The Big Martial Arts Thread

[Darkman]

Martial arts is not magic, it is refinement of movement

well said!

[Lazy7]

go for Muay Thai Kick Boxing.

first up its the best version of martial arts for a street fight.

secondly you dont need to be stupidly flexible to be able to do all the moves.

finally - kick boxing doesn;t have any of the traditional stuff that can sometimes get tiresome.

its fast and physical where as a lot of traditionally taught martial arts are just for show and self dicipline.

[WINJA]

philip lams is really good, i went there 6 years 5 days aweek 2 hours a day minimum , the thai guys are good teachers and dont think they dont grapple cause they do , they teach simple easy to learn moves most importantly they teach you to engage one of the most important things is learning to hit and get hit and to take the punishment, its not enough to learn fancy moves cause you need to try them on people , dont be put off by the semi full or full contact training yeah it hurts a bit but you get used to it and its the most important lesson of all, i got a bag at home its quite hard but people can be hard when you hit them eg fist to head ,shin to elbow or shin to shin so get a hard bag at home , at home is good i liked to hit it after eating a big meal or coming home tired or wearing jeans shoes and a jacket also hitting it without a warmup and with no gloves , after all your most likely to get in a fight wearing jeans and shoes , maybe after a hard night when your tired , so mix your training up, dpnt trust those thai guys with money and most of them are dishonest except for piak i think hes still there

[Sensei]

LOL you all have a lot to learn !

[Colapop]

As Sensei will you not honor us with your words of wisdom?

[Hitcher]

Marital arts? You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.

[Drunken Monkey]

For pure self defence ninjutsu is arguably the best art out there. I'm sorry I don't have any contacts. Drunken Monkey does though, so you could ask him.

As JSG has stated, Ninjutsu is very much a pure self defense art, unlike its more sporterized cousins (e.g. Karate, Judo, etc). If you don't want to be known as the guy that kicks for the balls, pokes fingers in the eyes, breaks the wrist bones, then runs and hides; Ninjutsu isn't for you.
If it does sound like 'your bag', the most popular form is Bujinkan, the school as headed by 34th Grand Master Masaki Hatsumi.
http://carbon.zehym.com/kiwidojos/html/bujinkan.htm

There are a few others around Aucks as well, including:
http://www.sukisha.com/
First lesson is free, so it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

The current 'rage' is to mix your arts. Brazilian Jujitsu combined with Tae Kwon Do is quite a popular combination for MMA at the moment.

[justsomeguy]

Marital arts? You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.

That may be, but what kind of things would a person of your kind need, that would need more than a kind word to get? I've heard that a gun is a kind of thing people look unkindly upon. Swords on the other hand are said to be useless against a pen or stationery of a similar kind. Having said that, sometimes a lot can be achieved by simply being kind. Not that I condone any behaviour of the kind spoken off.

[justsomeguy]

First lesson is free, so it wouldn't hurt to try it out.

Eh you sure of that?? Depends how fit ol' Gareth is to begin with

[MidnightMike]

I did my first lesson of karate today.

Jesus christ, you need to be of a reasonable fitness just to do the warm ups, ive been out of the sporting loop ( competing at a national level )for a few years now. i look in great shape but infact inside i feel like a fat turd. I was watching these little kids less than half my size owning me on the push ups , strength wise i was all good, breaking the black belt level boards, but before you start martial arts spend a fair amount of time getting back into shape, itll save you some embarassment.

[DemonWolf]

MidnightMike... that was the same for me.. I've just started going back to Zen do Kai after about a 5 month break... and even though I play a couple sports my stamina and upper body strength wasn't as it use to be.. Though I do a good 3 hour session (once a week) I was slighly embarrassed and annoyed... though I only have myself to blame for not keeping up with my personal fitness. Its taken my body a week to recover from the session.. and after two weeks, it only now take a couple days before I'm not stiff..

[SlowHand]

Marital arts? You can get more of what you want with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word.

You point a gun at Mrs. Hitcher?

By the hammer of Thor, you wellingtonians are a hard bunch.

[JimO]

the movie Ong Bak is pretty cool for the fight scenes the story is pretty hockey though

[WINJA]

LOL you all have a lot to learn !

MAYBE, BUT MY LIFE DONT REVOLVE AROUND FIGHTING

[justsomeguy]

the movie Ong Bak is pretty cool for the fight scenes the story is pretty hockey though

The reviews said - no special effects - typical senseless story - but the English subtitles help.

The little fella makes it all look so easy