Ballet Vs. Martial Arts

Yeah!!! Ballroom dancers

Yeah, ballroom dancers. I actually am majoring in ballroom here at the University. My favorites have to be the Samba and the Paso. I love the quick step, but for some reason standard just was never my thing.

I started in martial arts and took up dancing, so unlike Jang Bong, I have it from the other side where I'm never up high enough, and I'm too lose some times, or too stiff others.

Thanks guys, it is good to know that I have some kindred spirits around.

 

I've just been watching boxing academy on channel 5 and they sent the young boxers off to learn salsa and ballet. The idea was to help them with their footwork and flexibility and the boxers seemed to benefit from it.

 

Any art which teaches balance, stretching, muscle coordination, etc. will benefit you in MA training. I work with an ex gymnast who was on the Barcelona backup team for the Olympics. I keep telling her to take up MA because her flexability and balance are exsquisit. She would take to MA very quickly given her years of extensive training.

Yes, I agree with Masamune7.

TKDshane

 

Copoeira (sp?) brazilian MA. Extensive dance moves. Too many karateka negate the practice of KATA. When in fact the practice of KATA will enhance your fighting ability greatly. You will sweat just as much doing KATA as doing Kumite or Kihon. if not you are not doing KATA properly
Osu!

 

Now going back to your initial question about specific styles vs MA...

Samba - fast, accurate footwork - balance and sense of floor surface (slippy) vital.

Paso - some wonderful dodging and avoiding moves (bearing in mind the origins in bullfighting). And before anyone starts picking on the girls for this one - I learned that the dancing couple were the bullfighter and HIS CAPE, so we are into 'weapons' training.

Tango - lower stance and solid heel-toe travelling motion. Very sharp changes of direction and focus, and also some highly dangerous 'chopping' actions (when carried out by eight couples working in a circle ). [Yes! I did see the episode of Highlander when he dances on the Eiffel Tower ]

Waltz - balance while spinning - you can imagine youself the spinning back-fists/hammer strike/etc this can promote. I can think of a different 'trick' from it though - changing the timing... Everything else is timed in 4's, switch to waltz and you're in 3/4 time (most unexpected).

OK - I've started on the specifics - let those with more MA knowledge take over. (Hope this is helping your paper Masamune7)

Tommy - I was a visitor to one capoeira class (and enjoyed myself) - one of the drills we had to do had no striking of any kind, but was designed to break your opponents timing and pattern. I did rather well at this .... Regarding your thoughts on kata (which I agree with) - when you look around MAP you'll find this is a hot topic :bang:

 

Sure dance helps martial arts. If you read about the old chinese martial artists, you will find that most of them were involved in opera or carnival work.

Any kind of dance will work. They will have different effects. Modern and ballet are sort of like tai chi. They are kind of airy and floaty. The people get very strong and can move gracefully. Ballet is great to take for two reasons. One is the stretching exercises. The other is a psychological reason. If you are a man in a Ballet class, everyone who walks by the door will stop and talk about you. They point and laugh etc. You will become very strong if you can continue doing the exercises with all of that ridicule going on. It helps you practice focusing when you are doing some moves while there are 5 guys standing outside the door laughing and saying "gay" loud enough for the entire class to hear.

I like African or Haitian dancing. Haitian is really African dancing that has been modified somewhat. The people in Haiti were slaves from Africa at one time.

The Haitian dances concentrate on being low. You will develop some tremendous lower back strength from doing Haitian dance. You should also find your legs will get strong from the bending over. African is similar but it includes some acrobatic moves. If you are good enough to do the acrobatic moves in African dance, you don't even need martial arts. You will be so strong you could beat up 90% of the people you would ever meet.

Salsa, Meringue the other hispanic dances in my opinion help you learn how to deal with another person. You learn to feel their energy and anticipate where they are going. You have to or you will step on their feet. This translates directly to martial arts. If you know where your opponent is going, you can step on his feet on purpose.

