[Kyoshi71]

Originally Posted by twoturboz

Where I trained wasn't "commercialized" aka a franchise. Once I hit BB we would do cycles for a month at a time. Month of Muai(sp?) Thai month of BJJ, month of boxing. We'd get Gi's during BJJ and start on our knees with a partner and just have at it until one of us submitted. When doing boxing we'd always do body shots and face and balls were obviously off limits.

Way more awesome than a typical dojo. And sometimes we'd play with one handed broad swords and learn some moves, I mean I'm not quite sure when I'll ever be in a combat situation with a sword but hey, I'm prepared. And I can kick ass with a Bo-Staff

Seriously...
You were what, 13? training simultaneously in:
1) Tae Kwon Do
2) BJJ
3) Boxing
4) Muay Thai
5) Bo
6) Broad Sword

And you mastered/absorbed.......................................... ..................?

NONE!

I've been training consistantly (that means without interuption) for almost 25 years (hence my name) and started in my teens. I've also seen/taught shitloads of kids like you, year-in & year-out. I'm not impressed.

[Buegie]

Originally Posted by OC 335i

Which most still are (legitimate gyms). I had this discussion on another forum. BJJ is still a rare sport where you can train and even spar with your heroes. Absolute World Champions teaching each and every class. Amazing.

right, it hasn't really been commercialized yet, thankfully. There are a few bad gyms out there, I've heard some stories, but for the most part the sport is very legit. I just hope it stays that way and doesn't fall apart like alot of the other martial arts have in the U.S.

[OC Guy]

Originally Posted by Buegie

right, it hasn't really been commercialized yet, thankfully. There are a few bad gyms out there, I've heard some stories, but for the most part the sport is very legit. I just hope it stays that way and doesn't fall apart like alot of the other martial arts have in the U.S.

It'll be awhile...

The internet is a powerful tool that did not exist back then to circumvent frauds.

[Joonsup]

the mcdojo part was hilarious.

[Yvette]

its just important who you are learning it from......

[Javi335]

Serkan Yilmaz = god

A kick from him, and its gonna miss sky enogh to you to take the bend

[Tortfeasor 335xi]

The quality of any martial art depends on the skill of the instructor. When you have an unskilled instructor that got their black belt or whatever teaching designation you choose as a kid from a McDojo, as an above poster so eloquently put it, then it does not matter what style you learn, it wont be worth anything.

Any martial arts that gets popular eventually falls prey to the McDojo bastardization. Judo, Karate, TKD, and now we are seeing it with JJ, BJJ and MMA style fighting systems. Because its popular every gym has "classes" where they don't teach you how to defend yourself, they teach aerobics that looks like martial arts.

Its unfortunate and dangerous, because some kid bragging about their Black Belt or whatever is liable to get their ass kicked by a bully. I know too many people with Black Belts that don't know how to defend themselves. They went to schools that taught through line drills, patterns and other training tools and never sparred. Or if they did it was point sparring with breaks after every point so it was completely unrealistic.

[JMAX]

I agree with Tortfeasor [Hey, BTW, I hope you don't really go around engaging in tortious conduct! ]

Family friendly dojos (nothing wrong with that) focus less on the sparring and more on the self-defense, katas and/or drills -- sparring being limited to higher belt levels.

Personally, I believe sparring/sparring techniques should be introduced from day one, to allow the student to get acquainted with the "fighting"/contact aspect of martial arts.

I train in Kenpo Karate at a family-type dojo. I remember sparring not being introduced until purple belt, but only for the purposes of testing. I am up to my third-degree brown belt and, still, sparring is not mandatory, except for testing purposes. Of course, one can attend the sparring class anytime.

To a certain extent, this is why I enjoy taekowndo more, since sparring is just as critical as poomsae and is introduced from day one. I'm 43 and just earned my blackbelt after several years of training. (With family, work and one thousand other responsibilities and commitments, it's a minor miracle I've gotten to this point.) I also like taekwondo for the sport aspect of it, rendering each class a great cardiovascular workout.

