martial arts and self improvement

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Does anyone here practice martial arts? I have been taking classes in kick boxing, submissions grappling, and kempo. Martial arts are great for conditioning mind, body, and soul.... Many styles are just as much about discipline, moral character, personal growth, healing, philosophy, and attaining the balance of mind, body, and (if you believe in one) soul, as well as self defense.... The old rule goes that a properly trained martial artist will not look for a fight, and would rather avoid a confrontation if possible, but is trained and ready to fight back if need be.
Of coarse then there are more sport-oriented forms that pretty much are purely about fighting, but they can also be quite effective in self defense though. Not all of them are asian either, every culture around the world has at least a few martial arts to call their own. Boxing and wrestling can be considered martial arts, at least about as much as sumo. Generally all martial arts can be lumped into 1 of 3 categories, 1. sports 2. self defense, and 3. war.... Though sometimes that line can be blurred.
I think martial arts are a great way for people to focus on improving themselves in many arenas of life. Be it self defense, conditioning, moral discipline, or just being open minded. It would be great for aspies especially seeing as many of us are small and get picked on a lot, next time they try to pick on you give them a swift ass whoopn' for a change .... But you have to practice with your martial art and learn how to apply it to a real fight situation though, sparring is best for this.

No, but for my gym credit this semester I'm taking fenceing and next semester karate. I'm not so good at fencing but I like it. I'm worried about karate because I've only been to one karate class before and it didn't go so well. I have friends in karate, twwo of my causins were in it and ones a black belt. They seem to enjoy it.

I have trained in the martial arts for nearly thirty years and I have fiound two things to be true. 1.The study of the martial arts is about improving the quality of your own life and finding the will and wisdom of how and where to sacrifice for others. 2. The body and the techniques are not the true focus. The spirit and the will is everything. Improvement, Sacrifice, Spirit and Will. It does not matter what dtyle you study, it matters how, why, and for whom are you studying

I just spoke with an aunt yesterday and she was telling me about her daughter. This cousin of mine has autism (low to moderate functioning with no comorbidities) She's apparently in karate which she is doing quite well in and it seems to be helping her control her anger better.

I've studied the martial arts for awhile now, tai chi mainly. Thing I like is how much its helped my coordianation and balance. I dont know if it helps my self control, though a grappling/counter based style like tai chi does make me feel better knowing if I lose control I can defend myself and restrain someone without seriously injuring them.

I train in TaeKwonDo, though I also have some experience with Karate, Kung Fu, Judo and Aikido. Whenever anyone asks me about things like "What style is best?" or what martial arts are like, I wont tell them anything cut and dried, but rather that the most important part is finding a training group you feel comfortable in.

Some groups will focus on the spiritual to the exclusion of the practical, and others the gritty basics over self improvement, and others still anything in between. Probably the worst (in my opinion) are the groups that have the "Our way is right, and absolutely everything else is wrong" mentality. I can't believe anyone seriously learns anything in environments like that. Because of this, it's generally best for people to just try everything till they find something they're comfortable with.

Last edited by vandire on 24 Nov 2007, 12:50 pm, edited 1 time in total.

The science of kick boxing. It is easy to remember. and not dogmatic. It might pay to readup on jit con do by brue lee

Jit-con-do is like an abstraction rather then a technique

A good thing to do if some grabs you by the scruff. Smack both there eardrumbs with both hands. Follow it up with something else very quick.

if you cant reach back slap their gonads.

Old martial art is too dogmatic. It is like using Java and C++ OOP, when you can use Python free style.

It is, of course, a well known fact that every single class, instructor and style in a particular discipline is *exactly* the same. There are no differences whatsoever, down to and including even the very people that go to each class. The truth is there is only around 20 martial artists for each discipline, and they're all cloned to make it look like it's practised worldwide. This is how each class manages to retain their complete lack of uniqueness.

Seriously though, my TaeKwonDo class is mostly street style - we do some traditional stuff every once in a while for perspective, and about the only dogma my instructor teaches is "Don't hurt others unneccessarily, but if someone tries to hurt you feel free to make them D*** well regret it". I personally rather agree with this sentiment, and would thank you not to overly generalise.

I have a shodan in aikido - have been training for about 7 years. I love it, and I think that it has helped me quite a bit both as an aspie and as a person in general. I feel a lot more self-confident even in areas that have nothing to do with aikido or self-defense.

I think you meant Jeet Kune Do (JKD). This was in many ways MMA before MMA. Bruce sparred the toughest fighters around the world (and beat them all), taking notes of what works and what doesn't, and what techniques fit together. Most of his kicks actually came from a French martial art called savate.

i like the idea of matial arts very much! i used to to tai chi and need to start doing it again

I do Wing Chun. It has helped with confidence, anxiety, fatigue, and gauging people in general. The exercise makes me feel healthier mentally. It is pretty much entirely practical application.