hi i am interested in taking up a more traditinal martial art,(i have done MMA/KRAV for a couple of years). I am a believer that you need to put what you learn into practice (this doesnt mean looking for fights in the street) and am looking for something new that is good with either sparring or compeition. Can people please tell me the pro's and con's of their disipline. Thanks
jager, I would have thought MMA/Krav would have set you up nicely in terms of effective arts. Traditional martial arts are great, but do tend to focus less on effective self defence. If it is competition you want then TKD, Boxing, Muay Thai or Karate is the way to go, but in MMA you should be getting all the competition you need. Are you sparing now, or has your sparring become stale?
HI Not become stale, just thinking of doing a traditional art, as to old now for propper fighting and MMA/KRAV are great for self defence but i was thinking maybe more for knowledge purposes now. I was thinking of Muay thai, kung fu or jiu jitsu.I did look at Aikido but you never seem to actually hit anyone, (i may be highly mistaken on this), TKD focuses to much on the kicking side for me.
Have you considered something like Eskrima? A weapons system that has a direct cross over to the empty hands side of the art, sparring, competition, locks, chokes, grappling etc. Muay Thai is awesome, Ju Jitsu I have not done, but would certainly give it a look. I suppose the answer is to try a few classes and see what suits you.
Shodokan Aikido has competition, in case you are interested. In Aikido we do strike, and it's called Atemi. Reason for Atemi is to unbalance/distract or even cause pain to the aggressor so we may execute a technique. In Aikido you don't execute a technique until they are unbalanced. It however depends if you have a good school or not, as Aikido has a higher tendency of having flowery hippie-like schools. Muay Thai for sure should have competition, and I'll go out on a limb here and say it's somewhat like MMA, except no throws or ground work, and a slightly different rule set. It does however have the same "ferocity" as MMA sparring. With Jiu Jitsu, it really depends on the school. There is competition for Jiu Jitsu, but it depends on the school. Some schools are more traditional, where as others are more sport oriented. I would look to see what's schools are available in your area and go in for a trial class, as that's the best thing you can do!! Good luck!
My style combines traditional martial arts with the practical and we do focus on sparring quite a bit. But not really for competition.
If you've done MMA then you'd have already done some Muay Thai and Jiu jitsu yes? why not just focus on one of the composite disciplines of MMA if you want an art to specialise in and focus on into old age?
thanks for the replies, Eskrima is something i am very interested and have just found somewhere by where i live that teaches it so will give it a look.
this is the place http://www.liverpoolwingchun.co.uk I went a few weeks ago and did some ground work there, the instructor really seemed to know his stuff
I don't know liverpools geography too well , but are you any where near The Red triangle ? They have a fantastic reputation within Shotokan Karate and i'd be surprised if you didn't get some sparring.
