Theorycraft your ideal physical training.

[Gregness]

So, I've recently finished watching Kenichi: the Mightiest Disciple and I enjoyed it immensely. Now, if you haven't seen it, that's okay because the plot isn't relevant to this topic. All you need to know is that through anime shenanigans (tm), the main character comes to live at a dojo with masters of six different fighting styles. He trains with these masters and begins to use their techniques in concert to beat people's asses for great justice. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPgO1-VIOsA&feature=related) (There's also a pretty cool scene of him mimicing his masters (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vC0bzgjGe18) later that's pretty hilarious)

So, for this thread consider the same situation for yourself: You're going to be living with six people who are masters of their discipline and they will teach you everything they know. So, Whaddya wanna learn? Keep them physical, but they needn't necessarily be fighting. Feel free to link videos (fictional or real-life is fine) and add explanations if you like, but it's not required.

My choices are:


Muay Thai
Capoeira
Aikido
Parkour
Krav Maga
Western style sword/shield


I'm generally a big fan of unorthodox strategies and Muay Thai emphasizes elbow and knee strikes in contrast to most other forms. Capoeira (which I actually do have some limited experience with) is fun because you're able to throw full strength kicks (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gw4EoWi5QSM) from some of the weirdest looking stances. Capoeira also does quite a bit of acrobatic work which feeds into Parkour. Aikido for something throw oriented that isn't Brazilian JiuJitsu. Krav Maga is to keep everything practical, and the sword/shield combo because I'm a gigantic nerd.

This thread is also evidence that I've been watching too much Human Weapon.

[Amake]

I'm going to be boring and make all six of them taekwondo masters or something. They'll turn me into a master with 10 000 hours of practice, rather than 60 000.

[Gregness]

Taking the quick route to power is a clear path to the Dark Side. I mean, seriously, someone wasn't paying attention during Star Wars 101. ;)

[Melfice]

Gregness, thank you.
That looks like a hilarious anime. I must track it down.

[Premmy]

*Insert stale-ass "Lolguns" comment here*

[mauve]

My six people I'd choose to live with and train me in the ways of kicking other peoples' asses:

-Guy who can shoot lasers out of his hands

-Sasha Nein (because telekinesis totally counts as physical combat when you're bashing someone's head in with a Volkswagen. WITH YOUR MIIIND.)

-Batman

-Hugh Jackman (Because even if he's not a fighting master, he's still hot and I still need a reason not to give up and leave the dojo whenever I fail or start to feel like I'll never be able to learn everything. And daaaaamn, Hugh Jackman is a pretty dang good reason not to leave a dojo.)

-My old tai chi teacher. I'm pretty sure that lady could've beaten up sixty dudes on her own. I got frustrated at my lack of skill and stopped coming to classes, which is why Hugh Jackman up there is needed. I DEFINITELY wouldn't have quit if he had been there.

-Johnny Depp. For the days when Hugh Jackman can't make it to the dojo.

[Amake]

Taking the quick route to power is a clear path to the Dark Side. I mean, seriously, someone wasn't paying attention during Star Wars 101. ;)
How is focusing on one field of learning at a time a shortcut? :p

[Melfice]

How is focusing on one field of learning at a time a shortcut? :p

Because you're not being awesome and doing six fighting styles at a time.
Obviously.

"True mastership is learned through flexibily and adaptability, not blind focus." - Meester Uit-de-Duim en Meester Gezogen (two very well known Dutch martial artists)
Dutch: Lit.: "Sucked out of my thumb". Something completely made up.

[rpgdemon]

How is focusing on one field of learning at a time a shortcut? :p

I really don't think you'd actually get any benefit out of it.

You'd still need to put in the exact same number of hours/time to learn the forms and stuff, it would just be six people teaching you instead of one. You'd spend 1/6th the time of the other people doing this, and learn 1/6th the knowledge.

[Amake]

But on the plus side I'll be done when I'm 40 instead of 90.

[rpgdemon]

If you learned in sequence from the masters, you could finish the first by 40, and then decide if you wanted to keep going, or stop with that.

[Amake]

You really think you can spend every day for ten years learning, for instance, how to consider your surroundings as a weapon in krav maga; teach every muscle of your body to pick up the nearest chair and beat someone with it as fast as physically possible, and then turn around and learn, let's say, how to give your limbs maximum momentum by rotating your body in caopeira as if nothing happened? This isn't the Devil May Cry sequels where you have to get used to a different jump button you know.

(I could never play without the jump button mapped to triangle anyway.)

[Darth SS]

You really think you can spend every day for ten years learning, for instance, how to consider your surroundings as a weapon in krav maga; teach every muscle of your body to pick up the nearest chair and beat someone with it as fast as physically possible, and then turn around and learn, let's say, how to give your limbs maximum momentum by rotating your body in caopeira as if nothing happened? This isn't the Devil May Cry sequels where you have to get used to a different jump button you know.

(I could never play without the jump button mapped to triangle anyway.)

He's completely right. You also need to understand that different martial arts can have completely opposing reactions to similar attacks. Look at a high line knife thrust. Krav Maga says "Crash. Jam that strike, enter on the inside and burst into it to stop the path of the knife while delivering a brachial shot to dissuade the attacker." Kali says "Pass it. Jam it only long enough to get your hand in and do a knife tap. Move past and decide what to do from there." Wing Chun will respond with some method of redirecting and controlling that arm. Muay Thai would be step out, come back in. Capoeira would involve some crazy ass quadruple flip axe-kick triple lutz.

