Enter the Dojo!

[CaptCanada]

This is Ameri-Do-Te, the ultimate martial art.

(there is more episodes so watch them all)

[Dan S]

I think I've trained in a few schools like that!!!

[Scott R]

I trane UFC

[67olds]

I trane UFC

installing air conditioners?

[Scott R]

come at me bro!

[Dan S]

Careful Cu_Bu, you might be messin' wit da Maytag Man!!!!!!

Seriously, I bet about anyone who has been involved in the fighting arts for any length of time has come across at least one instructor pretty much like "Ken". And that's really pitiful.

[Dan S]

installing air conditioners?

Smartass...you need to get off yer lazy ass n get back to class!

[Scott R]

lol yeah Dan I started fighting 11 years ago and especially early on when most MMA/smoker type tourneys started popping up werent sanctioned it was crazy. I never ran into a bad/crazy coach but everyone that I came across was a master at something and most of the time would give me advice on how to win a fight. When tapout first starting marketing heavy I would see someone with a shirt and legitly ask "where do you train" because fighting was a small community and most of the time you were on good terms with other gyms and train with them aswell if your camps didnt have a fight against eachother on the books. ahh good times. Now every other dipshit has affliction or tapout on and fohawks and shit, not judging them its just a huge change which brings good things and bad(just like the influx in tattoo popularity)

[RoryQ]

It was / is similar in Ireland, @Scott R. In the early days of MMA I think all the coaches of all the gyms new each other. In fact, I think most of the gyms still running just grew out of the one - John Kavanagh's original place. Even in BJJ circles I think people training probably personally knew every blue, purple, brown and black belt (just the one) in the country. Then, within a matter of a couple of years it exploded and now there are browns and blacks around who I've never even laid eyes on. It gets big quick. Which, from a business point of view, is great for the guys trying to make a living from coaching the sport.

But the last few local MMA shows (or bigger ones like Cage Rage or UFC) have been weird. You've got these guys going around in Tapout gear, arms spread out like they're carrying buckets of water and who appear to think that going to an MMA show means they absolutely must look like they're practically ready to climb into the cage themselves. There's a lot of drinking, a lot of snarling and staring and a lot of booing when fights go to the ground (because that's not real fighting, right?). It's kind of annoying because I can remember when local shows were practically sedate and kid-friendly, because you'd have more or less just people who trained in various gyms and their famillies coming along - really educated about what they were watching. Ian Freeman (Cage Rage commentator) used to get complained about when he did the M.C's job, because he swore too much.

That said, amateur boxing and muay thai shows seem to attract the same crowd of tools, it's not just MMA.

[Scott R]

@RoryQ oh no doubt about boxing and thai bringing same type of crowd especially boxing here. THats were I started out TOughmans and smokers. Its you and 39 other dudes in a big room/or on a stage in a smoker bar waiting to get their name called to make their entrance into a sometimes 10x10 ring with lights at about the 8 ft mark. All you can see is bright light and smoke. In toughman it used to be 3 one minute rds usually ending in tko or total beating. this went untill 1 man remained. my first ever competition I had a real tough fight against an unbeaten amatuer guy multiple toughman champion on my 3rd fight(semis). I did well enough not to get knocked down or out even though i was 185 he was around 240. At that time I still had my prison type tattoos and all a group of guys could say as I was leaving was your back should say white power. Really?? I thought, this is the crowd I am bleeding for??The unbeaten guy Rod Webb won the tourney and Honestly It was more meaningful to me to loose to him than it was to win my first 2. I ended up fighting around 17 amatuer boxing matches before competing in MMA for 7 fights.

I am no coach I dont aspire to be, I still do privates when asked but have never advertised services. I do make money from boxing/mma usually the strength and conditioning side of the sports and am grateful to earn money doing something i like. I have trained with some guys that deserve real cudos for being at the forefront of this movement.

Frank Trigg,Pat burris,evan tanner,Joe stafford,Jon English,kendrick coleman,Ross purity.

One last memory about the new breed of kitty kat out there

. We were at a localish fight being put on by the aforementioned Rod Webb(to see one of my close friends fight in his 2nd pro fight) in a town about 1hr south of OKC. I was the smallest guy in our group by 20 lbs around 200 at time. I was there with a judo black belt. A 4time all american oklahoma wrestler who beat randy couture all 4 yrs then competed internationally and 2 dudes who couldnt do a shit ton in a fight but were fucking big strong dudes. Fights were good our friend won big and we were leaving. I dont even recall if any of us had a drink but we were in good spirits talking of where to grab a bite to eat on way back. Well these 2 little skinny fuckers maybe 150 soaking wet walking right by us only had wifebeaters on (dont know if they started with more then stripped down as they got lit. these 2 fucks began staring hard basically maddogging. Shane who was about 280 powerlifter build bald with a stell like goatee politely told the 2 dumbdicks that we were just having a good time not looking to cage fight in parking lot but if they persisted he would just watch because that shit would be too funny. the 2 guys just scofted and walked away.

