Hello, I am 18years old guy from Europe. I come from small country. I used to train Tae Kwon-Do for 5 years when i was 9-14 years old. My club went off and the nearest club was more than 50km away which was too far. I started training Shotokan Karate-Do but all we did was different forms and no sparings. I stopped training cause i was bored doing same all katas for 3 years. Now I haven't been training any martial arts for more than a year and i want to star over. I can still do a lot of techniques from both Tae Kwon Do and Karate but I really lack flexibility and power. I want to start training again, but on my own. I have room a bout 40 square meters with tatami and punching bags. I've got all the equipment to train by myself. But I need a programme. What should I do first. On what should i focus? Please Help me!
Don't! Get to another club forthwith! Home training is a supplement to what you do already, not a replacement. Where do you live? Do you have Judo or boxing or wrestling nearby?
I come from Slovenia. But in every martial arts school if I'd like to train, they would probably put me with 5yo's with white belts... and I would have to punch 2h per training although I have more than 8years of martial arts behind me...
What schools do you have available to you? Is there a chance you can find a TKD club that will allow you to keep your grade, as that seems to be your primary focus here? Or perhaps you just have to empty your cup and start again...
Agreed with hannibal, training at home will eventually leave you at a halt, and it gets rather dull. Types of clubs you want to look for are -Judo -boxing -kickboxing -mma -wrestling -BJJ -Krav Maga Those types of arts have alot of sparring in them, or alot of person to person contact, less of forms and katas (i kinda know how you feel, doing forms and katas really get boring -_-, especially with no sparring) I mean im doing Tangsoodo which is very close to Shotokan Karate. Lots of forms, lots of Katas or Pomseas formations whatever the heck you call em. But training at home will only get you so far. And also you may have lost most of the technique, only have glimps of it. I bet you do. And if you practice crappy technique... guess whats ingrained into your brain? Thats right, crappy technique. And if your technique is crappy guess what? You suck at sparring... (unless your naturally gifted where you automatically can do most stuff without thinking... but thats near to impossibly rare) so yeah. BTW, GUYS, how do you know all these clubs. You seem to ask "where do you live" but then you seem to know where all the clubs in that area are, and which ones are good. If so, do you do England as well? South east England? If you can i dont mind PM'ing you to see what other good schools are about.
Well I know Judo club. But with my lack of flexibility I am not really intrested + when I used to train Karate we had trainings in same gym as Judo club and it was kinda lika rivalry. Their coach was kinda jock and he was mocking us and stuff. So i prefer anything but judo really. Also I am not interested in boxing, cause I'm looking for something with more distances then just punching. Like kicks and punches, but also basics of takedowns, throws and grappeling. Thank you for your help so far!
Your Goals = Judo + Boxing Try different things out and see how you like them, don't restrict yourself. @Pkhamidar2com - we know people from lots of club through competition and just personal lives.
I don't know I really appriciate your help and your time. But I don't see myself training boxing or something. My highest priority is kicking. I (think I) have very good kicks. I have really strong feeth and agility (at least I used to have) and on the other hand my punching is not really good, it is quick but not strong cause my upper body is not really strong or muscular. I am looking forward for further advices. I'm currently thinking about Kempoarnis
if your upper body is weak why not seek to improve it? if we all stuck to what we were really good at chadderz would be playing warcraft and i would be eating for the olympics. just try stuff and see how you like it.
I do seek to improve it but not in a way to left my legs behind. : ) It feels to natural to use legs and with 8 years of tae kwon do and karate I don't think i can overcome this habit and I can't see any reason to overcome it afterall legs are more powerful than hand aren't they?
Why less useful : ) they are almost as quick as hand when trained properly but have bigger range and power : )
Well that's the whole (flawed) theory behind TKD. Leverage is the most powerful tool. It isn't totally valid either though because: Power < Skill/technique.
legs are stronger than arms... Go try out boxing and tell me which is more effective for a beginner to have some self defence after only a few months of training. try ever club near you out and then tell us what you did and didnt like and why
In my experience, and from hearing and discussing the experience of others, it is very easy to be uprooted/lose balance when kicking, or to have the leg damaged. It can also be more difficult to deliver sufficient impact to stun/overpower an attacker. And hands are just more useful for improvising and going with a flow. And street fights/self-defence situations, if that's what we're discussing here, are all about improvising. YMMV of course.
I am not a beginner in martial arts and I am not looking for quick training of self defense but I am looking for a martial art in which I could improve my flexibility and other attributes of my body ( i know i can find that in any martial art) AND an art in which philosophy and meditation is something. We have great Kempo Arnis in Slovenia but it is almost 60km from me... http://www.kempoarnis.com/default.cfm?jezik=En