Basic Question *Decisions*

[arnuld]

PS muay thai is a sport, not a martial art. If you got bored of wrestling you may get bored of this too, but don't let that put you off trying it, just something to keep in mind.

Muay-Thai is not a sport, Its a deadly art.

Some 100 years ago, when the Kings of Thailand used to fight on elephants, they had 4 fighters who used to fight with 2 swords at a time. Each of them will stand in front of the each leg of the King's elephant because if elephant gets wounded, King may fall and can be killed by enemy. So King used to deploy 4 brilliant fighters on each leg (may be 5, one for front but I am not sure), they were experts in both armed and unarmed fighting. When during battle a fighter looses both of his swords then he would use a style of fighting, a brutal and deadly style that will kill the enemy and enemy may be using swords. That art used 8 limbs of the body to kill the enemy, that art is known as Muay-Thai, it originated in the battle. Now people in Thailand use it as a sport, which is a different case. But if you can come across some real old Muay-Thai Master who knows all the fundamentals of Muay-Thai, I highly recommend you to spend as much time as you can with him (and same is true for the real Master of any art)

 

[jks9199]

Muay-Thai is not a sport, Its a deadly art.

Some 100 years ago, when the Kings of Thailand used to fight on elephants, they had 4 fighters who used to fight with 2 swords at a time. Each of them will stand in front of the each leg of the King's elephant because if elephant gets wounded, King may fall and can be killed by enemy. So King used to deploy 4 brilliant fighters on each leg (may be 5, one for front but I am not sure), they were experts in both armed and unarmed fighting. When during battle a fighter looses both of his swords then he would use a style of fighting, a brutal and deadly style that will kill the enemy and enemy may be using swords. That art used 8 limbs of the body to kill the enemy, that art is known as Muay-Thai, it originated in the battle. Now people in Thailand use it as a sport, which is a different case. But if you can come across some real old Muay-Thai Master who knows all the fundamentals of Muay-Thai, I highly recommend you to spend as much time as you can with him (and same is true for the real Master of any art)

Sorry, but Muay Thai is a sport. It has links and history in common with combative martial arts of Thailand -- but it's a sport. Just like fencing has elements in common with Western sword fighting, either for the battlefield or duels, but is a sport.

 

[Akira]

Arnuld with all respect to you, I think you are confusing Muay Thai and Muay Boran.

Muay Thai is a ringsport, and as such, most of the techniques used on the battlefield with Muay Boran that aren't useful in the ring are simply not used practiced in muay thai. Some are, but a lot of them just aren't practical in the ring.

There are similarities and shared techniques between the two, but they are not the same.

 

[PeteMc]

Wow haha a lot of replies since last night =P... but to answer everyone... The reason I want to learn Martial Arts are for 2 reasons. None of which really include self-defense because I am not too worried because of my size (6'3 187lbs) that I will need it for that, although it would come in handy for sure.

Reason #1. To compete - I LOVE sports, I have found that I cannot get enough of sports throughout my 16 years I've always had Baseball, Wrestling, or Football. Now I want to start Martial arts because I think it will be great =) and I boxed a kid that wanted to fight me one time at a local gym, I liked it, but I realized that I would much rather learn to use my whole body if it were a fight

Reason #2. It really looks cool - Haha basically whenever I see on YouTube a martial arts fight or a friend of mine sparring I think it's about the coolest looking thing I have seen.

Now as far as the martial arts themselves go I do not want to limit myself to a single type of martial arts, I feel it would be better to be more well rounded in multiple arts rather than just one... and I do realize that it takes years to really "learn" an art, so I have no problem with time, I am 16 years old and have(hopefully) another 60 years ahead of me LOL. And, I will also be sitting in on classes for different martial arts to see if I like what they are teaching and how they are teaching it, for my first one. Tomorrow I have gotten permission to sit in at a Kung Fu "school" too see if I like it. Then I am going to try and see if I can sit in at a Jiu-Jitsu school and Hapkido, then I'll post my final decission here =)
Thanks for all of the help and replies
-Pete

 

[stonewall1350]

Thank you for the help... and idk if martial arts gyms will let me haha i've never done martial arts before and thanks for clearing up Muay Thai for me =) but I don't think I will get bored of martial arts because it is a lot more dynamic than wrestling from what I have seen and heard.

if they dont let you try at least one class I would avoid them. Every gym I have ever been in has given at least 1 free lesson. And as far as your focus....find out what you want your objectives to be. I did mma for a bit after I had learned to box...i found my ground game was severly lacking and after alot of tedious time wasting...i thought about judo....but then found that BJJ was what I REALLY enjoyed. And also...if you want something practical...there are many of those as well as adapting basic strikes to become dirty(which if I am not mistaken is what Krav did by adapting boxing and wrestling into more devastating moves with throat strikes and jugular blows etc...easy to learn and do).

 

[stonewall1350]

Also as far as yall discussing whether something is sport or combat oriented....remember that boxing was taught as a combat/self defense technique. Anything that teaches you how to move and strike in a situation is better than nothing. Some are better for facing off against multiple attackers, where some are just devastating if used on one guy. Marine Corps guys are taught BJJ moves and while some say they are worthless in combat...I have a friend here at the university who watched a man get his shoulder dislocated when he tried to bayonet a squad gunner we know. Its ALL about aplication. So what am I saying in my usual rambling way? That they can all be adapted to combat...and have some sort of past in combat.

