7 ms·

I boxed a lot from 11-14. It was what my group of friends did for fun -- boxed each other as well as trained in a professional setting under a coach. There was

I boxed a lot from 11-14. It was what my group of friends did for fun -- boxed each other as well as trained in a professional setting under a coach. There was this one kid in particular that was known to be a troublemaker. I was hanging with some friends and that troublemaker was there. The neighbor (a grown man) was hanging outside when the troublemaker started trash talking the guy for no reason. "Put the gloves on and box me, p*y!" After about 10 minutes of that, the guy agreed. Punched the kid a few times in the head. He was done. We walked down into town and the kid asked us how we got there. He had no recollection of us walking down the street. Scary stuff. From then on, he became even worse. Last I knew he was in jail. I'll never forget that. The headaches I got after sparring were eye openers and I quit. Jiu-Jitsu is much friendlier in regards to your brain, but probably worse for your spine, elbows, and knees... Have to train something, though. Nobody should be the gardener in a war.

matwood 3y ago
BJJ is really what you make of it. I'm older, so probably tap quicker than necessary when training but my ego was beat out of me a long time ago hah. I'm also not competing, and I'm selective with my training partners. It makes BJJ one of the safest sports I've done outside of finger injuries. Snowboarding, wakeboarding, basketball, and football all hurt me way more to the point I 'retired' from them /knocks on wood.
- whatamidoingyo 3y ago
  Oh yeah, for sure. I started training consistently at 24 (28 now), and used to train every single day, sometimes 2-3 times per day. My body was quickly worn down! Especially after entering a competition gym -- where the focus was live rolls only. Nowadays, I stick to technique based learning and lightly spar. Never competed, never will. So yeah, don't be stupid like me and BJJ will be kind to you. :)
- lawn 3y ago
  > It makes BJJ one of the safest sports I've done outside of finger injuries. As a developer I vastly prefer no-gi because gi grips totally wreck the fingers.
  - rsync 3y ago
    This is a good observation ... I am primarily a gi player but no-gi is much, much easier on every part of your body. When you have the gi it can be used as a handle, or a lever, and there can be very little slip ... but skin on skin slips and gives a lot and is much more forgiving.
    - lawn 3y ago
      Oh yeah, good call. It's so painful to have someone hanging down on you with their whole body weight. You can get so much leverage with the gi when done correctly...
    - thtmnisamnstr 3y ago
      I'd dispute that. No gi is not easier on the knees, ankles, or shoulders IMO. The slipperiness compared to gi comes with the downside of sudden slipping movements that put your knees and shoulders at higher risk of injury and dislocation. The increased focus on leg attacks also puts your knees and ankles at higher risk. Add to that the seeming slant towards more explosive movements in no gi, and the overall risk of injury should be higher than gi. You likely see more injuries in gi, because way more people train gi than no gi still. Note: I train gi and no gi and have been for almost 10 years. My biggest injury happened in the gi (broken hand), but I've had significantly more ankle and knee sprains and shoulder dislocations in no gi. Also, the morning after no gi feels like I got hit by a truck compared to the morning after gi.
  - matwood 3y ago
    For me, it's not gripping that kills my fingers, it's randomly getting them caught in material. Even a loose fitting rash guard on an opponent has caught my finger.
  - lolmisfortune 3y ago
    I do both judo and BJJ, and I've concluded that some people are just ungrippable lol. Ridiculously fast + painfully efficient at breaking grips and counterattacking. Especially the judo-only guys when standing. Once I know the other person is good at the gripfight in a certain position, I immediately let go and try to counterattack from another angle. It's the only reliable way I've found to save my fingers lol
ProjectArcturis 3y ago
I had a colleague who was an Air Force neurologist during the Vietnam era. His main job was to study pilots' EEGs to make sure they had a very low risk of epilepsy (because, of course, having a seizure in a fighter jet is very very bad). Well, back in those days, boxing was part of the training, even for pilots who would never see hand-to-hand combat. My colleague found that pilots who had their EEG scans after a boxing class were far more likely to show epileptiform brain activity.
- bee_rider 3y ago
  Since Air Force pilots are officers, they should have been given a more aristocratic marital art, like fencing. Saber fencing especially is pretty quick. Which is probably what they’d like—at least, I don’t think the Air Force would like to promote a mentality of taking a few hits and slugging through.
  - 082349872349872 3y ago
    Sabre (the wrong decision now beats the right one later) would be more air cav? I think the Air Force would prefer epée (full court press: first mistake loses).
  - analog31 3y ago
    Unfortunately the most aristocratic art has the most concussions -- horseback riding.
    - QuercusMax 3y ago
      At least those are generally accepted as a terrible accident, and not an expected and accepted part of the sport.
      - 082349872349872 3y ago
        Ian Millar (who represented Canada in the 10 Games of 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012) shows that unlike boxing and bull riding, most equestrian disciplines don't involve hoping to retire before the brain damage catches up with you. (also my understanding of the curve, based on our national level hospital statistics, is that a substantial fraction of the really bad wrecks happen to people with under 500 hours)
mikub 3y ago
"Nobody should be the gardener in a war. " But your Jiu-Jitsu won't help you much when bombs gonna fall on your head, so better keep a nice garden if you can. ;)
- bee_rider 3y ago
  Given what we’re seeing with drones nowadays, the martial arts with the most military applicability are probably hide and seek and hiding under the blanket.
- thaumasiotes 3y ago
  > Jiu-Jitsu Apropos of nothing much, where does that first I come from in "jiu-jitsu"? It's not present in the Japanese, but for some reason it appears in Portuguese even though the original vowel is a monophthong.
  - QuercusMax 3y ago
    Found this article that has some info: https://unm.wsrjj.org/spelling.pdf https://unm.wsrjj.org/spelling.pdf
