Martial Arts Thread

Kali/excrima would be something worth looking into.

I'm working on a story and I have some questions:

• Does anyone here ever practiced a practical martial arts, like MCMAP, Krav Maga (do I have to capitalize it?) or Silat? I especially heard a lot about KM and many people I know said that it's the most efficient martial arts and Bourne from The Bourne Trilogy used it.
• Where can I find a video of real Capoeira? I read under the page Awesome Yet Practical and learned that it's actually supposed to be really practical.

I learned some Krav Maga, and a buddy and fellow student was verified to teach MCMAP(or was it LINE? Still get them confused)

Ooooooh! How was it? Was it really hard, because I expect it to be.

Was what hard?

Learning Krav Maga.

For me, not so much. To be honest, most martial arts are similar; there are only so many ways you can move your hands and legs before moves begin to blur together.

In my case, it was more of learning a mentality; I already know how to fight, they just taught me how to think. Anyone can throw a punch, you just have to be able to be will to do it, and ready to throw another.

It's all kinds of fun though.

There's a Marine fellow at my school who's a certified(is certified the proper label? I'm not sure of the proper term for it) to teach hand-to-hand and close-quarters combat techniques. I've always wanted to try out the self-defense classes of his once, but they're always during my class times. I know he helps train some of the local police force, and some of the survivalist-types I know swear by him. He looks like he's at least in his late 40's, so I wouldn't think he'd be up to speed with MCMAP though.

I see. Just wondering, does it teach you pain tolerance as well, because I heard that in Silat you are firstly repeatedly beaten to do just that.

Yeah...if somebody tells you they're going to beat you first; GTFO. There's a difference between hardening your body through exercise and training..and abuse.

@dRoy: Most martial arts have pain-tolerance drills. Makiwara boards can be used to that effect. If anyone tries to beat you, there's a pretty good chance that they're just crazy.

edited 13th May '11 6:00:07 PM by Poisonarrow

I can't wait til school's out and I have time in my schedule to start boxing.

I have Practiced Line Combat I&II then after the switch MCMAPS.

There are some good knife fighting techniques in a variety of martial arts. An interesting knife style is the Piper System.

Boxing is an excellent fighting style to learn and a very good building block for other systems.

edited 13th May '11 9:37:57 PM by TuefelHundenIV

German swordsmanship is highly efficient, if impractical due to laws on carrying swords around.

All you really need is a stick, though.

Battlefield swordsmanship in general is great, though, since the crux is generally to be as overwhelmingly efficient and brutal as possible. The dagger techniques also form the basis for modern knife-fighting, so while the technology is certainly outdated, the core techniques are as effective as ever.

This.

I carry a bokken with me wherever I go, so some of the principles of kenjutsu can be used in a fight. A bokken can be just as deadly if not moreso than a katana even without a cutting edge. Shomen-uchi with a bokken = seriously fractured skull. Yokomen-uchi = burst blood vessels at the temples.

edited 14th May '11 8:28:50 AM by TomoeMichieru

Or, if the weather permits, an umbrella is a decent sword surrogate.

Gotta love CCW permits.

In Australia, unfortunately, some random assholes bought some machetes and ruined some property recently. As a result, the laws concerning owning and securing legitimate bladed weapons have been tightened. Goddamn hooligans.

It sucks double because everyone I've met in the process of learning swordsmanship has been extremely responsible with their handling, use and securing of weapons. You do, of course, get the sort of idiots that see causing harm as a legitimate end to their martial arts study. They tend to leave of their own will because, in practise, learning the martial art doesn't provide the sense of conflict they're after.

We've had machetes used by football hooligans, but luckily, the calls to ban them weren't paid any heed. My little toy is safe.

The dagger is an interesting case, as many of the stances and techniques used often appear a bit impractical. Let's just say that the basic stance is with the dagger in reverse grip, near to your head. For those who don't get it, it means you've got a lot of distance to the enemy when you want to hit him, and too little distance when he wants to hit you.

There are two explanations of this that I've encountered. First, a dagger most often shown had no blade and as such the cutting techniques were (excuse me) pointless. And the second, that these weren't so much dagger fight techniques, as techniques to use when a dagger is drawn — picture someone drawing a dagger from his belt, he's gonna be right in the stance I described above.

edited 14th May '11 9:38:37 AM by lordGacek

Well, all unarmed and knife/dagger combat is based on 'time of the hand' and are thus designed for extremely close distance and speed. Unlike wielding, say, a sword, extending yourself with a dagger leaves you open.

This is a decent case for dual-wielding, as you can have a dedicated off-hand defensive weapon as well as the capacity to strike with your dominant hand.

But just what is a practical martial art anyway?

One that keeps you alive.

I think 'practical' as a term is meant to differentiate martial arts from their counterparts with more cinematic value. You can have practical karate and stage karate, I suppose.

Generally speaking, it is presumed that the best knife fighting system is the runawaido.

For cane/stick fighting. Outsoide of Eastern traditions the west has it's own.

A Early Mixed Martial Art

Bataireacht Irish Stick Fighting.