Martial Arts

I did MMA, boxing and Muay Thai for a year. I went from a size 30 waist to a 34 waist. It made my core wider. MT is awesome, I was in pain 24/7 too so just be prepared and get ur gear. Shin pads and gloves

I practice Aikido. I started six years ago in May and a currently preparing to take my shodan test. To be honest deciding to start practicing this art was a major turning point in my life. I often wish I had found it sooner.

Rosie just go and visit the dojo. Don't just go to one but visit as many in your area as you can. They will usually allow you to try a class or two before you join. After you visit a few you can choose the one that feels right to you.

Be sure to ask about the fees and how they do ranking. There are many ranks between beginners and black belt and then there are many ranks after black belt. Each rank usually requires a test and there are usually fees for those tests. It can get rather expensive. You will also want to know if there are association fees. A dojo is usually affiliated with some organization through which rank is issued.

If you take a competitive art (aikido is not competitive) ask about competitions and what will be expected of you as a student of that dojo.

Ask who the senior instructors and dojo cho are and what the lineage of the dojo is. If they can't tel you who their teachers teachers were clearly there could be (not always) some issues with the validity of your teachers abilities.

Joining a dojo is not really like joining a gym. You become a member of a kind of family. There can be a lot of etiquette expectations of a student. You don't just show up and work on your own stuff. You show up so that other people can also work on theirs.

Again I have found martial arts to be a wonderful and important part of my life. But it takes a level of commitment and finding the right fit for you. Take your time before you make a decision.

shadowfax_c11 wrote: »

Rosie just go and visit the dojo. Don't just go to one but visit as many in your area as you can. They will usually allow you to try a class or two before you join. After you visit a few you can choose the one that feels right to you.

Be sure to ask about the fees and how they do ranking. There are many ranks between beginners and black belt and then there are many ranks after black belt. Each rank usually requires a test and there are usually fees for those tests. It can get rather expensive. You will also want to know if there are association fees. A dojo is usually affiliated with some organization through which rank is issued.

If you take a competitive art (aikido is not competitive) ask about competitions and what will be expected of you as a student of that dojo.

Ask who the senior instructors and dojo cho are and what the lineage of the dojo is. If they can't tel you who their teachers teachers were clearly there could be (not always) some issues with the validity of your teachers abilities.

Joining a dojo is not really like joining a gym. You become a member of a kind of family. There can be a lot of etiquette expectations of a student. You don't just show up and work on your own stuff. You show up so that other people can also work on theirs.

Again I have found martial arts to be a wonderful and important part of my life. But it takes a level of commitment and finding the right fit for you. Take your time before you make a decision.

lots of good info here.

i did tae kwon do when i was younger. a sport and competition martial art, but it's losing a lot of ground due to the MMA and Muay Thai.

When i started getting back into fitness, i tried looking into martial arts. i found a great MMA gym that offered all kinds of classes, including Muay Thai, Brazilian Juijitsu, and even had kettlebell and strength training classes, and even had a gym upstairs (no squat rack though, only a smith machine). it was a little too expensive for me, and also a bit out of the way from where i lived.

like shadowfax said, shop around. some places might let you take a couple of free classes, others might limit you to just one, or none at all. find out about how they handle ranks and bumping up to the next level (if they garuntee you a black belt in X amount of years, or promise you a promotion every year, it might not be the right kind of school for you or any one). there are no federal regulations with maritial arts. literally anyone can open up a dojo and call themselves master, so there is a lot to consider.

ask about promotional offers, like if you pay for 11 months do you get the 12th free? do you have to pay an initiation fee? are uniforms included?

find out when the classes are. will they fit into your schedule? will you be able to make it there regularly? if you want to go before or after work, is it on your way to work?? etc etc.

The popularity of MMA has created slot of hybrid gyms where they will offer a mix of striking skills (e.g., Muay Thai) and ground based skills (e.g. jujitsu). I've done Muay Thai for a few years and just started to do little jujitsu recently. They are both awesome cardio workouts in addition to having some practical applications.

Shadowfox mad a good point that finding the right gym is really important. Most classes requires require you to pair off with other student to practice techniques. You quickly end up building trust with each other as you're often looking out for each others safety while trying to execute some martial skill or sparing session.

One last suggestion is something like Krav Maga. I find those classes really useful. The lethal nature of some of those techniques limit how hard you can practice them on each other. Depending on what you're practicing those classes can be a good work out.

So @RosieRose7673 how did your visit to the Muay Thai gym go? Did you like it? Are you sticking with it?

I started Krav Maga back in September & love it. I find it a great workout & more importantly really like the real world application of what I'm learning. It's not used in any competition but you can earn belts.

I do muay thai ! I don't fight but I like the classes. So much fun !. Always a good hard workout. Great after a day at work to kick, knee, elbow, punch the pads or bags ! The trainers are great ( they are all Thai ) . Check out some gyms, look up reviews, get a good feel. You want to enjoy where you go and want to go there!

Gear wise, I just wear shorts and a singlet, make sure your shorts or pants are stretchy to allows kicks. Our classes are always barefoot.