    - adrian_b 3y ago
      That article has some mistakes in its details. For instance the first article about ju-jutsu and judo that was written by Jigoro Kano and translated into English by T. Lindsay in 1888, has used the spelling "Jiujutsu", i.e. neither "jujutsu" (as written in this article) nor "jiujitsu". In Japanese kana, in the 19th century, before the spelling reform that happened after WWII, the spelling was "jiyuu-jiyutu". The Japanese spelling might have suggested the writing of an "i" after "j" in the Latin transcription. In the corresponding Latin alphabet spelling "jiu-jitsu", the reason why a "u" has been preserved from "jiyuu" but no "u" has been preserved from "jiyutu", is likely to have been because the first "u" is long, so it is pronounced clearly, while the second u is short, which in modern Japanese is pronounced without rounding the lips, so it does not sound like a "u". It also does not sound like a "i", because it is a back vowel, but English or French do not have this vowel, so they can render it only as either "u" or "i", and it appears that the choice has been random, because all variants are encountered in the old publications.
takinola 3y ago
I'm just thinking of taking up a martial art. I was considering BJJ. My main goal is to build strength, fitness and general physical discipline. Any thoughts on which martial art would be ideal, with minimal likelihood of injuries (if such a thing is possible).
- tmtvl 3y ago
  As a kung fu guy, if you're looking for strength, fitness, and general physical discipline I'd recommend rock climbing. It's like wrestling with an even lower chance for injury.
- whatamidoingyo 3y ago
  Definitely BJJ. Just avoid mainly competition gyms, and you'll be fine. Look for a school that offers a fundamentals class (most gyms do, but... competition gyms lack in this regard). Muay Thai has also been okay. It's brutal when you first start (RIP your toes and shins), but the sparring at my current gym is very relaxed, nobody is trying to kill you. This is how most muay thai gyms should be (not saying they are).
- sieste 3y ago
  My experience with kickboxing has been extremely positive. I started at age 38 with no prior MA experience. In my gym there is more focus on general fitness, strength, flexibility and technique than on actual fighting. When we spar, it's always in full padding, and either points fighting or light contact continuous sparring. It's about tagging or outmanoeuvring the opponent, rather than hurting or defeating them. Except for a bruised rib I never had any injuries, training twice a week for over two years. I recommend finding a gym where you train with people in your age group. It's difficult training with a bunch of teenagers who recover quickly and don't care about bruises, when you're the only one aching the next day and having to drop off kids and see clients.
- ninininino 3y ago
  If your goal is to build strength, fitness, and physical discipline, but you want to avoid injuries, martial arts is in general a very bad choice. Sports injuries are extremely common even if you are trying your best to avoid them in the majority of martial arts (including grappling arts). Purely maximizing strength and fitness and minimizing injury would look like some form of resistance training combined with low-impact cardio like swimming or cycling. Martial arts with minimal injury would look like a boxing fitness class (as opposed to a boxing class) or something with slow motion sparring or no sparring. Not sexy at all, or particularly helpful in a fight, but safe.
_whiteCaps_ 3y ago
https://globalnews.ca/news/8597221/brain-injury-endemic-among-homeless-says-vancouver-researcher/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8597221/brain-injury-endemic-amon... > “It’s now known to be essentially the population with the highest known incidence of traumatic brain injury, even above when we consider athlete populations and other known populations like veterans,” said O’Connor, now a clinical neuropsychologist in the acquired brain injury program at Hamilton Health Sciences. There are a huge number of TBIs in the homeless population.
wolverine876 3y ago
> Have to train something, though. Nobody should be the gardener in a war. Most people have no martial training and never need it. It might be better to train in descalation or something much more useful, like JavaScript.
- scotty79 3y ago
  I think that skill of not being in places frequented by rowdy idiots is underappreciated.
  - wolverine876 3y ago
    The professional sports leagues educate the men who have just turned adult, are newly millionaires, and working in very high-profile jobs, on how to avoid trouble. One thing I've seen repeated: Don't put yourself in situations, or around people, that lead to trouble.
- cgh 3y ago
  I’d rather take the hits to the head, thanks.
  - lapetitejort 3y ago
    You're in luck. One is the prerequisite for the other
- golergka 3y ago
  People who write code are much more useful in a modern war than people who throw punches. Missiles don't run on martial art.
- zer8k 3y ago
  It's always funny to see people touting the virtues of de-escalation and soft talk. What happens when that fails? I started martial arts long ago because soft talk and de-escalation failed. I started training martial arts years ago. Of the brawls I've been in since then, usually with the homeless or drug addled while out on the town, de-escalation has never worked. I've been in bars where you can't talk someone down. Do you know how long it took for the police to arrive when a homeless guy started a fight with me for no reason? After giving the guy what he deserved I escaped to safety to call the police/medical. They never arrived. Sobering. He ran off eventually. Which, frankly is a testament to the power of street drugs. You can't de-escalate someone who is determined to harm you. This is a fallacy promoted by people who have never had to fight. You are universally safer by knowing how to fight and never using it than not knowing how to fight at all. The correct answer is understanding the escalation of force spectrum. Always start by trying to talk some sense into them. Then, based on their next move you either escalate to physical violence to defend yourself, or lethal force if they use a weapon. FWIW BJJ and Muay Thai are the only martial arts you should ever do. Life is not a video game. The police aren't there to help you. There are bad people everywhere. It's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.
philbin 3y ago
[dead]

