Loki, I did TKD for 17 years - hence where the back end of my name comes from. It's a martial art, similar to Karate but more kick intensive. It can be very intense in terms of training, it will definately teach you how to punch well if you don't understand or know how to punch. Also, it will give you the ability to kick well if you follow the principles well.
Now to the downside. Whilst being excellent in terms of long to mid-range, it is useless for cqb i.e. pub brawl.
Muay Thai is much better for that - I have a friend who has been doing it for 20 years and has his own gym in Bolton. Nice and nasty and the training is hard too. Don't be taken in by the Olympics TKD as that is all about winning points and is useless. The TAGB is about the best affiliation in the UK, unless you want to put body armour on then it's WTF for you. BUT, the TAGB aint what it used to be. When I started in '87 gradings would take over an hour to complete. When I gave it up they were lasting about 20 mins. Full of money grabbing twonks. Luckily my instructor embraced other MArtial Arts and regularly had other peopel come along to demo.
But, it depends what you want from a Martial Art. Is it because they look great and flash? Or do you want to be able to protect yourself? Again, it depends on your mentality and how you percieve yourself when you are "downtown". If you fancy squaring up to someone then maybe you'de be better suited to Boxing. If you are someone who would rather watch from the edge or walk away then you will need not a martial art but a defence system. Ultimately, if you get into a scrap you'll be standing up for a max of 4 punches before it goes into a clinch and ends up on the floor. That's when you need good groundwork. BJJ or Jiu Jitsu are great for ground work.
In this day and age, traditional martial arts are ok, but ideally you want to have knowledge in other disciplines, hence the reason why MMA is so devastating.
I'm currently practicing Krav Maga which imho is awesome. Keeps you away from trouble yet is devastating when put into action. Developed by the Israeli Army and developed to be able to be picked up quickly. It does help if you have some knowledge of punch/kick but as it's a defence system it isn't a pre-requisite.
You'll need a good groin guard though as it's one of the main areas of attack. Mainly deals with Hand/Kick/Knife attacks. But also deals with hand gun defence and the stick attack defence is similar to that of Balintawak/Eskrima but on a smaller scale.
It aims to be as realistic as possible in that it emulates how an attack would be - continual thrusting of the knife etc so it's hard work and you'll come away nicely battered after each lesson
@ Luke - Ramon Dekkers was my hero
Sorry for the meandering waffle, Train Hard/Fight Easy
deckers is a legend mate
favorite of the crrent breed is iron mike zambidis, absolute pit bull
11-02-2009, 23:26
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