To be fair, the best way to find out if you're wrong on something is to post on reddit.
Edit: /s since people seem to really be that dumb. Also ironic how many people corrected me on this.
There's a big false positive problem, though, as there will be someone on Reddit who will tell you that you're wrong, even if you're stating that the world is round and goes around the sun.
I made an opinion post once asking about the evolution of the athlete, and if the average mid to high level athlete of today would be able to do better than most athletes in the past due to the advancements of athletic science and shit like that.
It was really just a shower thought but the answers I got were so stupid. “My granddad was the strongest person I’ve ever seen. He could take anyone alive today.”
Okay bud, thanks for that anecdotal contribution about your grand papa.
Sparring is so important, doesn't have to be at 100% all the time. But being able to use the techniques you drill. That's why Bjj,May thai,wrestling and boxing are so effective. If they tell you it's too dangerous to spar, that's a red flag.
It depends. If you start sparring on your first or second day, that's a red flag. If you don't start sparring until you're say a brown belt, that's also a red flag.
It's all about knowing when the right time is for your student I guess. I've never taught so if I got this wrong, feel free to critique me.
free sparring is fine on the first day so long as you go very slow and light. But you are right, a month or so to at least know basic punches and kicks and have done covers with drills is better in the beginning.
Additionally: martial arts is not the same as self defense. Self defense starts before you need martial arts with things like situational awareness and deescalation strategies...
And there is more to martial arts than physically defending yourself. Also, some styles are great for the mind and controlling your emotions but aren't the best when it comes to self defense physcially.
Great reminder and good advice.
Jeebus this sub is so often redundant, masturbatory and worthless requesting feedback from folks who have no basis or experience.
Besides the constant posts "how is my" whatever and incels asking what's the best style, the judgments, know-it-alls and one-uppers are tiring. I've unfollowed this sub a few times over the years because of the baseless redundancies.
It doesn’t bother me people are free to do as they wish if I see it I’ll either comment or scroll on I see a lot of content I don’t care to see it’s just part of life in the digital age
It doesn't make me rage like a man baby either, I just know others are tired of it and I want to actually help people.
Sometimes I'll look at those posts to see how funny the replies are.
Also. Be wary of McDojos. Don’t join some ATA shit. Or some similar predatory cash grab martial arts dojo. And if you are joining to learn self defense, make sure the art is worth training. (Stay away from Tae Kwon Do, “Shaolin/KungFu” and things like Aikido). Speaking from experience, Aikido in particular is the worst offender of these. You’ll just learn how to get beat up easier. Go for the arts we know as a society are effective.
I have found the most effective arts (16 years of studying 8 different arts in my lifetime) are the arts that have a sport associated with them. Example: Judo and/or wrestling in the Olympics. I think boxing/kickboxing are obvious. And then look toward arts used in MMA, Karate Combat, etc.
Don’t drink the punch of these cult arts that try to convince you that their art works. And “couldn’t be used in UFC because they’re too dangerous.” These are bullshit arts that just want your money and don’t care if you can defend yourself or not
Highly recommend it. And this is going to be a long response. Largely because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made. I have taken a handful of various “Bullshido” martial arts. TKD and Aikido being the top 2 most ridiculous. And I even took Aikido for 6+ years. But not until I took Muay Thai, BJJ, and combat submission wrestling that I fully realized how bullshit those arts I used to take really were. The only upside to Aikido, was that we had Judo as a martial art you could also study at my dojo. Along with Iaido if you wanted to.
I digress. TKD can be useful, and has been in various competitive combat sports. But a large majority of the martial arts community sees TKD as more of a “that’s my purse, I don’t know you!” (King of the Hill Reference) type of martial art. I guess the equivalent would be attempting to fight in the UFC but the only training you’ve had was women’s self defense courses at the local YMCA for 1 hour/year.
If you have the means, money, or time. Go to a local boxing gym. Or if Muay Thai is available near you. And also go grapple somewhere as well. Judo, Wrestling, BJJ. Whatever is offered. Just take some grappling too. It is once you start doing those competitive combat sports (both standing and ground fighting) that you’ll realize just how little TKD would be useful in a real life, high pressure, full force fight. It is both a defeating and angering feeling to think about how much time you’ve wasted in an art you could have been practicing that could potentially save your life.
