BF2S Forums Your tuff behind the keyboard, but how many people have been in a re..

I can eat a whole pound of bacon in one sitting!

I shot the Sheriff

taffy1979 wrote:

I'm GAY

wow, um thx 4 sharing..

Someone broke a tennis racket on my head (the frame smashed) and I just stood there thinkin "surely that should have hurt more), then realised there was blood pouring out my head, went and washed it, and instead of going to get stitches, stuck a plaster on it n went to a house party.

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:

lol...tae kwon do

You're obviously ignorant if you automatically sneer at a martial art that you likely have little experience of.  There's various different brands and factions of TKD.  Admittedly, a lot of TKD stuff is McDojo sport style and which gives it a bad name, but the military side (ITF) is actually fairly practical.  I've done ITF TKD for about four years and I get a lot out of TKD's hand and elbow techniques in particular.  I'm not a fan of the kicking side because I have some hip mobility problems (I can move around fine, I just suffer pain in the joints sometimes) but the rest is good, practical stuff. 

It's just the usual.  The vast majority of martial arts have good parts and bad parts.  Likewise, practically every single martial art has a lot of shitty teachers that cause credibility problems and send out their students with a false sense of knowledge and security.  I had absolutely no interest in TKD prior to taking it up, but I did my research and found that one of the best, if not the best, instructors in the area was an ITF TKD guy who specialises in self-defence, cross-trains in multiple martial arts and has absolutely no interest in sports martial arts.  My instructor's opinion is one that I trust, and he basically says that there are precious few martial arts that, when well taught, have nothing to offer.  Likewise, he acknowledges that certain arts offer better all-round / general purpose training than others.  However, just because one system may be a better fit if all teaching is equal, doesn't mean you should dismiss entire MA systems out of hand.  There are a couple of cowboys in my town who teach 'fashionable' martial arts, but they have very little in the way of qualifications.  Thankfully, I have a brain.  Instead of blindly dismissing certain martial arts, I went to the teacher whose martial art didn't exactly appeal to me, but who is damn good at what he does (he teaches unarmed combat to the UK & US military special forces amongst others and is well renowned). 

I.e. what I'm trying to say is that if you get taught by a good teacher then the vast majority of non-sport martial arts can be a great thing to learn.  Likewise, if you take up a well thought of system but receive poor quality instruction, it will be useless or, worse still, dangerous.  There's an instructor in my town who teaches children (not even teens) that they can take on fully grown adults via using Chi power.  That's the kind of bullshit that gets people seriously hurt.  Likewise, accelerated progression through the ranks is another sure sign of questionable instruction.  Someone at my uni started TKD at the uni's TKD class (not the one I go to), had half of the lessons I have every week (and missed 3 months per summer of training due to holidays) and still went through the belts faster than me.  A crap, ignorant fighter with a black belt is still a crap fighter.  It amazes me that so many people blindly accept what they are told without scrutinising it at all -- you should constantly evaluate what you are being taught.

Anyway, back to the topic:

I've been in two fights.  Fight one was when I was about 15.  I was walking home late one night and some random dickhead came up to me in the middle of the high street, muttered something and then punched me.  He didn't even leave a bruise because he was so drunk, I think.  Then he wandered off.  I was just like "....ooook".  No harm done, but I should've known he was going to punch me.  The second fight was just a standard school scrap.  The guy had a lot of friends with him, so I wasn't too bothered about losing because if I had come out on top, I likely would've got my head kicked in by about 10 other people anyway.  I didn't even know how to throw a decent punch, so the outcome was pretty much inevitable considering the other guy was always scrapping.  My face was all bloody afterwards, but after I washed my face I was good as new.  No harm done; it just rammed home the point that I needed to learn to defend myself.  Which I did.

These days (10 years on) I'm a lot more clued up about how to defend myself and, more importantly, to spot situations as they develop and take the appropriate action.  I'll never be a tough guy, but I feel I'm a lot better equipped to deal with violent confrontations these days.  As someone else said, the best fight is no fight.  Other than defending myself from an imminent threat, the only way I'd ever fight now is if I had to step in to help someone who cannot defend themselves, or to stop someone who will patently pick on someone else who cannot/will not fight back.  Ultimately, taking up a martial art was one of the best things I ever did.  I'd recommend it to anyone -- just try not to be as ignorant as Gunslinger when choosing what system to train in

lol...tae kwon do

tae kwon do is for girls

ig wrote:

GunSlinger OIF II wrote:

tae kwon do is for girls

so is climbing everest

so is wearing flotation devices

A long time ago a guy was picking on me in gym class. I gave him a few good punches and he didn't bother me anymore after that. Little fucker...

EDIT: Typo

Last edited by Heavy_Guns_91 (2007-12-25 22:46:49)