Martial Arts Thread for SRBrant

[Masato]

Hey all

SRBrant is a wonderful new addition to the community, but has admitted he's not really entered the martial arts universe.

I thought we could create a thread to give a first-class introduction to the history of why we have all found some kind of love for it.

SRBrant, are you familiar with anything? Were you ever a boxing fan? Bruce Lee? Jackie Chan?

Do you know about the Gracie family? (if your answer is no, this is where I would start posting content)

Tell us if you're interested and where we can start the tales.

I am quite convinced that a degree of harnessing this energy will play an important role in any sort of revolutionary shift. Not the fighting or violence per se, but the almost invisible magic that sometimes occurs when the gods favor a fight at a certain time and place. It may sound strange to say but in my life, even though I am almost thoroughly pacifistic, some fights rank among some of the most beautiful things Ive ever seen.

[SRBrant]

I am honored by this attention, I admit.

Pro wrestling is the only martial art I've ever taken a real interest in (which was lost when I turned 11), so no.

But it would be a great project to develop a martial art meant for protesters.

[Som-Pong]

[Luigi]

I got a bit carried away with this post and it turned out kinda long so I put it in spoiler tags.

Spoiler:

Growing up I watched martial arts movies, JCVD was great, anything with ninjas was great, Jackie Chan's crazy choreography was awesome. I got into Pro Wrestling through the kids who lived on my street and got really into it. One of my friends was the son of an olympic alternate wrestler, and so knew both pro wrestling and free style wrestling. We would have real wrestling matches in his basement but we would always just try to hit the pro wrestling finishing moves, we didnt care about the pin.

In high school his dad was the coach of the wrestling team so I joined. I loved wrestling but I never thought of it as a martial art back then. Unless there was dojos, high kicks and kata it didnt qualify back then. I later joined a boxing gym and it was the same mentality, it was just fighting.

in the early 2000s the coolest site on the internet was Ebaumsworld. It was the predecessor of youtube, but it had less rules and was less refined. There was tons of illegal footage of Pride fights and I remember the first one I saw was Wanderlei Silva soccer kicking some helpless dude into oblivion lol It was so shocking, I had never seen anything like it. I was a fan, but I wasnt a hardcore fan. I assumed it was a fad that would only exist in Japan and would never grow to the level of other sports. That changed when one saturday night my friend invited some of us over to watch a UFC event. It was Ken Shamrock vs Tito Ortiz, and it changed my perception of MMA. There were promos, interviews, an all American audience, but what was the most striking was Joe Rogan's commentary on the ground game. Side control, guard, half guard, etc. It made it clear that this was a systematic art, and not just some dudes rolling around trying to smash each others face, and it made me want to understand it. At this point I realized it was actually a legit sport and not a wacky sideshow. I remember Tito smashed Ken with ease and my buddy who was a huge Tito fan was stoked.

So then I got into MMA and started reading some MMA forums. The first one I went to doesnt exist anymore, I remember the logo was two red lions and they would post illegal recordings of all the events, which is probably why they dont exist anymore lol From there I saw the other subforums for different styles; boxing subforum, grappling subforum, Muay Thai, Kickboxing, Karate, etc. I was interested in them all, and each was a whole new world before me. I wanted to know who was the best at every art. I remember the big match in boxing at the time was Lennox Lewis vs Vitali Klitchko. That fight was so intense and despite the cut stoppage it was awesome and really got me into boxing. For kickboxing it was Peter Aerts and Ernesto Hoost. They were both so skilled and always had amazing fights. Anyways, thats pretty much my experience with martial arts.

[Edge Guerrero]

- A couple of months ago i watched all the american ninja movies.(Al four, there's isn't a 5 one).
And the fact that the actor that plays Joe Armstrong(Michael Dudikof) only started training martial a couple of months(or week's) before they started filming, and his evolution in the fight scenes made my desire to traine martial arts born again.
Why?
I don't have a facebook, but i got to look at his facebook, and he only started to train when he was 30, and looks like he really loves them.

We all have diferent's paths in life, not everyone is meant to fight on stadiums, or trade punchs in a cage.
But you will find several cool people in your martial art journey, lawyers, former athletes, fathers, actual fighters, firemans.

And like Warrior said, one day a man's heart is gonna beat his final beat someday.
Every animal fights or play fight, is fun, forget the adult world for a moment, forget all the business, go to a more simple world were you can thrown, punch and kick without having to worry about being sued.

[Masato]

Good place to start guys

Thanks for your testimony Luigi.

Love for Martial Arts most often is sparked in the imagination. I always loved Jackie Chan/Chinese Kung Fu flicks... BloodSport etc.

I heard about UFC 1 just after it happened, was invited to watch UFC 2 which blew my mind (my friend told be about Shamrock, I pictured some kind of Irishman with pikey boxing lol).

My interest went down when the fights started sucking (lots of boring stalemates), then I got psyched again when Vitor started wrecking all the bums and raised the bar for athleticism/skill.

Lots interest again and then I discovered PRIDE FC. Watched Saku's run on the Gracies and I was absolutely hooked for life. Started training no-gi grappling as soon as I could.

[Masato]

Here is where I think any understanding of it should come from:

GRACIE JIU JITSU

Basically, before the Gracies, martial arts was scattered all over the world in different styles, and those styles were all locked into their own paradigms.

Concepts of style-vs-style were only seen in the movies.

The Gracies were the FIRST to seriously start challenging this problem. They put ads in Martial arts magazines for anyone to come and challenge them to a real fight anytime, and they filmed the challenges. No one could beat them.

These videos are GOLD, and imo absolute precious historical treasures:

[Masato]

When you've seen those ^^, watch these:

RICKSON Gracie and ROYCE Gracie

The UFC was started by the Gracies in a promotion to prove their system.

SO badass



*I am still hunting for a good 'Ultimate Royce Gracie' link (was a great documentary)

Then we'll move to Sakuraba :D

[Diet Butcher]

I am honored by this attention, I admit.

Pro wrestling is the only martial art I've ever taken a real interest in (which was lost when I turned 11), so no.

But it would be a great project to develop a martial art meant for protesters.

A martial art designed for protesters would be tricky indeed. Any kind of retaliation would surely result in a bullet to the head, or at least a rubber bullet or tazer.

here's how those kids in HK last year geared up to protect themselves against pepper spray, tear gas and batons :lol:

[SRBrant]

I am honored by this attention, I admit.

Pro wrestling is the only martial art I've ever taken a real interest in (which was lost when I turned 11), so no.

But it would be a great project to develop a martial art meant for protesters.

A martial art designed for protesters would be tricky indeed. Any kind of retaliation would surely result in a bullet to the head, or at least a rubber bullet or tazer.

here's how those kids in HK last year geared up to protect themselves against pepper spray, tear gas and batons :lol:

Functional, but not the most aesthetically pleasing. You have to have a nice-looking panoply if you're going to go that route. After all, it proves that you're a part of something far greater and not just a bunch of agitated rabble. It has to show that you are dedicated and not some acid-dropping hipster who likes to yell.