Tweet
What is your martial arts history? Why is it that way in ther first place? (Why did you do certain styles?)
Here's my mini-novel:
Tae Kwon Do (2 years) - At the time I was a child (9-10 years) and living in a small town in rural Texas. The only thing available within about 60 miles was this school. Rangel's Tae Kwon Do out of Rosenberg which was still a good 45-50 minutes away from where I was.
It was fun, and I really only did it because I wanted to imitate some of the martial arts films I had seen.
Karate (3 years) - (For personal reasons I will not list any names in connection to Karate or Aikido)I was in my late teens during this period and a friend into martial arts talked me into signing up. My family had moved to an area just outside of Houston, so now there were a lot of options as far as martial arts were concerned. But at the time I wasn't that interested in martial arts. I believe my parents just wanted me to do something to keep me active. They told me later that they felt that this school was best for me.
Aikido (5 years) - The karate school had conviced an Aikido teacher to teach at their school. I had heard about Aikido and it looked fun so I tried it. At first I bounced back and forth from Karate and Aikido classes, but I enjoyed the Aikido classes more. The teacher was a great guy and his classes were always fun. For a period of about 3 years I always did Aikido, but then some personal business limited me to only going sporatically.
After about a long 6 month layoff at the end, I returned to find that the Aikido teacher had been replaced by another man. This man was, in terms of techinique, impeccable. His Aikido was VERY good. His teaching method and his personality on the other hand was very stern and dry. His attitude, to me, was like we were only underlings to his senority. I felt like he didn't respect any of the students and his teaching method was just too sparse. He would show moves once or twice and say, "Do it like this." Very few people in the class could keep up with how he taught. Finally I quit because I wasn't learning anything from this man and his personality was too cold for my taste. With the old teacher from before, whenever I left class. . . I felt good, motivated, and happy. But now I no longer enjoyed classes.
Judo & Arnis (heh. . . 6 months Wow what a long time!) - About the same time I was doing Aikido, a Judo program started in the Karate school. Gary, the Judo teacher was amazing. This guy was great. Amazing technique and amazing personality. He had started taking Judo and Arnis in the Philipines and started teaching it over here wherever he got the chance. He was the first true well rounded martial artist I have ever met. A guy that understood that just one style didn't have all the answers. He had taken Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Jeet Kune Do, Arnis, and some Wing Chun. His specialty was Arnis and Judo (his throws were devatstating,) but he was good in any range of combat.
I didn't have much experience with either Judo or Arnis due to the limited amount of time I had taken classes (because my focus at the time was Aikido.) I would have continued, but Gary had to go back to the Philipines because of family issues. I am sad that I haven't seen the guy since. He is a great man.
BJJ & Muay Thai - (on and off for the past 3 years) Because of my disappointment in the new Aikido class and the Judo program being shut down, I left martial arts for awhile. I focused more on getting a career and making money.
An old friend of mine started telling me about these matches he had on video tape and a fighter named Kazushi Sakuraba. My friend was doing BJJ and Muay Thai at a place called Patumwadee Thai Boxing, which is located about 2 blocks away from the Astrodome. Patumwadee Thaiboxing was originally just a muay thai gym, but as MMA, NHB, Vale Tudo, or whatever you want to call it became popular, they geared the school for those types of fights. Saul Solis, the owner and head trainer at the gym currently trains Yves Edwards, Ricco Rodriguez, Pete Spratt, and sometimes Tito Ortiz (All guys are names in MMA.)
Anyway, my friend told me Sakuraba had just beaten Royce Gracie a couple months ago (Sakuraba had beaten Royce on May 1st in 2000.) I was tripped out, I had seen old footage of Royce in the UFC. I didn't really understand groundfighting at the time, and while I thought it was effective, I didn't understand exactly how Royce won each of his fights. What mattered was that I knew Royce was good. And if Sakuraba had beaten him, Sakuraba must be very good.
My friend popped in a bootleg tape from an event called Pride. Pride is based out of Japan and is a pretty big deal over there. I didn't imagine that 50,000 people would want to go to the Tokyo Dome and watch people beat each other up. Man, it was an EVENT. It seems so huge and just plain better compared to the old UFC footage I had watched. 1,000-2,000 angry Americans screaming crap like "Kill him!" and "What are you doing on the ground?!" compared to the 50,000 Japanese "Oohh!!" and "AAhh!" The Japanese understood the groundfighting aspect and cheered whenever a fighter got a dominant position, escaped from a potiental fight ending hold, or had good striking. It was like night and day.
