's he's still awesome).

Bringing this sorta back on topic: we can think of Blackberry's the way Bruce Lee spoke about martial arts, and life in general: "absorb what is useful, discard what is useless". This is why I prefer Blackberry's...

- Jon

Hey Jason - boxing is great stuff - the footwork and conditioning are excellent, and we've found the body movement (bobbing, weaving, ducking under punch and coming up with a cross, etc) to be the best - Bruce Lee was a huge fan of Western boxing for all of that, and we incorporate what we can in our practice too. Perfect addition for the well-rounded martial artist...

Glad to be here too - on my favorites toolbar along with blackberryforum, crackberry and pinstack, and I suspect that with my interest in finding and trying the latest and greatest before it's "official", I will be here quite a bit!..

Adlen wrote:

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I did kickboxing for a few years. Quit now tho, considering going back.

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Great stuff - incredible workout. I had practiced the various arts I mentioned above for years, and then had to slow way down for a couple of years while commuting 2+ hours each way to a crazy job. Now that I've cut the commute and hours back to something reasonable, I'm getting back into it all, and loving every minute of it. Has to be an ongoing part of my life I think - keeps me fit and keeps me sane!

 

Exactly...a couple of hours at a time on the mat helped me get through a few rough times without doing something I might have regretted... :)

Hardest issue is, I think, establishing that you can take care of yourself so that others don't *want* to fight you, without getting yourself in trouble. It's a bit of a balancing act, tough to master but rewarding when you get there.

Aikido is all about that -- the better you get, the more control you have over the situation, so that you don't allow anybody else to hurt you, but you do minimal damage to them - but this can take many years to master. Jeet Kune Do has a somewhat more pragmatic approach, and many JKD teachers teach "destructions" (common to Filipino and Indonesian martial arts), in which aggressors come away from each of their attacks hurting more and more so that they become increasingly reluctant to keep hassling you.

The most basic example would be a simple move sometimes done when somebody throws a big wild punch at your head: bring your elbow up, pointing forward with your hand back by your head, placing it about where your face was as you lean your head out of the way --- takes practice and good timing, but done right and the aggressor winds up punching your elbow instead of your face. If you're going to practice with somebody, make sure the agressor wears boxing gloves -- landing a full force punch against an extended elbow can easily result in a broken hand, and it hurts the hand even through a pair of 16oz boxing gloves. Aikido's approach would seem a bit less destructive and a bit more embarassing to the aggressor, as the seasoned practitioner would appear to be simply stepping off line a bit and barely touching the aggressor who would suddenly find himself head over heels and landing on his back in a heap.

So much of effective training will be about "managing" the level of aggression. Done right, you can defuse the situation pretty quickly, win respect, and have it all stop before somebody becomes seriously hurt. Too easy for an all out fight to get out of control with serious mayhem or damage as the result. In all of my classes, I learned that a 2nd year student is generally the most dangerous -- they've started to learn enough technique to do damage, but don't have the emotional or physical self control yet to manage a situation effectively.

Make it painful for somebody to bother you -- but don't let them push you into doing something unwise. A fine line - but one worth finding.

Capoeira is very cool also...Ah! So much to learn, so little time! Capoeira is practiced to a drumbeat, and chanting/singing. Practitioners will stand in a circle, and pairs will enter the circle to practice together. It's very cooperative in practice, but you can get a sense of how these techniques could be a lot more than "dance" from the following 2 videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51q1VB_dDik

and

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMX9KKzG4-0&NR=1

-- Edited by Jon at 03:37, 2008-07-06