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I've just started martial arts - the only place nearby is a Kung Fu place that teaches Hua Quan. What do you guys know about it? How does it compare? It seems like at the very least it will keep me occupied for the rest of the year since a lot of it is exercise and conditioning which I can definitely use, and in a few months I'll probably start sparring, but at that point might want to switch to something else. I don't have a particular interest an genuine self defense although I am looking forward to fighting again, it's definitely a lot different than the HEMA stuff I used to do. The person I've started classes with IS interested in self defense though, or at least that it provides some small amount of utility there.
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Sep 9, 2019 05:26
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:10 |
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Training partner. I don't know of them doing any performance stuff but they do definitely have sparring. They have weapons stuff as well which I'm hoping to do at some point and am looking forward to, but sadly no weapon based sparring... GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 13:56 on Sep 9, 2019 |
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Sep 9, 2019 13:52
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God, that's amazing. And spear is by far my favorite weapon, from an aesthetic and form perspective. I only worked with a spear for like 3 months total but it was wonderful. But its hard to spar with safely in a way that doesn't make it feel like a toy. Interesting the dude in the article is basically following the HEMA approach of trying to unlock techniques from a book. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Sep 10, 2019 |
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Sep 10, 2019 17:15
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Dzurlord posted:...you wouldn't happen to be west of Boston, would you? Just because I attend a Hua Quan Kung Fu place and the instructor told me that a dude who does/did HEMA was starting to show up at some of the classes there. I would, actually...
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Sep 13, 2019 19:54
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Suprise goonmeet happened. I was akward. But yeah definitely confirmed its the same place at least.  Now you need a full write up review of the gym so I know exactly what I'm getting into.
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Sep 18, 2019 05:34
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I've really been enjoying these classes and am super glad I started. Here's the thoughts I've had so far. I am surprised that so much of the classes is just physical exercise and stretching. It's like... 80% basic fitness and then the last ten minutes we do stuff related to martial arts. Although I guess it's not a bad thing. I've started noticing some worrying limitations of my body, though - leg lifts and stuff with me left leg result in this really uncomfortable slide-pop of something moving under my skin and I have no idea if I should be ignoring it and just working through it or if something is actually wrong and I need to pull myself back there. I've definitely taken a break from the exercises when my back starts twinging, though, I've hurt myself before doing exercises and basically ruined all my momentum and I really want to avoid that this time, so I've got a weird mix of pushing myself and very much not pushing myself right now. Not that anyone else is encouraging me to really push... It's really uncomfortable having my strength/flexibility commented on/complimented as often as it is though, and I sort of wish it would stop but I am doing my best to ignore my antisocial tendencies and just accept things in good grace instead of leaving to avoid people ever saying good things about me like I normally do. Still, I'm much more comfortable with criticism and I wish there was a lot more of that and a lot less of this positive reinforcement nonsense. I expected higher expectations, I think? I do enjoy the occasional "walk around and stretch you quite a bit more than you're stretching" circuits the teacher does. Following up on that first point, my and my girlfriend have taken to basically "continuing class after class", since it feels like the 5 to 10 minutes of actual form stuff we do is not enough. Which is probably intentional, we're probably supposed to practice at home, but I don't have the time on other days, or the space for that at home, so we've gotten to the point of inviting people to come and practice forms and sparring in the alley behind the pizza place for another half hour or so after class, and that's been fun, although we had a surprise audience gather the other day to watch and that embarrassed her a lot, hah. And practicing properly really feels like it requires one of a: a mirror, a partner, or a recording device, so you can tell what you're doing wrong. It's pretty great so far though, all told!
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Oct 15, 2019 17:04
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What's up with the whole belt thing, anyway? From what I've read, it used to be a pretty niche Japanese-only thing but has (fairly recently) spread to be taken up by basically everyone in every martial art. Is it just like a convenience thing for matching people up in tournaments, mostly? Or does it matter somehow in some way even when not competing?
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Oct 15, 2019 20:34
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Got my first ranking this weekend. Gotta admit I'm kinda nervous. Not that I'll mess it up or anything, although I will I know this is like a baby ranking and impossible to fail unless I try to. Just nervous anyway.
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Nov 26, 2019 01:37
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The Ranking was sort of disappointing, even though I went in expecting it to be. I sort of get the feeling that it's a "so long as you keep showing up, you'll keep advancing, whether or not you practice your forms or do them right and well or not doesn't matter". Which sort of takes some of the oomph out of it, I guess, it feels... less than deserved? And like it's almost not worth putting effort into in the future because its a sure thing anyway so why bother, you know? But then I guess ultimately I'm only really doing this for myself anyway, so it shouldn't matter.
