I study and practice Yang style T’ai Chi Ch’uan, and when I was younger I studied a couple of other martial arts. I have always had a keen interest in them, since I was a young boy. Does anyone else here share this interest?
I forgot to mention I am also a master of JanKen, the highest form of conflict resolution.
In tekken I was wicked with that one guy Eddie Gordo… his technique was capoeda.
That’s all I got.
I definitively share your interest Kid.
I am a nineteenth year practitioner of AizuTakeda Aikijujutsu.
Seven years in Yip Man family Vtin Tsun.
I cross train in Taiji Quan, ShingYi, Paqua, Kali, Arnis and Eskrima.
Okay, so I’m an addict, but that’s irrelevant.
As for formal training,
10 years 1on1 wing chun training. (yip man style, no fancy william chueng ‘t-step’ bullshit)
A few years of mui-thai/BJJ.
A few years of western boxing (My dad was a boxer, and taught me very young)
A good deal of arnis. (learned along side wing chun)
As for personal studies/training, I have been studying and striving to apply the principles set forth in ‘the tao of jeet kune do’ to blend my training into one fluent and combat effective style since I was 16. I devour and digest any tequnique I encounter I deem to be useful for combat into my repetoir.
Holy Fucking Enter the Dragonshit Batman!!!
Satanical and I might be about to agree on something:
Satanical are you saying that the original Yip Man form is the valid one?
Google JanKen, OG.
I believe that you would be great at it.
Gobbo got burned…
haha I was thinking ‘oh cause I’m tall?’
lol… good one. 
Mastriani and Dr. S.,
Wow, you both have me trumped!
Mastriani, you seem, like me, to be drawn to internal arts.
Dr. S., you have a remarkably balanced background in the martial arts.
Now do either of you get any practical appliction in? I mean in my profession, I get punched, kicked, grabbed, or worse at least attempted on a weekly basis. The T’ai Chi helps both in avoidance of attacks and maintaining control. Do you get this kind of benefit on a regular basis?
QK
Not so much since I have stopped traveling and settled into familial benefactor role.
But on occasion, it has come in quite useful. The Aikijujutsu saved my hide in two separate knife attacks - one here in the U.S., another in Hong Kong, China.
Thanks!
And your’e right, height is no advantage in JanKen.
QK
I learned JanKen as a boy.
Also took three months of Ju-jitsu one summer at the park.
Learned to fall and to roll, which has come in helpful when slipping.
(pre-white belt)
i studied shorei-goju ryu for roughly six years as a kid and i’ve been getting back into it over the past year. i’d like to get my black belt in it (if not in other things as well) before studying taijitsu.
to be honest, i’m more interested in weapons though (see the great ilp insanity contest 
) our school only teaches the bo, nunchaku, sai, kama, tonfa, and the bokken. might teach the eiku, i’m not sure about that. other weapons i have to make and teach myself the basics. (sword, chain, throwing blades, including knives, shuriken, etc.)
Mas,
I don’t know that Yip Mans style is the ‘valid’ one, but I found it and find it to be more to the point and effective than cheungs version.
Plus I’m a bit a bruce lee fan and somewhat biased.
QK,
A sense of confidence when out and about. The less I have to use anything I know the better, but living in the city, my skills have saved me from getting whooped/robbed more than once.
ghost post
Not really ‘martial’ but I can put an arrow in your eye from 30 yards with a decent re-curve - none of your whimpy compound jobbies. I do suck at fencing though, just to destroy the swashbuckling image.
I’ve got about five years under my belt in what you guys would recognize as Ninjutsu- my sensei is Brett Varnum, who was trained under John Poliquin, who was trained under Stephen K Hayes, who was trained under Masaaki Hatsumi. Of course, that’s just how they got their starts, Mr. Varnum now studies directly under Mr. Hayes and Soke Hatsumi in Japan when he can.
I took a hiatus, and now that I find myself with a whole lot of unexpected freedom, I’m getting back into it again with a friend of mine. That said, I wouldn’t call it a ‘long’ interest of mine, I only started caring abour it after high school.
EDIT: Creation Imperfect, I notice you said you were looking to get into Taijutsu after you finish what you’re doing now. That’s very close to what I’m studying. Any what organization you’ll look to train under?
I used to wrestle. I’ve wrestled with pretty boys before and didn’t find the “martial arts” to be very impressive. It is heavily reliant on opportunities which often do not occur in real combat. Moves that require set-ups. Due to the unpredictability of an opponent the execution of your moves can become confused and therefore inefficient. It looks neat though.
I prefer grappling styles and shoot-fighting. Of all the martial arts, Jujitsu is the best but even that can become extraneous.
I don’t place much stock in punches or kicks because if they fail one is left vunerable, not to mention wasted energy. The most effect method to beating a single opponent is through seizing them and forcing a submission by constriction. A proficient grappler has the advantage on the ground or in full contact standing up. For example, if you face me and I suspect your attack, I will either start the fight myself by shooting at your waist and taking you to the ground immediately, or waiting for you to strike and miss to seize you. There is no time here. There is no planning. Its over before it has begun.
In a matter of seconds you will be limp, or at least I would hope, obviously.
If one has to choose, for some reason, between grappling and striking, grappling is without a doubt the better thing to choose, when it comes to defending yourself from one unarmed person. But, that’s one of those distinctions that gets really blurry, most of your Gyaku (wrist breaking stuff) has variants more like grappling or more like striking, for example.
close? taijitsu is the fighting style of it, it’s virtually the same thing. daken-taijitsu, the way of striking the bones, the physical attacks, and ju-tiajitsu, the grappling and throwing. i’m not sure how exactly i’m going to train under this system as the closest school that teaches it is about 2 hours from where i live and will be going to college. so… i would basically have to devote my afternoons to it. it’s cool that you’re studying ninjitsu, there’s a lot of people who think it’s really stupid because they think of crappy 80’s ninja movies but really as far as i can tell it’s the best fighting style there is. maasaki hatsumi is the man.
by the way, (there’s no way to say this where it doesn’t sound childish…), what is there to ninjitsu other than taijitsu and being able to sneak around?