How may martial artists are out there in the Rpg world?

[Synicism]

I like these threads a lot. I'd like to second the statement from before - it's great to see people talk about this stuff like mature adults.

Anyway, I started with Isshinryu karate when I was a kid. Sort of fell out of it around high school, when I picked up fencing (olympic style, modern fencing). When I got to high school, I started a variety of Tae Kwon Do called Chung Do Kwan (or something like that) - very direct, practical form. Very little spinning or jumping - more emphasis on simply dropping an attacker.

I hooked up with the SCA and started converting my sport fencing skills over to a more martially-oriented style. I know the SCA isn't "historical" swordplay by any stretch of the imagination, but I was fortunate enough to find groups from South Carolina to here in Chicago that emphasize doing things that work with real blades and in real situations, even if they might not work so well for the SCA's particular game.

Haven't hooked up with the Chicago Swordplay Guild yet, though they seem to have a pretty good thing going. Got a lot of good fighters, but as far as historical swordsmanship goes, I prefer the emphasis on swordsmanship over history.

Anyway, still taking Tae Kwon Do and picking up Hapkido as well - it adds some nice locks, breaks, and takedowns to TKD's repertoire of strikes and kicks.

 

[NoOneofConsequence]

I did (and will again) study Chow Gar kung fu and Buk Sing Choy Lay Fut kung fu.

The instructors who teach at my school learnt from two wild brothers from Hong Kong - people from NW USA may know them, the Laceys.

Anyway, my instructors learnt in a traditional school from guys who had to defend their claims as good fighters on the street in Macao. As far as these guys are concerned, kung fu was a street art. You trained hard and suffered in the gwoon (dojo) so that you could take the hits on the street.

Chow Gar and BSCLF emphasise speed, strength, endurance and effectiveness. Not many high kicks, not much grappling. They're kung fu forms that are very street effective. Some others may not be, but these ones are. Don't forget, when you talk about kung fu you're referring to over three hundred and fifty different styles of melee combat. There's a huge scope for difference in that range.

 

[Enforcer]

I studied Shotokan Karate for three years from age 13-16. I gave it up because my organization was soley profit-based (fee for testing, fee for tournaments, big ol' fee for class). Then, for two years I studied Shaolin Lohan Kung Fu here in St. Louis where I go to school. I dropped that because the school focused only on the forms--I had literally zero sparring in the time I was with that school. Yeah, I was learning some beautiful moves, but to me it's useless without learning the applications.

Tonight, I had my first Aikido class, and I positively loved it! Plus, it's really cheap ($35 for five classes!), so that's good. I think what really sold me on it, even though I've only had one class, is how easy it is even though I'm not very strong. And, work with partners the very first class! Yay!

 

[Spindel]

I did Karate (Shodin Ryu Kenshin Khan... don't know if you need all of that though) for about 5 years, but I didn't put in the out of class training, which ment I paid for it with pain for a day and a half after each class. I gave up because I could afford it (was a student). That was nearly 8 years ago (OMG). I've been considering taking it up again since I started working, yet inexplicably, I still can't afford it, or I'm too lazy, which is probably more accurate.

Hey firstborne, was that New Verangian (?!?) Guard. I did a bit of that for a while, but gave up when they wanted me to actually make my own suit of mail. Just way to fiddly for me.

 

[Morrus]

How may martial artists are out there in the Rpg world?

Now, if you reverse the question, I can attempt an answer:

Q: How many RPGers are martial artists?

A: All of 'em, I think...

 

[firstborne]

Since we seem to have at least one other swordsman here, I was curious as to how any of you learned how to fight; there aren't many formal schools for western martial arts, so I'm pretty much self-taught via lots of trial and error interspersed with a bit of manual study. My question is this: In this day and age, how prevelant are swordsman, amateur or not?

 

[Oni]

If your interested, here is a link to the thread from a little while ago. It's very interesting.

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=24905

 

[Tsyr]

Since we seem to have at least one other swordsman here, I was curious as to how any of you learned how to fight; there aren't many formal schools for western martial arts, so I'm pretty much self-taught via lots of trial and error interspersed with a bit of manual study. My question is this: In this day and age, how prevelant are swordsman, amateur or not?

Western sword instructors do exist, but it's a bit rare. The SCA actualy has a few, but what I would call true instructors are a bit on the rare side.

Eastern is a good deal easier to find... Several exist. Kendo is not exactly a combat martial art, mind you, it's more like sport fencing. Kenjitsu and a couple others are the more combat-oriented forms of Japanese sword fighting. Numerous schools exist that train in the chinese weapons, though I havn't had any formal instruction in those, just book learning, combining that with what I have learned from the SCA and elsewhere.

As for how rare swordsmen... I dunno, it kinda depends what you count as a swordsmen.

 

[Axeboy]

I've dabbled a bit with several of the so-called 'internal' Chinese arts: mostly Tai Chi ('standard form' and Yang, but not much), but also Pa Kua and Hsing-I. I have a little (very little) experience with Wing Chun and a Chinese form similar to Aikido (though the name escapes me right now). I'm certainly interested in any of these, as well as Aikido, but don't know much about my current area (East Texas: Nacogdoches/Lufkin) as we've just recently moved here. Books are OK, but they're really not a substitute for a good teacher...

As to the street utitlity of these styles, I dunno; I've never really used them in sparring or combat, but find them fun to learn (especially the 'Push Hands' from Tai Chi). There are, of course, the standard stories/anecdotes about the styles, but I've never actually witnessed anything that would attest to their utility, and (luckily) have never had to use the stuff myself--frankly, I'm not sure I'd even try (unless my life were at stake, of course).

I found the other thread (linked above) a bit interesting; I'm not quite sure you can call something combat unless there's death involved--anything short of that has to have rules, and so is really just a game: one style may dominate the game, but that's probably just an artifact of the rules.

 

[ancient_ones]

Hello!

Ok, that out of the way.....time to get to the point:

How many of you ENworlders study/was studying martial arts? What martial arts did you study? Did they help you in your life?

On a sidenote I practice Hung Gar kung fu.....which I find a very practical all-round kung fu style (more punches than kicks though)......

On a a another sidenote: Did you meet with the opinion that kung fu is generally impractical on the street? What do you think? (in my country - Poland - most people treat Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu as the best street style)

Wing Chun currently, I've been in and out of Martial arts for years. But most of those schools were garbage anyway. In the U.S we have the same issue with BJJ but eventually that art will water down and be come a mcdojo art also so I don't let it upset me. I find what I do very practical for the street. it all boils down to the instructor though.