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I have been doing Tae Kwon Do for a while, and I wrestle in a submission wrestling club.

Even though I love TKD, I have always been fascinated with Win Chun Kung Fu and I have always wanted to learn it. There have never been any schools close enough to take it.

BTW, I don't think the art makes a fighter, I think it's the practitioner.

I do a bit of Taekwando at Uni, quite like it, although I'm really only doing a martial art to try and keep in shape and to try and achieve as high a belt as possible. I think if anyone actually tried to jump me on the streets, I'm pretty sure running away would be my first choice

Nothing wrong with running away to fight another day.

or not at all, ideally...

i´ve never done anything else than boxing and i must say it´s a load of fun.
it doesn´t look as smooth as most asian sports though.

I once heard about two muggers in Sacramento that tried to jump someone walking downtown. This person was some type Olympic level athelete. When the muggers jumped out, one of them pulled out a knife and demanded his wallet. The track runner was already half way down the street before the mugger could finish his sentence. I can just imagine the mugger thinking, "holy crap, we tried to mug the Flash."

I wonder if I can find a link to that story...

Superman wrote:I once heard about two muggers in Sacramento that tried to jump someone walking downtown. This person was some type Olympic level athelete. When the muggers jumped out, one of them pulled out a knife and demanded his wallet. The track runner was already half way down the street before the mugger could finish his sentence. I can just imagine the mugger thinking, "holy crap, we tried to mug the Flash."

I wonder if I can find a link to that story...

Reminds me of the one about the guy who wore a chain-mail vest when he went jogging, someone tried to stab him and it did nothing.

Gandalf, that is surprising because most bladed weapons don't have much problem when it comes to piercing armor. As a matter of fact, a knife being thrust into someone can have substantially more force behind it than a bullet!

This is also why police protective vests may protect against a .9 mm or a .45, but not a knife.

Superman wrote:Gandalf, that is surprising because most bladed weapons don't have much problem when it comes to piercing armor. As a matter of fact, a knife being thrust into someone can have substantially more force behind it than a bullet!

This is also why police protective vests may protect against a .9 mm or a .45, but not a knife.

It was the chain link stuff, I've seen it, it holds out some small blades, like knives etc, as the chain links themselves were probably small for the story to be true.

Ooohhh... I guess I'm not sure about what chain mail is made from...

Superman wrote:Ooohhh... I guess I'm not sure about what chain mail is made from...

Sorry but what do you mean by that?

Gandalf wrote:

Superman wrote:Gandalf, that is surprising because most bladed weapons don't have much problem when it comes to piercing armor. As a matter of fact, a knife being thrust into someone can have substantially more force behind it than a bullet!

This is also why police protective vests may protect against a .9 mm or a .45, but not a knife.

It was the chain link stuff, I've seen it, it holds out some small blades, like knives etc, as the chain links themselves were probably small for the story to be true.

We had some Anglo-Saxon recreationists come to my school once. They dressed me up in chain mail and attacked me with a knife

They didn't stab, though, just slashed. I think the stuff splits under a stab.

Jeet kun do

Long ago I took Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido.

Practice martial arts or combat? Favorite?

I have been practicing aikido for over two years but recently I've been leaning to this hybrid mix of kickboxing, sambo, brasillian jujitsu, clinching martial art that has no name since it is bastardized.

Gandalf wrote:

Superman wrote:Gandalf, that is surprising because most bladed weapons don't have much problem when it comes to piercing armor. As a matter of fact, a knife being thrust into someone can have substantially more force behind it than a bullet!

This is also why police protective vests may protect against a .9 mm or a .45, but not a knife.

It was the chain link stuff, I've seen it, it holds out some small blades, like knives etc, as the chain links themselves were probably small for the story to be true.

Bulletproof vests are basically thick, densely woven layers of super strong fabric. Bullets can't rip through them the same way they'd rip through a pair of jeans, and so they get stopped. A knife or other edged weapon will go though a BP vest since the sharpened edge can slice through the fibres used in the vests, the fibres may be super strong but they're not hard enough to resist being cut by a sharpened steel edge. Think of it this way, you can take a piece of canvas and poke it with a marker and it won't put a hole in it, poke it with a pen and it'll go through, with a BP vest the marker's the bullet and the pen's the knife.

Chainmail is kinda interesting, it's made of steel so it's hard enough to resist getting cut with a knife, which is why it's quite hard if not impossible to slash through it. But it has a weakness - the links that make up the chainmail. Stab hard enough with a knife and you'll split the links open, once that happens the knife goes through. Thus if you ever want to stab someone wearing chainmail, use a narrow dagger which splits the links open easier and gets better penetration. Problem is unless you hit a vital spot it'll take a while for them to bleed out and drop.