The fight I watched was Renzo Gracie (Royce's cousin and in my opinion the best Gracie at that time) vs Kazushi Sakuraba. Before they started they showed footage of Sakuraba vs Royce. Poor Royce. He got beat on and embarrassed in that fight. Anyway, in the Renzo vs Sakuraba fight, Renzo was the aggressor for most of the fight. Neither man was winning, but I had Renzo ahead because he was pushing the fight more. People could have called it a draw, but it probably would have been a decision with Sakuraba getting the win (it was in Japan, and sometimes hometown decisions happen.) Nearing the end, they are locked up in the corner. Not much seemed to be happening, but then, with a minute left, Sakuraba got a kimura armlock and dislocated Renzo's arm. Referee stops the fight and the crowd cheers Sakuraba. Amazing.
I was enthralled by it all. So I had to do it. That is why I do BJJ and muay thai. Sakuraba (my favorite fighter) is not a BJJ or muay thai expert or exponent at all. But I do these arts because they cover most of what MMA is.
I've been on and off with it due to work and personal commitments, but I enjoy it when I get the chance to do it. I've been to a number of places. HKG, Patumwadee (I can't hang there, those guys are too tough!) and Elite Martial Arts BJJ.
It think what I like best about BJJ and MT is that it is dynamic. A lot of the techinque I was taught in Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, and Karate was static. It is very hard to do things when everything is in motion and an opponent is resisting. BJJ and MT realize that and encourage it. The only way to get more experience and be better is to replicate the situation as best and as safely as possible and train that situation.
Also another thing I like is the mentality and social aspect of it. In Karate, TKD, and Aikido you are not supposed to question your seniors. Which I think is mostly borrowed from Asian culture. I don't think it's that applicable in the western world.
For example, I have seen Karate insctuctors when questioned say something similar to,"This is just the way it is." They discourage people from questioning technique or methods. Now there's a difference between respecting somebody and just asking questions. Most tradional places I have seen, they take asking questions as disrespect.
The BJJ or MT guys I have seen will say, "Ok, do what you're going to do and I'll show you why my way is a little better." In almost all cases, the BJJ instructor will neutralize whatever the student is going to do. If the student is correct, then they will take into account what the student is saying and experiement with technique to get things right.
Your job as a student (when rolling) is to try to beat the teacher. Of course, this never happens unless you yourself are very experienced and very good. They don't discourage challenging each other, which I had seen discouraged in most of the traditional martial arts schools I have seen.
I think in the future I'll be taking up Arnis. I might even go to the Philipines.
(My above observations on traditional MA vs new styles are my opinions. So please nobody get bent out of shape.)
Here's my mini-novel:
Tae Kwon Do (2 years) - At the time I was a child (9-10 years) and living in a small town in rural Texas. The only thing available within about 60 miles was this school. Rangel's Tae Kwon Do out of Rosenberg which was still a good 45-50 minutes away from where I was.
It was fun, and I really only did it because I wanted to imitate some of the martial arts films I had seen.
Karate (3 years) - (For personal reasons I will not list any names in connection to Karate or Aikido)I was in my late teens during this period and a friend into martial arts talked me into signing up. My family had moved to an area just outside of Houston, so now there were a lot of options as far as martial arts were concerned. But at the time I wasn't that interested in martial arts. I believe my parents just wanted me to do something to keep me active. They told me later that they felt that this school was best for me.
Aikido (5 years) - The karate school had conviced an Aikido teacher to teach at their school. I had heard about Aikido and it looked fun so I tried it. At first I bounced back and forth from Karate and Aikido classes, but I enjoyed the Aikido classes more. The teacher was a great guy and his classes were always fun. For a period of about 3 years I always did Aikido, but then some personal business limited me to only going sporatically.
After about a long 6 month layoff at the end, I returned to find that the Aikido teacher had been replaced by another man. This man was, in terms of techinique, impeccable. His Aikido was VERY good. His teaching method and his personality on the other hand was very stern and dry. His attitude, to me, was like we were only underlings to his senority. I felt like he didn't respect any of the students and his teaching method was just too sparse. He would show moves once or twice and say, "Do it like this." Very few people in the class could keep up with how he taught. Finally I quit because I wasn't learning anything from this man and his personality was too cold for my taste. With the old teacher from before, whenever I left class. . . I felt good, motivated, and happy. But now I no longer enjoyed classes.
Judo & Arnis (heh. . . 6 months Wow what a long time!) - About the same time I was doing Aikido, a Judo program started in the Karate school. Gary, the Judo teacher was amazing. This guy was great. Amazing technique and amazing personality. He had started taking Judo and Arnis in the Philipines and started teaching it over here wherever he got the chance. He was the first true well rounded martial artist I have ever met. A guy that understood that just one style didn't have all the answers. He had taken Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Jeet Kune Do, Arnis, and some Wing Chun. His specialty was Arnis and Judo (his throws were devatstating,) but he was good in any range of combat.
