Better not putting energy into the whole 'my martial art is better than yours' discussion...
HF, I was just wondering, did you ever get to take a look at some of Rickson Gracie's training and philosophy on 'Invisible Jiu-Jitsu' ? He also trained aikido, yoga, and was really into the more fine aspects of the art.

armsbaralot has a good point, I think it is the most respectful way to train jiu jitsu, trying to put oneself in a hard position, and growing through that, putting the ego aside.

The most important for me about jiu jitsu is not the fighting aspect, it is this 'inner' aspect of perfecting oneself multi-dimensionally. The 'war-like-game' just serves as a platform for this learning through facing fears and playing body chess with an opponent. A lot of jiu jitsu black belts are more about the sport aspect of it, but many of the masters also work way more on the finer aspects and truely live 'the gentle art'. At least that's my experience of it.

Let's try to take this thread into a more constructive tone. What aspects of martial arts are beneficial for you, and how? If you have practiced different martial arts, feel free to post the general areas where you learn the most with each of them.

Endly, my friend. I make no claim about certain arts being better for an individual, but merely point out that the arts people are imagining to be martial or combat are not considered this by anyone in the martial arts community. There is nothing wrong with practicing a competitive sport with contact. I only praised the fact that people are learning these things in a number of posts.

I simply feel it would be remiss of me to not point out that these sport arts are not designed for actual combat where many of their basic moves are ineffectual. Most sport art enthusiasts are not delusional about this. People who practice Judo and or Greco Roman tend to understand that their techniques simply can not work against multiple opponents or even a pocket knife... let alone someone who actually studied combat. This is not really a controversial stance. It is just logic.

If anything, I have been extremely patient on this thread with dozens of kind of lame 2 sentence posts directing invective and ridicule at me. Other posters here just mock me relentlessly while not even bothering to respond to my well laid out replies. I don't feel this is a pissing contest where we are all equally being belligerent. I have put a lot more into my posts than the people who call me names here.

The things I am saying come from 4 decades of experience where I have studied a large variety of martial arts already. Take it or leave it. No sweat off my back.

I am also not surprised to see that people with limited understanding of the scope of kung fu find some of the most basic things about it to be woo or occult hooey. But I know chi first hand. It is not theoretical to me. I can feel it and see it with relative ease. It is like having extra senses. If you have never felt or seen chi, you would be somewhat foolish to start believing in it just because some dude on a forum was talking about it... whatever he might say.

I do think that certain posters here should refrain from knee jerk juvenile responses, though. It kind of looks poorly on the nexus to engage in normal forum flamings. Mock and ridicule really have no place here. No matter how astounding another poster's posts may be, respect and a bit of class should always be applied... this is the DMT NEXUS afterall. Most things we say here sound totally unbelievable to people uninitiated in what we do. DMT is incredible... in the old definition of the word, in-credible... not believable. So it is in poor taste to enforce your worldview on others, no matter how ridiculous their ideas and conceptions seem to you at this point. More often than not, people come back here raving even crazier things themselves than any of the stories they were skeptical about before. DMT is synonymous with surpassing expectations and reducing your former notions about everything to dust.

At any rate, I may or may not chime in some more. If there are some interesting sub threads going perhaps I will sound off a bit more. Hehehheh.


All the best Amigo
HF

Here´s a documentary about indian wrestlers, they basicly live at a ashram with a guru who teaches them about life, yoga and of course wrestling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icxmX0AjX7Q



They live simple lives and train very hard, one day i would like to visit an ashram and train with them for a month or so.

cool shroomtroll

so in the more mainstream and superficial side of things, there is the Fight Quest tv series where these two american dudes go around the world to different places to learn a bit of the different martial arts. They are all on youtube.

They only stay a week in each place so its obvious they dont have time to learn much, but you get some idea for the general aspects of each martial art, it's decently entertaining


Got a sore neck from training today but very happy, putting things I learned in practice Like was able to get a side-control counter doing a reverse triangle, as taught here, on first try. By the way that dude is quite a character

Bub

No worries, I'm so pleased that you are pursuing a course in Qigong. It really warms my heart that I could help you, even though it was only in a small way... I wish you the best of luck, safe and happy travels my friend.