matwood 3y ago

BJJ is really what you make of it. I'm older, so probably tap quicker than necessary when training but my ego was beat out of me a long time ago hah. I'm also not competing, and I'm selective with my training partners. It makes BJJ one of the safest sports I've done outside of finger injuries. Snowboarding, wakeboarding, basketball, and football all hurt me way more to the point I 'retired' from them /knocks on wood.

whatamidoingyo 3y ago
Oh yeah, for sure. I started training consistently at 24 (28 now), and used to train every single day, sometimes 2-3 times per day. My body was quickly worn down! Especially after entering a competition gym -- where the focus was live rolls only. Nowadays, I stick to technique based learning and lightly spar. Never competed, never will. So yeah, don't be stupid like me and BJJ will be kind to you. :)
lawn 3y ago
> It makes BJJ one of the safest sports I've done outside of finger injuries. As a developer I vastly prefer no-gi because gi grips totally wreck the fingers.
- rsync 3y ago
  This is a good observation ... I am primarily a gi player but no-gi is much, much easier on every part of your body. When you have the gi it can be used as a handle, or a lever, and there can be very little slip ... but skin on skin slips and gives a lot and is much more forgiving.
  - lawn 3y ago
    Oh yeah, good call. It's so painful to have someone hanging down on you with their whole body weight. You can get so much leverage with the gi when done correctly...
  - thtmnisamnstr 3y ago
    I'd dispute that. No gi is not easier on the knees, ankles, or shoulders IMO. The slipperiness compared to gi comes with the downside of sudden slipping movements that put your knees and shoulders at higher risk of injury and dislocation. The increased focus on leg attacks also puts your knees and ankles at higher risk. Add to that the seeming slant towards more explosive movements in no gi, and the overall risk of injury should be higher than gi. You likely see more injuries in gi, because way more people train gi than no gi still. Note: I train gi and no gi and have been for almost 10 years. My biggest injury happened in the gi (broken hand), but I've had significantly more ankle and knee sprains and shoulder dislocations in no gi. Also, the morning after no gi feels like I got hit by a truck compared to the morning after gi.
- matwood 3y ago
  For me, it's not gripping that kills my fingers, it's randomly getting them caught in material. Even a loose fitting rash guard on an opponent has caught my finger.
- lolmisfortune 3y ago
  I do both judo and BJJ, and I've concluded that some people are just ungrippable lol. Ridiculously fast + painfully efficient at breaking grips and counterattacking. Especially the judo-only guys when standing. Once I know the other person is good at the gripfight in a certain position, I immediately let go and try to counterattack from another angle. It's the only reliable way I've found to save my fingers lol

