OT: Your martial art experience...
So who here did (or does) martial arts?
I did three years of taekwondo. Was two belts away from black, and quit because I really wasn't suited to it (TKD is a very kick-heavy art that requires a lot of flexibility, and while I can kick decently enough I wasn't suited for the sparring, as I wasn't that fast).
About 1999, I started studying a "mixed" martial art, and what I mean by that was that a karate/aikido practicioner, a judo practicioner, and an escrima practicioner basically came together and combined their knowledge into a single curriculum. Did that for 10 years and got my black belt. Loved it, but felt a little burnout (partly because I felt like my after work life was getting too filled up with stuff) and stepped out.
A few years ago, I discovered Irish stickfighting, and I've been running with it ever since. There's a place in Monroe County that teaches it, and I studied that style and a second Irish style, and it's now part of my morning routine every day. I've also started dabbling with Wing Chun. I've learned there's a school not too far from me, and so when this hullabaloo is over I plan to start studying there as well.
How about you guys?
Retired from professional fighting in 2015. Black belt in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling. Fought MMA for 7 years as part of one of the best fight teams in the Midwest with over a dozen teammates in the UFC/Bellator/Pride/Strikeforce etc.. Now help coach it. Also teammates with one of the biggest Michigan fans who fought in the UFC & another who was NFL DL & former top 10 HW in world.
Miletich Fighting systems?
just curious, it seems like BJJ is the only martial art where you have to earn your belts on not just pay your fees. I mean, a 12 yr old can be a black belt in karate starting at age 10. Would you agree?
MFS was actually the first place I trained in the late 90’s/early 2000’s when I was in the military. But now I’m out of Indy, where we opened our own place about a decade ago.
I try really hard not to bash anybody or their art, but yes, BJJ takes between 10-12 years on average, as an adult training 3-4 days a week, to earn a black belt. We are 100% confident in giving someone their black in BJJ they can defend themselves versus anybody no matter age or size.
There are a lot of arts out there that are practically useless in real life but they have been around for centuries or make a lot of money. Basically, we take all the legit techniques from everything & use them. We don’t want the silly stuff. And we only want things that work against others who are also highly trained. A lot of the arts work in sport against others doing the same thing or against people who know nothing. We want to use things that work against the trained killers. That’s why we stick with BJJ, wrestling, Muay Thai, Dutch style kickboxing & boxing.
"There are a lot of arts out there that are practically useless in real life but they have been around for centuries or make a lot of money"
A lot of that comes from a watering down of the art. If you look at how Karate is ACTUALLY supposed to be practiced, as opposed to how it is often practiced now, it's night and day (if you want to see an example of this, look up Iain Abernethy).
Same with Wing Chun. People think Wing Chun is a pure striking art, but there are joint locks, takedowns, throws, and grapples within it (and I don't mean the Hong Kong Donnie Yen stuff). It depends on your instructor and how well they teach the application. Dominick Izzo, a Chicago cop who has studied Wing Chun, has testified that it is effective, but he calls out instructors who deemphasize proper practice (and rightly so). My hope is that the school I'm looking to join regarding WC is in the "reality" school.
The thing with that is they include other things, but at the 5% level, meaning they add in a little bit of grappling, a little bit of joint locks, but at a very low level. We expect our guys to be at a 100% striking, grappling, submission level.
Our guys are D1 wrestling, gold glove boxing champion, black belt BJJ, Muay Thai kru, level. So they could compete in all of them individually, but they are MMA, combining them all.
A lot of the “traditional martial arts” also are very stubborn & refuse to change. They are stuck in their 1000 year old ways & refuse to believe times have changed and they need to adapt. We will always take things if they work. We don’t use karate much, but we still take their footwork. Their striking is completely outdated though.
The other thing with traditional martial arts is the whole “master” thing. I will meet dudes who are my age, who are like 10th degree red belts but have huge guts & run out of breathe just talking. And they will never, ever, ever spar. They will just sit around & talk about how great they are. I still spar the fighters in their 20’s half my age.
April 26th, 2020 at 12:22 AM ^
Say more about the Dutch style kickboxing...
That was so impressive you could post it 3 times!!
Seriously, though... that's some nice experience.
LOL, I have no idea how that happened but am trying to fix it?
Around age 6 my mom took me the Troy community center or YMCA or something similar for a karate intro class. At one point the instructor had us form a circle and told us to flex our stomach muscles. He then walked around the circle and gave us a pretty solid rap with the back of his hand into our guts. Apparently this was to teach us the importance of physical fitness. I started crying and never did anything with martial arts again the rest of my life.
BTW, for the record I can get on board with calling boxing a martial art.
I was a decent wrestler in HS, does that count?
Absolutely.
I've met wrestlers who have had to use their skill in a street situation and did just fine. I'd definitely include wrestling as a martial art.
Was getting ready to test for my level 3 in Krav Maga before the world ended, I also do kickboxing (cardio for Krav) and no gi BJJ.
Krav is not a martial art, but it's adjacent.
I did a little karate in high school, but when I moved to California I started getting bullied and realized that it wasn't enough. I started working around the house of our apartment's maintenance man, learning karate as we went. I soon won a local karate championship, winning hearts and respect along the way. I even fought in a life-or-death match against some asshole in Japan, but that's a pretty boring story. Honk!
I quit playing sports in high school so my mom made choose between getting a job or doing something active. So i chose to follow my uncle to his Brazilian jiu jitsu class and have been doing that off and on for 15 years now.
Where at? (Association)
I have a red and black belt in judo.
For real.
April 26th, 2020 at 12:48 AM ^
Plus you ride a mean horse. Horse position = always advantage
Been around it my whole life as my bro was a ranked TKD competitor and was winning adult tourneys at age 15, as he was a good size. He soon realized TKD was great if you were in a tournament against other TKD students. He also learned that the great equalizer in fights was not what belt you were—it was the ground. Most fights end up on the ground. So he started mixing in aikido and grappling with great results. So, learn something to put someone on the ground, and learn what to do if you’re on the ground.
Did two years of kickboxing and BJJ at age 45. Once I started real sparring quickly realized I was slow, had terrible footwork and got hit a lot. It wasn’t fun
You can still do BJJ though, which will help you against 99.99% of people on earth.
I took several courses of tae kwan do in college, and got my PE credits out of the way. I was a bouncer at bars, so I thought I better add a few more "tools" and it was time well spent. I'm a big dude, so I don't find myself in a lot of situations where I have to defend myself, but I'm glad I took all those classes.
Crazy story: a good 10 years after college (and I hadn't done one rep of any martial arts drill in those 10 years), my wife and I were walking home from a wedding through a bar district. 4 young dudes start mouthing off at us. I tend to not back down, and I start mouthing off right back. Now I have 4 dudes walking at me with bad intentions. Without having to think about it, my legs shifted right in to the perfect stance and my fist moved right to the perfect ready position, and the 4 young dudes turned right around and walked away. The perfect outcome. They drill you so repetitively on these motions, stances and positions, that after 10 years it was second nature. Crazy. Wife was like "what was that?" Who cares, we got home safe.
I’ve always wanted to learn kendo, but the last thing I need is another activity.
I retired with my yellow belt at approximately age 7, couldn’t break that damn board.
When I was 7-8 years old a couple of us cousins would have boxing matches-only body punches allowed.
April 26th, 2020 at 10:25 AM ^
I beat Kimbo Slice.