Wanted to thank TK for the original post and for all the contributors in this thread for helping me realize I needed to get back on the BJJ mat after almost a decade layoff. I had trained for about 6 months ~9-10 years ago then joined the military, always had the nagging desire to get involved either in BJJ or some other form of martial art again but didn't have the time/money/stability/balls to do it.

Moved to a new city a little over a month ago and started training in BJJ a few days later (training 4 days a week along with 1-2 days of standup). Even after just a month I can't overstate the impact it's had on my fitness, confidence, and mindset--not to mention that it's motivated me to cut way back on the booze. I'm still very much a brand new white belt, still getting my ass kicked every time I roll but I can't get enough of it. At 34 and a little over a year after getting off active duty I'm already--after just a month of training--in the best shape I've been in since I returned from my second and final deployment to Afghanistan (almost 5 years ago).

I was a lurker on this board for years before signing up so I'll address the final part of this post to anyone who may be reading this and thinking about joining a BJJ, Muay Thai, whatever gym but think they aren't in good enough shape--just do it. It'll get you in the shape you need to be in. For 9 months or so before moving to my new city I was a member of a Crossfit gym and couldn't motivate myself to go more than 1-2x a week--not the fault of the coaches or anyone else at the gym, they were great, I was just too lazy and unmotivated. Not the case now. If you're thinking about it just take the plunge--you won't regret it.

I'm just back from a trip to Japan and Taiwan. I was also in Okinawa to join some classes since Karate is originally from Okinawa. I never practice Karate, just have some basic general knowledge. So a friend from Okinawa set up some training in a Dojo there. Was there with a friend, the sensei was very nice and polite, even that we had be a curiosity. Not so much because we are foreigners, quite a lot train there. He showed us also how he travel international and get regular visitors. More because we had no Gi and no Karate background.

When you have done some martial arts class, they are quite similar. Warm up, stretching, some basic strength training. We did push ups on the fist, abs and some walk with weights in the hands. Easy game for me, when you lift weights and do some martial arts. The more interesting part was the actual training. We did some escape techniques when someone grabs us, also training with Nunchakus. Went ok. The concept of asian martial arts is less power - to a degree - and more use momentum. At least by the escape grips. Had some similar stuff in my Hapkido and need that to practice a way more.
We spent there for about 3 hours, it was the Dojo of Hokama Sensei - Goju Ryo style. Since we had just one lesson its not enough to say anything at all, in general it was my 2nd or 3rd Karate time at a class at all. All martial arts class are a way lower challenging then boxing by physical aspects. Also when you lift weights the strength exercise are not super easy but also not a super hard challenge. Depends how you train.

The actual experience was less to learn some magic tricks in one lesson, it was more the sake of the experience. But I did realize again that I have to do more escape, hands, gabbling training.
Still I did dream about a super hardcore mystical training haha, well the next time maybe.

If you want to see something mystical, that's not karate. Go visit some real shaolin style monks if you want to have your mind blown.

By mystical I mean, some high intense training that will break my body to build it up new. Baseball bat kicking, stone hitting, never ending kumite somewhere on a mountain top. I love the way how Karate is to harden up the body physical to master the challenges.
The biggest mystical riddle I have always in Japan is the language.

Quote: (07-29-2018 05:27 AM)Parzival Wrote:  

By mystical I mean, some high intense training that will break my body to build it up new. Baseball bat kicking, stone hitting, never ending kumite somewhere on a mountain top. I love the way how Karate is to harden up the body physical to master the challenges.
The biggest mystical riddle I have always in Japan is the language.

Point still stands.

You haven't lived until you have seen someone hold an egg and break a rock in half with their fist without cracking the egg.

You are more than welcome to try what they do, but I do not recommend it.

I started boxing this week. Gonna have 2 classes every week from now on, together with weightlifting.

Used to thaibox 3 years ago but old school boxing is something different. I'm rusty as hell.

What's the most fundamental part to master/get down first in boxing in your opinion TravelerKai? Something that will enable exponential growth?

