What give's you the power to train and study about your martial arts ??
i study it becouse it's a way of living my life..
i would never want to stop learning...

hi, was wondering what m/a you did. in the past i've done various forms of karate, taekwondo, ju jitsu and preying mantis but when i found wing chun i got seriously hooked! liked the minimax logic and enjoy the energy play: like going with the flow in blindfolded chee sau( sticky hands) and undoing opponents attacks by angling rather than strength. was just so different than typical block, punch stuff that i wanted to see how odd it could get and it keeps on getting weirder.

I have to ask and please dont think I'm being rude :)

What is the point in learning martial arts if you can be attacked by a large group of people who could easily overpower you, knife you or heaven forbid shoot you, your martial arts cannot protect you against a lot of opponents who are armed with knives or guns?

Like I say, I'm not being nasty- its one of the reasons why I havent learned any Martial Arts up to now.

nigsmig

what style of mantis and with who???

Originally posted by ANGELUS
I have to ask and please dont think I'm being rude :)

What is the point in learning martial arts if you can be attacked by a large group of people who could easily overpower you, knife you or heaven forbid shoot you, your martial arts cannot protect you against a lot of opponents who are armed with knives or guns?

Like I say, I'm not being nasty- its one of the reasons why I havent learned any Martial Arts up to now.

I studied Shukokai and Shotokan karate for many years, as well as a bit of Tae Kwon Do. I spent a good portion of that training to protect against attack from large groups, and weapons like knives and sticks (not so much guns, didnt perfect the catching bullets in my teeth technique). While the first line of defence in these situations is usually 'run away as fast as you can' there are other techniques that can be employed, and the number one rule is using you head, this is what the training is really about - training yourself to be able to keep cool and think clearly in those situations. Its about training your mind as much as training your body.

Thankfully I didnt get to test these techniques too often, but growing up in the hotbed of friendliness that is Glasgow - it was only a matter of time!
I can think of a couple of situations where I probably would have been stabbed or worse had I not been able to use my training to get out of it, and one of those times was being set upon by a gang. The common misconception is that you must be stronger than the 5 guys trying to beat you up, and knock them all out in order to escape - this is not the case.
I can also think of a couple of situations where i got my head kicked in - so nothing is infalliable, and learning a martial art will not make you superman.
Out of the 4 situations I've mentioned that was only 2 beatings, when the attackers were trying for 4 out of 4. So I would say learning a martial art is useful, as well as interesting and fun.

If you want to know more most classes will let you have a trial period where you can go see what its all about. If you get a good group, with a good teacher it becomes about more than just self defence.

mantisdave! i trained with a guy in leeds called allan, soz cant remember his surname - might have been radford. twas northen seven star. anyway we can talk about it on saturday morning!

did you check out the ladies doing kung fu?

if not goto wingchun.antville.org a dutch club site and click on videoclips. enjoy!

i did ju-jitsu and kickboxing...mainly for fitness and the funky outfit...ok..the outfit wasent that funky.

i think every kid should do some martial arts as (if good teachers) it teaches you how to avoid a fight first. i havent been in a fight for a good 10 years (training not counted) and if i ever was i feel the time i spent training would hopefully make me better equiped to protect myself.