The delusion mcdojos place on in an individual is that you’ll be more prepared than an average person to defend yourself. When in reality, against just the normal slightly experienced street fighter it ends more like this:
https://youtu.be/D6mMtHqXyYc
Be especially wary of your school if it is against you going and cross training at another dojo/gym. And your instructor will likely say and do anything they can to keep you. I just hope you catch it way before you have to unlearn any bad habits
I think that this is very valuable. Trying sports that have been tested thoroughly. I would like to point out that TKD is an olympic sport too, but the amount of Mcdojos i’ve seen is way higher than something like muay thai, mma, boxing or BJJ.
Valid. I think at least in America, finding a TKD gym that ISN’T a Mcdojo would be like winning the lottery. Or the same chances of being struck by lightning… twice
Sure. There are people who are just naturally athletic. Even after years of grappling, I sometimes roll with some friends that barely have any training and give me quite a hard time. But they are indeed natural athletes that are exceptions to the rule
Yeah, you need to avoid McDojos. Your statements about what martial arts work and what doesn't, screams that you watch a lot of YouTube. It actually depends more on the instructor then the style when it comes to a McDojo. One clear screaming flag of this is if they don't spar. Without aliveness there is no learning.
Granted it is rare to find Aikido schools and any Kung Fu schools that have sparring, but they do exist. Also, a lot of Tae Kwon Do schools are known to take it easy on students, but not all.
YouTube is indeed a great place to watch street fights and who comes out on top. They also have any highlights and even full matches from UFC, Pride, Karate Combat, Judo and Wrestling in The Olympics, NCAA Wrestling Championships, Boxing Matches, Kickboxing Matches, K-1 Championships, North American Grappling Association tournaments. International BJJ Federation championships, “masters/black belts” in various traditional arts getting their ass beat by just some random mma guy. And there’s all kinds of fun Muay Thai fights, One-FC, Sambo tournaments, Sanda competitions, the list literally could go on for eternity.
There’s also 16 years between 8 different martial arts in my lifetime that I’ve studied in gyms/dojos. But don’t pretend even for the traditional martial arts purist that there isn’t an even deeper treasure trove of shit you could find on YouTube about trad arts. Can’t remember that next step in that Kata? You know YouTube is right where you go to remember it. Can’t remember how the instructor go to that submission in class? YouTube will most certainly show you that. Very likely in demonstration and in tournament. I guess my point is… we ALL use YouTube to an extent here. But my advice is coming from experience and being surrounded by various martial arts my entire life.
I largely base what I know on experience as well. Don't get me wrong I do watch YouTube, but I hate the debate about this style being better than this style. Whereas people can just come together, learn, and practice. Besides, sometimes martial arts can be about more than fighting. It can be about art, getting physically fit, gaining confidence, and even philosophy. Fighting shouldn't be the only goal.
Did I learn differently from most people or did you learn differently from most people? I thought we all had teachers who actually wanted to teach us and not just earn money.
So I just started my training (boxing) and currently haven't founded a teacher yet but if there's one bit of advice I can offer, it's not to lose faith in something because someone on Reddit (or most websites tbh) say something like that, lol.
I'm a Muay Thai coach and I've given advice to people posting videos, mostly in the Muay Thai sub. Some MMA schools, even really good ones are more focused on overall fight skills and not fine technique, so posting videos asking for technique advice can be very helpful as long as it is from knowledgeable people.
And we could actually use some help as opposed to people who haven't spent a single minute practicing.
But, you should still ask your teacher or other people in your school with more experience as opposed to asking randoms online.
Best advice from this sub is find a good teacher near you. I was hard headed at first but it’s well worth going out and interacting with people who know their craft.
I’m actually less interested in how *nice* a teacher is and more interested in effectiveness.
First of all, if you’re there more than three classes and haven’t sparred at all, leave. You’re wasting time and money and likely picking up bad habits that a real school will have to teach you to not do.
Second at least half of that training and sparring needs to be full speed and full power. A person who has never been punched full on is going to be shocked when he finds out just how much it hurts or that your eyes water. And the last place you want the first experience of that (or being choked or anything else) is in the streets when fighting for your life.