Not sure if mention already before. I found this. Very interesting.

Quote:Quote:

Kūdō (空道 Kūdō) (formerly Kakutō karate (格闘空手); often Daidōjuku) is a Japanese hybrid martial art. It is full-contact mixed combat sport with head Guard and gloves, throwing and grappling techniques are also allowed in the competition, including restraint, locks and strangle holds. It can be called a mixed martial art with protective gear for the head[1]

The goal of Kūdō is to come as close as possible to realistic, real fighting, with appropriate protective clothing. To achieve this, Kūdō is fought with very few regulations, and has specialized techniques and actions. The techniques of Kūdō include the entire spectrum of a real struggle-fighting standing up, throwing techniques, grappling and ground fighting.

The training of Kūdō consists primarily of kihon, general fitness training and combat. The kata of Kyokushin were eliminated without replacement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%ABd%C5%8D

I'm not a full MMA expert, I know MMA is a sport and certain stuff is against the rules. How is this Kudo compare to it. I see a way more throws then in MMA. Less ground submissions.


For my personal training, I now try to level up to two, if possible a 3rd more technical season per week. Slow down my weight training. We already added certain kicks, how to react out of a no combat position. Made a little knife training as well - got a plastic one. Just to demonstrate how you are mostly fucked when someone pull out a knife.
Next thing will be some wrist looks. There are plenty that seem pretty cool and work, but when you simulate a fight situation. A lot of that stuff is not to pull.

I check out this Hapkido channel at the moment:

Quote: (08-01-2018 02:27 PM)Vienna Wrote:  

I started boxing this week. Gonna have 2 classes every week from now on, together with weightlifting.

Used to thaibox 3 years ago but old school boxing is something different. I'm rusty as hell.

What's the most fundamental part to master/get down first in boxing in your opinion TravelerKai? Something that will enable exponential growth?

Technique.

Technique before speed. Technique before power.

Master throwing a punch without hyper-extending your elbow at all angles and distances first. I don't care if you punch like a turtle holding a kleenex tissue. Eventually you will be the guy I would not have to force extended time off from the gym over finger/elbow/wrist/hand injuries.

Always be patient in your journey to develop more power and speed. It always comes to those that have great technique and mechanics.

Quote: (08-04-2018 05:04 PM)Parzival Wrote:  

Not sure if mention already before. I found this. Very interesting.

Quote:Quote:

Kūdō (空道 Kūdō) (formerly Kakutō karate (格闘空手); often Daidōjuku) is a Japanese hybrid martial art. It is full-contact mixed combat sport with head Guard and gloves, throwing and grappling techniques are also allowed in the competition, including restraint, locks and strangle holds. It can be called a mixed martial art with protective gear for the head[1]

The goal of Kūdō is to come as close as possible to realistic, real fighting, with appropriate protective clothing. To achieve this, Kūdō is fought with very few regulations, and has specialized techniques and actions. The techniques of Kūdō include the entire spectrum of a real struggle-fighting standing up, throwing techniques, grappling and ground fighting.

The training of Kūdō consists primarily of kihon, general fitness training and combat. The kata of Kyokushin were eliminated without replacement.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K%C5%ABd%C5%8D

I'm not a full MMA expert, I know MMA is a sport and certain stuff is against the rules. How is this Kudo compare to it. I see a way more throws then in MMA. Less ground submissions.


For my personal training, I now try to level up to two, if possible a 3rd more technical season per week. Slow down my weight training. We already added certain kicks, how to react out of a no combat position. Made a little knife training as well - got a plastic one. Just to demonstrate how you are mostly fucked when someone pull out a knife.
Next thing will be some wrist looks. There are plenty that seem pretty cool and work, but when you simulate a fight situation. A lot of that stuff is not to pull.

I check out this Hapkido channel at the moment:

Kudo is similar to Kenpo or the Kenpo system Chuck Liddell is an 8th Dan black belt in (Kajukenbo).

I used to spar like this too when I was doing it. Did this for a long time before the MMA craze hit hard and rules got more consolidated. We did not allow headbutts like those guys though.

