Wanna start again. Suggestions?

[Adam]

It's time for me to get off my lazy ass and start a new art after the summer break. Can anyone advise me on arts that would be good for me?

Info about me: I'm 1.86 tall, 87 kg, single :D and relatively strong.

I like full contact
I like elbow and knee strikes
I like headbutting!!! (But that would be gruesome in an MA I think)
I would like to learn how to toss people around and lock them.
I used to do kyokushin karate and liked the mentality
I HATE getting punched in the nose :cry:
I dislike doing a lot of kata
I dislike groundfighting
I don't mind rituals as long as it's not overdone.
I'm mainly a fistfighter as opposed to a kicker.

I already called an MT gym, but it had closed down! Damn.

Any thoughts on any styles style I could look into? Thanks.

[YODA]

Find another Muay Thai gym - or Boxing.

Why do you dislike groundfighting? Have you done much?

[Bon]

I dislike groundfighting

Good reason to do some IMO! :D

Other than that, muay thai seems to be an obvious choice.

[Melanie]

you like contact but don't like groundfighting???

"I would like to learn how to toss people around and lock them."
yet you don't want to do groundfighting???

I think your subconscious is trying to tell ya something mate ;)

Groundfighting, boxing or MT...have a go at all three. I usually travel an hour to go to my MA training - don't let distance put you off when looking for the right art. Good luck

[WhiteWizard]

I agree with Mel you seem to contradict yourself however you did pretty much describe Muay Thai in your requirements.

[Chank Mo-Kei]

I think MT would be the best. You also learn some locks without going to the floor like you were f****ng with the other guy. groung fight's gay :P

[Saz]

Groundfighting is rubbish (I can't do groundfighting)...

Some kind of Muay Thai or boxing sounds OK, maybe if you wanna learn to throw people around, you should try a Judo or jujitsu class, see if it suits you.

[WhiteWizard]

i don't practice ground fighting but what would non ground fighters do when they are taken to the ground and had no way to use their arts skills.

Everything has its uses people

[Chank Mo-Kei]

I didn't say it wasn't usefull. I only said that it looks gay being in the floor rolling with another guy :P it sucks. ppl should keep their fighting standing not rolling :P:woo: But that's just my opinion

[Jonny Chee]

Hi Adam. From what I can gather from your message. Wing Chun might be worth you looking into.......

Originally posted by Adam
It's time for me to get off my lazy ass and start a new art after the summer break. Can anyone advise me on arts that would be good for me?

I like full contact - WC IS FULL CONTACT!!
I like elbow and knee strikes - WC UTILISES BOTH OF THESE
I like headbutting!!! (But that would be gruesome in an MA I think) - WELL....
I would like to learn how to toss people around and lock them. - WE DO SWEEPS, ESCAPES, HOLDS ETC...
I used to do kyokushin karate and liked the mentality
I HATE getting punched in the nose :cry: - DON'T WE ALL MATE!
I dislike doing a lot of kata - WE PRACTISE FORMS, BUT THEY ARE RELEVANT.
I dislike groundfighting - WE DON'T DO GROUNDFIGHTING (WHICH I ACTUALLY THINK IS A SHAME)
I don't mind rituals as long as it's not overdone.
I'm mainly a fistfighter as opposed to a kicker. - FEW KICKS IN WC. THE ONES THAT ARE PART OF THE SYSTEM ARE SIMPLE, LOW AND DIRECT.

I already called an MT gym, but it had closed down! Damn.

Any thoughts on any styles style I could look into? Thanks.

[Adam]

Thank you for all the suggestions.
The reason I do not like groundfighting is that i find it sorta dull and schoolyardish as well as not being as satisfying as being punched and punching (yes, I am an amateur in it as well) and since I live in pleasantville, I don't have to learn very self-defence related martial arts. I am prejudiced towards WC, since the few WC'ers I've run into have had bad conditioning/power and talked widely about how hyper-powerful their art was, which is a huge turnoff, but this might be a good opportunity to check out if my prejudice is justified. Luckily, we have a large WC community in Denmark.

[Bon]

The reason I do not like groundfighting is that i find it sorta dull and schoolyardish

Have you tried it? It's extremely technical, but to someone who doesn't do it, it doesn't look all that technical.

[Rob_InDaUk]

What Bon said is correct, and overlooking groundwork will be a major flaw in your MA skills!!


Rob

[Adam]

I realize that, it's just that I don't feel like training to be an exellent all-round martial artist at the moment. Sorry. I would rather focus on getting pummeled when standing up and I truly feel that groundfighting's boring, what with the rolling around and actually lying on the ground on purpose when fighting, just doesn't seem right to me personally, as well as pummeling people who're lying down seems unfair. I would still like to learn how to toss people to the ground and submit them without hurting them.