 

[DBZ]

....Tomorrow I have gotten permission to sit in at a Kung Fu "school" too see if I like it. Then I am going to try and see if I can sit in at a Jiu-Jitsu school and Hapkido, then I'll post my final decission here =)
Thanks for all of the help and replies
-Pete

How did the sit in go? Did you get to try a lesson?

 

[PeteMc]

Thanks for asking, the sit in went well and they let me participate a bit. It seems to be my kind of school, although i'm used to getting chewed out if I do something wrong, they didn't do that, but they corrected the way I did it. So, hopefully I'll be able to do the same with the Jiu-Jitsu school around here and then I can have a more informed decisison of what I am going to do. =)

 

[Blade96]

Nicely done, mate. No they dont chew you out when correcting you in MA. they'll be picky (very picky) because they want you to get better. Thats the case in my MA dojo anyway.

Keep going =]

 

[stonewall1350]

Thanks for asking, the sit in went well and they let me participate a bit. It seems to be my kind of school, although i'm used to getting chewed out if I do something wrong, they didn't do that, but they corrected the way I did it. So, hopefully I'll be able to do the same with the Jiu-Jitsu school around here and then I can have a more informed decisison of what I am going to do. =)

Glad to hear that. I do recomend patience. I am still very new to Brazillian jiu jitsu and it took me a month to finally get certain aspects that are now VERY basic. I still cannot win a roll against the other guys in the class except the ones on my level of training. I noticed you had said that you have plenty of time to learn and that is very good to hear. So just remember that anything you start out with, you are going to make mistakes and that you need to relax and keep trying. Repition builds muscle memory and that is where the art is born. I suggest looking at a post by tigerland in the general self defense section of the forums. He talks about the neurological steps sort of for martial arts and I throughly agree with his view and cannot state it any better than he did.

 

[PeteMc]

Nicely done, mate. No they dont chew you out when correcting you in MA. they'll be picky (very picky) because they want you to get better. Thats the case in my MA dojo anyway.

Keep going =]

LOL yeah it was kind of nice for a change xD I get chewed out enough everyday at the gym I lift at as well because it's where everyone on my football team lifts *including some coaches* lol I rele enjoyed it LOL and I stayed a little longer to talk to some of the "more experienced" people in the class and they told me how much they liked this school compared to some others lol so I'm really thinking of this school and thanks for the encouragement as well =)

Glad to hear that. I do recomend patience. I am still very new to Brazillian jiu jitsu and it took me a month to finally get certain aspects that are now VERY basic. I still cannot win a roll against the other guys in the class except the ones on my level of training. I noticed you had said that you have plenty of time to learn and that is very good to hear. So just remember that anything you start out with, you are going to make mistakes and that you need to relax and keep trying. Repition builds muscle memory and that is where the art is born. I suggest looking at a post by tigerland in the general self defense section of the forums. He talks about the neurological steps sort of for martial arts and I throughly agree with his view and cannot state it any better than he did.

Thank you for the advice =) and yes I do have a lot of time =P so I am happy with that and I lift everyday but the way the dojo's are set up it gives me enough time to do homework and lift after school and still make it to the class with about 20 minutes to spair =)

 

[stonewall1350]

LOL yeah it was kind of nice for a change xD I get chewed out enough everyday at the gym I lift at as well because it's where everyone on my football team lifts *including some coaches* lol I rele enjoyed it LOL and I stayed a little longer to talk to some of the "more experienced" people in the class and they told me how much they liked this school compared to some others lol so I'm really thinking of this school and thanks for the encouragement as well =)


Thank you for the advice =) and yes I do have a lot of time =P so I am happy with that and I lift everyday but the way the dojo's are set up it gives me enough time to do homework and lift after school and still make it to the class with about 20 minutes to spair =)

thats good. I was lacking physical strength for a guy my size going into the gym...but 230lbs in BJJ is not really great. Its about flexibility first and so I am working my butt off trying to get more flexible. I can already touch my tootsies lol.

 

[PeteMc]

well, after about a week i finished looking at different schools and taking some free classes and the two i liked the most were Jiu-Jitsu and Tae Kwon Do. I think I am going to do Tae Kwon Do, because it seems like more fun to me =p... but another reason is because it is very reasonable price, the guy who runs it teaches marines, and they seem to want to teach more than take my money lol... so thanks for the support from everyone haha and i don't think tae kwon do was even on my list of the ones I "really" wanted to do =) thanks too everyone who told me to sit in and do free classes it really helped me

 

[JWLuiza]

Congrats on making a decision. Just a question: does the TKD guy require a contract?

 

[PeteMc]

thank you =) and as far as payment goes, he doesn't require a contract it's a monthly fee otherwise idk haha he hasen't made me sign anything yet lol *although it's my 1st real day* haha

 

[JWLuiza]

That's great. Pay as you go, or short term (3 month contracts) are pretty smart. I'm not a big fan of the 1 or 2 year contracts.