Interested in martial arts

[Tom Yum]

No, seriously. Why spend your entire life training for martial arts when it could all end in a split-second?

A drunk driver could do the same, and no martial arts or firearm could prevent it. So could an earth quake, plane crash, and a few other random things.

Why study a martial art?

People still fight either competitively or out of aggression.

People still hate one another and form time to time, someone will try to get their hands on somebody else. If the target is scared or weak, he'll get taken.

If he puts up a fight his chances of escaping increase.

If he puts up a fight and knows how to hit, grapple, use blunt objects and blades his chances increase even more.

On another note, men still try to assault women. Self-defense or martial arts training for women increases their chances of surviving, escaping or resisting such attempts.

[WildWest.]

Join the armed forces then....you will learn how to shoot a gun and learn unarmed combat anyway.

[Tom Yum]

"I'm interested in martial arts. What does Karate teach you? I'm not really up for that mind and body crap. I want to learn how to fight.

Will it teach me how to fight, or how to "defend" myself. The thing is there is a Muay Thai dojo nearby. Is karate training comparable to muay thai?"


hey, i have been training in shotokan karate for awhile and here are my thoughts
karate is a mix of both spiritual and physical training. it actually does work in a real situations with enough practice. ( at least for me it did lol) if u want a better explanation, look at wikipedia. but karate is definitely training yourself to avoid fighting since a lot of the techniques are one hitter quiters especially for a guy like me who is 6'7 and lifts weights a lot.

but with your attitude, i think muay thai will fit you best. you may not have the patience to give to karate if you just want to hurt people

With your size and strength, you've probably seen a few too many one hitter quiters.

[Toudiyama[NL]]

I think Martial Art can be devided into 3 sections of which only 1 is really martial
First there are Arts like the Koryu Bujutsu, arts really meant for soldiers, but we can classify gun shooting also as a martial art.
Next there are the personal defence arts, which are most traditional "martial arts" like Karate, kungfu or kempo but also gendai jujutsu ( as opposed to koryu)
Last there are fighting arts, these are mostly geared toward competition like Muay Thay or MMA
Unlike the Personal Defence arts they are offensive and unlike the "Soldier arts" they have eliminated the most brutal techniques as they aren't geared to killing the opponent

People who like to fight tend to go for the latter
People that want to be able to defend themself but aren't fond of fighting tend to go for the peronal defence arts
People who just like MA but aren't in them for selfdefence reasons can even go for the Koryu bujitsu

[owarujitsu]

if you want to learn how beat somebody to pulp...muay thai.....if you want to learn to beat someone to a pulp but also want to be personally refined on a level well above beating someone to a pulp...traditional martial arts(karate, jui jitsu, etc.)

[Shoot]

I studied Ishinryu as a kid--no mind body crap. We sparred bare fisted with no rules. All we studied was real fighting.

I studied Muay Thai as part of my MMA training as an adult. We listened to some weird Thai music, meditated, and paid respect to dead Thai people I didn't really care about.

Moral of the story: it depends.

Karate systems, if authentic, are combat and fighting oriented. Muay Thai is a sport, albeit a very good one to learn for kicking ass.

They, generall speaking, operate on different theories. I happen to prefer Karate's philosophy overall--I like snappy low kicks as set ups for crushing punching. Traditional Muay Thai is more rotational leg kicks that require a great deal of commitment of body weight.

Just don't end up in a sports oriented Karate "dojo." As between sport karate and Muay Thai, go Muay Thai. As between authentic Karate from someone who understands Karate and Muay Thai, I like Karate.

[HtTKar]

No, seriously. Why spend your entire life training for martial arts when it could all end in a split-second?

The best reason to learn how to fight is to give you the courage to stand up for yourself and others in all situations. You dont need a gun, or a knife to tell someone to stop picking on someone else. Being able to stand up for others is much harder than defending yourself. Not all situations start with someone throwing punches. Being self-confident in your fighting ability gives you the courage to be a voice of conciousness. If everyone knew how to fight, I think the world would be a much better place honestly.

[Albert]

Dont take karate or muay thai dude, just get yourself a burt reynolds. He's way better than hardmans attack chopper, and herez a picture that proves he can kill bears just by getting naked and laying on them, thatz a super ultra mega uber attack move. They dont teach you that in karate class.

[Garland]

which one's the bear?