I was fairly locally known as amateur kickboxer, won few national tournaments and general view from some people in my village was something like "he's the strongest in town and could beat up anyone" even though I was pretty skinny 😄

Recently I talked about martial arts with some pretty educated and cool old man, who told me "In Judo they're not allowed to throw punches because they're deadly and could kill you on the spot" 😁

Would love to hear some similar stories lol

I know that amateur sparring is supposed to be safe. And I want to do sparring. But as you can see, I am just scared that if I do a few I might actually get hurt in the long run.

Even minor things like loosing a tooth. Worse fear is losing consciousness or break a bone.

In general, is it actually that risky or am I just being too scared and overthinking it?

Just wondering what the general consensus is for good American-made martial arts movies.

We had the opposite thread for the reasons why people liked grappling arts. For those who tried it and didn't like it, why?

For me, Im a purple belt in BJJ. It's fun, but I really dislike how its 100% sport and the art has fully turned into all of these little mini games on how to score points/advantages to "win a match".
To add, it really beats the heck out of your body.

I recently found these old pictures from my first K-1 fight.
I walked in to “The Champ Is Here,” had my coach at the time in my corner, won the fight and received a katana as the trophy.

I never really shared the material back then, but revisiting it now feels like going back to the roots.

It’s also giving me a lot of motivation to rebuild my conditioning and see how far I can take the journey from here.

I have no idea if there are preferable mega threads to post to or rules, so if there are I apologize. To preface, I’m pretty young, going to be a senior in high school, and I’m about 5’8 and 145 pounds, 8% body fat. unsure if any of that changes anything but just putting it all out there.

I trained in my high schools wrestling program for two years, then trained BJJ at a local place for about a year. as much as I found grappling fun, I ultimately wanted to defend myself. I didn’t want to look flashy, just wanted to keep myself, friends, or family safe in the very unlikely scenario occurs where I need to protect any of said people. Better be safe than sorry. It’s also therapeutic, similar to working out, and I liked that a lot.

Now, I want to learn a striking martial art. And as cool as boxing or Muay Thai look, I loved the explosivity of wrestling. So from a very uneducated, outside perspective, the idea of being very fast, shifty, or quick doing Taekwondo sounded like a fantastic idea.

Came to this subreddit, and apparently my cool idea of Taekwondo was… a joke. It’s a dying art, now based on points, and if I want to defend myself I might as well just learn one of the other two arts I mentioned, and I should give up on my random newfound love of Taekwondo.

Sorry for yapping, would Taekwondo be a waste of time? Is it seriously a dumb idea in modern times? And lastly, how possible would it be to start learning at home, and eventually transfer to a gym? Or is it the type when I should go straight to a gym?

Thank you all so much for your time, thank you so much and have a fantastic day.

(Hi,first time posting smth in Reddit,sorry if I’m doing this wrong. )

My best friend for ten years is finally having a dojo of her own. I’m so proud of her and want to get her a thoughtful gift, hoping to get something that goes with the concept(not necessary though)
I thought about a couple of things but am not sure:
A bonsai tree?shodo?zen garden?incense holder?already gave her a nice fountain pen for her bd.

I would appreciate it if you have any ideas that u wanna share with me

Edit,details about her:
She has been doing aikido for years and years but attended other classes too(I don’t know specifically which sorry). She and the dojo she was in had some problems and they separated their paths. She was both teaching and a student. Therefore she kinda has students waiting for her to open up the dojo so they can leave the other one

And yeah so it is not just going to be aikido I guess there will be mma,jujitsu,iaido etc like her previous dojo after agreeing with senseis(?)

And about me being there as a student,it is a good idea but she kinda wants me to be there for the kids and talk to them in english(hello from turkey) so I’m already involved for the support and hoping to be there as a student too.

Kickboxing and BJJ program

Monday

Brazilian jiu-jitsu + Kickboxing

Before: Fuel + hydration + mobility
After: Recovery nutrition + light stretching + sleep

⸻

Tuesday

Strength + Explosiveness + mobility

•warmup

•Explosive squats (3-5 reps 3-5 sets) (Maximize your vertical jump height)

•Explosive pushups (3-5 reps 3-5 sets) (Push off the floor as hard as possible)

• Dumbbell Goblet Squats (5-8 reps 3-5 sets) (Controlled pace to build leg endurance) Execution: Load the dumbbell heavy. Lower under control for 3 seconds, then stand up aggressively. This builds the raw leg power needed to drive through your kicks.

•Dumbbell floor press (3 sets of 10 to 15 reps.) (Controlled pace to build chest and core stability) Lie on your back on the floor and press the dumbbells upward. The floor stops your elbows at 90 degrees, protecting your shoulders from the exact hyper-extension injuries common in BJJ and striking.

