I’ve just joined the forum, my Martial Arts background goes like this:
When I was 5 I started Shorinji Kempo, meaning ‘The Way of the Shaolin Temple First’. It’s a Japanese Martial Art with many Japanese techniques from Aikido and Karate built on a Kung Fu framework.
I studied this Art for 10 years, right up until I was 15. However I only went to training once a week, and I was never completely consistent. I’m 18 now and have regained my interest in Martial Arts. I’m looking to get back into Shorinji Kempo again and achieve my goal of reaching black belt, at least. Although with 10 years experience, you could say I’ve been doing it a lot longer than many black belts.
The thing which troubles me the most though, is that I seem to have forgotten a lot, and I’m nowhere near as flexible as I used to be. I just hope it will come back to me.
I once went to a training session of Shotokan Karate, can’t say I agreed with its combat philosophy though. It’s very ‘square’ compared to Shorinji Kempo.
Hello, welcome to Bullshido. I notice you’ve expressed an interest in the london throwdown so I may see you there. If you read around the site you’ll see that for the most part people here value certain kinds of martial arts training over others. As a rule of thumb, arts that include a large element of training against fully resisting opponents at full, or close to full, power are seen as far superior to those that don’t. That is, if you believe martial arts training should prepare you for actual fighting. Of course there are other reasons for doing an activity and there’s nothing wrong with that.
If you do wish to learn how to fight and you’re interested in striking over grappling then I would advise you to try out some Muay Thai classes. This art is well respected on this site as its focus is on realistic, practical techniques, which are trained and pressure tested, not to mention that its classes are in part designed to produce ring fighters and the conditioning and cardio aspects are tailored accordingly.
Of course, no one can be a complete fighter without some kind of ‘ground game’ so it can also be a good idea to crosstrain in something like Judo or BJJ.
Good to see you trying to get back in training. I always thought that if someone trained since 5 years old, they would be amazing. But I am not sure how you lost your flexibility, your still a kid.
Welcome back to the wide, wonderful world of punching people until they fall down, and the forums too.
If you lived in Loughborough instead of London I’d recommend trying out Enshin karate, which is based around the concept of circular movements coupled with sweeps and throws which is also in other forms of karate, such as Goju-ryu and Shorin-ryu, but was founded by a black belt judoka which switched to Kyokushin, is thusly based off techniques from both those styles, and follows a similar training methodology. After all, one cannot truly learn how to use their techniques against a competent, resisting opponent without using them against a competent, resisting opponent.
However, seeing as though that probably isn’t an option, I wish you luck on finding a good, hard training dojo that spars. Sparring is important; Do not duck the kumite.
Personally, I plan on attaining a black belt in Shorinji Kempo as a goal. It’s like a trophy which I feel the need to attain. After that I plan on carrying on with it less intensively, but will also try out things like Muay Thai and MMA to become a more ‘complete’ fighter.
And I wish you luck on your goal; If there were a good dojo in Tucson(specifically, one that trained long, hard, and sparred) I’d be going for a black belt in Shorin-ryu, which was my first love.
If your Kemp gives you everything you want then good for you and I wish you all the luck in the world. Let me impart something I learned though if you don’t mind.
Don’t close your self off to the possibilities of other styles. I wish that the 5 years I spent in Kung Fu could have been better invested in BJJ. If you can get free trial classes at other gyms, give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose and you may find that you love something more than Kempo.
Thanks for the support. I’ll be starting training on the 5th of January, but I don’t think that will leave me enough time to prepare for the London Throwdown on the 6th of February.
In the same amount of time it would take you to finish your karate bb you could develop serious stand up pwnage skills training Muay Thai. I’d rather have the real skills than a “trophy” belt. Think about how you’re going to use your training time. At minimum go to a MT gym and see what’s going on. Good luck.
[quote=Kraik;2263228]I’ve just joined the forum, my Martial Arts background goes like this:
When I was 5 I started Shorinji Kempo, meaning ‘The Way of the Shaolin Temple First’. It’s a Japanese Martial Art with many Japanese techniques from Aikido and Karate built on a Kung Fu framework.
I studied this Art for 10 years, right up until I was 15. However I only went to training once a week, and I was never completely consistent. I’m 18 now and have regained my interest in Martial Arts. I’m looking to get back into Shorinji Kempo again and achieve my goal of reaching black belt, at least. Although with 10 years experience, you could say I’ve been doing it a lot longer than many black belts.
The thing which troubles me the most though, is that I seem to have forgotten a lot, and I’m nowhere near as flexible as I used to be. I just hope it will come back to me.
I once went to a training session of Shotokan Karate, can’t say I agreed with its combat philosophy though. It’s very ‘square’ compared to Shorinji Kempo.[/quote]
You’re officially a fucking idiot. I have spoken now go sit in the corner and think about it.
I feel that I have a reputation to defend. If I do attend a throwdown I will not do light sparring, since I generally don’t do well in under-committed fights.
When I do turn up, I will look to challenge someone to a full contact fight.
I don’t study Karate, my martial art is really quite different. I have a few contacts in the Muay Thai “industry” and I will look to spar with them as preparation. But I will not be doing any committed cross training until I have mastered my original martial art.
Care to explain yourself, oh Omega the Merciless?
Besides I thought trolling noobs wasn’t allowed. I have a few things to say about you myself.
I get to troll if I want child. I see you don’t read well didn’t I say go sit in the corner and think about it? Apparently you don’t know how to use your brain well.
Motives? You’re being an idiot. A dog would disobey blindly. I told you to think about it and you obviously missed why. Now you’re a douche. If you thought about it you wouldn’t have to be asking the question.
You’ve left me nothing to think about apart from a meaningless void. You have a problem with me Omega, I don’t even need to be a Jedi to sense that. Nor am I Spiderman using my spider senses. I am but an ordinary man.
But I’ll tell you what. I’ll be based in the USA for a year in 4 years time. I’ll then be in the USA again for another 2 years in 6 years time. So hopefully, I’ll meet you at a Throwdown in 4 years. Then this matter will be settled by the fist.
