why popularity Karate to Taekwondo shift?

[Tsyroc]

Oooh, who cares how many times this has been done, this sounds like one AWESOME movie!

I know. Those movies are so great. Plus, I haven't seen too many parodies of them. I want to write a parody called "Chickenfist: Hard-Boiled" and follow the Jean-Claude Van Damme "Bloodsport" genre fighting movie paradigm for it.

To keep up to date with what Van Damme has done why not have him play all 3 parts. He can be identical triplets. One is the guy who gets injured/killed/maimed/turned into a vegitable etc.., one is the good guy, the third is the villan.

The girl will have been romanticlly linked with the first brother. Become interested/fall in love with the good brother but through mistaken identity will first sleep with the evil brother in the requisite gratuitous sex scene that will have to show us Van Damme's butt

[aphexmonster]

Neo is kung-fu. I have my blackbelt in Tae Kwon Do, and if you ever go to competitions, be prepared to be bored out of your mind. My only beef with Tae Kwon Do, is that it teaches next to nothing when concerning self-defense in real life. Great kicks, probably the best in any martial art, but not enough grappling and blocks.

I was in TKD until about mid blackbelt, and to tell you the truth, you dont really learn anything useful until you get there. Everything leading up to that point just prepares you for the asswhoopings they teach you to release. " chung moo" One of the final TKD styles is a series of close range grapling, dissabaling, leg, and arm strikes that is taught to the students. It also opens up the door for individual combinations to be created, and alot of other " nifty " stuff that i never really got into. I have alot of friends from the MA that kept running with it until their 3rd and 4th degree.... me ... i guess im just to lazy for that junk.

[Hethrir]

...Plus, I haven't seen too many parodies of them...

i think that's what Kung Pow was.

[Peregrin Toker]

As will a tall black dude with an afro and dialogue straight from the set of a blacksploitation movie.

This guy?

[El Moose Monstero]

I dont know about the popularity, when it came down to it, I chose to Taekwondo at uni because they were the ones shouting loudest - I'm very happy with it, as I'm doing it more for fitness and balance than self defence. That said, our instructor doesnt skimp on self defence and he builds in a lot of stuff from other martial arts and puts it into the gradings - the only downside of our instructor is that he hates to fail anyone, and as such, I dont think I truly deserved to get my Green belt, as on the day, I made several small mistakes that should really have warranted a fail.

[Vympel]

As will a tall black dude with an afro and dialogue straight from the set of a blacksploitation movie.

This guy?

BLACK BELT JONES!

[Colonel Olrik]

I'm considering to start having martial arts classes, partially because I love sports and I'm always trying to look for more pain, partially because I've always wanted to learn some basic defense. I also have a good friend who is into kickboxing, and the fact that he consistently beats me in biking helped the decision. My question is, am I too old (24), considering I never did this kind of stuff, and what are the styles more adequated to my condition?

[Sporkzen]

Took Taekwondo up to red belt training for my black.. never really learned anything other than show..

Then i took american freestyle karate. Got to green belt and learned TONS more about self defence than i ever did in taekwondo.

Then i started learning jeet kun do and i love it its a real mixed bag of other martial arts.

oh and taekondo is popular cause its really neat to watch the kata's

[The Dark]

I've taken Karate, Tae Kwon Do, and Aikikai Aikido. Out of the three, Aikikai taught me the most self-defense, since it emphasizes close combat. Karate is (in most schools) too formalized, and Tae Kwon Do has far too much emphasis on kicks. A TKD mid-belt friend and I sparred one day (before I had taken TKD, but after Aikikai). First roundhouse he tried, I stepped in on him, blocked his knee on my forearm, and ended up throwing him onto his side. The only kick he managed to connect with the whole hour we sparred was the front snap kick with his left leg, because I have a bum left knee and can't duck that way quickly. Every other kick I either dodged or blocked, usually managing to toss him. The few times he switched to punches he was much more dangerous, but the 90% kick emphasis makes TKD a long-range melee style.

[NecronLord]

I am wondering how much strenght would it take to say twist someones arm out of it's socket? How disabling and painfull would such a injury be, and with what lasting effects?

You're thinking of Chewbacca aren't you?

It doesn't take superhuman strength with the correct technique. Most, if not all of the armlocks in Judo can create a dislocated shoulder in the victim (The others doing nasty things to the elbow), without requiring very much strength as they use a lever effect to enhance the damage. I could get you a rough estimate if you want.

The impression I got from SW was that Chewbacca would be grabbing hold of the shoulder and elbow and pulling them apart.