There are several types of sword designed with just that in mind. Chainmail has another major weakness....by itself it is piss poor protection, to get much protective value out of it a padded jacket needs to be worn underneath, and even then, impacts can still cause serious injury.

As for bullet proof vests, they can actually offer very good protection against slashing attacks, however piercing weapons such as a stiletto will punc through between the fibres.

As for martial arts, I've done a bit of karate, kickboxing mixed with kali and a freestyle weapon based art.

aerius wrote: Chainmail is kinda interesting, it's made of steel so it's hard enough to resist getting cut with a knife, which is why it's quite hard if not impossible to slash through it. But it has a weakness - the links that make up the chainmail. Stab hard enough with a knife and you'll split the links open, once that happens the knife goes through. Thus if you ever want to stab someone wearing chainmail, use a narrow dagger which splits the links open easier and gets better penetration. Problem is unless you hit a vital spot it'll take a while for them to bleed out and drop.

I should also mention that first aid can come into its own here.....I recall when I was getting a basic first aid course for working as a bouncer. At the start they asked if anyone had done first aid before, I honestly answerd, no.....later they were explaining about controling bleeding.....and I pointed out the places to apply pressure....they were somewhat confused about my knowing this.....I simply explained these were the places where I was trained to aim for with a sword....

I took "karate" in fourth grade for one month and sucked. Does that count?

Next of Kin wrote:I have been practicing aikido for over two years but recently I've been leaning to this hybrid mix of kickboxing, sambo, brasillian jujitsu, clinching martial art that has no name since it is bastardized.

Pretty much the same thing here, it started with the basic self-defence course I took in university and kinda went from there when I found I had interest in it and a natural talent as well. I also get to train against my BF all the time which has helped greatly with my progress.

jmac wrote:Pretty much the same thing here, it started with the basic self-defence course I took in university and kinda went from there when I found I had interest in it and a natural talent as well. I also get to train against my BF all the time which has helped greatly with my progress.

jmac, do you train at a club or is it just with your bf?

Next of Kin wrote:jmac, do you train at a club or is it just with your bf?

While I was in the States for university I trained at the univerity club and also did a couple trial lessons at another place. Nowadays I just practice with my BF, the place he goes to is a little too hardcore for me!

OK lets deal with this Bullet-proof vest vs knives crap again. Yes a suffecienty sharp dagger (and you want a dagger for best effect) will go through one or even a few layers of Kevlar (it's only a fabric weave materail construction after all), however the layers of kevlar have the weave offset on even the low-grade police vests, and proper Bulletproof vest have these things called trauma shields, in some cases they are quite sophisticated polymers, but usually they are a highly compressive plastic mounted on a thin sheet of steel,then the plastic again and finally a resin coating. These pads go behind the hit area's (chest, back, and stomach segments as well in some cases). Add to this that most vests actualy have upwards of 20 layers of Kevlar in their construction and you will not get stabbed with a knife through a real bullet-proof vest, unless it's the Hulk doing the Stabbing.
Another thing to note is that police vests are designed to stop pistol rounds, not rifle rounds. So what you say, how does that have a bearing here? Well Pistol rounds normally have a wide frontal area in relation to their width, therefore the weave can be larger on the Kevlar used, making it lighter, it also means it has to deal with less concentrated force. The tip of a 7.62mm rifle round is 1mm across and the full impact of it hitting at 830m/s is concentrated on that point (slightly more force than you can muster with your arm through the point of a knife), so the weave must be much tighter and the material heavier per layer. Even so a Police Vest will blunt the stabbing with a knife, because the only way to stab through it is in an area where there's no trauma shield and you have to push constantly on the knife twisting it and turning it to get it through the layers, all the time blunting it.

You can get specialised Knife-proof vests, and these utilise a tight weave kevlar with offset layers, over a sort of foamed plastic, which traps the knife and absorbs the impact, whilst strips of stiffer plastic inside prevent the knife from puncturing any further, these are useless against bullets as the bullets exert enough force to punch straight through (just in case you weren't paying attention the first time I mentioned that Bulets have more force than you can apply with a knife).

Inconclusion, Knives can stab through a bullet-proof vest as easily as a man can pull a fully laden 747 - if it can be done it's by someone a lot stronger than average, and they will take a long time to get it a very short distance.

I used to go Kickboxing before my right knee died and i had to stop. The class i was in was taught by former world champion Kickboxer Billy Murray. He is completely badass. Several other World and European champions train at the Prokick Gym.

Now that my knee is getting better i can start putting myself through my paces again. I've been able to start swimming. I might even take up Kickboxing again.

I used to do Tae Kwon Do, now I just shoot things.. lol.

But seriously, I really want to get into fencing but it costs $$ and it's off-campus driving sooo.. blah.