ProjectArcturis 3y ago

I had a colleague who was an Air Force neurologist during the Vietnam era. His main job was to study pilots' EEGs to make sure they had a very low risk of epilepsy (because, of course, having a seizure in a fighter jet is very very bad). Well, back in those days, boxing was part of the training, even for pilots who would never see hand-to-hand combat. My colleague found that pilots who had their EEG scans after a boxing class were far more likely to show epileptiform brain activity.

bee_rider 3y ago
Since Air Force pilots are officers, they should have been given a more aristocratic marital art, like fencing. Saber fencing especially is pretty quick. Which is probably what they’d like—at least, I don’t think the Air Force would like to promote a mentality of taking a few hits and slugging through.
- 082349872349872 3y ago
  Sabre (the wrong decision now beats the right one later) would be more air cav? I think the Air Force would prefer epée (full court press: first mistake loses).
- analog31 3y ago
  Unfortunately the most aristocratic art has the most concussions -- horseback riding.
  - QuercusMax 3y ago
    At least those are generally accepted as a terrible accident, and not an expected and accepted part of the sport.
    - 082349872349872 3y ago
      Ian Millar (who represented Canada in the 10 Games of 1972, 1976, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, and 2012) shows that unlike boxing and bull riding, most equestrian disciplines don't involve hoping to retire before the brain damage catches up with you. (also my understanding of the curve, based on our national level hospital statistics, is that a substantial fraction of the really bad wrecks happen to people with under 500 hours)

mikub 3y ago

"Nobody should be the gardener in a war. " But your Jiu-Jitsu won't help you much when bombs gonna fall on your head, so better keep a nice garden if you can. ;)

bee_rider 3y ago
Given what we’re seeing with drones nowadays, the martial arts with the most military applicability are probably hide and seek and hiding under the blanket.
thaumasiotes 3y ago
> Jiu-Jitsu Apropos of nothing much, where does that first I come from in "jiu-jitsu"? It's not present in the Japanese, but for some reason it appears in Portuguese even though the original vowel is a monophthong.
- QuercusMax 3y ago
  Found this article that has some info: https://unm.wsrjj.org/spelling.pdf https://unm.wsrjj.org/spelling.pdf
  - adrian_b 3y ago
    That article has some mistakes in its details. For instance the first article about ju-jutsu and judo that was written by Jigoro Kano and translated into English by T. Lindsay in 1888, has used the spelling "Jiujutsu", i.e. neither "jujutsu" (as written in this article) nor "jiujitsu". In Japanese kana, in the 19th century, before the spelling reform that happened after WWII, the spelling was "jiyuu-jiyutu". The Japanese spelling might have suggested the writing of an "i" after "j" in the Latin transcription. In the corresponding Latin alphabet spelling "jiu-jitsu", the reason why a "u" has been preserved from "jiyuu" but no "u" has been preserved from "jiyutu", is likely to have been because the first "u" is long, so it is pronounced clearly, while the second u is short, which in modern Japanese is pronounced without rounding the lips, so it does not sound like a "u". It also does not sound like a "i", because it is a back vowel, but English or French do not have this vowel, so they can render it only as either "u" or "i", and it appears that the choice has been random, because all variants are encountered in the old publications.

takinola 3y ago

I'm just thinking of taking up a martial art. I was considering BJJ. My main goal is to build strength, fitness and general physical discipline. Any thoughts on which martial art would be ideal, with minimal likelihood of injuries (if such a thing is possible).

