do u know martial arts or have training in boxing

^great post

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otm

I did a lot of tae kwon do and karate from when I was very young up through early teens. It was all through a guy who had been in Mexican gangs as a teenager, and wore an eye patch and knife scars on his face to prove it. He was fantastic, really a great teacher & mentor. His daughter also helped run the school and did some local kickboxing fights.

Later on they started teaching Muay Thai there, which felt much more applicable in terms of self-defense, all elbows and knees (he also taught some actual serious self-defense, things that you would never do in a formal martial art).

No one believes me about this because I don't get into fights and they've never seen me do any of it, but because I did so much of it so young, I really feel like the muscle memory is still there and would be there if I needed it, idk.

I've taken a bunch of self-defense classes over the years and like three sessions of muay thai bc a friend of mine was really into it (she switched to BJJ after she got tired of being punched in the face, as she put it). Probably wouldn't do me any good bc I'm just not fast enough plus I'm afraid of my glasses getting broken. I fake-sparred w my bf once when we started dating and he accidentally slapped me in the face, that's how bad I am at getting out of the way lol

I could throw an elbow if someone approached me very slowly?

didn't see this poll. I am a boxer

I do the training at a local church hall and it was originally setup to introduce kids to boxing, so there are mixed ages on site when the classes are run. cue much laughing by the 10-14 yo kids when you do 100 burpees and you're totally gassed when they could go for another 900 more. wee fuds

it's some workout though. even if you just introduced the skipping element from boxing training, you'd get shredded in no time

For real!

in the 90s I did boxing training in a class w/ Terry Southerland, it was a ton of fun and I think he thought maybe he saw something in me and invited me to come on a Saturday afternoon and spar w/ some young fighters he was training.

I played ice hockey as a kid and I always thought that had to be the most exhausting sport—skating, getting knocked around, having to wear all that gear while pushing a puck around. But after just two rounds in the ring that day I realized it doesn't hold a candle to boxing—especially if you are afraid of getting hit, which affects your breathing (obv.) and muscle oxygenation. I couldn't understand at the time why I was so wiped out, except that this guy hit me one time very hard in the head and I very much didn't want that to happen again.

It's still my preferred or least-boring workout though, I have a heavy bag at home and I skip rope and do some agility stuff. I have this thing, it's a red ball on elastic abt two feet long, you strap it onto your head and hit combinations as it keeps bouncing back. I look like a complete fucking idiot doing it but it's a lot of fun

Oh jesus yes, the muay thai gym warm-up involved 5 mins of skipping rope and I cramped after like 2.

If well and safely coached, almost all martial arts and combat sports are fantastic fitness activities because they engage the whole body and develop the brain and nervous system in ways that transfer well to managing stress in daily life.

I have beef with The Karate Kid (1984) because it helped entrench the idea in the USA that martial arts are for children. Prior to that, most martial arts students I knew were adults; since then taekwondo, karate, etc. have joined soccer and piano lessons as approved forms of after-school childcare, with economics and pedagogy adapted to that market.

Kids can be taught well, but imo martial arts training is really more beneficial for adults. In appropriate settings, people of any age and fitness level can start safely and make progress as long as they want. YouTube is full of fantastic videos of Okinawans and Chinese in their 70s and 80s teaching and training people of all ages. This is normal in cultures with deep martial arts traditions.

To anyone thinking about beginning, I'd recommend setting aside preconceptions about different styles and concentrating on finding a decent teacher. There are a lot of creeps, con men, and abusers out there, but there are also a lot of gentle, trustworthy people, many of whom teach for free or for just enough to cover their rent. Ignore marketing claims about rank, lineage, lethality, and speed of learning. Sit through a class and watch how the teacher interacts with students. Repeat until you find a teacher and group you like.

I took Kung Fu classes for a few months when I was 14 or something. It's amazing how much of it has stayed with me both in terms of body memory for the moves and general fitness practice.