Martial arts

I did tae kwon do back when I was younger for a number of years, but had to stop after my instructor had a mild mental breakdown. His wife divorced him, took his three kids, and two of his best buddies died all within a week. It was a shame since I had become a black belt about a year before and had really started enjoying it then. I wanted to get back into it once I got to college but never found a group I felt comfortable in. I'm hoping I'll find something while I'm at grad school to do.

Any suggestions for an art that I should look into? I'm not really looking for self-defense, but more of something that's a bit of exercise but not overly intense and would be good for helping me destress a bit after a day's work.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Killy

As far as Tae Kwon Do is concerned - I haven't really tried it, so I can't say much, but from what I gather, it's an effective form if you're looking for technique in kicking and possibly punching, though there seems to be a lack of the latter in some styles. Other than that, I wouldn't spend much time doing it - there's no clinching, no grappling, no wrestling, no throwing etc. It's not as dynamic as some of the more popular arts, but it does have its own unique form and I can appreciate it for that. And as some of you have already pointed out - it's way too expensive - especially in relation to how much you actually learn from all of it.

Not sure if it's just the place I went to or not, but we did a fair amount of throws, grappling, and submission moves in addition to the normal kick punch it's all in the mind. I actually wound up hurting a few people by accident because a few of my joints are freakishly flexible and I didn't know most people couldn't bend that far. ;_;

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Killy

That's unlike anything I've seen here, what was the name of the style/school?

It was just a local Tae Kwon Do place, not one of the larger chains or anything. I think the instructor had done a few other forms of martial arts, so he might have just thrown in other material he thought would be useful or whatever.

I should also note that when we did sparring it wasn't olympic style where you get points at such (though we did do it occasionally), it was more like actual sparring and trying to knock the other guy on his ass. I actually got pretty good at it since I was really tall for my age when I joined, and the only other person in the class was a black belt (instructor's oldest daughter), so through my years of training I was always sparring against people ranked considerably higher than me. By the time most of the other kids my rank had gotten closer to my size I was way better than them and had to spar against the black belts anyway.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

So I'm at a new school now and they offer a few things that I could take:

Karate (Shotokan), Beginning and Intermediate/Advanced
Karate (Tang Soo Do), Beg/Int/Adv
T'ai-Chi Ch'uan, Beginning and Intermediate/Advanced

I'm mostly looking for something that's relaxing and will be able to get me to stop focusing on my work for a few hours a week. Each one only meets twice a week for an hour (except for Shotokan that meets on Saturdays as well). I haven't done my tae kwon do in about ten years, so I don't know if my background in it will do much good.

If none of these sound any good I could always fall back on racquetball.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by CetteHamsterLa

You'll find either shotokan or tang soo do to be quite similiar to tae kwan do really. Tang soo do is very closely relates as it's either split off or parallel art to tkd depending on whose version of korean martial arts history you listen to. Like wise shotokan is often considered the root of tkd do to some of the cultural bs the japanese pulled on the koreans when they invaded. At any rate you shouldn't be coming in completely green.

Tai Chi depends a lot on the instructor as it's varies largely in focus from raw relaxation exercise to being an effective martial art. Either way therapeuitic but unlikely to get you in really good cardio shape or get you ripped. It also it takes a fairly long time to develop to be effective as a fighting art compared to most anything you can do. So if your focus is kicking ass quickly or losing a gut you'd best look elsewhere. It's pretty good if you stick with it a few years though and tends to be good for bad backs and knees.

Depending on the instructors involved none of those arts art inherently flawed so I'd take a gander at a class in action to see what you think of how they run it. Most schools are fine with letting you either take a trial class or at least watch one to scope it out before you commit.

I don't really think with 2-3 hours of class a week any of the arts will get me into that great of shape, and I heavily doubt I'll have much time for out of class training, so I don't think I'd wind up seeing a whole ton of benefits from the training.

I also can't sit in an any classes beforehand since they're offered as classes at my university, but then on the plus side that means they're free (and should remain so the 4-6 years I stay here). Maybe somewhere I'll be able to find ratings for the teachers somewhere and that'll let me choose.

Frankly, I'm leaning towards Tai Chi right now because I don't want something so strenuous that I won't be able to go back to my room and do homework for a few hours afterwards. From what I've heard hardly any grad students have time to take the PE classes, but I think it would really help with mental health and whatnot to have a set relaxation time (my school apparently has the highest psychiatrist to student ratio in the country ).

Quote:

Tae kwon do schools vary wildly in curriculum depending if they're focus is on winning tournaments or on self defense. There's a fair amount of punching, joint lock, and throwing techniques that go straight out the window when the focus is winning trophy's as the majority of it is disallowed in tourney's. He probably just lucked out into hitting a more traditional school. The majority are crap and just try to soak soccer moms for expensive belt testing. It's pretty tricky to find a good one in that style.

Yeah. I don't remember anyone going to competitions from my school, though my instructor had often urged me to compete. I just never wound up going since they cost money to enter and were often scheduled close to times I had other commitments from school. I don't recall any extra fees for testing for belts, though there was a bit that sucked where really crappy kids would get advanced just because they were at a belt level for so long they were getting ready to give up. The guy that ran it was a construction worker of some sort as a day job, as well, so I don't think he used the school as a giant cash cow but instead had it as something he really enjoyed doing. The more I think about it the more I miss it.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by LeHah

It really doesn't. Karate in the traditional sense - I'm not talking about places that teach you throws from other art forms, I'm talking about if you get into a bout at a tournament - is simply a sport. It has very little function and every other martial art I've seen and have tried overwhelms it very easily.

I'm trying to figure out if you even realize what you're arguing. You're saying that training for a traditional sport isn't as effective at self defense as training for combat as a more fighting-oriented martial art. That's like saying fencing is useless because you're never going to encounter someone in a bar with an epee.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by LeHah

Well - are you?

Remember the original post that I had made was about the use of karate as a form of self-defense, and not as a form of exercise.

Originally Posted by Excerpt of Lehah's deleted post

Karate, as a whole, is worthless as self-defense and not much of a sport either.

Originally Posted by LeHah

That said, I've reported you for your inexcusible inanities and only hope that Staff notices I'm going to step aside in the hopes that they do their job again. I may be an asshole - but you're not worth my time when staff can thread ban you with a couple of clicks. All I ask is that they remove all the posts made in response to Rainman because, really, is this guy worth keeping around?

so bad

FELIPE NO