Your legs and your arms are all doing completely different things. If you put yourself in the position of knowing too many options you can actually cross yourself up. It isn't some stat sheet that you arbitrarily pick and choose.

[Kerensky287]

Can I pick Equilibrium's Gun Katas?

I know they would never ever work in real life but that's fine.

[Amake]

It's not that gun kata would never work. It should work for a while. You're just playing the numbers however, and it's statistically inevitable that using gun kata will get you shot eventually. Like, maybe when you get into a gunfight against someone with a better gun than you, or two people at the same time.

[Gregness]

How is focusing on one field of learning at a time a shortcut? :p

This was the bit I was referring to:

*snip*
They'll turn me into a master with 10 000 hours of practice, rather than 60 000.

Anyway, @Darth: I don't see too many options becoming a problem. Even in my minor martial arts experience I've seen that people tend to have preferred responses and favored moves so I don't see how having a pool of 10000 techniques differs greatly from having a pool of 60000 techniques if you're still going to be cherry picking your favorite 1000 or so.

For me it's more about knowing how to respond to uncommon situations. So like, from my capoeira I know that if for some reason I find myself in a crouch and there's a fight going on, I can totally throw a pretty decent kick or dodge from that position.

[Premmy]

Or, you know you can just use some Aus and Roles until you get into a better position, no need to only hit them from where you are.

[Amake]

I don't see how having a pool of 10000 techniques differs greatly from having a pool of 60000 techniques if you're still going to be cherry picking your favorite 1000 or so. When I read this I felt Bruce Lee's corpse stir in his grave. Clearly he's possessing me to write the following, so don't hold it against me:

You're quite right. Practice ten thousand kicks or sixty thousand, it makes no difference. You'll still get your ass handed to you a hundred times over by the man who practiced one kick ten thousand times.

Man, Bruce Lee got snarky when he died.

[Darth SS]

When I read this I felt Bruce Lee's corpse stir in his grave. Clearly he's possessing me to write the following, so don't hold it against me:

You're quite right. Practice ten thousand kicks or sixty thousand, it makes no difference. You'll still get your ass handed to you a hundred times over by the man who practiced one kick ten thousand times.

Man, Bruce Lee got snarky when he died.

This. A million times this.

For me, it harkens back to when guys who have taken more exotic get worked over by boxers. I find it happens a lot with Krav enthusiasts, though there was one time I witnessed a BJJ purple belt get very thoroughly tooled up by a boxer. The resulting conversation usually goes, "But I have kicking, and a ground game, and I know takedowns and disarms and limb breaks and positioning and improvising weaponry. All he has is punching." "Well yes, but boxers are really fucking good at punching."

Seriously, for scenarios that are most realistic and likely, boxing is definitely top 5 for practical martial arts. They can read range, they know timing, they know how to fight under exhaustion or stress, they can guard against being hit, and most importantly have practiced accurate and effective counterattack.

[Premmy]

Seriously, for scenarios that are most realistic and likely, boxing is definitely top 5 for practical martial arts. They can read range, they know timing, they know how to fight under exhaustion or stress, they can guard against being hit, and most importantly have practiced accurate and effective counterattack.

That is 100 percent training methodology, though. If you trained any style the way boxers train theirs, you'd get the same results plus the advantages of the style in question. Boxing is a fight-sport style and thus directly trains the game by training the game, supplementing that with fitness training. Basketball, football, baseball all train the same way. A good fighter is always going to out-fight a good style expert, no matter the style. This doesn't disregard the validity of any style, it simply means you need to work in sparring or something reasonably similar into your training.

[Darth SS]

That is 100 percent training methodology, though. If you trained any style the way boxers train theirs, you'd get the same results plus the advantages of the style in question. Boxing is a fight-sport style and thus directly trains the game by training the game, supplementing that with fitness training. Basketball, football, baseball all train the same way. A good fighter is always going to out-fight a good style expert, no matter the style. This doesn't disregard the validity of any style, it simply means you need to work in sparring or something reasonably similar into your training.

I agree. Entirely.

BUT, it certainly does raise the question of why don't more people approach their style with a more "boxingesque" approach? Not even the sparring, but boxers have a million different ways to train attributes before they even try to punch each other. I'm not even a boxer, never done anything except for maybe 3 months of kickboxing, and I still look at boxers and can't help but think "Damn, these guys have got this all figured out."

[Krylo]

Because most martial arts aren't really martial anymore. Boxing is.

Krav Maga is too, but not for 'enthusiasts'. Just for special forces and shit.

[Sithdarth]

No one ever really learns more than one martial art. They might learn from masters of several different styles but in the end everyone ends up choosing one and selectively choosing bits of the others.

That said I want to pick up some Muay Thai, a little bit of Kung Fu (well probably Kempo), Fencing (any and all variants Kendo included), Boxing (because that shit will get you ready to actually fight), I already have Karate, and I'd probably finish up with bits of a throwing style like Judo.

If I had more time and money to buy a decent gun I'd join a gun club. I love to shoot me some rifles.

Of course mostly I just need a good pair of running shoes and the occasional trip to the gym.