Looking at schools locally

[Flying Crane]

Yep, stance training, forms, two person drills, tui shou, etc. can all be useful tools and none of them individually are sufficient or necessary to learn how to fight. I'm not even convinced that sparring (as many define it anyway) is necessary or sufficient, just another very useful tool and one that's harder to replace than many others.


On another note, looking at your signature it appears we have the same first name as well!

Hilarious!

anyways, I am not convinced that sparring is the pinnacle of training. It can be useful. Other things can also be useful. There are many kinds of sparring and some can be downright useless. So it really depends. But I do not believe it is absolutely essential. Other things can develop solid, useful skills without sparring.

 

[MetalBoar]

Hilarious!

anyways, I am not convinced that sparring is the pinnacle of training. It can be useful. Other things can also be useful. There are many kinds of sparring and some can be downright useless. So it really depends. But I do not believe it is absolutely essential. Other things can develop solid, useful skills without sparring.

I'd go further and say that some forms of sparring are counter productive and many others don't accomplish what people think they do. I think there are things you can get from sparring that can be hard to get elsewhere but it's not the simple, straight forward matter that some make it out to be.

 

[Flying Crane]

I'd go further and say that some forms of sparring are counter productive and many others don't accomplish what people think they do. I think there are things you can get from sparring that can be hard to get elsewhere but it's not the simple, straight forward matter that some make it out to be.

Full agreement there.

 

[FranciscoNegron]

While not CMA, I highly recommend Riki Dojo in Mesa. Riki Sensei is amazing and he’s the most knowledgeable man on martial arts I’ve ever met. Saturday classes are great because we do Jika Boei (self protection) where we actually do strikes. Drop by and have a chat with Sensei.

 

[FranciscoNegron]

While we’re on one, does anyone have any experiences with a Kenpo instructor named Vernon Kam? I’m thinking of other arts to supplement my training. I still have to see one of Ashe’s classes.

 

[clfsean]

Peter Pena in the valley is straight legit on his skills. I'd beat feet to train with him. Last I heard he was around Guadalupe/Gilbert area but this can obviously change.

Try reaching out here --> 登录 Facebook

 

[MetalBoar]

Deleted double post

 

[MetalBoar]

While not CMA, I highly recommend Riki Dojo in Mesa. Riki Sensei is amazing and he’s the most knowledgeable man on martial arts I’ve ever met. Saturday classes are great because we do Jika Boei (self protection) where we actually do strikes. Drop by and have a chat with Sensei.

Hey! Thanks for resurrecting this thread, your timing was perfect. I wanted to start training again in something right after the vaccines came out, but then I got laid off of one job and started another that had me working evenings. I'm now on to yet another job that's fantastic and has a very flexible schedule, but it's a startup and has only recently calmed down enough for me to feel like I had the bandwidth for anything but work.

Riki Dojo is one of the places I've been wanting to go visit, even though I hadn't really been interested in Judo, because it looks like a great school. I haven't contacted them yet, but on the website it says I can just drop in to view a class, so I think I'll try to do that this week.

While we’re on one, does anyone have any experiences with a Kenpo instructor named Vernon Kam? I’m thinking of other arts to supplement my training. I still have to see one of Ashe’s classes.

Unfortunately, my Kenpo days are ~30 years in the past and a different branch of the Kenpo tree, so I'm afraid I don't have any useful info.

 

[MetalBoar]

Peter Pena in the valley is straight legit on his skills. I'd beat feet to train with him. Last I heard he was around Guadalupe/Gilbert area but this can obviously change.

Try reaching out here --> 登录 Facebook

Thanks for the feedback!

I've had a hard time finding out much about him, but he definitely teaches arts that I'd like to train. I know that right up until the start of the pandemic he was teaching Hung Gar at one of the local community centers and I've been hoping that he'd re-start that class so I could see what his instruction is like, but so far, no luck. Hopefully he's still taking new students and just isn't advertising. I'll reach out and see what he says!

 

[FranciscoNegron]

Hey! Thanks for resurrecting this thread, your timing was perfect. I wanted to start training again in something right after the vaccines came out, but then I got laid off of one job and started another that had me working evenings. I'm now on to yet another job that's fantastic and has a very flexible schedule, but it's a startup and has only recently calmed down enough for me to feel like I had the bandwidth for anything but work.

Riki Dojo is one of the places I've been wanting to go visit, even though I hadn't really been interested in Judo, because it looks like a great school. I haven't contacted them yet, but on the website it says I can just drop in to view a class, so I think I'll try to do that this week.

Unfortunately, my Kenpo days are ~30 years in the past and a different branch of the Kenpo tree, so I'm afraid I don't have any useful info.

Please do! I should be there tomorrow night. Riki Sensei it only explains the martial application, but also the old samurai/jujutsu context. He’s an academic too and that’s what makes him even more special.