what art for bodytype

[Merryprankster]

Ok, liokault. You win. Tap out from exhaustion. I'm not going to bother to address this any more. 15 full contact fights and you only got hit in the head twice while on the inside?

I DO however believe that they weren't hard--that's what inside fighting is all about.

You're either fantastically good or your opponents were tomato cans.

Cheers.

[Liokault]

Really if your fighting on the inside and your oponent is taller than you then you should have every advantage and you should be forcing him to back pedal with a guard up fast.

If your shorter than your oponent and your any good at punching than their is no reason to be getting hit on the inside.

My favorite example is a boxer who used to come to our class a few years ago. He was huge like 6'8 or so and well built. when we spared he very seldom ever got a hit in as once i was inside i just kept the straight punches going in with the odd hook till i could take him down (he was not a great boxer but he was a huge boxer).

Ok, liokault. You win. Tap out from exhaustion. I'm not going to bother to address this any more. 15 full contact fights and you only got hit in the head twice while on the inside?

Some of the guys i fought were quite good but its always hard to tell. My oponents all tend to be much taller than me as i fight at 75-80 kg normaly and most guys in this bracket tend to be 6' or so.

I also did not say that i did not get hit in the head but that i can remember only 2. I have probably taken more than that but they have not been good shots as i ALWAYS remember the good ones. And thinking back now i have had more time i can say one of the shots out of the 2 was not from inside!

[apoweyn]

"If your shorter than your oponent and your any good at punching than their is no reason to be getting hit on the inside."


then your bodytype hasn't hindered you as a striker and has indeed afforded you an advantage once you learned to apply the right tactics.



stuart b.

[Liokault]

Indeed my body type is perfectly suited to both my martial art and my style of fighting.

I would strongly discourage any one tall and thin from Tai Chi

[apoweyn]

liokault,

"Indeed my body type is perfectly suited to both my martial art and my style of fighting."

and it sounds as if you were frequently the shorter fighter in striking encounters. and you were not disadvantaged at all by that.


"I would strongly discourage any one tall and thin from Tai Chi"

why? because it would be more difficult for a taller person to root? easier for a shorter person to unroot a taller person?

[Liokault]

why? because it would be more difficult for a taller person to root? easier for a shorter person to unroot a taller person?

No because the whole art is set up to give a huge advantage to the shorter guy over the taller guy rooting aside.

[omegapoint]

If you have two functional arms/hands and legs/feet, with a working brain, you can do whatever you want. Get good at something then add-on. There really is no specific bodytype for any fighting style.

Some shorter, huskier cats are good boxers and strikers (Mike Tyson, Andy Hugg). Some tall, lanky, thinner cats are good at grappling (Royce, Ryron and Renner Gracie). Dudes and females of all shapes and sizes can kick arse both ways.

Pick a base style, then move on after you understand as much as you want or need. Later...

[apoweyn]

liokault,

"No because the whole art is set up to give a huge advantage to the shorter guy over the taller guy rooting aside."

how so? i'm genuinely curious. watching footage of william c.c. chen, he didn't look short to me. just the opposite. he looks relatively tall and slight. same with cheng man ching (sp?)

i would have thought that through the proper application of stances, a taller person would be able to sink and then rise to uproot an opponent.

i'm not suggesting that the taller guy has an advantage. i think i know what you're saying about uprooting. but i have a difficult time believing that the taller person is at a disadvantage. but then, i don't believe in that idea period.


stuart b.

[Liokault]

I do not know anything about william c.c. chen and as far as I am concerned Cheng Man Ching is a bit of a joke.

Also I said nothing about up rooting.


Im just calling it as I see it. In tai Chi (as taught to me) there are many things that do not work against (much) shorter people.

Now if you want to look at some one whom i feel has a perfect build for tai chi go look at Cheng Tin Hung.

[apoweyn]

fair enough. but now that we're actually on a productive discussion, how about actually providing a little more than that. why is cheng man ching a joke? (i have no affiliation to him myself, so you aren't going to offend me.)

you didn't say anything about rooting. fine. i'm not allowed to introduce rooting to the equation? do you think a smaller person has the advantage in breaking someone's root?

what, specifically, wouldn't work on shorter people? (and if you say 'uprooting', i'm going to thump my head on the desk.)

what was your teacher like, physically speaking?


stuart b.

[mixxalot]

I am the same kind of build, short, and stocky, 5'6" and 165lbs,
I study CLF (Choy Li Fut) which combines both northern shaolin footwork and southern shaolin stances and hand forms. Great style. Another good martial art for short stocky people like us is Wing Chun because it uses plenty of upper body power and low kicks. Good luck.

[mixxalot]

Oops, forgot to mention that Hung Gar is another most excellent
style for stocky shorter folks. Especially tiger/crane forms in Hung Gar!

[roughnready]

it dont matter just fight

[mixxalot]

there is more to martial arts than just fighting. After all, if all that mattered was winning a fight, then I'd just pull out a gun and end it then and there. No, martial arts has a greatness in developing body mind and spirit. Self defense is important but not the only reason to learn it.

[wall]

As much as it is very politically correct to say that all arts adapt to all people, different MAs have in fact often been developed with certain body type preferences, to the point where disciples where selected based also on size shape (or size shape of the parents, if the disciple was a child).
These characteristics where at times purely a consequence of the average size of the local population where the style developed, at other times they where a specific choice for combat purposes, or more rarely dictated by the size of the person who invented a style.
Somebody made an extreme, but simbolically good, example using modern wushu and sumo.
But even looking at the MAs practiced by most in this forum, whilst anyone can adapt to both southern and northern styles of CMA it is obvious that a longer limbed, thinner, more wiry built person will adapt better to the latter, whilst a bulkier, shorter, more muscular person will be more suited to the former.
Therefore, whilst anyone can reach THEIR best in any art, which might indeed be a very high level, to be a really elite practitioner (however you measure that, be it competition or self-assessment) genetics relating to bodyshape play an important part.
This of course applies to any physical pursuit: at 5'11" I can become, through constant practice, an excellent basketballer, but it is rather unlikely I will reach Shaq's standards, simply because the sport is designed with his genetics in mind, not mine.

Wall