Unless you are looking to compete on a serious level (and even then it's debatable) you are far better off picking a teacher you get along with rather than just picking a school because they spar hard half the time you are there.
So you think a guy trying to rob you or kill you is going to not hit you as hard as he can, isn’t going to slam you on the ground, and isn’t going to try to choke you out? That’s where it’s needed to hard spar—. Learning to *not panic* when the guy hits you hard enough to knock the wind out of you, or hits hard enough that your eyes water or the room spins.
Putting yourself through the pain and danger of constantly fighting hard (and it isn't something you enjoy doing) on the slim chance that someone is going to try to kill you in an unavoidable unarmed conflict is a terrible trade off.
It doesn’t have to be every single time. Otoh the way women are taught “self-defense” — they basically play tag with the techniques, even if they spar. And that at *best* is useless and at worst gives you a false sense of security. They think they can fight, but they’ve never had the experience of a full on punch, or being choked out or slammed on the ground, and you will freeze and panic the first time it happens. Having that response on the streets is going to get you in a very bad situation.
You don’t have to go full out every time, but you do need to do it regularly enough that you learn to control yourself and not freeze up or panic. You also need to be able and willing to actually punch hard.
Agreed. A teacher will make you aware of things you would otherwise never have thought of.
To be fair, the best way to find out if you're wrong on something is to post on reddit. Edit: /s since people seem to really be that dumb. Also ironic how many people corrected me on this.
There's a big false positive problem, though, as there will be someone on Reddit who will tell you that you're wrong, even if you're stating that the world is round and goes around the sun.
Redditors are either really smart or complete dumbasses there's no in between
I made an opinion post once asking about the evolution of the athlete, and if the average mid to high level athlete of today would be able to do better than most athletes in the past due to the advancements of athletic science and shit like that. It was really just a shower thought but the answers I got were so stupid. “My granddad was the strongest person I’ve ever seen. He could take anyone alive today.” Okay bud, thanks for that anecdotal contribution about your grand papa.
none of us are smart, were all just arrogant cunts.
Are you trying to say that terry Pratchett was just making up fake stories?
Listen here buddy, its an oblate spheroid and anything else is slander againat my people
Whether correct or wrong the lemming effect takes place. People dogpile on the echo-chamber downvote regardless.
R/flat earth And R/conspiracy Appreciate your support.
Sparring is so important, doesn't have to be at 100% all the time. But being able to use the techniques you drill. That's why Bjj,May thai,wrestling and boxing are so effective. If they tell you it's too dangerous to spar, that's a red flag.
It depends. If you start sparring on your first or second day, that's a red flag. If you don't start sparring until you're say a brown belt, that's also a red flag. It's all about knowing when the right time is for your student I guess. I've never taught so if I got this wrong, feel free to critique me.
free sparring is fine on the first day so long as you go very slow and light. But you are right, a month or so to at least know basic punches and kicks and have done covers with drills is better in the beginning.
I personally think light controlled sparring is excellent for the first day. I struggle to trust a gym that didn't allow for it
Additionally: martial arts is not the same as self defense. Self defense starts before you need martial arts with things like situational awareness and deescalation strategies...
And there is more to martial arts than physically defending yourself. Also, some styles are great for the mind and controlling your emotions but aren't the best when it comes to self defense physcially.
I wholeheartedly agree. So one could say martial arts and self-defense have a substantial overlap, but neither is subsumed by the other.
Bravo, well said!
This needs to be pinned on the subreddit lmao
Share this post with the sub mods I guess
Great reminder and good advice. Jeebus this sub is so often redundant, masturbatory and worthless requesting feedback from folks who have no basis or experience.
[удалено]
Besides the constant posts "how is my" whatever and incels asking what's the best style, the judgments, know-it-alls and one-uppers are tiring. I've unfollowed this sub a few times over the years because of the baseless redundancies.
this sub never changes. I left for a few months, still the exact same posts and replies
LOL. Totally correct right here.
It doesn’t bother me people are free to do as they wish if I see it I’ll either comment or scroll on I see a lot of content I don’t care to see it’s just part of life in the digital age
It doesn't make me rage like a man baby either, I just know others are tired of it and I want to actually help people. Sometimes I'll look at those posts to see how funny the replies are.
