training groups

How many of you have groups of people that practice different martial arts together (Not an MMA school) in a free atmosphere? Its hard nowadays to train for free. Ha ha.

Yes, I used to run a study group out of my home in Idyllwild CA. We had martial artists who practiced Tai Chi, Pa Kua, Kung fu San Soo, Karate, Northern Mantis, Wu Mei, Judo, and Hsing i. We met once per week, did light sparring, and exercised together. We'd discuss similarities and differences in our arts. Every other week a member would run an informal class where new skills would be presented. The group was run entirely free of charge. Once in awhile everyone would agree to work on a set of skills for a lengthier period. Sometimes we'd just freely try things out, trying to figure out how to deal with each other.

For the most part, it was a social occassion. Serious hard practice was never really a part of it, although I had a workout area in my yard. The workout area featured several training stations including plum flower poles, a maikiwara, a few heavy bags, a makeshift mook jong, some weights, a "rope arm" dummy, a B.O.B. dummy, and a wide flat area for forms and sparring. A couple of people would come out to use my training stations several times a week. It was gratifying to be part of such a diverse community.

I used to get together with some people I know and do this. We had a couple wing chun practcioners, praying mantis, karate, shaolin, boxing, white eyebrow, shuai chao, and jiu jitsu practicioners. We would get together spar and share techniques. It went well for a while but do to time constrictions/time conflicts it kinda faded out. It would be nice to start doing this again. If anyone is interested in doing this I would be interested and I wouldn't have a problem with traveling (no more than a few hours) to do so.

PM me what part of ohio you're in.

When I was in college, I helped start one.

I live in North Central West Virginia and our school is located at Fairmont State University in Fairmont. If you guys ever want to get together you are welcome to come down or I could come your way for training. Would be great to work out with different people because there is very little martial artists training in my area.

If you feel like coming to Pittsburgh let me know, fridays you could get two sessions in with university groups for free (about 5 hours of training)

no, but it sounds like fun. any groups in san francisco area?

I used to take part in a group, doing SanSoo and made friends that started to train in Muay Thai as well...college happened and we moved on with our lives. Now I am trying to get back into SanSoo, and learn close inside fighting...its hard as there are no purists out there really anymore. I still practice/train in Muay Thai occasionally after the gym. :( It's hard to find people to train with for free.

I train with a varying group of people on an irregular basis, but have another group that we train tcma and we add in more applied practice with the material we work with.

when it's a mixed group that is larger, I find you can walk away with one or two concepts and work them later.

but the smaller group we can consistently and regularly practice.

have gotten to meet a pretty broad array of martial artists who each have something to add to my own knowledge of martial arts.

I would encourage this type of practice to anyone who can get a group together.
I would discourage it for anyone who doesn't ave a half decent foundation in something.

If you have too many people who lack experience, then you wind up walking away with not much at all. Being able to successfullly transmit is important and to do that, whatever it is you are shgaring you have to understand with some depth.