I earned a black belt in Tae Kwon Do about eleven years ago, but did not pursue the discipline once I went to college. Now I'm afraid to get back into it as my skills have (obviously) stagnated from disuse and a sedentary lifestyle. I think any vaguely competent green can have me screaming for mercy inside a minute.
I used to be pretty good, if I do say so myself. When I was seventeen, I placed third in the Texas state championship and qualified for the U.S. national tournament, but I was unable to attend because my family ended up moving from Texas to Washington at the time. That's one of the big disappointments in my life. Had I placed in the national tournament I could have tried out for the junior Olympic teams.
Gosh. Thinking back on it now, I'm amazed at some of the stuff I could do when I was younger.
Originally posted by Poison GodmachineMe too... but not in quite as positive a light... when i was 29 years old i had a black belt karate guy (John) work for me as a carpenter. We stopped at a bar one night after work. After about 3 pitchers of beer, we were talking about karate and i was shooting off about what i thought of it. He took exception, stood up, and kicked the bar stool out from under me. He was 6 ft. 180... i was 6 ft. 255. Both about 5 % body fat. I picked myself up off the floor and he did a round house kick, catching me in the side of the head hard enough that i saw stars, and brought blood out the ear. He yelled "want more *&$!((* ? Do Ya?" and by that time i was finally stopped laughing and was getting just a bit angry. I yelled, "Bring it On!" and he came with the same kick. I caught his leg in flight, put him onto his back and broke his leg in three places. Then beat the crap out of him just for the hell of it. The police wrote it up as "mutual combat". When he got out of the hospital he came by the work site to get his tools which were still in my truck. We laughed, he got better and worked for me for another 4 years. When he left to start his own framing business, i gave him three nail guns, a big emglo compressor and a couple of 77's. We still see each other on occasion and have a laugh about the "great" fight we had when we were kids.
[Gosh. Thinking back on it now, I'm amazed at some of the stuff I could do when I was younger.[/b]
Judo and Kung Fu are cool like that. All the quick hand strikes and stuff make it much easier and more fun to learn than doing all the requisite leg stretching and leg endurance exercises that are the bane of Tae Kwon Do practioners in multidisciplinary competitions. Almost every one that I've competed in or attended is won by someone well-versed in Jeet Kun Do, Judo, or Karate.
Originally posted by !~TONY~!Remembering... I had a great uncle... Dean Millward from Pocatello Idaho who was a gunner on a b17 during wwii... he was shot down and spent 2 years in a stalag. A Brittish seargent held informal "ju-jitzu" sessions each day. Dean said that those sessions were the only thing that kept him sane. At family gatherings when i was a kid, he used to teach us how to "grab the arm, go to knee, roll them up"! he was a fun uncle. He died two years ago now.
That's quite an interesting story. The martial arts I'm in don't throw those crazy flying kicks. In fact, in Judo there are no strikes. Although I can't throw you to the ground and choke you out pretty fast. Hehehe....😀
As to throwing me to ground and choking me... at my age you wouldn't have to throw me very hard. My cat knocks me off the couch at least twice a week, and she only weighs about 8 pounds! (it's those damned sharp claws, i think). On the other hand... make sure i don't land on you. My weight has increased exponentially with age! 😀
Hey Poison GodMachine, most multidisciplinary competitions are now won by someone with good grappling and submission skills. (Judo) Just think about this: Let's take Gracie Jiu-Jitsu for example. Tae-Kwon Do stylists can do these great flying spinning heel kicks and these great kick combinations but when you are interrupted by a quick single/double leg takedown and either mounted and punched into submission or choke/armbar/leglocked, all those flashy kicks are trash. Grapplers dominate MOST MMA/NHB competitions these days. Royce Gracie was 7-0 in the UFC. Jeet Kune Do is also cool not only because it was created by Bruce Lee but in the fact that they are trained for every situation and are very flexible (not the gumby type, the versatile type) so they can handle themselves. 😀 This is a good discussion!
Originally posted by royalchickenThis is one of those "truth is stranger than fiction" things, tying "Greco-Roman" and "babysitting". (I hope Paul Harvey doesn't steal this!) As you notice from my handle... my wife and i are from the home of the current olympic heavy weight Greco-roman gold medalist... Rulon Gardner. My wife lived just across highway 89 from the Gardners, up Hale Canyon in Afton. She used to baby sit Rulon when he was a baby.... Go figure. Side note : Rulon is named after "Rulon Osmond" who is father of Donny and Marie. My sister Sherry married Rulon's nephew... who also worked for me as a carpenter, and was the one who talked the bar owner into not having us put in jail the night of the big fight mentioned previously!
I occasionally babysit for a 10-year-old who is fairly competent in Tae Kwon Do. Even with my 30 pounds on him and training in Greco-Roman wrestling, he can still give me a run for my money.
Tony:
You're probably right about how competitions are won nowadays. As I said, I've been out of the loop for over a decade. When I was competitive, the Judo guys I saw generally (though, not always) were too slow to beat the JKD and KF guys.
A lot of schools have taken to offering training outside the strict confines of a particular martial art. Whenever I drive by a studio (in Seattle, anyway), they invariably advertise at least three forms of training. This was not the case when I was competing. Perhaps this is the reason why Judo practioners are winning more often than not.
The reverse crescent kicks and hook kicks and fly kicks that are taught in TKD are pretty much bunk in real fighting situations. I totally agree. In close quarters, you need to be able to maneuver. You have to be an exceptional fighter (I knew a guy who could kick you in the face standing less than a foot away) to make it work in uncontrolled, non-tournament environments. So if you want to learn self-defense, TKD is most definitely NOT the route to take.
I always ranged very freely in the rings when I fought, as TKD is predicated upon a certain amount of space between you and your opponent in order to generate the twisting snap required for power. I'm not a very big guy and relied on speed mostly to achieve the marginal success that I had. The matches I lost were always (always!) to some smarty-pants guy who tried to stay as close to me as possible. You can't win a fight when you're more concerned with your spacing than the fight itself.
What a great thread. Sometimes I forget how much I loved martial arts.
Martial Arts Rock. I just jumped into the scene again recently and I am so pumped about it. I did it when I was a kid (Kenpo karate) and I quit because even at 7 I thought Katas were crap. I still think they are. That's why I like Jiu-Jitsu and Judo. They are very applicable and are practiced by rolling around and sparring with people to perfect the techniques. My friend is going to the Junior Olypmics for TKD. He's quite the fighter himself. He has had some serious problems with his legs though from all the kicking. He had it bandaged up for about a month or so and it killed him when he put too much weight on it! 😀
I migrated from karate to kick boxing to doing Thai boxing at the moment. It's getting a bit too intense though (3 broken toes and a broken rib in the past 12 months).
Thai boxing is great for self defense because it isn't styleised, but only if you're clear headed enough to use it & not panic.
My opinion: thai boxing mixed with wrestling is what's needed to win multidisipline competitions. Most fights end up on the ground after 3 blows, so you got to be able to fight down there. If you're not allowed to grapple then Thai boxing has a good shot against any other style because of the simple mix of speed & brutal power.