# Interested in martial arts, what can i do?



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

Hello everyone. I need a little bit of help.

You see i was always interested in martial arts but the problem is, that i do not have enough money and i live very far away from the closest martial arts school. 

It is so far away that in order to get there in time i would have to leave from my house at 16:30 PM and return at 22:00 PM. I also have high school to attend so it is not very convenient for me to be out on the streets for so long.

I really want to learn self defense. Is there anything i can do by myself? Every day i exercise and i go running. What else can i do?

Thanks in advance!

-With a lot of respect Thomas.


----------



## Gerry Seymour (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> Hello everyone. I need a little bit of help.
> 
> You see i was always interested in martial arts but the problem is, that i do not have enough money and i live very far away from the closest martial arts school.
> 
> ...


With that set-up, your best approach may be to go for occasional lessons, and have a partner to practice with between. If the instructor or the association provide some video material to use as a supplement when training at home, that helps, too. Understand that training without an instructor is likely to introduce errors that become habit (and, thus, hard to fix), and some of those errors can lead to injury or ineffective technique.

So, for instance, there's a branch of Brazilian Jiu Jutsu that has some okay material available online, and it's much less expensive than a full school membership. If you could get in to an affiliated school or study group at least once a month, and have a training partner who will go through the material with you, you could get a reasonable start. A bonus of something like BJJ is that you'll probably be able to find a place now, and if you go off to college there's likely one near that, too.

You might also want to post your location here for folks, as someone here might be able to help you find someplace closer.

Boxing is another option that you can probably find almost anywhere (MMA has, I think, created a revival of boxing gyms), and once you have a few basics, there's a lot you can do solo (heavy bag work, shadow boxing, movement drills, etc.).


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

gpseymour said:


> With that set-up, your best approach may be to go for occasional lessons, and have a partner to practice with between. If the instructor or the association provide some video material to use as a supplement when training at home, that helps, too. Understand that training without an instructor is likely to introduce errors that become habit (and, thus, hard to fix), and some of those errors can lead to injury or ineffective technique.
> 
> So, for instance, there's a branch of Brazilian Jiu Jutsu that has some okay material available online, and it's much less expensive than a full school membership. If you could get in to an affiliated school or study group at least once a month, and have a training partner who will go through the material with you, you could get a reasonable start. A bonus of something like BJJ is that you'll probably be able to find a place now, and if you go off to college there's likely one near that, too.
> 
> ...



Thank you very much for the information. I don't feel very comfortable in sharing my location, but i live in a small village. The village is so small that we don't even have a school. I have to go to the nearest town to do anything, including shopping. That's why the nearest martial arts school is so far away.


----------



## Gerry Seymour (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> Thank you very much for the information. I don't feel very comfortable in sharing my location, but i live in a small village. The village is so small that we don't even have a school. I have to go to the nearest town to do anything, including shopping. That's why the nearest martial arts school is so far away.


Depending upon which country you're in, there may be unadvertised martial arts programs. That's less common in the US, but more common in some countries (I've heard reports it is quite common in China, for instance). If you can find a member who's near your geographic area, they may have suggestions. Most of us have our general location on our profile, so keep an eye open for one near you.


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

gpseymour said:


> Depending upon which country you're in, there may be unadvertised martial arts programs. That's less common in the US, but more common in some countries (I've heard reports it is quite common in China, for instance). If you can find a member who's near your geographic area, they may have suggestions. Most of us have our general location on our profile, so keep an eye open for one near you.



I guess you are right. I live in Greece, in the town of Frantzis

Not to be confused with Frantzi (without the s). The city i was talking about is Lamia. It may not be hours away, but i need a bus to get there. Now because Frantzis doesn't have a large population there is one bus at 16:00 PM and another at 22:00 PM. 

I also added my location to my profile


----------



## Gerry Seymour (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> I guess you are right. I live in Greece, in the town of Frantzis
> 
> Not to be confused with Frantzi (without the s). The city i was talking about is Lamia. It may not be hours away, but i need a bus to get there. Now because Frantzis doesn't have a large population there is one bus at 16:00 PM and another at 22:00 PM.
> 
> I also added my location to my profile


I can see how that would make it more difficult to get to classes, and I certainly wouldn't be trying to do that 2+ times a week. What kinds of schools have you found in Lamia?


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

gpseymour said:


> I can see how that would make it more difficult to get to classes, and I certainly wouldn't be trying to do that 2+ times a week. What kinds of schools have you found in Lamia?



