New to Martial Arts

[Monkey Turned Wolf]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you don't do a lot of hard sparring. The difference between getting hit with a 16 oz glove and a bare fist aren't even the same universe.

Unless you are talking about heavilly regulated no headshot sparring or stop after one point style sparring, in which case going no gear is pretty common.

To clarify I'm talking about full continuous sparring with striking and grappling, or full continuous striking only sparring.

I no longer do hard sparring, as a result of concussions (mentioned it before, they mostly came from hard sparring, with and without headgear). I actually don't practice striking in general because of risk of future concussions. But I have done hard contact to the body, with no contact to the head as well, and that worked fine, it was actually my personal favorite. It tended to result in lower guards, but still good fun. And I've done light/medium contact without gloves/protective gear. Honestly, I didn't notice a huge difference in my skill brought about from hard contact and light/medium contact, or any changes in my tactics. The only big thing is that doing hard contact gives you a bit more respect for the other persons strikes. I think that if most people trained light to medium contact (with or without gloves), and hard contact on occasion to the body (with or without gloves), they would get a lot of applicable use from their training. I don't think there should ever be hard contact to the head, with or without gloves and headgear, because I've experienced it plenty of times and honestly getting hit more in the head didn't seem to make me any better at absorbing hits to the head.

 

[Buka]

We have an instructor in our school that is 58 and teaches multiple classes. People a 1/3 his age have a hard time keeping up. If I had a choice of schools to join and one had an instructor that would do every sit up/push up vs one that had to 'take a break' when he taught, I would pick the school that had the guy that did the work.

Sure, everyone can have an off day or be injured but all things created equally, that's the guy I want to learn from because he has a level of fitness and work ethic that I want to have when I am studying a MA.

I with you. Sometimes if I'm teaching a technical aspect of the arts I usually just teach. But if I'm running warm ups or class exercises or, shall we say, inspirational exercise, I'm doing every push up, every sit up, every everything with everyone. Even when I don't want to. I know there will come a day....but until that day....I plan to do a whole boot load more. But I'm only 67, plenty time left.

And to me, pushups are more of an exercise in self discipline than arm work. Just the way I was taught.

 

[Yokozuna514]

I with you. Sometimes if I'm teaching a technical aspect of the arts I usually just teach. But if I'm running warm ups or class exercises or, shall we say, inspirational exercise, I'm doing every push up, every sit up, every everything with everyone. Even when I don't want to. I know there will come a day....but until that day....I plan to do a whole boot load more. But I'm only 67, plenty time left.

And to me, pushups are more of an exercise in self discipline than arm work. Just the way I was taught.

Osu, that is very inspirational. I hope be doing the same when i reach 67. Good on ya !

 

[dvcochran]

Thanks for the response. I don't have a deadline or rush per say. My thinking was just that if I happen to get mugged next week for example I would be much better able to defend myself with boxing as compared to something like Kung Fu which my impression is that is a lot more complicated to learn. Could be wrong about that I don't know.

Also my thinking was since I don't have any background in fighting boxing would be a good foundation to begin with.

Welcome to the forum. Thanks for dropping in and asking questions.
It sounds like a big part of your focus in on being attacked or mugged. You may also want to look in a school or a program that is heavy in situational awareness and specific self defense. Adding this to an of the styles you listed would be strong.

 

[Chrisinmd]

Yes , but the context of the post was how good can yiu be at self defence in the short term, not how good at boxing matches can you be if you put a couple of decades into it.

From a self defence point of view, being proficient at throwing a couple of punches is all your likely to need, unless the guy grabs you, in wwhich case a couple of throws and maybe a few kicks will come in handy. And boxing falls a bit short on those, but the better you are at boxing the less that matters, but that of course takes a lit more time to develop,

But my pointt remains , 6 months into any ma, you should be in a position to robustly defend yourself against most people, even if yiyr unlikely to ever reach the regional finals

Thanks for your response. You are correct my interest in boxing is self defense and learning to throw and take punches etc. Not trying to start a 20 year career in the boxing ring. My initial reason for choosing boxing was I thought it would be a fairly simple sport to learn in a short time period. It appears from everyones comments this is not the case. Ill go try some free classes of my various options and see what I like

 

[Chrisinmd]

My only concern with Muy Thai for a 41 year old novice is, how much, and how often do you want to get hit? I thought about this issue when I came back to MA at age 53, and at least for now, I decided that the modest about of contact we practice in TKD was enough for me.