I bet CascadeCombo could speak more about this because full contact karate is his forte in Japan. Japan is full of fighters like this. Quite a few of these guys could do damage in American MMA, but rules, rules, rules..... Also politics. It's never what you think it is. Also another piece of evidence to show people that think Karate is weak or for pussies. That fighting is real and has full blown sparring. The facemask does not really help that much sometimes because you can throw elbows that are illegal in MMA. Dudes can still get knocked the fuck out cold doing this.

Also another thing I forgot to add, was that if you learn this, you will cover your ass 100% for self defense. This is one of the few martial arts that is a sport and self defense combined. You can get your fitness in, and be prepared for the street without any serious adjustments necessary. Most of these schools cover self defense and disarming tactics, despite not needing them for the competitions.

Today some older buff guy in the gym approached me, he asked me about my martial arts training because I train often alone in this extra room. (You can imagine now some kind of alone in the forest / mountain kung fu training - very similar!!)
We had some general talk, what I do and why and so on. Then he asked me about how I would react in certain situation. He told me when he was younger he had some kind of anger issues and always get loud direct, he is about 1.90 or 1.95, hard to guess because I'm shorter lol.
I said for most situations I avoid to even get into. And that my last fights had be in my early 20s, more then a decade ago. That I have a complete different conflict solution, situation awareness, distance, confident and calm behaviour. He then wanted to play some attacks, which had be easy to avoid, side step, push away the punching arm, a kick to the knee or inner tights, kick to the balls. He said he would react just a simple hit to the face because thats the most common at the brawls here.

The strange thing is, after lifting weights for years, boxing, dig into other martial arts, develop my personality, all my fights I had before I did all this. Now I put some effort into all this training, mostly for a situation that will never encounter. By risk behaviour the highest peak you have in your late teens to your early twenties. I see all this training not directly for the purpose of a fight, sure if the situation ever encounter I hope to have an advantage, still its a journey for a personal development.
When you build up a certain reputation - not even related to lift weights or martial arts - you get a respected person where for most people the risk to mess with you give just such a short win that it will never happen. Not to mention that I don't hang around hot spots where all the scum is.
Remembers me about a guy who did ask how he can defend himself against certain kind of attacks because he live in a bad area. Best self defence advice is to move away.
Still to know that you can break the liver or the nose of a guy is a sweet taste. After you beat up his friends also, bang his girlfriend and his mom, also the mom of his girlfriend. Thats the way!

Very cool video from Dante's Boxing Nation, that anyone of any level of boxing knowledge can appreciate and learn something from.

I'm going to Thailand for a three-month training camp soon. Want to detox, cut down on (or cut out) alcohol consumption, exorcise some personal demons, and just lose myself to training. I've trained less Brazilian jiu jitsu this year than I wanted and the year is more than half over. I also want to learn some basic Muay Thai because my hands are useless if they're not grabbing cloth. I would like to at least learn enough in these three months so that if I'm ever in a confrontation and have to take the fight to the ground, I won't get one-punched before the clinch. Ideally I'd like to be training 2x per day, 5 days per week - not sparring every class, obviously - but does anyone have any advice about what to do to ensure maximum recovery between classes, and what to do so I don't lose time to illness?

Quote: (08-19-2018 07:12 AM)Buddydowrongright2 Wrote:  

I'm going to Thailand for a three-month training camp soon. Want to detox, cut down on (or cut out) alcohol consumption, exorcise some personal demons, and just lose myself to training. I've trained less Brazilian jiu jitsu this year than I wanted and the year is more than half over. I also want to learn some basic Muay Thai because my hands are useless if they're not grabbing cloth. I would like to at least learn enough in these three months so that if I'm ever in a confrontation and have to take the fight to the ground, I won't get one-punched before the clinch. Ideally I'd like to be training 2x per day, 5 days per week - not sparring every class, obviously - but does anyone have any advice about what to do to ensure maximum recovery between classes, and what to do so I don't lose time to illness?

Sleep. Eat plenty.