If you do stick to it and buy your own gear, get good quality gloves... don't waste your money on cheapos. They won't last and you can end up injuring yourself. I use 10 oz raja gloves in classes. Twins, Fairtex and Top King are also good. I ordered mine from http://www.muaythaifactory.com/ and there's also http://www.muaythaistuff.com/

I always use hand wraps , extra protection and to stop my gloves from stinking.

You shouldn't need shin guards unless you start sparring which shouldn't happen til you've had a few months training and your trainers approval.

I started taekwondo about 5 weeks back. Twice a week, absolutely love it so far.

I play judo and aikido, and love what martial arts have done for my life. I encourage you to go out and visit a number of dojos.

the number one thing to be aware of is that there is poor quality control in martial arts schools. It can be quite tough to tell a good school from a bad one, particularly if you don't know what to look for.

For myself, i would look at:

1. Are the students safe? If you see a pattern of people regularly getting injured badly enough to have to miss practice, the teachers aren't running a safe program.
2. Is the school clean and well-equipped? It's pricey to furnish and run a school. But there is no excuse for poor conditions. If the equipment is torn, is it mended quickly? Do they sweep/mop the floors regularly? Are any locker rooms/restroom clean and stocked?
3. Is there a good vibe? Some formality can be expected, but in some programs they encourage cultish devotion to the teacher/style/lineage - in my experience, if the practitioners aren't smiling at least some of the time, i don't want to be there.
4. Finally - will they give you clear expectations? They should be able to provide you with a solid idea of how frequently you can take class, and average time to advance in grade. On top of that, they should be able to tell you their fee structure, including sign up, monthly (or per-class), annual, testing fees, organization fees, competition fees, etc. Some schools don't have all these fees... just don't let them surprise you!

When all is said and done, finding a good MA program can be a life changer. I have a level of trust and affection with the people that i throw, and get thrown by, that rivals my best friends from off the mat. You can't beat the feeling of fighting somebody ferociously, and then getting up and shaking their hand in gratitude for whuppin ya!

Depends on your goal, a good workout, fun, or learning the art. To add to @shadowfax_c11 pay attention who is actually leading the training. Many commercial store front substitute their black belt candidates to lead the class and water down the significance of the black belt to signify the start/beginning journey of learning the art.

I don't know what that water down statement is about. I started leading classes now and again when I was 5th kyu. Something like 5 years ago. I took my Shodan last June. One of my instructors told me that she had a regular class that she was teaching at 4th kyu purely because she was the only one available to lead the class.

Often a dojo cho will have their lower dans lead classes because really they do a better job of teaching basic technique and it frees the higher ranking sensei up to spend the time to continue the training of the black belts in the dojo. It also means they can continue their own growth by using higher ranking lower dan students as uke. Those students are going to be better able (in many if not all cases) to provide the feedback and withstand the intensity of a high ranking martial artist throwing them around the room.

My own dojo is quite small and the head instructors teach almost all of the classes. As a fairly new shodan and my teacher's senior student. I often find that I have the problem of not being able to really spend time furthering my own training because my teachers are bogged down with teaching basics to beginners and I of course am helping them with this.

If anything a higher ranking sensei teaching beginners is not going to be as able progress they way they should as a high ranking sensei who allows his junior dans to teach the kyu ranks while they focus more on their black belt students.

I do see shodan as just the beginning. The way I look at it everything before shodan is kinda like grade school through high school. You learn your ABC's and 123's (basic technique)

Mitsugi Saotome sensei expects at Shodan that we know good basic technique. At Nidan we develop smoothness and power. At Sandan we should be starting to make the art our own.

wonko221 wrote: »

What does a black belt mean to you?

A significant achievement and mastery of the fundamentals of the craft.

Only familiar with JKA and to test for black it requires mastery of nine katas (movement, form, power, rhythm, and expansion and contraction of the body) and demonstrate correct power and speed, and, above all, exercise good control of three type of kumite (basic, ippon, & jiyu). I only took JKA Shotokan for three years and reached the first belt (yellow); I wasn't the fastest learner nor the slowest (mom didn't want a fighter and took it up doing college).

I have a number of good friends from various martial arts back ground who are third to fourth degree black belts. All old school and devote their entire youth (6ish to mid twenties; e.g. live, drink, eat, and sleep) to achieve it. One friend's father runs a dojo and is a sixth degree black belt. That school is very traditional. His son, a third degree black belt opened two dojos and followed the commercial route (test every month or so and tons of strips and color belts for each of ten levels). He does not bother with true teaching until his students test for black. His business plan is carbon copy of some of the biggest franchised dojos in SF Bay Area.

I've been doing Shaolin style kung fu and recently started modern Chinese wushu. Both aren't as "martial" as other martial arts, but are more performance based these days. My classes concentrate mostly on forms and jumping, but for a workout that combines agility, flexibility, and endurance these styles are great. In conjunction I have started basic acrobatics classes to help me learn to jump and flip more safely since I'm kinda old!