Who is into Martial Art/Fencing?

OmniTense · 03-29-2007, 03:58 PM

Just wanted to know if we have any Martial Artists here and if there are any other Fencers besides myself. Or if you'd ever thought of Fencing or taking up a Martial Art. (As a preemptive aside, I am not calling Fencing a martial art, I am merely trying to broaden the discussion.) What form do you practice? Have you won any tourneys?

To answer my own Question. I used to take Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do. I quit 3 years after I broke my collar bone and several ribs. This was when I was around twelve years old. So I can hardly be called a Martial Artist. I do, however, fence competitively. I fence foil and was coached in the la verdadera destreza form. It's slightly archaic, but by no means more vulnerable than any other form. I know a fair deal of epee fencing but I dislike it. Sabre is a bit too much for me.

Who else?

Even if you've only thought about Martial Arts or Fencing.
Discuss.

Silver · 03-29-2007, 07:11 PM

I used to do Shaolin Kung Fu, You know, without the belt. Only I got sick of it because the head guy wanted us to call him Sher Fu or Shirt Food or something, and he wanted us to only speak some other language after a while. That really sucked for me as I have a shite memory. I picked up a few good moves and tips, but as far as I'm concerned my own unique style of street fighting has never let me down. As for fencing, that does sound fun, but the closest thing I've ever done was fight a guy with both of us using replica katanas from a fair. They were metal and stuff, but they were blunt and very wobbily. I reckon they were probably china made rather than Japanese forged.

Jin · 03-29-2007, 07:46 PM

I used to be enrolled in a Kung fu class. Temple Kung fu was the brand...err...organization...err...whatever. I wasn't in long enough to get any real improvments; I only got to the second belt, which was of the yellow variety. After a few months they raised the price by 80% because they said the training would be more "intense". That's utter bull shit of course as I wasn't sitting back before going, "Boy, I sure am bored; I wish this class was more intense". Bodies can only take so much. It was just a gouging process and unfortunately, they hadn't taught us any gouge blocks yet.

Viator · 03-29-2007, 09:00 PM

I know a bit of Go-Ju...and i've been workin wit a staff too...just for fun

SuperSabin2005 · 03-29-2007, 09:05 PM

I take martial arts/karate (the regular stuff) and the place i do it in is victory martial arts.

Storm · 03-30-2007, 04:19 AM

I do kickboxing. I have been doing it for about 4 months now, and enjoy it. I have been interested in Martial Arts for years, even as a child, so i've finally got off my ass to go to a Martial Arts class! I find that it is a great excercise, body toner, muscle builder and self-defence art all-in-one. I've always been slim and had a healthy diet, yet even after doing one hour of kickboxing, you can feel your muscles getting firmer and more compact. It's also helped my regain some of my lost flexability, although i'm still probably the least flexable in my class. Its especially intimidating that the instructor is a 40-something year old man who can do the splits both ways, when i'm 17 and can't do the splits either way! I'm hoping to get some equipment to train at home.

I also want to learn Tai Kwon Do, so i'm going to find out about that soon. I have also done fencing on the Isle of Wight when I was in year 6 for a leasure holiday after our SATS exams. I'm now in year 13... so that was yonks ago!

Itachi Uchiha · 03-30-2007, 05:32 AM

Well like sinister I do a bit of Jun Fan Jeet Kun Do but mainly the martail arts i go to is a mixture of styles were Jun Fan is one of the main ones. However there are other styles we do such as Kali, Silat (sp?), kick-boxing and others. Its kind of interesting even though I'm only in the teenagers class so we don't get to do everything. Still i enjoy it. I've been doing it for roughly six years now and I've never gotten bored of it.

As for fencing I've only done two areas of weaponry with this martails arts group: Kali stick and knife. We use wooden ones though in knife not live blades. Doing this is just as interesting as using our hands as they both tie in together. So what ever we do with a stick is just the same as what we can do with our hands.

Anyway the guy who teaches me is Mel Corrigan, he's a branch of Rick Faye. Anyone heard of either of them?