Don't pick a dirty camp.

Take a few weeks to get used to the intensity.

To our sparring we did add some dynamics.
So far we did pad works, boxing sparring and now gloves touching.

The no gloves touching is something that we often trained in some boxing gyms I had before. Goal is to "touch" the other person at the body - not the face - with your open hand while the other one tries the same.
With my friend we put on our head gears and "touch" each other on the head as well. You can clearly see a difference when you fight with no gloves and when you fight with gloves. With the gloves you can protect yourself a way different then with none.

This is a general issue that I notice, when you do with gloves for boxing, you train for the boxing rules. Yes you learn distance like in no other combat so far, but the gloves are not there on the streets. The whole dynamic changes. A moving opponent that also try to "touch" you is something many other fighting sports don't teach that well.
It's a very effective way of sparring because you learn your guard and distance and can't relay on gloves. Also shows that some of those gapping techniques hard to do.

Have any of you guys read the book that former world heavy weight champion Jack Dempsey wrote, entitled: Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense?

If so, what did you think of it? The reviews I have read state that it's excellent.

Something to add on the journey to become the ultimate fighter

In my gym there is now a kickboxing group, we had one before but the guy was always a show of. The new trainer is descend and good. From stamina I can keep up, from strength also. There a lot of younger people, around 20 there.
The last year it was just my friend and me that did boxing and he learned from me. For him its good to see that is footwork, distance and hits work. With the kicks he still struggle. For me it was also the same, also see the distance how important sparring and distance is. A few of those kickboxing people are not very good at it, also when I rush in and land some blows they are not able to do anything. Since I do not have any problems on "the street" its nice to see how you can outwork some people with my skills.

Stamina, technique and most important a sense of distance gives you a great advantage. I'm glad to add some new skills - the kicks. Maybe I will join also the BJJ class we have in the gym.

Quote: (09-04-2018 02:00 PM)Poker Wrote:  

Have any of you guys read the book that former world heavy weight champion Jack Dempsey wrote, entitled: Championship Fighting: Explosive Punching and Aggressive Defense?

If so, what did you think of it? The reviews I have read state that it's excellent.

I have not read it before.

Quote: (10-12-2018 08:29 AM)Parzival Wrote:  

Something to add on the journey to become the ultimate fighter

In my gym there is now a kickboxing group, we had one before but the guy was always a show of. The new trainer is descend and good. From stamina I can keep up, from strength also. There a lot of younger people, around 20 there.
The last year it was just my friend and me that did boxing and he learned from me. For him its good to see that is footwork, distance and hits work. With the kicks he still struggle. For me it was also the same, also see the distance how important sparring and distance is. A few of those kickboxing people are not very good at it, also when I rush in and land some blows they are not able to do anything. Since I do not have any problems on "the street" its nice to see how you can outwork some people with my skills.

Stamina, technique and most important a sense of distance gives you a great advantage. I'm glad to add some new skills - the kicks. Maybe I will join also the BJJ class we have in the gym.

In BJJ, we have a saying, "Distance and Position." BJJ is mostly about distance and position. Some people like to interchange position with leverage.

In American Football it is known to coaches and other experts to be a "game of inches and yards."

You will find that in many aspects of combat, self defense, and sport fighting that everything hinges on these two factors. Stamina is great and whatnot, but you cannot outwork everyone or every threat. Always look to be in the right position to give yourself every opportunity to be successful.

Quote: (10-12-2018 08:29 AM)Parzival Wrote:  

Something to add on the journey to become the ultimate fighter

In my gym there is now a kickboxing group, we had one before but the guy was always a show of. The new trainer is descend and good. From stamina I can keep up, from strength also. There a lot of younger people, around 20 there.
The last year it was just my friend and me that did boxing and he learned from me. For him its good to see that is footwork, distance and hits work. With the kicks he still struggle. For me it was also the same, also see the distance how important sparring and distance is. A few of those kickboxing people are not very good at it, also when I rush in and land some blows they are not able to do anything. Since I do not have any problems on "the street" its nice to see how you can outwork some people with my skills.