Some hitting and contact is fine. Although I don't want to constantly get the crap beat out of me either. One other issue I forgot to mention health wise is I have some back pain issues. So any martial art that requires me to pick up and throw 300 pound dudes may be out of the question. Thoughts?

 

[Yokozuna514]

Some hitting and contact is fine. Although I don't want to constantly get the crap beat out of me either. One other issue I forgot to mention health wise is I have some back pain issues. So any martial art that requires me to pick up and throw 300 pound dudes may be out of the question. Thoughts?

I don't think anyone that signs up for a MA wants to be punching bag but if you do not get pushed to your limit by sometimes getting the crap kicked out of you )), you will not be forced to reassess your training and improve your deficiencies.

The only caveat I have is health issues. I'm not sure about you but when I started training I was considered a 'bigger' guy (bigger gut anyways) so I had to deal with some debilitating back issues from time to time. The longer I trained the better shape I got into but I still had back issues. It was when I was going to an osteopath and they basically said they can keep putting Humpty Dumpty back together again but if I really wanted to fix the problem, I would work more on my core. They were 100% correct and I have been back issue free for the last 3 years (knock on wood).

IMHO, you need to build up slowly and over time. You may not pick up the 300 pound dude on the first day but if that is your goal and you put in a training plan to support that, why would it not be possible all things created equally ?

 

[FriedRice]

Here are the 2 schools I am looking at

IFC MMA – Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness In Gaithersburg, MD

Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) Kung Fu School | Montgomery County, Maryland

IFC is Jeff Gordon's school and it's a good school.

That WC school doesn't look like it's going to get you into fighting shape nor skills any time soon. He even spelled it Ving Tsun, so expect to learn a lot about the Chinese culture from a White guy

 

[FriedRice]

And if you punch properly, the chances of breaking your fist/wrist is a lot lower than people seem to think.

Yeah but who can punch so properly all the time? You can't ever make mistakes, especially in a fight or hard sparring that's going to be at full power, throwing of hands? Plus, you can cut your hand on their teeth, risking "fight bite" which can lead to serious infections or even amputation.

Safety gear are meant to protect those of us who ain't perfect.

 

[FriedRice]

For the second, headgear doesn't protect you all that much; IIRC, headgear can actually hurt you more than help.

There's no conclusive answer to this. I stopped sparring with headgear because I believed that I get hit more with them on, but I still don't know for sure.

 

[FriedRice]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume you don't do a lot of hard sparring. The difference between getting hit with a 16 oz glove and a bare fist aren't even the same universe.

Yea, a medium jab, landing flushed to the nose with MMA 4oz gloves can feel like your nose just broke and tears starts flowing out of your eyes.

 

[FriedRice]

Some hitting and contact is fine. Although I don't want to constantly get the crap beat out of me either. One other issue I forgot to mention health wise is I have some back pain issues. So any martial art that requires me to pick up and throw 300 pound dudes may be out of the question. Thoughts?

Jeff Gordon's school ain't going to throw you into the shark tank, unless you wanted to spar or go into their fighter's class. You'll be doing lots of cardio + hitting pads for months, learning. Maybe light contact with the pads hitting you back to work on your defense. The only pain you should experience is that of holding the pads, that you'll get used to. There should be a separate "sparring class". Most people who train, don't go to this class, which is normal.

If you have back problems, then you def. don't want to do Jitsu. It's going to jack up your back. You need to strengthen your core decently before getting into it.

