Right now I train Choy Li Fut and Sanshou, with Tai Chi on the side (gonna have to learn it as part of instructor training, so getting a head start).
I’m not very experienced in Tai Chi, but from what I’ve come to learn, there’s a lot of shitty mysticism that people have added in, like those 1-punch knockouts or dim mak kind of shit. That was one of the first thing my Sifu talked about.
It’s really all just about being relaxed and hitting/moving/grabbing/rotating with your whole bodyweight, rather than snapping into a strike, etc. A lot of open handed stuff, too. There’s rules about how your body must move in relation to itself, not overextending your shoulders, not shifting your weight until your foot is planted,etc, which makes for good mental exercise, since it’s usually trained slow.
In practise, like most martial arts, it looks just like everything else, though. The strikes are very basic. There’s really only so many ways the body can move.
I just started Wing Chun. It’s really cool, but one of my biggest hurdles right now is all of that shoulder tension from playing video games, slouching, and doing bench press all the time. If I exaggerate, it’s like I’m shrugging all the time so right now I’m trying to get those shoulders to drop. Kinda tough. Been doing corrective exercises, stretching, myofascial release by using a tennis ball. Not sure if I’m doing enough of the right stuff.
Yang-style, which is the most commonly taught, far as I know. More important thing is to just find a good school, many people just teach Tai Chi for health, which is legit, too, apparently. Supposedly it’s good for preventing mental deterioration.
RE Shoulders: You’ve just gotta relax, and it might take some training. Work your back (pull ups or whatever) to balance out your chest. An overdeveloped front mean your front/chest muscles contract more, which puts your back and shoulders under constant tension.
Yeah, I’ve been pounding away at those back exercises, all of them; and I’ve been practicing the stances and I do feel my shoulders pulling my traps downward and back. So hopefully, the shoulders will drop eventually, I really hope so.
One of the TAs today was a total dick. He’s always roughing me up when “showing” me techniques. I never really pick up anything useful from him. When he’s correcting me, he complains that I don’t do it like the guys at the high level. Oooo I don’t know, because I just started? And then he moans and groans about how teaching is gift to us students. You don’t want to teach people, then don’t. Simple. Fuck that guy. Next time, he wants to “work” with me or should I say put me down, I’m just gonna politely refuse and work on something else. The two most senior instructors are good but it’s a mixed bag. I’ll try to make it work, but if it’s too much, fuck it, I’ll just find something else to do, like Baji maybe, haha.
I’ll throw that on my list to keep an eye out for, I been looking for a good class. They started at a Krav maga class at my gym but the instructor seemed full of it and got real sketchy about where he trained, no accreditation’s etc.
But seriously for your average Beta that just doesn’t want to get the shit beat out of them go to a boxing gym and tell them you want to work out.
Yeah, a big problem with Sanda/Sanshou is it doesn’t have much of a governing body. As a sport, it’s relatively modern and has mostly been exclusive to China.
But, I like it over Muay Thai, tbh. Yes, you can’t usually elbow or spend half a round in clinch, but you can straight up catch those kicks and then suplex people.
Hey guys, I am interested in learning a martial art, and I would need some help. I mainly want to do it to stay in shape (and do something healty), so how effective is in real street fight is less relevant (never been invovled in a fight so far).
So, what I found in my area are Karate, Taekwondo and Qwan ki do. Does anybody practice these styles ? how are they, which one would you choose ? Since I am new, I’m not really sure what to expect. I assisted to a qwan ki do train session and I liked it.
Any thoughts on these martial arts would be welcome (differences, etc)
I’ve been casually practicing Judo on and off for the past 20 years. My interest waned though and I quit 2009, but gaining an understanding of fighting game fundamentals through SFIV and realizing the similarities reignited it and I went from a “Oh, I won a randori?”-student to a “Oh, I lost a randori?” one. Sadly I tore my ACL in 2013, so I’ve shelved it until I’m in a position physically and socially where I can consider getting surgery. Was just about to get 1st Kyu when it happened, which was really disappointing. Only ever competed once. We were 4 people and I got 3rd, but considering the skill gap between me and the 1st and 2nd-placing participants (Both black belts, one of which I know has placed in large tournaments) I feel content with that. Still, I’d really like to get that black belt some day, but it probably won’t happen since I don’t compete and I don’t feel like becoming a teacher (And even then we’re running out of people to teach right now).
Well, I need to find something in my area, and I didn’t find any wushu dojo. I could only find karate do (traditional), taekwondo and Qwan ki do close to me.
These would be my choices. I don’t really know the differences between them, so I would appreciate if other people want to share their experiences - things like how hard is to train, how practical it is (while not essential, still matters), being well rounded, fun, etc.
The only thing I know is that tkd is heavy on kicks - wether this is a good thing or not, beats me. I wonder how tkd is in comparisson to karate and qwan ki do
