I know kung fu

[Peekay]

Nice scrappage their.

In other news, the missus has decided to let me (yeah, I know) go back to Japan next year to train for a week or so. Can't wait, but I'm in pretty shabby condition, and training for between 4 and 6 hours everyday takes it out of you a bit

What will you be training in? Whereabouts? Bring plenty of money, the yen surged yesterday...

[k0pp0]

Generally in Noda at the Bujinkan Hombu - although the strong Yen is making me wince a bit, if I take and pass my fifth dan test I'll be shelling out big (with yearly membership, teaching license, hotel fees, food.. the list goes on).

Balls.

[Peekay]

Generally in Noda at the Bujinkan Hombu - although the strong Yen is making me wince a bit, if I take and pass my fifth dan test I'll be shelling out big (with yearly membership, teaching license, hotel fees, food.. the list goes on).

Balls.

So ninjutsu training, essentially? What's the name of that massive hammer used to smash down castle doors - have you ever been taught any techniques with that? (I can't remember its name, but it looks like a lot of fun.)

[JazzFunk]

Out of curiosity, how does it work when you wear specs? Do you have to take them off? It's just, I can barely see any detail 1.5ft in front of me, but I imagine most martial arts - when fought at higher levels - involve some serious levels of skilled attack, and glasses seem to me like a bit of a weakness in this regard.

I mean, I'd rather be sparring with a blur and get an elbow to the face, rather than be sparring with someone in Full HD and get some cracked specs and glass fragments on/in my eyeballs.

[vincechan]

I wear contacts when I'm training these day. I used to be able to wear my glasses no problem when I did karate before - we never really aimed to punch each other in the head - but I found that when I started doing Wing Chun, I kept walking into people's fists! Stuff to do with the distance from your eyes making it harder to judge, I reckon (nothing to do with being a bit rubbish, though... LOL )

[k0pp0]

So ninjutsu training, essentially? What's the name of that massive hammer used to smash down castle doors - have you ever been taught any techniques with that? (I can't remember its name, but it looks like a lot of fun.)

Yep!! Bujinkan Ninjutsu.

O-tsuchi is the name of the big hammer - used in Shinden Fudo Ryu (that school has the big axe and big swords as well). Wouldn't knock down a castle door, but (like the other oversided weapons) works well 'in a team' of people.. Fun to learn (from a historical weapons point of view) and good for your taijutsu but not particularly practical.

[k0pp0]

Out of curiosity, how does it work when you wear specs? Do you have to take them off? It's just, I can barely see any detail 1.5ft in front of me, but I imagine most martial arts - when fought at higher levels - involve some serious levels of skilled attack, and glasses seem to me like a bit of a weakness in this regard.

I mean, I'd rather be sparring with a blur and get an elbow to the face, rather than be sparring with someone in Full HD and get some cracked specs and glass fragments on/in my eyeballs.

There's a couple of lads that I train with that wear glasses, but I would 100% recommend contacts. You don't want to get punched in the face with them on (even if you get some basketball player style plastic wraparounds).

Saying that, if you get whacked in the face wearing contacts they can pop out - that's happened to me a few times.

[Peekay]

Fun to learn (from a historical weapons point of view) and good for your taijutsu but not particularly practical.

What's a taijutsu? Also, how much Japanese do you speak (or how much English do your instructors in Japan speak)? Training Muay Thai in Korean is one thing - "elbow goes in face" - but I imagine ninjutsu is a lot more complex...

Regarding glasses and martial arts/combat sports - Benson Henderson, who is the current WEC lightweight champion, recently had laser surgery to correct his eyesight. He's shortsighted, and reckons that now (fighting without contacts) he has maybe 3/4 of a second to react to a punch coming his way rather than 1/8 of a second... a lot of people who wear glasses train and fight.

[powkisser]

Started kickboxing this week (monday), first exercise for about 6 years. Not done any MA, since i was 23ish, so 10 years.. Still hurting now great fun though, need to get fit and loose the fat gut i have so im hopeing that this will help somewhat

[powkisser]

second class last night, i dont ache as much as last week which must be a good sign

[Peekay]

second class last night, i dont ache as much as last week which must be a good sign

How much are you paying? How long are the classes/how many people are in them?

[powkisser]

£5
2 1/2 hours
8\10 peeps in them

[Rick]

I had a fight last night. "light" continuous Kickboxing. I lost, but apparently it was a surprising decision. 3x 1.5 min rounds.
Shafted after it, but I loved it. Really really good fun. I knew the guy I was fighting and he'd been training quite hard for it, but we were both supposed to be fighting other people.
My mate filmed it, i'll stick it up when I get it

[Peekay]

My fight from yesterday (Sunday) is here. I've just been training in Thailand so I felt like my fitness was decent. Nearly knocked him out in the second round, too.

More importantly my crowd-pleasing entrance is here!

[Peekay]

My fight from last weekend. This guy was a definite step up in competition - quick and well up for it. I barely threw a kick the whole match as a) he was too quick and b) right at the start of the first round I took an elbow to the jaw which nearly KOed me. I can't remember much of the match at all and I was babbling nonsense for about five hours afterwards. Everything was kind of blurry and dark. I got the nod from the judges but watching it again, I'm not really sure why...

Round 1

Round 2

Round 3

Also there must be other NTSC-ukers competing or practicing in martial arts at the moment..?