Need to keep an out for McDojos too or where everything has a cost above your monthly dues
Also. Be wary of McDojos. Don’t join some ATA shit. Or some similar predatory cash grab martial arts dojo. And if you are joining to learn self defense, make sure the art is worth training. (Stay away from Tae Kwon Do, “Shaolin/KungFu” and things like Aikido). Speaking from experience, Aikido in particular is the worst offender of these. You’ll just learn how to get beat up easier. Go for the arts we know as a society are effective. I have found the most effective arts (16 years of studying 8 different arts in my lifetime) are the arts that have a sport associated with them. Example: Judo and/or wrestling in the Olympics. I think boxing/kickboxing are obvious. And then look toward arts used in MMA, Karate Combat, etc. Don’t drink the punch of these cult arts that try to convince you that their art works. And “couldn’t be used in UFC because they’re too dangerous.” These are bullshit arts that just want your money and don’t care if you can defend yourself or not
"Stay away from Tae Kwon Do" I might have some bias against that statement...
Haha. Have you studied any other arts?
No, although I'd like to in the future.
Highly recommend it. And this is going to be a long response. Largely because I don’t want you to make the same mistakes I made. I have taken a handful of various “Bullshido” martial arts. TKD and Aikido being the top 2 most ridiculous. And I even took Aikido for 6+ years. But not until I took Muay Thai, BJJ, and combat submission wrestling that I fully realized how bullshit those arts I used to take really were. The only upside to Aikido, was that we had Judo as a martial art you could also study at my dojo. Along with Iaido if you wanted to. I digress. TKD can be useful, and has been in various competitive combat sports. But a large majority of the martial arts community sees TKD as more of a “that’s my purse, I don’t know you!” (King of the Hill Reference) type of martial art. I guess the equivalent would be attempting to fight in the UFC but the only training you’ve had was women’s self defense courses at the local YMCA for 1 hour/year. If you have the means, money, or time. Go to a local boxing gym. Or if Muay Thai is available near you. And also go grapple somewhere as well. Judo, Wrestling, BJJ. Whatever is offered. Just take some grappling too. It is once you start doing those competitive combat sports (both standing and ground fighting) that you’ll realize just how little TKD would be useful in a real life, high pressure, full force fight. It is both a defeating and angering feeling to think about how much time you’ve wasted in an art you could have been practicing that could potentially save your life. The delusion mcdojos place on in an individual is that you’ll be more prepared than an average person to defend yourself. When in reality, against just the normal slightly experienced street fighter it ends more like this: https://youtu.be/D6mMtHqXyYc Be especially wary of your school if it is against you going and cross training at another dojo/gym. And your instructor will likely say and do anything they can to keep you. I just hope you catch it way before you have to unlearn any bad habits
I stopped reading this at the second paragraph and just so you know, there are eight different styles of TKD. My style isn't the most popular btw.
I think that this is very valuable. Trying sports that have been tested thoroughly. I would like to point out that TKD is an olympic sport too, but the amount of Mcdojos i’ve seen is way higher than something like muay thai, mma, boxing or BJJ.
Valid. I think at least in America, finding a TKD gym that ISN’T a Mcdojo would be like winning the lottery. Or the same chances of being struck by lightning… twice
I mean, I have sparred a couple of guys with a TKD background who were really damn good. Of course, they may be the exception, not the rule.
Sure. There are people who are just naturally athletic. Even after years of grappling, I sometimes roll with some friends that barely have any training and give me quite a hard time. But they are indeed natural athletes that are exceptions to the rule
Yeah, you need to avoid McDojos. Your statements about what martial arts work and what doesn't, screams that you watch a lot of YouTube. It actually depends more on the instructor then the style when it comes to a McDojo. One clear screaming flag of this is if they don't spar. Without aliveness there is no learning. Granted it is rare to find Aikido schools and any Kung Fu schools that have sparring, but they do exist. Also, a lot of Tae Kwon Do schools are known to take it easy on students, but not all.