[Dan S]

Been in the martial arts for going on 50 years now. Started training when I was around 8 with the first, as far as I know, Jiujitsu BB teaching in the States. Got tired of that, boxed, did this, did that, ended up spending 25 years studying and teaching within one federation, a mixed style.

No toughman contests, nothing like that, unless you count fighting in bars and other, more "restricted" places in and around Chicago. I own and run a small school, 67Olds teaches there from time to time when I need the backup.

Hey-at my age, if I can still get in the ring with a 20 y.o., I figure I won.

And the two guys in wifebeaters?

They both had Uzi's under their baggies.

[RoryQ]

Some people have no survival instinct!

[Scott R]

@Dan S thats badass who was the bbj teacher?

yeah i only spar on occassion but at 37 i am a dinosaur to the new school, I would love to be able to get into ring on occassion at 50+

oh and I am no billy badass, I think i have been in 3 ? altercations outside of the ring/cage I just liked the competition with others/myself

[Stitch626]

.... O_o I'm not sure if this or that old southern dude who thought he was a ninja is worse. (Ashida Kim)

Kinda excited to see this thread :) Seeing as its fight night tonight at class.

Started training in 2001 in Shotokan, "cross trained" in a few other styles when I went through the fire acadamy and emt school. Now finally back after a rocky 4 years to test for my dan. I'd love to get into some sort of mma, just for the hell of it eventually.

[cvportagee]

I will second the sentiment about being excited about this thread. I am a former muay thai fighter. I have trained under John Hackleman/Chuck Liddell (fought out of The Pit for about three years), Ajarn Sangvone “Andy” Khensamphaph (former Muay Thai Champion), and brief stints at Fairtext in San Francisco in the early 2000's. (When Bunkerd, Ganyao, Jongsanan, Enn, and Alex Gong were there.) I have also dabbled in BJJ. Now (after family and being lazy) every once in a while I train with some friends that are professional muay thai fighters and a few others which are in the UFC.

[Dan S]

@Dan S thats badass who was the bbj teacher?

yeah i only spar on occassion but at 37 i am a dinosaur to the new school, I would love to be able to get into ring on occassion at 50+

oh and I am no billy badass, I think i have been in 3 ? altercations outside of the ring/cage I just liked the competition with others/myself

Cu_Bu, he wasn't a BJJ teacher, he was a plain, old-fashioned Jiujitsu teacher. That was 50 years ago, and his name is long, long forgotten! This was back in the day when there were no colored belts, just students and adepts. One wore a white belt, and the other, a black belt. I didn't stay with him long enough to get much past the beginner stage, he was teaching at the local YMCA, and when my folks had to start shelling out extra for the lessons, they didn't! Boxing was free at the park district, so away I went to box.

I never saw martial arts as competition, except mayhap against myself, and never even entered a tournament until I had earned a first-dan in a mixed-dtyle martial art. I have always seen it as a matter of life and death, and I don't mean to be dramatic, but that's just the way and the reason for me. I train to make myself better, and just to keep from being too damn old!

Most humbling experience in my martial arts life...getting in the ring with Superfoot Wallace. Whoa. That man can flat-out throw a kick. I was honored to be his demo-dummy for most of an 8-hour seminar he put on for us, and in the process, got to spar with him. I was maybe 35, he was maybe 50, and I was maybe concsious for a minute!

And I hear ya, I'm no tough-tony, I've had to rock-n-roll a few times, but I try to avoid that shit whenever possible! Besides, I'm a senior citizen now!!!

[Scott R]

@Dan S that was japanese juijitsu awesome stuff man

[aleksksks]

Careful Cu_Bu, you might be messin' wit da Maytag Man!!!!!!

Seriously, I bet about anyone who has been involved in the fighting arts for any length of time has come across at least one instructor pretty much like "Ken". And that's really pitiful.

I've never trained any martial arts myself, as far as I can remember I've only been to one martial arts lesson and I was just sitting there and watching while waiting for my friend who was training there, and the trainer was exactly like the guy in the video.