People get so caught up in strenght and how hard a punch is they forget all about simple things like walking straight, with an upright body in a correct posture, balanced on both legs.

If a guy can hit you with a superpunch, he can knock you out. But what if you move out of the way? If you are more graceful you can simply step back, step to the side, twist or whatever. The guy with the superpunch is almost always so concentrated on the punch, he gets the rest of the body.

A great example of this is a UFC fight between Pedro Rizzo and Tank Abbot. As you can guess from his name, Tank was a big fat guy. He was really slow. In UFC fighting you are in a cage with nowhere to go. Once Tank got close, he was so big and fat that one punch would knock out his opponents. He was a star.

Then he met Pedro Rizzo, a Gracie Jiu Jitsu guy. Pedro hung back and dodged so Tank could not land that killer punch. After a few minutes, Tank was so tired he could hardly move. That is when the grace etc from dancing, or in this case, gracie jiu jitsu, overcame strength.

Rizzo started landing leg kicks to Tanks front leg. After about 4 or 5 of them, Tank could barely stand up. He was so exhausted and so hurt that his body relaxed and you could see how he used it. What Tank did was put all his weight on one leg and one hand. That is how he was so strong and could knock people out with one punch. His entire fat body was on one leg and one hand. He used the strong leg to drag the other half of his body around. The other half of his body had almost nothing because everything was in the superpunch hand and front leg.

After Rizzo leg kicked the good leg, Tank was done. There was no way his other leg, which had nothing in it, could support that big fat body, much less drag it around in a fight.

I actually felt sorry for Tank. Rizzo was like 50 pounds lighter. Everyone thought Tank would win. The final leg kick from Rizzo knocked Tank to the ground like he was an Elephant hit with a high powered rifle.

If Tank was more balanced, like a dancer is, Rizzo could not have done that to him.

 

Just joined this board today, and I'm somewhat of an amature in ballet and just beginning martial arts. Ballet teaches a lot of things that seem to translate almost directly into martial arts. I think ballet gets you into better shape merely based on the appearance of those doing it.

In MA a guy is going to lose a little weight but it's not uncommon to find even a blackbelt (from what I've seen) who is just a bit overweight. Meanwhile in ballet, all of the guys I've seen so far who have been there any decent amount of time at all are fairly skinny and definately well tone.
I'd say the only exceptions are those men who start back up in their later years. Doing both together seems most excellent, and I shall continue to do so until one or the other threatens to exhaust me to death.

 

i think that depends on the nature of the MA. you dont see many out of shape people in the k-1 max division, for example.

 

First off, I'd like to say my questioning type thingies look like assertions and I did not mean to state such factually, I'll learn more as I train more of course.

One thing that's great about ballet is how you are percieved by those you do it with (if you do it honestly and really strive to do well) I find that, yes there are those guys outside the class talking about you being gay, but I think they're just jealous of the attention I get from the girls.

 

And there's no better way to sweep a pretty girl off her feet than while she's on pointe shoes and you're in tights

 

Amen

Amen Brother . . . amen

 

Wow, affirmation.

I'm a terrible dancer.
However, that last post about using unused muscles (and even some antagonist muscles during katas - if I understand it correctly) really struck a note with me.

One of the assistant sifu at my wing chun class does this constantly during forms, and he has the most "whiplash" speed and strength I've ever seen, pound for pound. However, I think this only deals with strengthening of the muscles, I don't know if it's beneficial or detrimental to the tendons and joints.

I'll have to try this, my flexibility is essentially zero.

 

Well, I used to be a ballerina for several years... not anymore unfortunately, but sometimes I still run through a basic ballet workout in order to warm up. I've found that it isn't essential but it definitely helps with my TKD to have done something like ballet previously.

 

I once saw some vid were a gun was lined up with a katana and the gun shot the bullet and behind the katan was paper like wall, afterwards was 2 holes!!!! Ther katana had split the bullet in 2, yo uhad to see it to believe it. Am not saying th esword is better but it can split bullets into 2, plus anyone can squeeze a trigger