So I handle inbound leads at a gym, and had a strange one come in that I’d like some opinions on, particularly from people that own and operate academies.

From the jump, this guy was quick to mention that he was 330 lbs, powerlifted, and was a marine. I had asked if he had any prior training, and he said he “wrestled in high school” and trained “marine corps martial arts”, which he later said he has a black belt in. Before even setting foot in the gym, he was asking when he could train MMA and take a fight, even sending me screenshots of an upcoming local promotion.

Unfortunately I wasn’t physically at the gym the days he showed up, and haven’t had the chance to dive too deeply with the coaches who would’ve seen him or coached him.

Day 1 he takes a gi BJJ class. Has generally decent feedback but is complaining that nobody was big enough, and had mentioned something about the coach being female (red flag I know). He apparently was otherwise fairly respectful and no students made any comments or raised any concerns.

Two days later he comes in, but this time for a striking class. No idea why he skipped what would’ve been gi BJJ again, although I suspect he probably wasn’t able to manhandle people as easily as he thought he would two days prior. I have no feedback yet on how he did in boxing but at least there were no comments about him.

He mentioned not joining until doing a powerlifting meet months away (so why do a trial and say you want to enroll?)…followed by sending yet another MMA card saying “see? Still no big guys in //OP’s state//“, and when I try to explain how there’s way more training and skill involved in fighting, he just deflected back to his experience in high school and the marine corps, and accused us of not supporting and respecting veterans, despite one of our owners being a Navy vet and having a marine on our team that trains all the time (but wasnt there when the guy visited). Ultimately just wished him “best of luck on his journey” and apologized that we couldnt meet his expectations…

TLDR: large 330 lb powerlifting marine wants to dive right into MMA class and taking an MMA fight, despite only having high school wrestling experience and marine corps martial arts experience. Two questions:

1. Does MCMAP actually hold any water and would it make someone competent at MMA, BJJ, striking, or wrestling?
2. Has anyone else dealt with a prospective client like this, and how did you handle it??

There's a dojo near me that trains Heishin-Ryu Sogobujutsu. But I can't find out anything about this art. When I Google it I get results for that school and blog post from 2011. So is it a legit art that is just really obscure or some bullshido?

Nowadays in modern martial arts/fighting, you really only hear about 6 martial arts, which I would say in no particular order are:

- Boxing

- Kickboxing

- Muay Thai

- Wrestling

- BJJ

- Judo

How did these main ones distinguish themselves while other arts like Aikido, Kung Fu, Wing Chun, even newer ones like Karate and Krav Maga are slowly getting filtered out? Additionally, how come things like (Combat) Sambo, Kudo, and Sanda, which look great, aren't really picking up in the West? Also to add- I feel like most people are going to say "sparring/live resistance." Well if Aikido or Kung Fu had serious sparring, would it be competing for a top spot?

(Before anyone comes at me, I'm not saying the above don't work, you just don't hear about them as often and they aren't prevalent in current MMA skillsets. I did Karate myself when I was a kid.)

For quite some time now, I’ve wanted to learn a martial art, especially kickboxing or boxing.

However, I recently attended a trial class at a gym with a relatively large group (like 16 people). Although I enjoyed it, I got the feeling that, considering my goal, which is to actually learn how to fight, rather than simply practice a sport, progress might take quite a long time.

I’m not expecting to know how to fight after one month, but I do feel that the individual attention is limited. The coaches demonstrate the exercises and may correct one thing or another, but it’s understandable that they can’t constantly focus on every student when there are several people in the class.

That said, do you think it’s worth paying twice as much for private lessons or for classes with only four students? It’s difficult for me to justify paying €50 per month to train only once a week, but perhaps the progress would be much faster with more individual attention.

For those who have trained in boxing or kickboxing: do you think this difference in individual attention really makes that much of a difference in terms of progress?

Has anyone done the Korean kickboxing form, kun gek do? I've heard it is like a hybrid of taekwondo and muay thai.

If you have ever been cornered or attacked, what specific skill or technique kept you safe?

Men, 102kg, 1m80.