Much Peace and Kindness

Kurt ******* Osiander!!

i use that move a lot, nice detail on the finish. I usually end up timing his/her escape to get back to guard or grabbing the kimura to setup a sweep. I'm very aware now of that far arm position, often hooking it with my foot so they give me the reverse triangle when trying to free it

Baby bear and dog practicing jiu jitsu, no kidding! Starts at 0:17min


Intense stuff! We got take downs, guard passes to side control, guard recovery, attempts to sweep, guillotine and even a potential berimbolo there!!

So you see how natural this art is

Awesome

Martial arts has been a very positive, and rewarding part of my life for the last 10 years. In 2003 I had the good fortune of meeting a sifu in my area who taught Ip Man lineage Wing Chun Kuen. In addition to learning self-defense, I've also had the opportunity to learn herbal medicine, neuro-muscular massage techniques, and chi kung from him. The chi kung aspects were especially helpful to me while I was undergoing chemotherapy for testicular cancer. I would get up early and practice internal energy cultivation techniques and forms on a trail along the river every morning before going in for treatment. My oncologist was astounded that despite the chemotherapy, I still had the energy to take 9 credits of college courses and occasionally go hiking on the weekends. In addition, Wing Chun has saved my life a few times (both in self defense and in general life: in knowing how to fall to reduce the impact, and while at work and having heavy, unsecured product fall on me).

did taekwondo and muay thai for many years. i like matrial arts, too bad i have no time for them atm

One of my favorite (and occasionally more disconcerting) things about practicing Wing Chun is the increased 'sensitivity' it brings. After spending a while doing chi sau (sticking hands) trapping drills, where two partners roll their arms forward against each others' to find slight weaknesses in the opponents' arm structure (and then fluidly attack or defend accordingly), that increased awareness begins to extend itself into everything else you do. I constant find myself noticing hollow spaces beneath tile floors, hear and feel peoples' footsteps when I can't see them, and the second+ floors of shopping malls are very disconcerting because all the people walking around on the suspended floor makes it feel like a light tremor is taking place. All of my movements have also become far more fluid than they used to be, which is great because I have a degenerative joint condition, so any reduced strain on them is greatly appreciated.

I can also say that having an understanding of chi and breath control has greatly aided me in my use of entheogens, particularly during rough moments. I've never had what you would call a bad trip or bad experience. I've had plenty of bad/rough moments in my 50+ psychedelic experiences (about half of those being DMT related), but I've always been able to use breath control and sense of and/or regulation (to a degree) of my internal energies (chi, if you will), to prevent them from becoming bad 'trips'.

Just an idea, but have you tried any sort of sexual practice to help your back? I am working through scoliosis and displaced hips, and my lower back is just awful especially in the sacral region. Developing sexual stamina in addition to breathing and mindfulness of energy has been incredibly effective in healing ground-down and strained or locked-up muscles from head to toe, but especially in the pelvic region where I can develop the muscular power and control to actually move bones and joints into proper position manually, without assistance or therapy.

---

What a great thread! I've been studying martial arts as an interest, especially hard and soft techniques, for many years and integrating elements into calisthenics and awareness... but have not seriously studied since obtaining a brown belt in watered-down Aikido during childhood (Watered-down or not, it is a valuable and terrifically fun art). I'm going to be starting dedicated study and formal training again soon, and all this information is great in looking into different arts and modalities.

Even though I like soft styles, I'm always reminded that I'm a lunar Aries... I have a love for modern and traditional Bataireacht too. Is anyone else here experienced with Irish stick fighting? I'd love to hear some opinions on this cunning and viscous art!

Thanks you guys, and keep up the hard work!

Thank you for the idea but my rehab has become a very scientific and precise approach where absolutely everything in my life has had to go under scrutiny including how i get out of bed and how i walk to what i eat to reduce inflammation.

