anyone precticing martial arts?

[lighthouse]

I was wondering if some of you practice any. I practice Iaijutsu (one of the arts of the samurai sword) and I`m doing my first test to raise grades on October.....so you can guess the amount of practice I`m doing right now......

Cheers
Juan Pablo

[Shreddy]

I used to study Tibetan Kung Fu, Lama / White Crane style. The school was pretty hardcore they got into lots of street fighting stuff ala the Jeet Kun Do model. So we also studied Kali/Escrima, Wooden dummy (Wing Chun), Thai boxing, American Boxing and grapling. I went 9 months before I got my white belt, yeah pretty insane.

There is a Tibetan Kung Fu school that opened up by my house, it looks to be more traditional than street fighting but I think I'm going to sign up. They teach Lama, Thai Chi, and Chin Na. No contracts, belt system or uniforms required just a flat $10 a class rate.

E

[lighthouse]

Yeah....street fighthing doesn`t fit the true spirit of martial arts at all....hope this new school turns out to be a real school!

Juan Pablo

[el mae de las teclas]

Cool that samurai stuff!

For four years I practiced taekwondo, and a few weeks after I got my black belt I quit for some strange reason.... :? Al ready 4 years have passed fomr that day and I've tried a couple of times to get back, but it's harder now, with my university and working. But I really need it cause my physical condition is deteriorating, no air on my lungs, no flexibility, lose of strength, etc etc....

I hope I can find the discipline one more time.
Andres

[Ael]

I used to do Capoiera for about 2 years, but I injured my shoulder, stopped for like 6 months, and now I have no motivation to get back into it...I would like to but school is coming up in a week and I haven't had time...I definitely want to get into martial arts again once I've settled with school and can do it.

[lighthouse]

Thanx Andrés....is a very cool discipline, it helps a lot to improve your character and to value every day of your life and try to do your best always....cause you can die anyday!

tuanis mae
Juan Pablo

[6fingers]

you can also injure your fingers anyday.

[Georges]

I used to do Tae Kwon Do during 5 years before; it was an excellent sport, but not at all adapted to the dangers of the real world.

I've been practicing Lapunti Arnis de Abanico for a couple of months now. It's a filippino art of war, comparable to ninpo and alike. It's all around self-defense and survival, with or without or against (several) weapons, the basic weapon being the stick. The basic technique (footwork and defence strategies) remains the same, whatever the weapon or bare hands, what changes is the way you handle distance/speed and the way you handle each weapon individually (or even two different weapons at the same time).

For those who want to know more about this fascinating style are kindly invited to visit the following link:

http://www.lapunti-arnis.com

Yeah....street fighthing doesn`t fit the true spirit of martial arts at all....hope this new school turns out to be a real school!

Depends on what you understand under the word "streetfighting". If by streetfighting you mean going on the street and attack any people, that was certainly not the goal of martial arts but rather the one of gangsters and criminals.

Martial arts developed for the sake of self-defence (e.g. shaolin kung-fu, ninjitsu, lapunti arnis) or even war (e.g. bushido, etc.). It was practiced by monks, exiled people, fugitives, people searching for enlightment but also by warriors like the samurai. Naturally, the training of such arts of war not only focused on technique but also on philosophy, psychology and the laws of nature helping its practicians to true enlightenment and body mastery but its goal was most often self-defence.

It was only after countries such as Japan (in the 18/19th century) adopted the Western war strategies (in order to catch up with the Western countries) that martial arts progressively turned into sports because war was no more popular. Karate, judo, aikido,etc. resulted from that cultural change and developed from the complex arts of war such as ninjitsu or bushido (etc.) but they each only show a few small aspects of their "grandfathers".

However, these days original arts of war such as ninjitsu, samurai and alike can no more be tested for real and therefore it's true that even those martial art systems focus more on the enlightenment aspect.

[Ehren]

Almost did Kung Fu this summer, but never got around to it. Always has sounded fascinating, but time's hard to come by - it won't get any easier, either, now that I'm starting college in a few weeks. Bleh.

[Bastardo Demono]

I have a first degree black belt in tang soo do, though I have been away from it for a couple years