It renders the arm innefective, and almost unsuable, but it can be put back into the socket and heal in most cases. My father had his arm dislocated once, it seems to be excruciating, and long lasting pain. However, it would vary from person to person.

[NecronLord]

Addendum.

This is Juji-Gatame, one of the most basic armlocks, by pulling the captured arm back over the leg in the foreground, the joint can be dislocated - as it is unable to move backward when at a ~45 degree plus angle to the head, the angle is controled by the movement of the leg in the background pushing the lower torso.

[The Dark]

I am wondering how much strenght would it take to say twist someones arm out of it's socket? How disabling and painfull would such a injury be, and with what lasting effects?

You're thinking of Chewbacca aren't you?

It doesn't take superhuman strength with the correct technique. Most, if not all of the armlocks in Judo can create a dislocated shoulder in the victim (The others doing nasty things to the elbow), without requiring very much strength as they use a lever effect to enhance the damage. I could get you a rough estimate if you want.

It doesn't even take both arms with certain techniques. The most basic pin in aikido leads to a position where the person is face-down and the pinner has one knee at the armpit, the other at the wrist, and can "kneewalk" the arm past its range of motion (the hands are used to keep the arm from rotating). A slight variation ends with the arm held rotated down and behind the back, with the knees on either side of the arm and the pinner's arms loosely wrapped around the pinned arm. A rotation of the pinner's body towards the pinned's head can easily dislocate the arm, and the pin really only requires the rear arm.

[Solamnus]

A TKD mid-belt friend and I sparred one day (before I had taken TKD, but after Aikikai). First roundhouse he tried, I stepped in on him, blocked his knee on my forearm, and ended up throwing him onto his side. The only kick he managed to connect with the whole hour we sparred was the front snap kick with his left leg, because I have a bum left knee and can't duck that way quickly. Every other kick I either dodged or blocked, usually managing to toss him. The few times he switched to punches he was much more dangerous, but the 90% kick emphasis makes TKD a long-range melee style.

Since Tae Kwon Do focuse on kicks, the majority of ones arsenal is obviosly in the 4-6 foot range depending on your leg reach. To use them effectively, you must be quick and crisp with your kicks...don't leave your leg dangle like a noodle. I had to fight one of the instructors, he was only a first degree like me, but he was much more quick and crisp. He nailed me with a spinning back side kick. The next time we fought, I was all over him like flies on shit and he couldn't do anything. You could tell he was frustrated because he was trying his damnedest to kick me or push me away.

As a side note, I think there are several kinds of martial arts one should take to be generally well rounded for real life self defense. Strength, speed, and flexability are a given in any martial. Personally, I would say Tae Kwon Do/Kick Boxing for kicks, Boxing (the ultimate art of fistifcuffs) for punching, and some kind of grapling art, whether it be general wrestling, Aikido, or Ju-Jitsu. For general self defense on the street, I think this would be a good combination. Against other martial artists, I am sure there would be problems as always.

[aphexmonster]

As will a tall black dude with an afro and dialogue straight from the set of a blacksploitation movie.

This guy?

http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmovierepor ... jones6.jpg

BLACK BELT JONES!

BBJ is teh 0wN

[Gil Hamilton]

This guy?

http://www.stomptokyo.com/badmovierepor ... jones6.jpg

That's the guy I was refering to.

[Saurencaerthai]

Addendum.

This is Juji-Gatame, one of the most basic armlocks, by pulling the captured arm back over the leg in the foreground, the joint can be dislocated - as it is unable to move backward when at a ~45 degree plus angle to the head, the angle is controled by the movement of the leg in the background pushing the lower torso.

That's a fun one. Rear naked choke still owns, though.

[Next of Kin]

--There will be a blonde American chick running around. She will be Jean Claudes love interest.
--The main opponent of Jean-Claude will cheat in their final match. Jean-Claude will overcome this by remember a lesson from his past.

You guys are forgetting the big, ugly brawler friend of Jean Claude that looks suspiciously like Ogre from "Revenge of the Nerds"!

My question is, am I too old (24), considering I never did this kind of stuff, and what are the styles more adequated to my condition?

24! You're over the hill! Forget it!
What are you looking to get out martial arts? Do you want to get into shape? Do you want to be ale to swing a blade with grace and elegance? Do you want to beat the crap out of some punk in a bar? Do you want to win medals in competition?

[Tsyroc]

My father had his arm dislocated once, it seems to be excruciating, and long lasting pain. However, it would vary from person to person.

The first time it is dislocated it hurts like a mother and can do a lot of damage to connective tissue. I would imagine that most combatants would be toast at this point because the distraction of the injury would leave them very open to other attacks and this doesn't even take into account that in major dislocations/separations they aren't going to be useing the injured arm.