Ive come very far now and been almost pain free for 2months now, my rehab is going better and better and im getting stronger every day.


I can now strength train 3times per week, just started working construction again which actually is great for my back since i can do controlled semi heavy lifts and carries which increases my work load threshold quickly.

Also i bicycle to work which gives me a good hour per day of cardio and flushes the area with blood flow.

Daily yoga but very simple asanas focusing on straight spine postures and tai chi inspired slow dancing is also doing me good.


Also about 6weeks ago i quit eating sugar and starches which made me loose another 10pounds which has also helped alot, both with reduced inflammation and less weight put on the vertebras.


Ive researchez this crap for a long time and the hard part was getting out of the daily pain, now i just need to work slowly untill my core armor is bulletproof so i can get back on the mats and get my long overdue brownbeöt.

I started studying American Kenpo when I was 10 but left 3 years later because I didn't like that we were moving in a direction I didn't like (turning into a McDojo). So I left and started to study on my own. In high school I meet alot of friends who did different martial arts forms, so every Friday after school we would go to this grass field in the woods behind my house. And we would spare and train together. As a group we all got better at our respective disciplines. Mine at the time was a personal mix I had been developing between capoeira, pugilism, pradel serey, and pankration. I won many a fight because of this style as I was a very versatile fighter and could easily adjust to my opponent. But it wasn't about the winning. It was about what you could take from the experience.

In college I meet my three of my best friends, and they happened to be trained in wing chun, greco roman wrestling, and BJJ respectivly. The wing chun guy scared the shit out of me, not gonna lie. He was quick and calculating (we decided to trade lessons, he teach me wing chun and in return I teach him capoiera). The BJJ guy was always pretty easy to fight because I moved around alot and it was hard for him to catch me in anything, and when he did I would always find a way out. The wrestling guy and me almost always ended in stalemates even though he was 50 pound heavier than me. But he was a great wrestler having done it since he was 10, and he knew how to lay pain on a guy.

The reason I became a martial artist was to be cool. But after I got in I found something I loved much more. The friendship and history. I think it made me a better also because of the discipline, the amount of focus I have to put in, and the boost in confidence.

All things that helped me to get in college, and pursue my other main hobbies, Urban exploration, buildering, and circus and bar calisthenics training.

This made me smile. I ended up in a similar situation, trading some Wing Chun training to a friend for Kali knife-work in return. It was a lot of fun.

I wish I could find a person to teach me knife work. Lol

i don't know if you fellow bjj practitioners have read this book before:
Gueirrila Jiu-Jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu Jitsu - Dave Camarillo

but it is freaking amazing.
ever serious bjj fighter should read it.

here are some of the flashier (though admittedly less pragmatic) moves:



also, this one has nothing to do with camarillo or the book (As far as i know), but as long as i am linking bjj vids, this one is worth watching too.

Camarillo is def legit but i feel the whole bootcamp army style of his books makes it cringe worthy.

Saulo ribiero has a book called jiu jitsu university which covers absolutely everything about bjj.

I have it downloaded in my phone so its always with me.

Well, this sunday im getting back in the gym for brazilian jiu jitsu. Going to be pretty interesting considering the last time I was on the mats in a gym was about 4-5 years ago. It was a MMA gym, where there was a generous split between styles - muay thai, some wrestling, some boxing, and jiu jitsu. Mostly was there for the muay thai, seeing as to how I developed really good dexterity in my hips and legs and lower back due to taekwondo.

I did taekwondo from the age of 12 til almost 16, Got my first degree black belt. Alot of memorization and dexterity tests, also dexterity coupled with precision in terms of landing a kick where it was intended (board breaks, etc). This translated very well over into muay thai. It'll be interesting to get wooped on by people again hah. It's a feeling that's hard to describe. Very humbling.

Thanks goes out to endlessmess. Talking with you and hearing about all your days on the mat slowly brought all this back for me. Nervous but excited. Thanks again.

Thats excellent Tatt

Makes me very happy to hear you're going back to training! You'll have a great time im sure! Can't wait to hear about your experiences at the new place.