I have found Black Belt Academy, Koutras Pagration Academy, Krav Maga Oxygen (the closest to my location) and Α. Ο ΖΕΥΣ Λαμία ( A.O ZEUS Lamia)


----------



## Gerry Seymour (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> I have found Black Belt Academy, Koutras Pagration Academy, Krav Maga Oxygen (the closest to my location) and Α. Ο ΖΕΥΣ Λαμία ( A.O ZEUS Lamia)


The Black Belt Academy appears to teach (from their Facebook page, which is part English/part Greek) BJJ, so that might be a place to start looking. 

Essentially, it's going to be up to what works for you. My advice in your situation is a bit different than usual, given the difficulty in getting to classes. Visit the schools (you should be able to hit several in a single bus trip) and talk to the instructors. See which ones have suggestions on how to train with one or two visits a month and training at home. In my opinion, you should be looking for someone who can offer both solo and partner suggestions (the partner suggestions would work best if your partner also went with you once or twice a month to go to classes). I would personally be skeptical of anyone who suggests only solo activity away from school, except perhaps at the very beginning in a striking art (where heavy bag work, forms, etc. can be a good place to start). To make progress in any MA training, you need regular interaction with a partner.

Your progress will be slower than if you could go multiple times a week, but infinitely faster than if you never started.


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

gpseymour said:


> The Black Belt Academy appears to teach (from their Facebook page, which is part English/part Greek) BJJ, so that might be a place to start looking.
> 
> Essentially, it's going to be up to what works for you. My advice in your situation is a bit different than usual, given the difficulty in getting to classes. Visit the schools (you should be able to hit several in a single bus trip) and talk to the instructors. See which ones have suggestions on how to train with one or two visits a month and training at home. In my opinion, you should be looking for someone who can offer both solo and partner suggestions (the partner suggestions would work best if your partner also went with you once or twice a month to go to classes). I would personally be skeptical of anyone who suggests only solo activity away from school, except perhaps at the very beginning in a striking art (where heavy bag work, forms, etc. can be a good place to start). To make progress in any MA training, you need regular interaction with a partner.
> 
> Your progress will be slower than if you could go multiple times a week, but infinitely faster than if you never started.



Alright, i will probably manage to visit some schools on monday. Thank you very much for the help!


----------



## Gerry Seymour (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> Alright, i will probably manage to visit some schools on monday. Thank you very much for the help!


You are most welcome. You'll probably get some more input once others show up. I'm on when I normally wouldn't be - everyone (including me) who was supposed to attend this morning's class is sick. So I'm getting my martial arts fix online this morning.


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 16, 2017)

gpseymour said:


> You are most welcome. You'll probably get some more input once others show up. I'm on when I normally wouldn't be - everyone (including me) who was supposed to attend this morning's class is sick. So I'm getting my martial arts fix online this morning.



I wish you all to get better soon!


----------



## drop bear (Dec 16, 2017)




----------



## Anarax (Dec 16, 2017)

ThomasAld said:


> Hello everyone. I need a little bit of help.
> 
> You see i was always interested in martial arts but the problem is, that i do not have enough money and i live very far away from the closest martial arts school.
> 
> ...



Are there any martial arts type activities available at your school like wrestling? There are great things you can learn from wrestling that can be applied to many different styles you might be able to learn in the future. Have you searched Facebook for potential martial arts schools? Not all schools have their own websites nor know how to make themselves easily searchable.

Some instructors are more lenient on tuition than others. You can always offer to clean up around the Dojo and help in various ways to try and make it more affordable.


----------



## ThomasAld (Dec 17, 2017)

Anarax said:


> Are there any martial arts type activities available at your school like wrestling? There are great things you can learn from wrestling that can be applied to many different styles you might be able to learn in the future. Have you searched Facebook for potential martial arts schools? Not all schools have their own websites nor know how to make themselves easily searchable.
> 
> Some instructors are more lenient on tuition than others. You can always offer to clean up around the Dojo and help in various ways to try and make it more affordable.



Unfortunately there are no activities like that at my school. However i will definetely do some more research on more martial arts schools in my area. I will start by visiting a few of them tomorrow.


----------



## Monkey Turned Wolf (Dec 17, 2017)

On top of what gpseymour said, see if any of your friends are also interested. If you go to a bjj or boxing club, you can go back home and practice whatever drills you learned together. Once you guys get good enough you can roll and/or spar together in your spare time


----------



## jobo (Dec 17, 2017)

really what others have said, you need sone instruction, but the key is the practise in-between, once a week once every two weeks, once a month, it may slow down your progress some what compared to two or three times a week, but you will learn and make progress,

you could consider private lessons, a monthly private lesson should be cheaper than a three times a week attendance at an open class, or see if they do weekend classes,


----------