Hannya · 03-30-2007, 07:41 AM

I do taekwondo and kokikai aikido as an official martial art. I also go to a fight class where they tell you to put on gloves and start fighting. So far the only thing aikido has helped me with is detecting balance (it's hard to actually apply the moves), however that is still valuble when you are wrestling somone. I have thought about taking kendo, but I haven't found a class that is near enough and is convenient to my schedule. Also the bogu is very expensive (F.Y.I a bogu is kendo armor).

OmniTense · 03-30-2007, 01:18 PM

BTW guys. Don't go easy on the stories. If you have any real cool martial arts stories then share those too. I've got a few and once I think of a really good one then I'll edit this post and share it.

Aerif · 03-30-2007, 01:48 PM

Martial Arts? I used to be obsessive over them! At one point I tried to practice 3 different styles of martial arts at once. Two eastern styles (Tae Kwan Do and an online course of self trained Ninjutsu) and the sport that actually is a western martial art: Fencing.

My Tae Kwan Do studies actually went further than I expected them too, if I had continued with the lessons I would have obtained black belt by the end of that year and 2nd or 3rd Dan by now. I actually was asked to compete for the Inverclyde area but the costs for equipment where atrocius, £35 for a competition gi, £40 for sparring gloves, £45 for fitted sparring foot covers, £25 for additional protection and £100 for enrollment as the Inverclyde representative. I could've gone far... Had I not given up thanks to the ****head of an instructor I had... I really hate that guy, I think he was really just an evil soul stealer...

As for the self course in Ninjutsu, it was really hard to find a point of reference, in fact, it was nigh impossible to find a free online course. However I eventually managed it and practised a rather mild form of Ninjutsu (which actually reminded me of some of the moves off Dead or Alive's Mugen Tenshin Ninjas, video games can be educationale!) but I had to give the thing up, I didn't have the correct equipment and needed some things such as trampettes to practise some of the more advanced skills... And now that I think about I don't think I could be a ninja... Not even by title...

As for the fencing, I only tried to practise that, but of course if they even brought pretend swords into Port Glasgow then we'd probably have to deal with at least 30 murder cases... You can kill people with foil you know...

OmniTense · 03-30-2007, 02:05 PM

Yea, Aerif, you can. But usually, only if you sharpen the end, break your blade or own a Col de Mort.

I broke my blade once when I was blade-locked with my master and we were struggling. There was a loud metalic crack and everything halted. We found the end of my Foil blade stuck backwards in my master's jacket. He had a little scar inside from where it had cut him.

But thankfully no one was seriously hurt, though.

Fishie · 03-30-2007, 06:31 PM

Well I'm currently taking boxing and have been in it for several weeks now. My first match was a few days ago and I kicked some ass!!! Apart from that though I've always wanted to take a Martial Arts class. It teaches you morale and self-discipline. Apart from learning that though, I've always wanted to go back in Tai Kwon Do and acheive a black belt. I think its a little too late to go though, but I took Tai Kwon Do when I was 4 years old.

I didn't stay for that long because I was getting "violent" with kids at my school. My mom told me that she would get calls from my teacher that I was picking on kids and punching them and shit. So my mom took me out of it. I'd probably achieve my black belt by now or a few years ago if I stood in it. I can't believe though that I was a bully to kids back in the day.

I feel really bad though that I bring it up.

Novacrash · 03-31-2007, 04:19 PM

Im taking Triad Karate right now, and I started Kungfu as well about two weeks ago, ordered all my uniforms and stuff for it (Lotsa weapons o.o)

I just got a new belt in Karate Y-day Orange w/ a black stripe -yay!-

I also have too start taking Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu pretty soon too o:!
Thatll be fun, I like ground fighting, always fun ^^!

The stances in Kung-fu are pretty crazy o.o, once you got 'em you got 'em though I guess..

I might start taking fencing later on in life, but doing Kendo would be alot cooler, maybe eskrima...theres so much freaking stuff too do lol...

Silver · 03-31-2007, 04:30 PM

Kung Fu stances are cool. Easy to do drunk too. Probably easier if you're drunk. Why do I say this, well I was drunk, outside the pub, and this bastard thought it would be funny or something to pick a fight with me, I drunkenly craned his butt, a lot easier than I probably would have sober.

Ever notice how people make up their own name for their own street fighting styles now. My two favourites are Drunken Panda and Oblivious Demon.

"Drunken Panda is fun, Oblivious Demon gets the job done."