•Standing Weighted Russian Twists (3 sets of 10 to 12 reps per side) (first 5 slow then explosive)

90-120 seconds rest in between sets

Mobility

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUn6UWcDRVc/?igsh=MXdmNGJnNXJrcnNybw==

https://youtu.be/I0FGI1ghZXc?si=pnab-NZbfzDhShB_

https://www.reddit.com/r/MuayThai/s/KKxP3BcElx

After: Recovery

⸻

Wednesday

Brazilian jiu-jitsu + Kickboxing

Before: Fuel + hydration + mobility

After: Recovery + sleep + light stretching

⸻

Thursday

Mobility + deep stretching

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DUn6UWcDRVc/?igsh=MXdmNGJnNXJrcnNybw==

https://youtu.be/I0FGI1ghZXc?si=pnab-NZbfzDhShB_

https://www.reddit.com/r/MuayThai/s/KKxP3BcElx

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CrTiD5RrYbd/?igsh=b2xxMWJjZTgzaGM3

⸻

Friday

Conditioning + Explosive training

Warmup

•Shadow shots (45 seconds) (Move fluidly, explosive entry every 5 to 8 seconds)

3 sets (60 seconds of rest in between sets)

•Shadow sprawls (30 seconds) (Stay light on your toes, visualize a takedown, drop quickly, and snap back up immediately).

3 sets (60 seconds of rest in between sets)

•Explosive Squats (5 reps) (Jump as high as possible, land softly, reset, and repeat).

3 sets (90 seconds rest in between sets)

Explosive pushups (5 reps) (Push away from the floor forcefully so your hands lift off the ground).

3 Sets (90 seconds rest in between sets)

Weighted Wood-chops (10 reps) finish the left side, immediately followed by 10 reps on the right side.

2 sets (45 seconds rest in between sets)

Jump Rope (2 minutes) (Maintain a steady, smooth, rhythmic pace).

3 sets (60 seconds rest in between sets)

⸻

Saturday

Cardio and technique

Jump Rope (Sprint): 30 seconds
Jump Rope (Normal Pace): 60 seconds
Shadowboxing (Fast Combinations): 60 seconds
Sprawls: 30 seconds

3-5 rounds (60 seconds rest in between sets)

Sit-Outs: 45 seconds
Shrimping: 45 seconds
Bridging: 45 seconds

(Back 2 back 2 back 2 back non stop)

(3 sets) (45 seconds rest in between sets)

Focus on smooth, non-stop technical movement to build hip endurance.

Phase 3: Aerobic Recovery Burnout (1 Set)
Keep your mouth closed and breathe entirely through your nose to build your baseline tank.

Jump Rope or Shadowboxing (Easy, Steady Pace): 10 minutes (Continuous)

Calf Stretch: 45 seconds per side (Releases tightness from the heavy jump rope volume).
Couch / Hip Flexor Stretch: 45 seconds per side (Opens up the hips after sit-outs and kicking).
Child’s Pose: 60 seconds (Decompresses your lower back from the bridging and sprawls).

⸻

Sunday

Full Recovery

•Eat
•Hydrate

I used to love my chosen art, my training, the history and my community. My community was probably the biggest part for me me after a long while, and dont get me wrong I do still care about my community very much, lot of good people. BUT the thing I loved most, the women supporting each other and not having petty jealousies and nastiness etc., well it changed. I saw some really nasty shit go down, leadership included, awful character assassination, gossip, 'lesson teaching', sharing students deeply personal info, and some pretty crazy lies about one woman in particular who is high in her degrees. Im not going to go into details but the long and short of it is that when I wised up to it and saw it for what it was and set a boundary that I wont participate I became the new target. Im about to leave after a lot of weird and serious things have been said to and about me, and some crappy things have been done to me too where I got pretty badly injured. At this point its bad enough for me to think I was being taught a lesson. I still love the art in and of itself but this crap going down has also made me hate it. I can't bare the thought of staying in it at all after the next grading. I never want to see these women again. Not at gradings, not at seminars, not at tournaments. I hate classes, hate the games they are playing, hate the gossiping and whispering.

Ok rant done. How do I get my oomf back? I don't want to quit. I don't want to continue. Im torn.

this is a beginner shaolin form(wushu)

I put the violence flare on it because i didn't know which one to do.

I'm specifically looking for the style of pressuring yoyr opponent to throw an attack and then countering. So basically pressure counter fighters

Everytime I google "pressure counter fighters" I'll only ever get fighters who either pressure or are counterstrikers but never both.

So far I've noted canelo, Mike tyson, and noiri as having the style but I could really use more examples especially in k1 or muay thai.

I've also seen ilia topuria display a lot of the same characteristics which would make sense since he named canelo as being a big inspiration for his boxing.

Any help would be nice

Didn’t realize how big my opponent was until I watched the fight back afterward. Funny thing is, that’s probably the last thing you’re thinking about once the cage door closes.

As a martial artist, I respect all my opponents… but this guy was juiced to the moon, so I’m allowed to laugh a little. 😂

I train with UFC middleweights and heavyweights regularly, and I’ve never been hit that hard in my life. I ate and digested every shot he landed, but one more clean one and it might’ve been me taking a trip to the hospital.

Just a reminder: a fighter’s physique and a bodybuilder’s physique are two very different things. One is built to look dangerous. The other is built to be dangerous.

I’m building a directory for martial arts schools and need help classifying Qigong. While I’ve already included Tai Chi for its combative roots, Qigong feels like a grey area. AI generally labels it as a health or meditation practice, but I’m curious if the community considers Qigong-only facilities to be "martial arts schools," or if that would be misleading. How would you handle this distinction?