Choosing the right martial art. Part 1- hard striking styles.
Mar 18 '01
The Bottom Line You should choose a martial art according to your moral condition and physical ability.
I know, that this doesn't seem a particularly right place to put this article, but if you think about it, martial arts are a sort of equipment through which you improve you well being.
As far as i can see people are writing about whatever comes to their mind, and that's why i decided to write about martial arts, and how to choose the right one for yourself. Before you start reading, i'd like to tell you about my own martial arts experience. I've started training when i was 15 y.o. My first discipline was kung-fu, which i didn't like very much, so i quit. The i've trained taekwondo for about a year, finding that wasn't to my taste, i started doing shotokan karate, and now it's been about five years, and i'm a black belt. Somewhere along the way i received some boxing instruction. So, i can't say that i haven't done any martial arts. Plus i read a lot about martial arts, try to talk to people who practice other styles. So, i hope you can accept my explanations with some amount of trust.
This is the first part of my "guide", and if there would be enough people viewing this article, then i'll write the second part, focusing on soft striking styles. So, if people will find this helpful, the i'll write on, until i'll go through all the martial arts.
My motivation to write about martial arts is that a lot of people out there are doing martial arts, and don't even know if that's what they want to do, or maybe there are people who want to start training but they don't know what to study. Some people have to try everything, and then stay with whatever they like, but it's hard to go away from your instructor(sensei, sifu, teacher call'em what you will) once you spend some time training under him. Plus, most of us want to study one martial art and get really good at it, so imagine your frustration when you train for years, but at the end you realize that you don't really feel any connection to your art, and you start looking for something else. So, in order to avoid frustration of going back and forth, you can read this editorial and maybe figure some thing out. So, here goes;
First i'd like to explain what hard striking styles are. It just happens to be that "hard" means rough and painful, striking is inflicting damage upon another using your limbs, or simply punching and kicking. To give a few examples- karate, kickboxing, capoiera etc,. I have to mention that striking arts are for people who are ready to hurt others, not in training(though accidents happen) but in real fight. I know it sounds crazy, you guys are probably saying "Isn't that what you want to do in a real fight? You want to hurt the other guy, right?", right and wrong. Believe it or not there are people who feel bad about hurting other people, and there are a lot of them. It might sound ridiculous, but there are religions that oppose violence towards another human being in any way, even in self defense. That's why there are martial arts that are centered on gently dealing with you opponent without inflicting any serious damage. BUT, we are talking about striking arts here, and that means hitting other people real hard in vital spots to cause extensive damage, we are talking about knocking people out, hitting them so hard that they cease to be a threat to you. In order to inflict damage to others through striking you have to learn how to strike properly, and that means hours of drills, endurance training and sparring.
Some people are unable to perform these training routines due to physical condition, or a simple state of mind. Some people just don’t want to sweat too much. That’s why they have an option not to study striking arts, but study soft arts such as Aikido or Dim-mak kung fu. Now that we’ve established what striking arts are, I’m going to describe the most common striking martial arts.
1)Karate(do)- A martial art that originated on Okinawa, then was adopted by Japanese during the occupation. There are three main schools of karate, from which all the other karate styles brunch out.
-Shotokan- probably the most widely practiced style of karate, which was found by Funakoshi, school focuses on speed and precision of techniques rather than on raw force of a fighter. Bulk of training is kata(forms consisting of movements), drills and sparring.
-Goju ryu- Hardcore school of karate, fighters rely heavily on their physical ability to block and take punches, therefore training consists of brutal endurance exercises, and drills mixed with kata, with full contact sparring introduced later in the menu. Goju ryu karate-ka have always been famous for their endurance, strength and overall toughness.
-Shorin ryu- a mix of the two above, plus a arsenal of evasion techniques is introduced, fighter don’t tend to stand their ground and fight, but evade and counter. Some people say it’s the most balanced and rational style of karate.
There is one thing you must understand about karate. There is a big difference between karate and karate-do. When you enroll in a karate school you are going to be doing a lot of free sparring. Karate school are oriented on tournaments and fun. Karate-do schools on the other hand are places where you really learn how to fight, you learn self defense, you get some bare knuckle sparring and get to know the karate way of life. So, you have to choose between fun, competition and learning to defend yourself.
2)Taekwon do- Korean art, that is believed to be the most popular martial art in the world. Everyone has seen Olympic Taekwon do, but there more to it than just pretty kicks. Again if you study sport taekwon do, you get to compete and have plenty of fun, but when you study traditional taekwon do it’s a whole different thing. Arsenal of techniques consists mainly of kicks, which are drilled on until they become as fast as punches(which rarely happens). There are thousands of taekwon do schools, so you have to be careful not to get into some shed with a sloppy black belt instructor.
3)Capoiera- now that’s an art not for everyone. Brazilian art that incorporates mainly acrobatic kicks, like cart wheel kick, and numerous acrobatic feats for which you have to be in a great shape. Training consists of brutal stretching and endurance training, needless to say that some people might not be able to attain levels of strength needed to perform such techniques. But that’s why there aren’t too many instructors around, not many people get good enough at it to teach and still be able to perform these techniques.
4)Kung fu- kung fu is s tricky art, because it incorporates all kinds of strikes and grappling. Many people think that kung fu is a soft art, but it is striking art, you hit people and hurt them, so it’s really a soft thing to do. Kung-fu incorporates not only empty hand fighting but it also teaches numerous traditional Chinese weapons, such as halberd, broad sword, chain, spear, hammers etc,. It is a very interesting art with a lot of things to explore, and it is also believed to be the most beautiful martial art. Plus it’s the oldest one, so it’s credited with creation of all other martial arts.
5)Kickboxing- boxing with legs. Unlike traditional Asian arts kickboxing has no history or background, as well as traditions or philosophies. Some people say that it’s not even a martial art, and I agree, but for the sake of letting you know what it is mentioned it here. Kickboxing is not art because it was created simply for competition. There’s nothing to it, except for physical training, but when you get good at it, you have a good chance at defending yourself. Training consists of endurance training, drills and lot’s of sparring.
6)Savate- French kickboxing. It’s believed to be inspired by early karate masters who came to France to teach. It focuses on kicks only. It’s not so much a competition art, but a self defense oriented one. There’s even a saying about Savate which frenchmen made up – “Real Savate is meant to be demonstrated in boots”, which implies that you’re in a street fight. Savate teaches a lot of vicious low kicks. Stretching and drills with sparring are a training menu.
7)Boxing- not an art as well. I think that’s the most popular “human beating” thing ever. Everyone knows what it is, everybody has seen it. Just in case you don’t know what it is I’ll describe it. The only thing you can do is punch. You get thrown into sparring immediately, because that’s the only way you are going to learn how to fight. Pad drills, and heavy bag drills are a must. Lot’s of physical conditioning.
7)Tang soo do- a style of taekwondo, that’s believed to be a more steady and reliable form of taekwon do, it’s closer to traditional taekwondo, but it still features approximately 70% kicks and 30% punches.
8)Jeet kune do- an art created by Bruce Lee, there’s no kata to practice, no specific drills. The ideology of jeet kune do is that everyone should adapt techniques for themselves, there shouldn’t be any rules. A person should react to an attack freely as he wishes. Bruce Lee’s background in kung fu influenced art as it includes a lot of hand techniques and low kicks. Training includes drills and sparring with overall endurance training.
That will do it for the main striking arts. However there are other martial arts that incorporate strikes as well as grappling. But that’s going to be in the next article. I hope I helped you in choosing an art to your liking, but if you’d like me wrote more about other arts, just leave me a comment, and I’ll do so.
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Member: Alex
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