Is anyone into any kind of martial art?

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Good for you!

[quote="kotshka"]
If I can find the time and a good English-speaking teacher I may start with Kung Fu as well. It is based in the same roots and principles as Tai Chi.

quote]

What style do you practise? I study Lee, Sun and Yang. I also practise Gong Fu as well I highly recommend doing both martial arts they really support each other.

Yang. I'm still a beginner, not quite finished learning the first part of my form yet. I don't even actually know the name of the form, but it's a short form, 37 positions. Still on the look out for a Kung Fu teacher but I imagine it will not be easy to find one who speaks English and isn't just ripping off foreigners. At least I have a really good Taiji teacher. Sometimes during the Saturday trainings (in the park for all levels) there are other teachers there from all over Europe who travel to Prague now and then to study under my teacher. I really got lucky finding him.

How long does it take for you to earn a belt?

It varies by belt, by how much one trains, and by dojo. At my dojo, the average is about 6 months/belt up to brown, then a year between browns, and then after shodan it varies between a couple of years and a couple of decades between black belts depending on how much someone trains.

2 years of wrestiling till I sort of broke my knee (not technically broke but took a year to heal)
1 year of Krav Maga

no time for anything now, but want to return to KM or start boxing/kickboxing

I've always wanted to try out Aikido, since it's the closest to Jiu Jitsu I can find in my area. Looks fun.

fun it definitely is
It's really cool to be able to casually fling oneself at the ground, roll softly, and get right back up with little effort. It's fun to be thrown 15 feet, hear the rest of the class gasping in amazement as you roll, get back up laughing, and run in to attack your sensei again, telling yourself as you go, ' this time, I'm really going to get him!' and then end up flying through the air again.

Of course, it takes a lot of work before you can get there. The work is fun (though occasionally emotionally rather rough - sometimes you learn things about yourself that you'd rather not know), too, so it's worth it.

Must admit I'm getting annoyed with training (karate/JJJ). Well, maybe not training, but just how much the different teaching styles react to my learning styles.

I was doing four lessons a week until today. Two children's lessons because I pay a flat monthly fee that allows me to attend any lessons on offer, and since I have to take my son to his lessons, I might as well do the lessons too.

Then, after I take my son home, I return to do the adult lessons. But while I have one teacher for the two kids lessons and one of the adult lessons, I have a different teacher for the remaining adult lesson. He's brilliant. Very knowledgeable. But my brain can't keep up with him. Information overload. I find myself wanting to withdraw within myself while doing his lesson.

Of course the logical answer might be to drop the class and focus on the other three lessons under the one teacher, whose style suits me... but my continued presence in the kids programme seems to have upset kids and parents. So I pulled out in order to only do the adult classes. Just two classes. One of which I find discouraging.

If I reduce it all to one class, I might as well not do it.

Annoyed. Depressed.

Western boxing. Been training, off and on, since I was 15.

I've got a pretty serious advantage in reach compared to most, and good chin. But my endurance isn't as good as I'd like, and my footwork pretty much just sucks.

Against a slow strong, brawler, type I'm decent. That's where my reach is most beneficial, I can just stay out of their range (I'm not very quick, but quicker than they usually are) and deliver simple jab-cross combos at my leisure. That, along with the ability to shrug off the relatively few (albeit stronger) blows they might land, and I do pretty well.

Against a quicker, pressure, type I'm not so great. Like I said, my footwork sucks and my endurance is sub-par, so trying to stay out of their reach is difficult. I'm dependent on my own reach to keep them at bay, which becomes a major disadvantage if they get too close. Not only do I have a hard time getting back out of their range, but my longer reach means I have to swing at awkward angles when they get close, lessening my effectiveness. And my ability to take a few solid hits isn't quite as useful against someone who is focused on delivering a flurry of faster but less powerful punches.

To DoniiMann:
Would it help if you talked to your teacher about it?

You young uns with your Far Eastern martial arts, back in my day we had the Welsh Martial Art of Llap Goch.

Click on this link ( Link to Llap Goch) to see an old advertisement.

I did hung gar and boxing for a few months back when I had a gym membership. unfortunately, I had to stop due to my work schedule (damn you, night shift!) and I could not renew my membership afterwards because I was studying accountancy.

Actually, I have the time for it now. But I need to review my finances, since I am going to live only with my mother after my grandmother and uncle move next week (I am happy for them and EXTREMELY happy for me and my mother; my grandmother is a terrible person to live with).

Anyway, even if I can take classes again, I am not sure if I would do it. I am much more interested in self-teaching parkour. Besides, even though "mastering one's body" is a great thing, we all know mankind's real achievement when it comes to combat is the development of weapons and the use of tools. Jackie Chan is the best example to follow:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0JYNznbL0Q[/youtube]

Fists are for apes.

Nah- fists are for anyone who ever regularly goes unarmed at any point in the week.

And if you lose your weapon or it malfunctions? Whatchya gonna do brother!

Who's watching UFC on Fox tomorrow? The card is so STACKED!

I posted the Jackie Chan video for a reason. Anything can be a weapon.