Martial Artists Aspies

Post Reply New Topic

I've done Kung fu, Judo, and Boxing. Currently I train in Muay Thai and MMA. I'd like to take up Kendo or Escrima at some point too.

Wow thats a lot to do.

He he Well got to keep busy. Don't have much else to do!

Well Kumdo is my first martial art ever.

And if you're wonder what Kumdo is its the same thing as Kendo but its the Korean variant which is more aggressive than the Japanese variant.

So, rather like Hapkido compared to Aikido?

The South Koreans do seem quite good at adding aggression to things... Perhaps their mothers didn't love them enough?

I wanted to do karate, but mum said it's expensive.

Um I don't think so because they deeply hate the Japanese for a long time so they got rid of the traditional Japanese stuff of Kendo and modified into their own model, Kumdo.

Strangely enough, everyone in the Kendo/Kumdo world evenutally train in South Korea to become more aggressive.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumdo
My dojang is at the bottom of the article http://www.kumdo.com/.

I wouldn't be so fast to right boxing off as not an art. It can be used very effectively in street fighting and self defense, in striking scenarios. You've got punching, ducking, bobbing and weaving, it's a more complex art than it appears to be. Some martial arts do also come from outside of asia (other cultures)..... Sambo (russian), krav maga (Israel), savate (france), capoeira (afro/brazilian) you can find effective fighting systems bred into any culture around the world really.
But just knowing the moves won't make one better either, it takes enough practice for the movements to become instinctive. There is no superior style, no bad style, finding the right martial art depends on the individual, some might be good at kick boxing while someone else might be better at jj or submissions grappling.
I prefer more direct forms, kick-boxing, street fighting, submissions grappling, kempo, some TKD (which I mainly incorporate into my kick boxing), a few spec. forces tricks (i've known plenty of marines and green berretts back in my day)..... It's not the prettiest stuff in the world but it'll get the job done...... On the same note, even **if** it were something pretty or flashy, such as capoeira for instance, I wouldn't say that necessarily meant it was useless or ineffective. If you look at capoeira's history you will see why it looks the way it does.

I find this subject very interesting.

Personally I'd always taken the term 'martial art' to mean any study of combat. Be it asian, middle eastern, european e.t.c. That is how it appears in wikipedia too. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martial_arts

But then I looked at several online dictionaries and they all specified it had to be oriental in origin. I don't personally agree with this. As the term martial art itself originated in 15th century europe.

If you trace the history of Asian martial arts it can be argued that their origin is from the fighting styles of boxing and wrestling from ancient Greece. The thought being that Alexander the Great exported these combat styles when he conquered India in 325 BC.

snake, i agree with your account on boxing.

in almost every striking art, youll learn some kind of hand strikes. however, the total focus on hand striking in boxing will inevitably improve your hand strikes, so cross-training in boxing is never a bad idea if you want to hit harder with your hands. itsnot that boxing moves are superior themselves (well, except the obvíous things like an improved stance for the body mechanics at work, because no care needs to be taken for also being able to kick), but training hand strikes excessively, training solid body mechanics for hand strikes excessively, etcetera... will undoubtedly reap benefits.

not to mention that a sports-focussed martial art will have excessive fitness and strength training in its curriculum.

I was being respectful for one thing.

Also aries brought up an article that makes sense about the definition of martial arts.

I did shotokan karate for about 5 years. I now do wushu and sanshou. Sanshou which is part of wushu which is basicly chinese mma with more throws. I really want to do muay thai also. If I did boxing, that would be fine too. I also do tricking which isn't really a martial art. It's a mix of gymnastics, martial arts jump kicks, and some breakdancing moves.

I train in Kickboxing and BJJ (Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu). Both are a fantastic workout and are also great fun, though right now i'm way more focussed on the kickboxing.
I'm more into the striking side of martial arts as i've been doing it longer but BJJ is absolutely fascinating to me and hopefully it will become as fun as the kickboxing in the near future.
Since my coordination has improved markedly from when I started i'm also contemplating Capoeira as I find it a beautiful martial art to watch and i've always wanted to be able to perform it, though until I started training my coordination or lack there-of always precluded me from taking the art up.

Oh, and as some above posters have stated, mutual respect for other martial arts and their practitioners is of the upmost importance. I personally have no interest in training in particular systems/styles but I still respect them greatly for what they are and what they offer.

The only thing that annoys me about martial arts is the people who steadfastly stick to one martial art but say they want to be a complete fighter. They say their one martial art is enough. I subscribe to the Bruce Lee philosophy on this where one should learn everything they can, subtract that which doesn't work for them, and then add what is uniquely their own.

I used to when I was younger, but it got repetative and boring. I think it might have been called Jujitso, or something like that? I really don't remember, I was single digits back then.

I'd still advise you to hang in there with the JJ, that way you've got a grappling style to compliment your muay thai, so your prepared to strike OR grapple, whatever the situation requires. But that's just my advice though.

I did Zen Karate (cross of Shotokan/Tae Kwon Do/Kickboxing) in Canada for a number of years. It was my "aspie" hobby that I loved and tried so hard to be an expert in. I went to tournaments and actually made some awesome friends. Everyone was really nice!

Then I had to move to the USA and could never find a good enough school here in Georgia. Too many yuppy belt factories to satisfy my aspie taste.

I'd like to get back into it but I'm still looking.