I have a bit of a trick shoulder that likes to pop out of it's socket. The first time it got pulled out of the socket hurt the most and it was sore for several weeks after I popped it back in, and that was really only a minor shoulder dislocation. Since then if I put too much pressure on it in the wrong way it will pop out of the socket, which hurts quite a bit even now. After that it's only tender for a couple of days.

And before anyone asks, no I don't think I could pop it out enough to do the Houdini thing and get out of a straight jacket. If I ever found myself in a straight jacket I'd probably give it a try though.

[His Divine Shadow]

You're thinking of Chewbacca aren't you?

Well thats actually ripping the arms off...

[Stuart Mackey]

Maybe it was just the dojos in my area, so I can't say all TKD is like this, just the 2 places I trained at.

AFAIK a reason is because of the popularizing of TKD and tournaments, special forces trained with TKD still practice grab/jam techniques.

Some SF types may. but most western ones use something quite different

[Stuart Mackey]

As a side note, I think there are several kinds of martial arts one should take to be generally well rounded for real life self defense. Strength, speed, and flexability are a given in any martial. Personally, I would say Tae Kwon Do/Kick Boxing for kicks, Boxing (the ultimate art of fistifcuffs) for punching, and some kind of grapling art, whether it be general wrestling, Aikido, or Ju-Jitsu. For general self defense on the street, I think this would be a good combination. Against other martial artists, I am sure there would be problems as always.

I did millitary CQB stuff. What we did had very little to do with asian styles as a whole.
If you want to defend yourself..use the scientific method, find out what works in real life and dont fuck about with unrealistic training.

[Superman]

Here is why TKD is so popular right now, especially on the west coast. In the last 50 years, we have seen a larger migration of people from Korea. Since males are and were required to serve in the Korean military, and because TKD was required learning (many of them became masters), the people who came here often found it useful to charge Americans to learn. Since the influx of koreans was so great, we were literally flooded with TKD. Our generation now consists of the students of the art who have become teachers themselves.

Unlike many of the Chinese, The Koreans never believed in keeping their art a secret.

[Colonel Olrik]

24! You're over the hill! Forget it!

Oh bullocks! I'm not that old

What are you looking to get out martial arts? Do you want to get into shape?

No, I'm already in a fairly good shape. I go mountain biking two times a week and do gymn three times. One of the things I tend to lack and would like to improve, though, is balance and elasticity. The gymn exercising only go so far, and I think that martial arts would be a very good complement.

Do you want to beat the crap out of some punk in a bar?

Yeah, that's about it. I'm not interested in medals, I'd like to learn selfdefense.

[Stuart Mackey]

Do you want to beat the crap out of some punk in a bar?

Yeah, that's about it. I'm not interested in medals, I'd like to learn selfdefense.

Then mix and match from a variety of styles, mainly aikido, ju-jitsu and any one who can teach you nasty dirty stuff. Above all, use the scientific method in what you do and train realisticly! pyjamas and bare feet are not realistic, belts hold up your trousers not ego's. Learn about mental conditioning for fighting..that can be just as important as the actual techniques.

[Edi]

Yeah, that's about it. I'm not interested in medals, I'd like to learn selfdefense.

Then Ju-jutsu would be good, especially if you can find a Hokutoryu school of it, they don't bother with the ceremonial stuff, the aim is to teach people self-defense, and they use that which works. Ju-jutsu is one of the oldest martial arts still around and its origin is in the tricks taught to samurai for emergency situations where they lost their sword. The original forms of some of the most common grapples and throws are really brutal, aimed at crippling or outright killing the opponent. In general, ju-jutsu uses punches, grapples, kicks, throws, locks, chokeholds and everything else that will leave your opponent in need of some urgent medical attention.

I got up to orange belt (have one also in judo, though that was over 12 years ago), and they started teaching useful stuff on day one. White belt was spent mainly learning the several different kinds of ukemi (the technique for falling hard without injuring yourself) and very basic self-defense stuff (how to get out of holds and such, defending against punches and kicks and so on). Yellow belt was more of the same plus kicks and punches, and at orange belt they started teaching all sorts of combinations. I learned a couple of different ways of how to deal with someone who comes at you with a knife or a length of pipe and I still remember them, because we repeated the stuff until it became reflex.

Ju-jutsu would probably be something you'd like, it's straightforward, no-nonsense, has a wide variety of stuff and all of it works, and it'll help you keep in shape too (not that you need it, I could use some of that, though...).

It also depends on the club you join and the instructor in question, because some clubs emphasize the formal aspects and some go the practical route from start to finish. I prefer the latter myself.

Edi