By the way, how many here train in WTF style TKD versus ITF?

Thanks.

JMAX

[ricanbandit]

Just had to add my two cents. I took TKD instruction from 7 until I was 13 (BB 1 DAN), then I left and went to study Shotokan, where even with all of my TKD skills it still took me 5 full years to reach BB. IMO Shotokan was a lot harder, but then again my Sensei was very orthodox and old school, he did not believe in MA as a business. You had to earn your rank.

Then the whole life, marriage/kids thing kicked in and I practiced less and less. Now I am just a 48 year old man that reminisces from time to time. But one thing is true. MA helped mold me into the person I have become today. Nowadays, I could not do a dolrya chagi or a Mawashi-geri to save my life. But then again, now a days I have a .40 caliber Glock 23 to keep me from harm

[Motif]

I looked at TKD to supplement my stand up game but chose Sanshou instead. Too many dojos teach it to little kids who do it just because their mommy made them, kind of waters the results down. Sanda is less heard of and soccer moms don't stick their faces in it.

[slmdgee]

Hhaha i use to do tkd when i was 4 than in till i was in high school. I started doing demos, than it lead to competition. My first dojo was a traditional style than i went to a more modern style sparring school. I loved defense!

[bosstones]

I trained TKD off and on as a little kid...in the sense that would train, then move before testing for yellow, rinse, & repeat. I was the eternal white belt. Eventually, I moved away from belt based systems due to the McDojo and 'string along' mentality that plagued a lot of places. I always found it interesting that there would be a lot of brown, red, and black belt kids that were, at best, 8 or so years old whereas the older populous would train just as much, in many cases harder, but not be able to progress in rank as quick. Too often would threat of leaving lead to sudden test and promotion.

I trained in muay Thai for 6+ years starting in college well before UFC became big. Much nicer w/ less BS. I also trained in Pakration for 3+ years w/ some random grappling thereafter as time allowed. Contrary to popular belief, some of the nicest people I ever met came from the gyms/schools I trained at despite the NHB banner that still flew back at that time. People did use to look at me weird when I came to class w/ bruises and scrapes on me.

With UFC having been 'big' for a while now, as expected, both the level of instruction as well as student base has declined. I remember meeting a middle aged guy and his, maybe, 9 year old kid at a sporting goods store once. They 'trained' at Shonie Carter's place. I was at the store looking to see what heavy bag mount options they had since I was putting up a banana bag in my garage but wanted to be able to tuck it away w/o dismounting it. The kid was going all ape-shit spyder monkey on one of the bags in the store and the dad was just egging him on. Based on what he was saying and what the kid appeared to be attempted, I figured it was muay Thai-based kickboxing so I struck up a conversation w/ the dad but pleaded ignorant regarding any training I had done. He was your stereotypical douche bag MMA fan that thought he (and his kid) were tough. BJJ, I think, is starting to see more of this but there still seems to be a very good set of schools with quality instruction available. Sadly, "kickboxing" has not fared as well.

Motif, very cool that you study Sanshou. Along with Judo and Kali, Sanshou has always perked my interest.

[OC Guy]

^csb

srs though. good read, would read again.

[Das_Stig]

used to love tkd, did it up until i went away for school, always wanted to get back into it, know my flexibility is way down now, sucks. just got all those tourney trophies for memories now, cousin was way good junior olympic team. and he used to gold medal on top of that.

[pauloT]

Just a quick intro, just purchased a 114i Sport tho haven't taken delivery as yet, not due unti March. Anyway, I am a 2nd Dan BB, with the BTCB, UK, WTF style. Have trained for about 16years and was an instructor for just short of 3 years but my career took off and sadly had to give up the teaching due to working away constantly. Still get time tho to train when I can!

Paul

[Alpine Whiteboy]

I was never interested in TKD but I do train in JKD, Muay Thai, and Wing Chun...

www.NuBreedMartialArts.com