tmtvl 3y ago
As a kung fu guy, if you're looking for strength, fitness, and general physical discipline I'd recommend rock climbing. It's like wrestling with an even lower chance for injury.
whatamidoingyo 3y ago
Definitely BJJ. Just avoid mainly competition gyms, and you'll be fine. Look for a school that offers a fundamentals class (most gyms do, but... competition gyms lack in this regard). Muay Thai has also been okay. It's brutal when you first start (RIP your toes and shins), but the sparring at my current gym is very relaxed, nobody is trying to kill you. This is how most muay thai gyms should be (not saying they are).
sieste 3y ago
My experience with kickboxing has been extremely positive. I started at age 38 with no prior MA experience. In my gym there is more focus on general fitness, strength, flexibility and technique than on actual fighting. When we spar, it's always in full padding, and either points fighting or light contact continuous sparring. It's about tagging or outmanoeuvring the opponent, rather than hurting or defeating them. Except for a bruised rib I never had any injuries, training twice a week for over two years. I recommend finding a gym where you train with people in your age group. It's difficult training with a bunch of teenagers who recover quickly and don't care about bruises, when you're the only one aching the next day and having to drop off kids and see clients.
ninininino 3y ago
If your goal is to build strength, fitness, and physical discipline, but you want to avoid injuries, martial arts is in general a very bad choice. Sports injuries are extremely common even if you are trying your best to avoid them in the majority of martial arts (including grappling arts). Purely maximizing strength and fitness and minimizing injury would look like some form of resistance training combined with low-impact cardio like swimming or cycling. Martial arts with minimal injury would look like a boxing fitness class (as opposed to a boxing class) or something with slow motion sparring or no sparring. Not sexy at all, or particularly helpful in a fight, but safe.

_whiteCaps_ 3y ago

https://globalnews.ca/news/8597221/brain-injury-endemic-among-homeless-says-vancouver-researcher/ https://globalnews.ca/news/8597221/brain-injury-endemic-amon... > “It’s now known to be essentially the population with the highest known incidence of traumatic brain injury, even above when we consider athlete populations and other known populations like veterans,” said O’Connor, now a clinical neuropsychologist in the acquired brain injury program at Hamilton Health Sciences. There are a huge number of TBIs in the homeless population.

wolverine876 3y ago

> Have to train something, though. Nobody should be the gardener in a war. Most people have no martial training and never need it. It might be better to train in descalation or something much more useful, like JavaScript.

scotty79 3y ago
I think that skill of not being in places frequented by rowdy idiots is underappreciated.
- wolverine876 3y ago
  The professional sports leagues educate the men who have just turned adult, are newly millionaires, and working in very high-profile jobs, on how to avoid trouble. One thing I've seen repeated: Don't put yourself in situations, or around people, that lead to trouble.
cgh 3y ago
I’d rather take the hits to the head, thanks.
- lapetitejort 3y ago
  You're in luck. One is the prerequisite for the other
golergka 3y ago
People who write code are much more useful in a modern war than people who throw punches. Missiles don't run on martial art.
zer8k 3y ago
It's always funny to see people touting the virtues of de-escalation and soft talk. What happens when that fails? I started martial arts long ago because soft talk and de-escalation failed. I started training martial arts years ago. Of the brawls I've been in since then, usually with the homeless or drug addled while out on the town, de-escalation has never worked. I've been in bars where you can't talk someone down. Do you know how long it took for the police to arrive when a homeless guy started a fight with me for no reason? After giving the guy what he deserved I escaped to safety to call the police/medical. They never arrived. Sobering. He ran off eventually. Which, frankly is a testament to the power of street drugs. You can't de-escalate someone who is determined to harm you. This is a fallacy promoted by people who have never had to fight. You are universally safer by knowing how to fight and never using it than not knowing how to fight at all. The correct answer is understanding the escalation of force spectrum. Always start by trying to talk some sense into them. Then, based on their next move you either escalate to physical violence to defend yourself, or lethal force if they use a weapon. FWIW BJJ and Muay Thai are the only martial arts you should ever do. Life is not a video game. The police aren't there to help you. There are bad people everywhere. It's better to be a warrior in a garden than a gardener in a war.

philbin 3y ago

[dead]