Follow-up to this morning's post

[truepenny]

Y'all are so sweet. I whinge about my self-caused and trivial problems, and y'all come back with advice and recommendations. Thank you!

Next question: talk to me about martial arts. Tell me what you practice, what you like, anything really. And please feel free to go on talking for as long as you like.

Comments

[lsanderson.livejournal.com]

Oh, come to Minicon and talk to Walter Jon Williams...

[necessaryspace.livejournal.com]

I used to take Tae Kwon Do, and I was good at everything except sparring. That was a problem, b/c sparring improved the reflexes and good reflexes meant the Tae Kwon Do training would be useful.

See, I didn't like sparring. One, b/c I hate fighting, so I kept defending myself and not really attacking. Two, the guys in our class were built like tree trunks. Only dynamite would make them move. I remember one time this guy kicked me (while sparring) at maybe 30% of his strength, and I bounced off and flew back about five feet, hitting the floor.

He apologized, then asked me what I'd do if he'd actually been an attacker. Me: "Pray I had a baseball bat."

But it was fun. I made it up to a purple belt.

[tayefeth.livejournal.com]

I did Tae Kwon Do for a year, and enjoyed it. (I stopped essentially for medical reasons.) I agree with whoever said that the style is less important than the instructor. You should be able to get a free trial lesson or two before you sign up for anything. Try a few different places if you can.

As a bonus, in learning Tae Kwon Do, I learned to count in Korean. If I'd paid more attention, I'm sure I could have learned more.

[(Anonymous)]

As mentioned in my previous post (I somehow read your second-to-latest entry first) I study Shotokan karate. I did fencing briefly when I was in high school, but I found the amount of equipment you have to wear cumbersome and annoying. Plus if I'm fighting someone I like to be able to see their face.

Shotokan is light contact (you can tap the body and come close to the face) so we don't wear protection and rely on each other's control not to clock each other. Occasionally accidents happen but nothing serious. The possibility of getting smacked keeps you sharp. But the knowledge that it won't be that bad if you do keeps it from being scary in an unpleasant way.

For me, it's the best of both worlds: no annoying protective gear but you're also not getting beaten up all the time; plus I don't like grappling and we don't really do any.

My dojo is my home away from home. I've gotten drunk with those guys, crashed on their sofas, spent New Year's Eve together, gone out to eat countless times, sweated together, fought together, and generally forged the sort of intimate bond you really don't get much unless you're in theatre, and that's only for the duration of a show. I've had my classmates pick me up from the ER, my futon was a gift from one, and when I emailed my sensei with a computer question he came over to my house and spent four hours fixing my computer.

If you're interested in studying a martial art, I think the school is ultimately more important than the style, especially if you don't have a lot of options in your area. If you don't feel at home at your dojo (dojang, kwoon, etc) you won't have fun and you won't keep going. So I would make a preliminary list of possibilities and visit them. The one where you subjectively feel at home is the right one for you.

Personally, I would not be put off by a dumpy location or interior. (Exposed electrical wiring might be a bit much). I would also, though some might disagree, not be put if if there are very few or even no women training as long as the men seem supportive and have a reasonable explanation if you ask about it. The membership of a school can vary greatly and you may have just showed up at an odd time. On the other hand, lots of women is generally a good sign.

I _would_ be put off by an overly commercial atmosphere, a heavy emphasis on tournaments (this often means that only the most athletic students get attention paid to them), and a requirement to sign an expensive contract immediately. Talk to the other students. Feel it out.

I don't know where you live, but if you email me your general location it's possible that I'd know of a good school in your area.

Rachel Brown

Rphoenix2@hotmail.com

[deepad]

I've been practising Tai Chi, which is, as my Sensai so eloquently growls, "a very powerful martial art form, and NOT a fluffy new age feel good technique" ;)
As Rachel Brown commented, I think the Dojo space is exceedingly important, as is the Sensai. Where I learn, my teacher, who knows at least 10 different martial arts forms very very well, teaches students simultaniously. So while I'm attempting to get "fluid without flaccid", another student is practising the bokken (wooden staff) and some others are sparring...
the lovely thing about martial arts is that even though they are combative, they normally leave you feeling very peaceful. or maybe thats just me :)

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I do not practice myself, but can pass your question to Judith Berman (aikido) or Ann Zeddies (tae kwon do) if you like. Also, marinarusalka did tae kwon do, though she hasn't for a long time (she's out of town at the moment).

[ide-cyan.livejournal.com]

I study aikido. Actually, Yoseikanbudo (http://www.yoseikanbudo.com), which is principally aikido, but includes judo and karate techniques. For instance, we practice karate punches in order to learn how to use aikido moves against more realistic attacks than those used in other styles of aikido. I don't have enough experience in martial arts to make comparisons between aikido and other arts based on what I've seen, or to tell you what to look for in a dojo. I can tell you what made me decide to join the one where I go, though.

I saw an information kiosk for it at my college last year, which was staffed by a young woman about my age, who did not look any more like an athlete than I did. I remembered the comics books I read as a kid, whose heroine practiced aikido. And I thought I might as well go have a look.

The first night I went there I just sat by the mat, watching, and the moves that the others were learning looked simple enough that even I could do them. I had some qualms -- all the counting in japanese during warm-up sounded faintly ridiculous. But I decided to try, and I took to it.

My sensei is a good teacher and an amicable man. There were several other girls in the beginner's class, and the most advanced student was and is still the woman I saw at the kiosk. Although the number of women in the class dropped, eventually, to the point where last semester she and I were the only ones, there are at least three more girls among the beginnings this semester, which I find important, because it improves the atmosphere over an all-boys class. The big difference is that I don't feel like a token or an exception.

I find the practices keep me on a steady learning curve. I am never bored, which is essential. I often had bruises on my wrists during the first months, but now, not so much. And my sensei has always accepted without any negativity at all that I sit down to catch my breath when the work-outs (randori) are too intense for me.

It's a non-competitive discipline, so I am free from performance anxiety. Mutual safety and cooperation are the keywords.

...to cut this comment short, since I have to cede the computer: a funny but accurate metaphor for aikido that I have read is this:

Aikido is origami with people. :-)