 

[Hanzou]

Here are the 2 schools I am looking at

IFC MMA – Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness In Gaithersburg, MD

Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) Kung Fu School | Montgomery County, Maryland

From the Ving Tsun school:

I have observed that, because Ving Tsun is concept-based, it is very tempting to add new drills and training methods that seem in line with Ving Tsun concepts; however, doing so is just a distraction and waters down the essence of Ving Tsun. With the huge success of the MMA scene, many schools have taken to adding or mixing other martial arts with their Ving Tsun program. I haven’t come across any examples where this mixing has created a stronger version of Ving Tsun; in fact most students who train these mixed versions usually lose focus on core Ving Tsun attributes, like a deep horse stance that builds Ving Tsun’s solid structure or strong control of the centerline.

Essentially the childish belief that cross training pollutes the "pure MA" and makes it weaker.

That's a huge red flag IMO.

That MMA gym looks awesome though.

 

[Hanzou]

Yeah but who can punch so properly all the time? You can't ever make mistakes, especially in a fight or hard sparring that's going to be at full power, throwing of hands? Plus, you can cut your hand on their teeth, risking "fight bite" which can lead to serious infections or even amputation.

Safety gear are meant to protect those of us who ain't perfect.

A buddy of mine used to carry gloves in his pocket in case he had to punch someone in a fight.

Fun times!

 

[dvcochran]

It is easy to see if your school has a fitness requirement for its instructors, and especially its students. And if a large percentage of the intermediate or advanced students are out of shape, it is at least something to consider.

2nd generation instructors are getting increasingly rare. My old Tang Soo Do teacher must be in his late 70s now. I haven't seen him in over 30 years, but I imagine he isn't as fit as he was back when he taught me. (and for that matter, neither am I) That said, those who are fortunate enough to train with him probably don't care that he is likely 20% or even 30%less athletic than he was 30 or 40 years ago.

The fitness element should be a given for any quality program. It should come to everyone over time. As a comparator, do you argue that a 70 year old BB of higher rank should be more fit than a new white belt? The argument is quickly skewed. The white belt may be a marathon runner so in that vein they are much more fit. The breadth of knowledge of the older BB, and a typical class curriculum, should knock the white belt for a loop in the course of regular class. Fitness should be homogenous with the teachings of any quality program. Does the typical BB become less "fit" over time, yes. Do the added tools and knowledge they should have greatly offset this loss, without a doubt.

 

[marques]

My only concern with Muy Thai for a 41 year old novice is, how much, and how often do you want to get hit? I thought about this issue when I came back to MA at age 53, and at least for now, I decided that the modest about of contact we practice in TKD was enough for me.

Some people are fine with that. Most of the training will be hitting pads. But, that is a good point, anyway.

 

[Chrisinmd]

From the Ving Tsun school:



Essentially the childish belief that cross training pollutes the "pure MA" and makes it weaker.

That's a huge red flag IMO.

That MMA gym looks awesome though.

Thanks. Look like I will scratch the Kung Fu school from my list

 

[Hanzou]

Thanks. Look like I will scratch the Kung Fu school from my list

That Ving Tsun group looked like a group of yoga enthusiasts. Nothing wrong with that, and I'm sure they're a fine bunch of people. However, if your goal is to actually learn how to fight and protect yourself, those aren't the type of people you want to learn from.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Here are the 2 schools I am looking at

IFC MMA – Mixed Martial Arts and Fitness In Gaithersburg, MD

Ving Tsun (Wing Chun) Kung Fu School | Montgomery County, Maryland

IFC looks like a solid school. They have 4 of the arts you were interested in so you can check them all out and see which clicks with you. They also offer a couple of free intro classes so you can get a feel for the instruction.

The Ving Tsun school might or might not be any good, but they do offer a free intro class. It couldn’t hurt to give it a try and see what you think.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I did some googling and it looks like you have plenty of good options in Gaithersburg if the first two schools don’t pan out for you. Evolve and Yamasaki Academy look to be worth checking out.