@Araviel Good call, I was actually thinking of asking a moderator to prune the chat from the other thread as it was definitely way off topic.
@Deta
When it comes to fighting in a streets, there is two kinds of people. Those who keep their temper and try to de-escalate the conflict even if it means to get punched. And then there are people who go totally berserk. They cant control themselves. They are angry and dont care what happens in that situation. It seems that you are the first one. And thats a great thing.
The example I gave may have made me sound much more magnanimous than I really was, the fact is the fight itself was totally avoidable and I escalated it unnecessarily out of stupidity. It helped a lot that the guy punching me didn't have a lot of space to get a good shot in, I lucked out a bit all things considered. I am a lot more level headed now thankfully.
Wrestling is great, any style where you can control your opponent by taking him or her down. But the thing is that fighting in a street is totally different environment compared to gym or dojo. Sure for one on one dance competition its great. It works. But if you find yourself in a street after bars closing hours, fighting. Most of the time its not you versus him. Its you versus him and whoever wants to join in. If you take the guy down and dont be aware of your surroundings, you might end up having very bad time. In these situations self defense systems like Krav Maga comes handy. When you know how to land a punch, protect yourself and you have a guts to take few hits while doing so, it gives you an opportunity to end the fight fast. Krav Maga is dirty just like every self defense system. Its dirty because you need to end the situation as fast as possible for your own safety.
But like the guy said in a video, you need to learn how to walk before you can run.
Honestly I just love training and in terms of longevity I feel I'll be able to train longer in a grappling style than a striking one.
In terms of defending myself, I live in a relatively safe place (growing up in a shitty neighborhood this was a priority for me when settling down) and it's unlikely (I hope!) I'll be jumped by anyone, let alone a group at this point in my life. That said even if I was doing a striking discipline I wouldn't be able to utilise it fully just because of how I am, that's my experience anyway.
did Kyokoshinkai Karate a decade ago and enjoyed that though got a bit bored with the katas.
Couldn't agree more.
It's almost considered blasphemous to suggest but I don't understand why katas are even a thing in a relatively modern karate style like kyokushin.
As a spectator I love the really fast and snappy kata you see in modern competition but honestly I enjoy watching someone like Rika Usami do kata in the same way other people appreciate ballet or gymnastics but I don't rate it for improving kumite.
The thing is I don't think it will change anytime soon either as Mas Oyama thought kata was extremely important (the "trunk" of his karate "tree" if I remember) and as the founder he's extremely revered by all the old guard kyokushinkai.
In my short time studying it I experienced a few issues where there was an unwillingness to adopt a more modern approach with training, for example all that the classes began with static stretching, we had a guest instructor come take a session and he started the class with a more modern warm-up with dynamic stretching, our usual instructor later criticised this as it wasn't "traditional." This seemed a little ridiculous to me, I somewhat understand people being unwilling to make kata optional (even though I would have appreciated it) but sports science has advanced so much that it makes sense to incorporate well researched improvements into the non-karate stuff.
Keep us updated on what you decide though, I definitely think a physical activity is an important part of leading a balanced life. There's a topic on the forum about depression and it's not something I feel in any way qualified to talk about but I have my suspicions that a lack of exercise may compound mental health issues.
@Bambi mhm, usually do full body, 5 x 5, including squats and deadlifts.
My favourite beginner to intermediate program, anyone I know that tries it makes excellent strength gains, I honestly never felt the need to go onto a split (but I wasn't training for aesthetics) I just dropped to 3x3 when I stalled and added some isolation work to address a couple of shortcomings I had.