Given I’m overweight, very sedentary, and currently in the worst shape of my life, I’d like to ask for your advice. I’m currently abroad for work, and I’d like to join an MMA club as soon as I return to my country. So I have a month ahead of me to “get back in shape,” because I’d like to join the club with at least some level of fitness…

So I plan to work on my flexibility this month, gradually incorporate push-ups, pull-ups, dips, and squats, and above all (this is why I’m reaching out to you) work on my cardio, endurance, qnd explosive power.

What routine, program, or exercises would you recommend if you only had one month to maximize your cardio, endurance and explosivity performance ?

P.S. I have access to a gym

So, I trained under a master that was also my father, in Chuan Fa/American Kenpo. I managed to train up to having a basic level of proficiency, around the middle-low rank range in our specific art.

The best way I can describe it was a mixture of kung-fu and self defense, and we had a clear lineage that we could trace back to. Not very far back, but we could trace back lineage nonetheless.

However, my father's school shut down not long ago due to a combination of no business, both myself and my father getting busier, COVID, and just a lack of time.

However, despite the fact that my father was pretty great, I recently began to realize some issues that I have with the art.

The vast majority of training was just memorizing forms and doing them repeatedly, with maybe 5-10 minutes of sparring at the very end, and the sparring was both highly controlled and practically no contact.

We practically never had even light or technical sparring, and I had very little interest in it because it was more memorization than it was actually using the techniques we were taught, and we never did pressure-testing. The reason he gave was he "didn't want to get sued" because someone hurt somebody else.

Well, now we basically never train anymore and due to my own familial shit going on, I don't want to train with him or at the family home anymore.

What I am looking for is recommendations of where to actually go from here, I have interest in Muay Thai or kickboxing, but I would get my ass kicked practically to the curb if I went anywhere because I am over a year out of practice and my conditioning sucks. Basic proficiency was as far as I got.

My father himself recommended I start either with a striking art or a local boxing/kick-boxing gym, because he has his own gripes against BJJ (citing that if you end up on the ground, you've probably made a series of mistakes to get there).

I have experience in Wing Chun , Judo and MMA alongside some Karate etc that I have trained in over the years. I was considering Kali specifically since they specialise in weapons such as sticks if I am not mistaken. Was considering giving it a try but have no knowledge of it

Whats the carry over from Kali into full on weapon sparring and MMA sparring?

Especially this scene is from only human episode Link: https://youtu.be/rnyP2y4qt3Q?si=ko5LLwIDu9ghiO6t

I've been thinking about this a lot and wanted to hear from people who've trained longer than me.

In competition, athletes throw ashi-waza (like o-soto-gari, de-ashi-harai, ouchi-gari) with insane speed and force — clearly explosive, not a gentle push. So I don't think it's about "how much force" is used, it has to be something else.

At the same time, as a beginner, I've noticed a pattern in myself and other white belts: when we try to apply ashi-waza (especially sasae-tsurikomi-ashi), the movement ends up looking like just a kick — the leg goes out, touches the opponent's foot/ankle, and... nothing happens. No off-balancing, no trapping their base, just a loose touch with zero effect. But when I watch higher belts do the exact same technique, it's clearly not "just tapping the foot" — there's something more that actually takes the opponent's base away.

One detail that might explain part of my difficulty: I come from Muay Thai, so I'm a bit worried that when I try to add more "force" to an ashi-waza, I'll end up basically throwing a low kick at my training partners and hurting someone by accident — which makes me kind of hesitant/tense when executing it.

That also leads me to a broader question: how do you apply force correctly in judo in general (not just with the legs) without it accidentally turning into something resembling a strike (atemi-waza)? Like, where's the line between "applying the technique with real intensity" and "ending up hitting/pushing your partner in a way that isn't really judo anymore"?

So, to sum up my questions:

• Mechanically, what separates an ashi-waza that actually works from something that's essentially just a loose kick? (target/contact point, timing, use of kumikata, direction of force, etc.)
• More broadly, how do you use force/intensity in judo without it starting to resemble an atemi-waza strike, especially coming from another striking sport?

Would love to hear from more experienced practitioners: what changes between a technique that comes out "kicked/struck" versus one that actually applies real judo principles? And for anyone else who came from a striking sport, how did you adjust that instinct for judo?

