yes i have. Gun-Fu is more kick ass. using guns as more than guns, but as an extention of one's fist, one's foot, and of one's self.
No one art is absolute. p.s. It's funny, I just today exercised with bo. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! My sides hurt.
Maybe. But it's also important for what reason you study those arts. For me, it's not "ass-kicking" at all.
kick-ass is a relative term. it could mean from being cool and good enough for what it needs to be used for all the way to just beating someone up. if not for kicking the ass of someone who's trying to attack you, what would you use Gun-Fu for?
I don't know anything about your gun-fu, so I can't answer that, but I study martial arts and the reason is to most optimally use my body, be able to use it to its' limits, because life is short, to feel alive, have good health. I want and like to be as less as I can be not limited by my body. So I can hike for days without tiring, fly in my practice hall, have great fun while others are barely breathing.
and if one were to attack you? would you use martial arts to kick his ass, or let him beat the crap outta you?
River-Wind: I did Shotokan Karate for quite a few years, then it at the same time as Aikido. Then now I'm doing "western martial arts", ie. swords. The point about cross training is that there isnt an ideal set up. If youve been doing the same martial rt for so long that it seems a bit stale, its time to add/ do something else. If theres still plenty more to stretch yourself at, keep doing it most of the time. I think deep study of one is good, but then so is switching main martial art, but you have to be sure you want to do it, because you feel the first one has little more to teach you at this time. But I do also think that cross training like this is best done after you have done one art deeply, because then you will have both the ingrained determination for practise, physical fitness, and been doing it long enough to be aware of the variables etc. Whereas if you were just starting out on martial arts, and did a different one each day of the week, I imagine that you would have some trouble integrating them all, as well as get more confused because you lack a perspective from which to view the differences. Hapsburg- presumably martial arts are so pointless and obsolete that they dont train soldiers in them? I suggest you go down the pub and insult the first soldier you find, then try and shoot them before they've killed you.
1. I would try to avoid the potential atack before it happens by seeing the potential danger. 2. If I can run or hide and think it has a good chance of success, I'll do that. 3. If I'm confronted with no other choice, of course I would defend myself to the best of my ability.
Great, Avatar! I've devoted a few seconds now and again to thinking about it all, and its nice to see it agreed with. the bunch of peopel I'm with just now, many of them havnt done anything else other than western martial arts, working off translations of European treatises from the 14th to 19th centuries. Yet what works is the same as what works in china or Japan. As you would expect.
Do you have any internet links about these European arts? Or how they are called at least? I know of Sambo (russian army one) and that French one which uses kicks (forgot the name). And of course box, but I find it very limited. Kickbox is western too, but it's too overused by gangsters..
Well, "western martial arts" as a phrase I have seen more applied to the historical stuff, to do with eg. Pugilism, Italian cane fighting, rapiers, sabres, all teh way back to a 14th century manuscript showing how to use a singel handed sword and buckler (a small, generally round shield). One of the more famous manuscripts, by Fiore, a 15th century Italian bloke, show how to use swords, lances, poleaxes, and some essential wrestling moves. The French one is Savate. But recall also that Wrestling is a western martial art as well, all those Greeks couldnt be wrong now could they?
Ah, I see Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! I've got a few friends who are into that. Here in Latvia during summers the knight festivals/battles are quite common. Many orders against each other. Of course they use unsharpened swords, but they are steel. One my friend crafts ringmail armour.
Here in the UK, roughly speaking, you have re-enacting, who do battles etc, and some re-enactors are also western martial artists. And some martial artists look down upon reenactors for being historically innacurate and ineffective fighters. And some re-enactors think WMA'ists are arrogant know it alls who couldnt entertain anyone. I have 2 swords myself just now, and a single handed axe. oops, getting off topic.
heh, funny you should mention that; because its exactly what I did, and you are completely correct. I have since settled on American Kempo and traditional Gong-Fu (not Gun-fu, Hapsburg Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! ); Kempo provides very practical techniques for bringing someone up to a functional level fairly quickly, and it can be easily integrated with Kyusho for non-damaging controll. I do worry, however, that people are being taught techniques at white/yellow/orange that they are not physically conditioned to perform in the field until brown or black belt level. Overall, the main limit of Kempo is that it seems to be more of a 10-year art; practice 4 days a week for 10 years, and you'll know all there is to know about the style. Gong-Fu, on the other hand, has a much stronger focus on the physical fitness and long-term lifestyle of being a martial artist. Something you could study for 100 years, and not learn all of it. I think I'm going to stick with both, finish my Ten years of Kempo, possibly stop around second or third degree black belt (roughly three years from now), and then move on to Gong-Fu more formally. ed-iot: a friend pointed out that I failed to spell "Gong-fu" correctly. Stupid translation confusion. Kung, Gung, Gong....Martial Art.
Hey, thats a whole 'nother thread topic, the subject of martial arts and their grading systems, the purposes of said grading systems, their introduction and growth. Maybe later this week.