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Dec 6, 2019 19:22
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Siivola posted:While Defenestrategy might be correct, that was also your first exam at the place. Not only has nobody in the world failed their first grading, you came in with experience from another martial art to begin with so you already knew how to tell your right foot from your left. Oh yeah I definitely considered the fact that noob-belt is probably gonna be failure immune, but it was more the shape of the ranking as a whole with everyone and stuff. Some people were impressively exceptionally good, but there was never a sense that how well you had things down would be particularly relevant to whether you advanced or not, and I'm not just talking about the newbies there. But there's a lot I don't understand and my post probably says more about me than it does about the actual school, really. I'm enjoying the school so far, I think its great. If the rankings end up not being a big deal, like, that doesn't say anything about my own personal progress so who cares. I just have high standards for myself and I guess I sort of want those externally enforced? And it feels like the belt is undeserved because I didn't live up to my own standards. It feels like I did gently caress up pretty bad, what with me freezing for like 15 seconds in the middle of the form demo even though I thought I had down pat, and it would have been nice to, I don't know... either have failed, or to have been required to at least to do it a second time without loving up. Or at least to not have had people immediately shouting out from the sidelines the part that comes next, since it feels like because of that I didn't even get to know I overcame the hump on my own. :/ That part I actually did really dislike, I wish some level of quietness would have been enforced, I appreciated all the help I got from folks learning things and working on my technique prior but it feels like for the actual demo I would have preferred to be doing it on my own.
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Dec 10, 2019 18:35
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That's incredible, I desperately want to spar with that gear now.
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Jan 14, 2020 18:04
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I really want to spar more. I want there to be sparring after every class! Who cares about fancy bonus forms or whatever-the-gently caress, I want to fight people. Once a week is not enough. Considering also joining the Muay Thai place a town over just because they have sparring on a night I'm not already doing kung fu.
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Jan 23, 2020 20:04
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kimbo305 posted:If you have the cash and time, you should cross train. I think if I drop the extra kung fu module I should be able to afford it. They only do Muy Thai one night a week, so technically every night is sparring night, although yeah I'm fine if it takes a little while to get to the point where I'm sparring so long as I eventually get to. I don't know about the quality, though - they are normally a kenpo place. They offer two free classes so I figure it can't hurt to check it out.
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Jan 24, 2020 16:31
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kimbo305 posted:Link the gym -- there's a couple quasi locals. https://etherealarts-sd.com/programs/muay-thai-kickboxing/
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Jan 24, 2020 17:46
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quidditch it and quit it posted:That looks really bad, man Yeah, I'm a novice but thought the same, hence the "I don't really know about quality". It's the only thing around on that'll fit in my schedule though, so its like... worth it or not? Something better than nothing? If nothing, I'll probably just get a bouldering gym membership and do that instead.
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Jan 24, 2020 19:10
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Count Roland posted:Are you a kid? Because that's all I see on their website. The Muy Thai is "adults only", (which actually means 13+), but from what little I've seen it's mostly actual adults. Their Kenpo stuff is very kid focused though.
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Jan 24, 2020 22:53
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Not trolling. I was wary myself though after looking into it more and its good to have that backed up as not being baseless. To make it worse, I've been asking around a bit since that original post, and apparently they go out of their way to avoid interacting with the rest of the local martial arts scene, which is also a red flag to me. AND their tai chi is... not great. I didn't even realize they did tai chi, but yeah. So yeah, gonna give 'em a hard pass. Disappointing. At least my main place is pretty good. I'll just have to find something else to fill the time. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 02:42 on Jan 25, 2020 |
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Jan 25, 2020 02:39
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JaySB posted:Just make the trek a couple times a week to Boston and go to Sityodong. They are worth it, then? This is very doable. Looks like they aren't even in Boston, they're in Cambridge not far from where I work. They do an hour of beginners Muy Thai on Wednesdays, I could absolutely make that - hell, I could walk there if I wanted, it's only 40 minutes. I could even be able to make it in time for their regular boxing class too. Sparring is invite only so no idea if I'd actually be able to do that part, and who knows how long that would take if I I ever did, but could be fun regardless... I'll check them out, thanks. In other news, it looks like I'm getting my "white belt yellow stripe" soon, which sounds exceptionally stupid and comes across as a marketing gimmick more than anything else. The whole belt system still leaves me uneasy, and this one seems like such a waste - I'll probably keep my white belt but this one is absolutely gonna get tossed in the trash in less than three months, what is even the point? I feel like the teacher would probably be insulted if I asked if I could just save some fabric and time by using a yellow marker to draw a line on my current belt, but this whole thing is definitely the aspect I like least about the class. What I like best is that I spent wednesday sore as gently caress from an hour of a much-harder-than-normal class followed by like an hour of sparring. That part was wonderful, I got my rear end kicked a lot and loved every second of it.
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Jan 31, 2020 16:39
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I'm taking the next month off. The girlfriend wanted to take a month off during the spring anyway, so now we have an excuse to get more quality time together. With a tournament coming up in a few months, by which point this will hopefully be over, I'll still be practicing my forms daily, and trying to send a weekly video to my teacher to get feedback on things to improve. GlyphGryph fucked around with this message at 19:09 on Mar 13, 2020 |
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Mar 13, 2020 19:02
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| # ¿ Apr 26, 2024 14:10 |
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My hope to continue training independently are pretty much dashed at this point. This lockdown means I effectively have no more free time, because there's no child-care, so I'm either doing child-care or working or both at the same time and where the hell do I fit martial arts into that? Can't even get a babysitter for obvious reasons. Right now I'm just letting the kid play unsupervised with a black sharpie because I'm so exhausted. Can't even sneak some in after he goes to bed because the apartment is too small to do anything at all (I did try!) So I guess no martial arts for me for a few months. I'm guessing there's a good chance the tournament is gonna be cancelled too even if restrictions might be lifted by then, if we're lucky.
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Mar 22, 2020 17:34
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