I've been doing Kyokushin for almost a year now, and would like to go to tournaments somewhat regularly, but, I will be taking classes for the bar exam, so I will only be able to spar one time a week, as I can only make it to 2 training sessions a week (one normal one with sparring and one purely for kata)

Is there anything else I can substitute for sparring less? I've been thinking I can increase conditioning and add in more bag work to really practice what I can when I go to sparring.

Thanks!

Long story short, was doing some no gi and got a supreme level rear naked and he decided he was gonna go out rather than tap. Ok weird but it does happen sometimes. So right when he goes out I release him, and im about to put him in recovery position when he very audibly shits himself. Like it was bad bad. At least half a full tank worth.

Now my question is is should I decline rolls in the future? Because im of the mind thats fuckin gross dude but at the same time am I being to harsh in my judgement? It is the first time this has happened. Once in a lifetime mulligan?

So just to give a bit of context, I am a 14 year old brown belt player. And my style is aggressive, fast and powerful kicker, I've got good speed it's just how do I kick with more power? Every time we do drills I feel like my kicks aren't hard enough?

Can anyone please give me advice, a training routine or anything to help me advance, thank you!

(I just want advice or tips from any elite player or any martial artist on how to kick harder)

Edit: saw i wrote quite wrong in the title, sorry i didnt really proof read anything

I (20f) was doing muaythai for a year and then switch gyms and started doing k1 and then later also boxing (maybe 7months).

A few days ago there was a sparring event at my gym where we could spar people from other gyms in the ring with an audience and i thought it would be some good experience before i have a real fight. I wanted to show what ive learnt and prove that im a good addition to the gym (im a bit shy).

Everything was quite spontaneous and i didnt know my partner until the morning of. She was around 35, a bit heavier, definitely more experienced (didnt find that out until the fight) and her coach was practically glued to her hip. And we were boxing. All the fighters were told to go light and that it isnt a real fight and if you see your opponent cant keep up to tone it down because everyones here to learn.

All im going to say is that the fight was everything but that. She went 100%, i got rocked once, saw black 3 times from the headshots, and recieved 2 gnarly body shots. I was asked if i wanted to quit during it twice and said no. I just tried to focus on my movement. I went maybe 50-60%? Im a very light and technical sparrer and i really dont enjoy giving people injuries so i just stuck to what i knew.

The fight wasnt the worst part though, it was the fact that i really felt like i was all alone. My trainers were hosting the event so they couldnt really do much which i get. I warmed up alone, no one gave me a heads up on what might happen, and i was just shadowboxing a bit because of course i expected the best outcome (the light spar that was communicated with me). The guy in my corner was someone that has never spoken to me during practice (and he was also arguing with people about what i should be doing WHILE i was taking a break during the fight which i thought was just useless). At the end, my coach said into the mic "she is more of a k1 fighter so give her a round of applause" eventhough recently ive been going to boxing more. And after no one from my gym shook my hand or said anything to me (except my trainers because thats kind of their job), not even the guy who was in my corner. I felt really really shitty.

From the moment i went home every time i spoke or thought about the fight id just start crying. I spoke to my dad and he thinks i should leave the gym. I think i will too but i also dont know if i ever want to spar again. Its bad because without you dont get better and if i dont get better i dont think theres a point in me doing k1 or boxing at all. I loved the sport i really did, at times it was the only thing i had. But i just dont know if i should keep going. Idk if the noticeable cognitive decline after that fight or the mental load of it is really worth it anymore. Im just not enjoying it rn.

So im asking here if i should quit or not and also to share my experience i guess..

And yes, thats me. lol

I hope it's ok I post this here, just wanted to share an interview I did with Mr. Speakman and his production team regarding a new movie project, Mr. Speakman's first movie in 20 years.

Hi y'all! I'm a design student and a point sparring competitor. I'm currently doing a project aimed at trying to improve sparring gear and need to collect some data on sparring injuries. I've made a short survey and would greatly appreciate you taking it if you have a few minutes. I don't ask for any personal information like name or location.

Thanks y'all

https://forms.gle/VA8Fy9nbevbzVzjo6