Stamina, technique and most important a sense of distance gives you a great advantage. I'm glad to add some new skills - the kicks. Maybe I will join also the BJJ class we have in the gym.

If you're really interested in testing your boxing skills against kick boxers you really need to spar with people that are actually good at it.

It's an interesting dilemma trying to get past the defence of someone who knows how to use their legs and knees properly.

Like every sport, the vast majority are piss poor.

Yes, I notice that a lot of the people in the class are just beginners. Some guys and the trainer at a better level. So I will learn still a lot.
Was just interesting to see for me, after about 1 year only training with my friend, how this pays off to people at the basics. There is always someone better and I keep the focus up.

What I did add as well is a morning routine. First of all to preform better in the day and be fit. I do 3 rounds of push ups, pull ups and a kettlebell exercise. Not a lot, just enough to activate the body in the morning and then do a cold shower. Started to do the push ups on the fists, like they do in Karate. I notice how the knuckles harden up and even my left wrist get stronger, had always light issues with it.

I'm also glad to be in the kickbox class, because the legs are great weapons as well. After I reach a certain point there, have to pick up grappling. I lift weights now since 10 years regular, boxing since a few years and always joined other martial arts classes. The more I prepare for "the situation" the less it will ever happen. Because the personality grow and awareness let you avoid those problems of a fight in most cases. Had mention it a here before, the mental attitude is the biggest game changer.

Quote: (10-13-2018 05:33 AM)Parzival Wrote:  

Yes, I notice that a lot of the people in the class are just beginners. Some guys and the trainer at a better level. So I will learn still a lot.
Was just interesting to see for me, after about 1 year only training with my friend, how this pays off to people at the basics. There is always someone better and I keep the focus up.

What I did add as well is a morning routine. First of all to preform better in the day and be fit. I do 3 rounds of push ups, pull ups and a kettlebell exercise. Not a lot, just enough to activate the body in the morning and then do a cold shower. Started to do the push ups on the fists, like they do in Karate. I notice how the knuckles harden up and even my left wrist get stronger, had always light issues with it.

I'm also glad to be in the kickbox class, because the legs are great weapons as well. After I reach a certain point there, have to pick up grappling. I lift weights now since 10 years regular, boxing since a few years and always joined other martial arts classes. The more I prepare for "the situation" the less it will ever happen. Because the personality grow and awareness let you avoid those problems of a fight in most cases. Had mention it a here before, the mental attitude is the biggest game changer.

Smart man. Even in the years I could not lift weights in the gym or train even a heavy bag, I always did pushups on my fists and fingers daily. When I used to be in remote areas of China with no access to weights, this always kept me very strong. Of all the body weight exercises I think this is the best of them all.

We always had a steady diet of knuckle and wrist push-ups. You should "build up" to it because you can injure yourself, but these were the standard.






I still do them to this day.

Any tips there for a hurting leg? In one of the first seasons I hit the heavy back a way to strong, then the leg get swollen and at this one spot at the shin there is a bulge. Its now about 2 weeks ago and I try not to hit there any more. In normal life I don't feel it but I see the angle and the shin-bone are a little thicker. A slightly touch on this spot and it hurts like hell again. I can't kick full power any more.
Seems like I just have to be consequent and not use it for a few weeks till its fully gone. A pity because I did train on my heavy back a way before and could hit hard but as it seems not hard enough. At the end its good to see that you still can shape your body into a new direction in your mid 30s.

People will give you all sorts of woo woo answers when discussing shin conditioning and healing.

I think it's all bollocks tbh.

Rest it up till you cant feel the pain any more...it will take a while though...those deep bruises are, well, very deep.

I'm looking for some high-quality videos showcasing people rolling in Brazilian jiu jitsu. Something for beginners that explains what techniques the people are using.

I've seen Pure Rolling and it's good, but am looking for something more for beginners that explains what's happening. I can't find anything good on YouTube.

Any suggestions? Thanks.
(Obviously, I'm a beginner in BJJ.)