I didn't have much experience with either Judo or Arnis due to the limited amount of time I had taken classes (because my focus at the time was Aikido.) I would have continued, but Gary had to go back to the Philipines because of family issues. I am sad that I haven't seen the guy since. He is a great man.
BJJ & Muay Thai - (on and off for the past 3 years) Because of my disappointment in the new Aikido class and the Judo program being shut down, I left martial arts for awhile. I focused more on getting a career and making money.
An old friend of mine started telling me about these matches he had on video tape and a fighter named Kazushi Sakuraba. My friend was doing BJJ and Muay Thai at a place called Patumwadee Thai Boxing, which is located about 2 blocks away from the Astrodome. Patumwadee Thaiboxing was originally just a muay thai gym, but as MMA, NHB, Vale Tudo, or whatever you want to call it became popular, they geared the school for those types of fights. Saul Solis, the owner and head trainer at the gym currently trains Yves Edwards, Ricco Rodriguez, Pete Spratt, and sometimes Tito Ortiz (All guys are names in MMA.)
Anyway, my friend told me Sakuraba had just beaten Royce Gracie a couple months ago (Sakuraba had beaten Royce on May 1st in 2000.) I was tripped out, I had seen old footage of Royce in the UFC. I didn't really understand groundfighting at the time, and while I thought it was effective, I didn't understand exactly how Royce won each of his fights. What mattered was that I knew Royce was good. And if Sakuraba had beaten him, Sakuraba must be very good.
My friend popped in a bootleg tape from an event called Pride. Pride is based out of Japan and is a pretty big deal over there. I didn't imagine that 50,000 people would want to go to the Tokyo Dome and watch people beat each other up. Man, it was an EVENT. It seems so huge and just plain better compared to the old UFC footage I had watched. 1,000-2,000 angry Americans screaming crap like "Kill him!" and "What are you doing on the ground?!" compared to the 50,000 Japanese "Oohh!!" and "AAhh!" The Japanese understood the groundfighting aspect and cheered whenever a fighter got a dominant position, escaped from a potiental fight ending hold, or had good striking. It was like night and day.
The fight I watched was Renzo Gracie (Royce's cousin and in my opinion the best Gracie at that time) vs Kazushi Sakuraba. Before they started they showed footage of Sakuraba vs Royce. Poor Royce. He got beat on and embarrassed in that fight. Anyway, in the Renzo vs Sakuraba fight, Renzo was the aggressor for most of the fight. Neither man was winning, but I had Renzo ahead because he was pushing the fight more. People could have called it a draw, but it probably would have been a decision with Sakuraba getting the win (it was in Japan, and sometimes hometown decisions happen.) Nearing the end, they are locked up in the corner. Not much seemed to be happening, but then, with a minute left, Sakuraba got a kimura armlock and dislocated Renzo's arm. Referee stops the fight and the crowd cheers Sakuraba. Amazing.
I was enthralled by it all. So I had to do it. That is why I do BJJ and muay thai. Sakuraba (my favorite fighter) is not a BJJ or muay thai expert or exponent at all. But I do these arts because they cover most of what MMA is.
I've been on and off with it due to work and personal commitments, but I enjoy it when I get the chance to do it. I've been to a number of places. HKG, Patumwadee (I can't hang there, those guys are too tough!) and Elite Martial Arts BJJ.
It think what I like best about BJJ and MT is that it is dynamic. A lot of the techinque I was taught in Tae Kwon Do, Aikido, and Karate was static. It is very hard to do things when everything is in motion and an opponent is resisting. BJJ and MT realize that and encourage it. The only way to get more experience and be better is to replicate the situation as best and as safely as possible and train that situation.
Also another thing I like is the mentality and social aspect of it. In Karate, TKD, and Aikido you are not supposed to question your seniors. Which I think is mostly borrowed from Asian culture. I don't think it's that applicable in the western world.
For example, I have seen Karate insctuctors when questioned say something similar to,"This is just the way it is." They discourage people from questioning technique or methods. Now there's a difference between respecting somebody and just asking questions. Most tradional places I have seen, they take asking questions as disrespect.
The BJJ or MT guys I have seen will say, "Ok, do what you're going to do and I'll show you why my way is a little better." In almost all cases, the BJJ instructor will neutralize whatever the student is going to do. If the student is correct, then they will take into account what the student is saying and experiement with technique to get things right.
Your job as a student (when rolling) is to try to beat the teacher. Of course, this never happens unless you yourself are very experienced and very good. They don't discourage challenging each other, which I had seen discouraged in most of the traditional martial arts schools I have seen.
I think in the future I'll be taking up Arnis. I might even go to the Philipines.
(My above observations on traditional MA vs new styles are my opinions. So please nobody get bent out of shape.)
Comment