Welcome to WebmasterWorld venetsian

I do kickboxing and am a huge MMA fan.

[edited by: Demaestro at 6:45 pm (utc) on April 2, 2009]

Well, its either You and Me or just nobody enters that part of the forum :-)

Cheers,
Venetsian.

I've been studying Aikido for almost a year. I'm really glad I started.

Played around with a number of styles over the years - Aikido, Judo, Karate, Taiji, TaiKwondo, Hapkido, Chin Na... and for the last 4 have been concentrating on Wing Tsun, which I thoroughly enjoy for it's approach and skill.

Throughout - always enjoyed sparing with people different styles - usually with mates who do kickboxing and mauy thai.

Also enjoy watching MMA - if I were younger, would love to have a go myself :)

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Been practicing for a year or so...
great exercise.

gi and no gi....

its always fun to put some new guy into a triangle choke.

When I was younger I was well-trained in the art of Mortal Kombat [en.wikipedia.org].

I used to take Aikido but I have to say it is quite a "watered" down discipline.

The more demos I see the more I know I was right for leaving it.... at the highest level the descendants of the creator of Aikido think they can actually throw 10 guys off them, the reason though is their training partners all go along with the moves they are showing off and never give resistance and are always in the optimal spot for the move to be perfromed.

You almost never see real resistance and real combat scenarios in Aikido. My brother was the fastest rising student in Canada for a while. He went to Japan for his black belt test even.... he started teaching it and stopped liking it.

Great for the mind and body but about as real a martial art as Tai Chi

[edited by: Demaestro at 7:41 pm (utc) on April 8, 2009]

Well I love Aikido, its really one of the best martial arts styles around as it is really elegant. Tai Chi is like Yoga so I won't count it much as martial art :-)

Is there any different between standard Jiu Jitsu and Brazillian? I'm not really familiar with that?

Mortal Kombat, yes the trilogy seems to be the best ha ha ha ha .. I don't know anybody that haven't paid that game when young. That was actually one of my first PC games.

Hey Sleepy_AZ -- what is Taiji, Hapkido, Chin Na? That'sthe first time I hear about such sports (I guess they are not popular in the US/CA/EU :-)

Well its nice to hear that there are "a selected few who chose the right path" in their lives. It does make a difference if you have martial arts training as it makes you leave in peace with your inner self (at least that is my situation but I have prior Yoga training).

Come on post more, don't be shy to stand out of the crowd.

Cheers,
Venetsian.

Hey Venetsian,

Yes - Jiu Jitsu and BJJ are very different arts. If you're interested, look up the Gracie family to see how BJJ started (and changed MMA forever) - fascinating story.

By TaiJi - just the traditional name for Tai Chi. From my perspective there are three types of Tai Chi that people train in:
1. Competition/showmanship: this is purely for showing the elegance of movement.
2. Health: this is for better balance, stability, posture etc..
3. Martial: believe it or not - a competent Tai Chi practitioner has a very solid grounding in self defence.

Chin Na is basically the locks and pressure point training found throughout all Chinese marital arts - though can be studied on its own.

Hapkido - this is a Korean art which is somewhat of a cross between Taekwondo and traditional Jui Jitsu.

Anyway - yes, agree that with the right teacher/class Aikido is amazing.

Though from a proficient self defense perspective - I am definitely one for cross-training.

To tonynoriega above - great to see clubs training 'no gi'!

I used to take Aikido but I have to say it is quite a "watered" down discipline.

It is quite amusing to watch the Sensei respond to such statements, usually with just one finger and thumb. People usually change their mind by the time they're getting up from the mat for the third time.

Aikido is by design a gentle, defensive art. If you must have action and attacks, Karate, Muay Thai, or Taeqwando are better suited.

Aikido is nice, I think this is one of the cleanest martial arts concept and in my personal opinion one of the safest sports to practice. The thing I don't like about it is that many people mistake it for pa qua djan or other similar styles. I'm not sure which one was found first. Any ideas ?

Aikido and Sambo here. :) Really wanting to go for KM when I'm free, of course life is too hectic ATM.

I agree with Aikido being the cleanest. While it can be deadly, it's certainly better to avoid a scene rather than engage in a fight with someone. Also helps you keep your butt out of a cop car if things get nasty.

Been taking Aikido for about 6 weeks here, T'ai Chi as well. The latter is more like Yoga than anything else. Aikido is all about leverage. Chances are if you had to use it in real life, you're probably not going to be squaring off against someone else well versed in martial arts, just some person on the street or some drunk in a bar. If the goal is simply to end the dispute safely and avoid doing any serious physical damage and ending up in cuffs while bruising the opponents ego a bit, Aikido seems like a good skill to have. It's amazing what control of the wrist can do and how easy it can be to take someone down when you know how to take them off balance.