Ever since i came to college (university for all you non-americans), I've been taking judo classes. I've found that its a really an amazing sport. Its really a shame that its not more popular over here. For those who don't know about judo, its a japanese martial art that focuses on throwing and grappling (unlike karate or tae kwon do that focus on striking). The way its scored is if you can throw the opponent on his back, you win the match. If you throw him on his side or butt, you have to pin or submit him (though this is done much rarely nowadays). Heres a cool video with some great clips: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hIFGcKasCGA Anyone here do any martial arts?
i did jujitsu over the summer awhile back, its grappling and throwing too. i liked it , but never continued doing it.
i took fencing for a few weeks in collage, but droped it due to its incampadibility with my lazy-bastardness.
I used to thumb wrestle. I was good; could have gone pro! An ill-fated papercut took me out of the running, though. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to thumb wrestle again.
I did Shotokan karate for a few years - great way to build strength and fitness and relieve stress - that style of training gets very repetive tho - all about fixed stances with little or no freestyle, I became an expert at punching and kicking my boss ... I mean air, cough cough :D
my freind did ninjitsu, he stoppped because he got to tall for it... the whole point of it is to keep you balance, so when he got taller, he couldnt do it anymore it was cool cus you could take someone much bigger than you down; it showed you how to break peoples arms with practically no pressure, damaging nerve endings toslow reactions and cause ridiculacly huge amounts of pain
pretty cool. I've done Karate now for 3 years, and I'm a Brown 3 now (one before black). It's great, especially as our instructor does whole lessons about streetfighting and such. it's quite a lot like boxing actually, with loads of fitness didn't the last true ninjitzu teacher die in hiroshima?
Yeah, modern ninjitsu is not really traditional ninjitsu that was taught to ninjas. In fact, in some circles its actually looked upon a little negatively as trying to capitalize on the popularity of ninjas. I've never actually seen it done, though, so i can't really criticize it. I think all martial arts are based on balance pretty much. A lot of martial arts are based on the idea of using your opponents attacking force against them. This is how smaller opponents can defend against larger ones. In judo, i've easily thrown people that are 100 pounds heavier than me.
Uh, I'm pretty good at DDR, does that count? I haven't done an organized "sport" since I was 11, so no, no karate or judo or anything. Looks neat, though, if I ever get the time/motivation/excuses/etc. What encouraged you to do it, OP? Exercise?
the thing about "using other people's force against them" is that until you are literrally a black belt or more, you're going to get totally kaned by any larger person that is just fast. so you better hope that A) you're faster than them and B) you can get one of those deadly insta-arm-break moves on before they hit you, knocking you a little bit sensless but most of all, making you slower.
Well, yes. Until you are a blackbelt, you are merely learning the art. Once you become a blackbelt, you begin mastering it. Though there are some moves that are useful against anyone *cough* armbar. Why did i start? Well actually a friend of mine got me into it. To be honost, it was kind of a pain at the beginning, but after a semester of doing it, it became one of my main interests. The thing i like most about the art, is the feeling of power you get after you do it for a while. I'm a pretty small guy (at 5'8'', 135 pounds) so i've never really had that feeling before. Now that i'm throwing guys a hundred pounds more than me, my self-confidence has improved dramatically.
I've done soccer, swimming, bowling, baseball, lacrosse (best sport ever) and football and track. Currently competing in Trials Dirtbike competitions as my current sport. Martial arts makes me laugh ^_^. I think I'm going to take up thumb wrestling coaching so I can inspire fox's to take up thier dream again and build the courage to destroy any thumb who dares oppose.
*cue 'eye of the tiger' montage* yeah, martial arts does give you a load of confidence. before: chavs were unstable, dangerous people that you didn't talk back to. now I just laugh at em...