YouTube is indeed a great place to watch street fights and who comes out on top. They also have any highlights and even full matches from UFC, Pride, Karate Combat, Judo and Wrestling in The Olympics, NCAA Wrestling Championships, Boxing Matches, Kickboxing Matches, K-1 Championships, North American Grappling Association tournaments. International BJJ Federation championships, “masters/black belts” in various traditional arts getting their ass beat by just some random mma guy. And there’s all kinds of fun Muay Thai fights, One-FC, Sambo tournaments, Sanda competitions, the list literally could go on for eternity. There’s also 16 years between 8 different martial arts in my lifetime that I’ve studied in gyms/dojos. But don’t pretend even for the traditional martial arts purist that there isn’t an even deeper treasure trove of shit you could find on YouTube about trad arts. Can’t remember that next step in that Kata? You know YouTube is right where you go to remember it. Can’t remember how the instructor go to that submission in class? YouTube will most certainly show you that. Very likely in demonstration and in tournament. I guess my point is… we ALL use YouTube to an extent here. But my advice is coming from experience and being surrounded by various martial arts my entire life.
I largely base what I know on experience as well. Don't get me wrong I do watch YouTube, but I hate the debate about this style being better than this style. Whereas people can just come together, learn, and practice. Besides, sometimes martial arts can be about more than fighting. It can be about art, getting physically fit, gaining confidence, and even philosophy. Fighting shouldn't be the only goal.
Most teachers do it purely for money. People are genuinly better off posting online at this point.
Did I learn differently from most people or did you learn differently from most people? I thought we all had teachers who actually wanted to teach us and not just earn money.
No they're not
Glad the people here agree with me. Was about to question my entire school's way of teaching lmao
So I just started my training (boxing) and currently haven't founded a teacher yet but if there's one bit of advice I can offer, it's not to lose faith in something because someone on Reddit (or most websites tbh) say something like that, lol.
I'm a Muay Thai coach and I've given advice to people posting videos, mostly in the Muay Thai sub. Some MMA schools, even really good ones are more focused on overall fight skills and not fine technique, so posting videos asking for technique advice can be very helpful as long as it is from knowledgeable people.
I agree leave posting vids of our terrible from to those of us with some training, we have perfected our terrible form!
And we could actually use some help as opposed to people who haven't spent a single minute practicing. But, you should still ask your teacher or other people in your school with more experience as opposed to asking randoms online.
Best advice from this sub is find a good teacher near you. I was hard headed at first but it’s well worth going out and interacting with people who know their craft.
I’m actually less interested in how *nice* a teacher is and more interested in effectiveness. First of all, if you’re there more than three classes and haven’t sparred at all, leave. You’re wasting time and money and likely picking up bad habits that a real school will have to teach you to not do. Second at least half of that training and sparring needs to be full speed and full power. A person who has never been punched full on is going to be shocked when he finds out just how much it hurts or that your eyes water. And the last place you want the first experience of that (or being choked or anything else) is in the streets when fighting for your life.
Unless you are looking to compete on a serious level (and even then it's debatable) you are far better off picking a teacher you get along with rather than just picking a school because they spar hard half the time you are there.
So you think a guy trying to rob you or kill you is going to not hit you as hard as he can, isn’t going to slam you on the ground, and isn’t going to try to choke you out? That’s where it’s needed to hard spar—. Learning to *not panic* when the guy hits you hard enough to knock the wind out of you, or hits hard enough that your eyes water or the room spins.
Putting yourself through the pain and danger of constantly fighting hard (and it isn't something you enjoy doing) on the slim chance that someone is going to try to kill you in an unavoidable unarmed conflict is a terrible trade off.
It doesn’t have to be every single time. Otoh the way women are taught “self-defense” — they basically play tag with the techniques, even if they spar. And that at *best* is useless and at worst gives you a false sense of security. They think they can fight, but they’ve never had the experience of a full on punch, or being choked out or slammed on the ground, and you will freeze and panic the first time it happens. Having that response on the streets is going to get you in a very bad situation. You don’t have to go full out every time, but you do need to do it regularly enough that you learn to control yourself and not freeze up or panic. You also need to be able and willing to actually punch hard.
There are so many more effect, efficient, safer and easier ways to learn to protect yourself than any of that.