From: terry@cs.UAlberta.CA (Terry Baxter)
Subject: Re: Choosing a martial art - effectiveness?
Organization: University of Alberta
Date: Wed, 15 Apr 1992 01:28:20 GMT

In article <1992Apr13.081815.3496@lut.ac.uk> M.Lawrie@lut.ac.uk (Michael Lawrie) writes:
>In article <31037@skye.dcs.ed.ac.uk> tk@dcs.ed.ac.uk (Tommy Kelly) writes:
>>opinion - but for me, self-defence is number one.
>>
>>I AM interested in mental discipline - but I don't require that from martial
>>art training.
>>
>>I AM interested in physical fitness - but again, if a particular martial art
>>doesnt provide that (and instead demands supplementary fitness work) thats fine.
>>
>>I am NOT interested in meditation, zen, pseudo- (or actual-) religious
>>philosophies.  
>>
>>I want to learn an effective method of unarmed self-defence - period.
>>
>>
>>KARATE - has a heavy weight of tradition behind it.  I enjoyed it.
>>
>>TAE-KWON-DO - seems to have the benefit of drawing from karate's tradition,
>>
>>Jiu-jitsu - Is more felxible that karate and TKD, but classes in my
>>
>>Jeet-kung-do - This, in my poor opinion, seems the ideal choice.  It seems
>
>I have to admit, I know nothing at all about Jeet-kung-do and not a lot
>about TKD, so bear in mind that this is pretty biased... I did a bit of
>Jiu Jitsu, but eventually gave up - I missed about a month of lessons and
>when I got back I got beaten to a pulp about 10 times over, literally, I
>was just out of it - Bear this in mind, if you are going to miss lessons
>you are going to get hurt - You are going to get hurt in JJ anyway, it seems
>the best way to teach you to hurt someone effectively is to learn how it
>feels ;-)
>
>The gradings in JJ are hellish, I did a lot of research on psychological
>torture techniques and this still rates pretty highly ;-) Oh, did I mention
>it hurt?
>
>Make sure your club is a Samuri JJ one, the others have a habit of killing
>folks, there is competition but it hurts ;-)
>
>From a self defence point of view, JJ is pretty good, my gf. is a karate
>dan and when we have wee fights, unless she wants to beat my brains out
>she normally ends up in a wristlock and then resorts to threats (mind you,
>they work ;-) - I must say I wish I'd never taught her thumblocks! Did I
>mention, they hurt?
>
>Self defence, it's good, it is good for restraint but putting a little more
>pressure on a lock, or applying an atemi will finish the opponent off should
>you want to, since most locks will take a joint out if you apply just slightly
>too much pressure, be careful not to partner with anyone who looks like they
>bend trees for a living. Even at novice you'll be taught defence against hits,
>bottles, knives etc, though I tend to think it could make people slightly
>over confident.
>
>Fitness, you don't need to be that fit, it's a nice MA in that it's not very
>strenuous at all, unless you want it to be!
>
>Philosophys... Um, what's philosophy?
>"Since he's down on the ground anyway, you may as well break his arm because
> it's fun"
>"Look, you have this guy here now, in a lock, there's 4 of his mates about to
> run for you - You can either put the one you have out of action and get into
> stance for his mates or better, torture the one you have in front of them
> and watch them run away!"
>Jiu Jitsu does have it's amusing side... 
>
>Mental discipline, nope, not really. I suspect that a lot of the dan training
>is heavily psychologically based "how to freak out your opponents" and all
>that, but you won't touch that for years... Oh yea, you get taught to ignore
>pain at higher grades, you need it!
>
>There you go, and who said I was biased - JJ is something yuo can't take up
>half heartedly, I want to start again but I just haven't the time at the
>moment - If you can take the fact that it's practically impossible to have
>competitions in, then go for it!
>
>Michael.
>
>PS, Did I mention, it hurts?

In reply to Ju-jitsu hurting , Yes it hurts most effectively when you
do apply pressure correctly to different pressure points on the body,
otherwise pressure applied incorrectly (not right on the pressure point)
can just be annoying.  The whole idea behind learning JJ is to ultimately
acquire ki.  The knowledge also of how to combat without weapons is also
of course supplemented by the fact that JJ also uses weapons..ouch!! and
can they ever hurt.  Mental discipline.. at our dogo every class, caught
not exercising discipline usually costs quite a few pushups.  As far as
being taught to ignore pain actually starts (at least in our dojo) quite
early.  All in all though regardless of the "be prepared to die" workouts
and the endless "please believe me your doing it right it hurts!!" I 
wouldnt do it any other way.

Dory Baxter
Eu-Anna 

not t
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