Edit: Come to think about it, kyokushin's perfect for me, if it weren't for the kataing and foreign terminology.

[Adam]

Update on the AMAF (Adam's Martial Arts Front): Called a kickboxing gym that's within reasonable distance from me yesterday. Guy on the phone sounded a bit arrogant (He blew up on me when I asked him if it was thai-kickboxing, he said it was called THAIboxing and no it wasn't and of COURSE he knew what it was, what a fool i was to suggest otherwise) and will go check out the gym on monday (that's tomorrow)

I'm afraid that it is american style kickboxing, meaning NO kicks to the legs and NO knees and elbows. minus all my favourite weapons :(

Will post any thoughts on the style and training for the MA newbies when I get back here from tomorrow.

[Saz]

He's a kickboxer, of course he's arrogant! :D

Going along and checking it out is your best move. KickChick gave me a good tip, pretend like you know NOTHING about martial arts when you go. Unless you've already said you know about it, in which case, play as little as possible on it.

[Adam]

everyone who have advised, supported or pressured me into getting off my humongous backside and go training. I went and trained at a kickboxing gym in a nearby town tonight for some 1.30 hours and had a few thoughts about it:

1) they seem to have nicked the word "osu" off karate
2) They have a very different mentality than kyokushin and -zip- discipline in their ranks
3) The prejudice was right: it WAS filled with skinheaded wannabe toughguys who bragged loudly about their sexual prowess
4) the training is a lot easier than the one we had in kyokushin, not half as many pushups/situps/squats and about the same amount of running around. This may be because they are just starting out after the spring break, but I am in HORRIBLE shape cardio-wise and I didn't think it was too hard. Hmmm.
5) It uses NO elbows, NO knees and NO low kicks :(
6) it was fun to get moving again and will go there on wednesday and try to bring my buddy :D Having a nearby sparring partner is always useful :D

For anyone interested, here is what we did:

I sat in the train minding my own business when a conductor bore down on me with two of her homeboyz as backup (I assumed they thought I looked like a hoodlum) I gave them my card, they said it wasn't valid and the proceeded to question my identity because of me not being able to remember my own social registration number, were in general real asses about the whole thing, then after interrogating me for ten minutes fined me 50£ and left. Why am I telling this story? Well, by the time I arrived at the gym I felt ready to kill, maim and destroy, which was good since I was a little nervous already :D
I arrived a little early and saw that the class was already going on. I quickly jumped into my T-shirt and ragged baggy pants (I lost my gi pants somewhere dammit! :[) and jumped into the action, which was doing various ab exercises, not much, maybe 80-120. I then found out that the class was actually the class BEFORE the one I had jumped into the END of and shamefully sat minding my own business along the wall until the next class begun.
It begun and we were only 4 students there. The instructor almost made me laugh because of the way he yelled at people for not doing what he said seemed like the squeaking of a mouse compared to my former senseis way of explaining in a calm but no-nonsense tone that you better shape up, show respect or leave. Anyway, the class was OK, started doing a little bit of padwork with straight punches and front kicks, then did some 20 pushups, after which we went on to train lead leg crescent kicks and axekicks plus roundhouses on pads, the finished off with running around for a bit, stopping every ten seconds to do one (1!) or two (2!) pushups, situps or squats. We finished with doing some 100 odd ab exercises after which everyone helped clean up the mess of pads and bags. No sparring this time, seems we got to prove ourselves before we spar. I did ask one of the halfway-large guys, must have weighed 85 kgs, to throw a few punches and knees to my stomach to see if I could still take the pain, he looked at me as if I was insane which surprised me, hammering each other for no reason at all was pretty common at my old dojo.

Conclusion: Kyokushin's a tougher style to do and is still the style of my heart, but kickboxing seems Ok and I might stick with it for a while, if only to learn how to defend against head punches.

View on Kickboxing so far:

-undisciplined
-technically good kicks
-more emphasis on punching than kicking
-some emphasis on body conditioning and general toughness
-fun
-uses gloves, bad
-doesn't use knees, also bad
-doesn't use elbows, TERRIBLY BAD!
-allows head shots and face kicks: good, if you want to train for self defense
-POSSIBLY a mcdojo school, trainer said something like "ewww, muay thai, nasty style with elbows and knees, ewww, kickboxing's much better" still, what would I know, this is the third MA gym i've ever been to, but I've suddenly gained a lot more respect for my old sensei.

Things I've learned today: how to keep a boxer's guard, how to throw a spinning backfist. Hope contact fighting will ensue soon.

That's a lot of text I just wrote. Hope it wasn't too tedius to read, but I thought someone who would like to take up kickboxing might find it interesting. :)

[WhiteWizard]

you do have to remember that K karate (yes i'm too lazy to spell it is generally filled with nutcases) just look at K girl she is insane :D

[Adam]

And me, don't forget about me wizzieboy :D