I’m looking at going to a new place to train due to someone getting a bit flakey on his students, and was looking for a bit of input. I’m currently doing Kajukembo. I know it’s not really a major one, but I like the blend of both the standing and ground game…throw in some weapons and standard self-defense stuff, and it’s a pretty good mix of everything(for the record, there’s about a 1% chance I’ll ever actually compete in a ring). I have the opportunity to train with another Kajukembo guy, but it’s not exactly handy for me to get there.
I also have another school I’m interested in that offers JJ and Judo. Does anyone happen to have experience with all three (Kajukembo/JJ/Judo) and can give me some advice on which they feel is the most enjoyable/effective? I really do love the ground work, but don’t know how much standup is involved in the JJ.
Thanks for any input, guys, and sorry if this question’s been asked 100 times.
“Kajukembo is a universal martial art that was designed for realistic self defense. Although all martial arts make this claim, Kajukembo self defense techniques were designed to defend against the street fighter. Unlike most traditional martial arts that were designed more than a century ago, or the modern day schools that are designed more for tournament point sparring and exhibition.”
Kajukembo websites had men in goofy ninja outfits and occasional talk of “grandmasters”. Honestly, you are throwing money and time away as long as you go down the path of the McDojo SD garbage. If you want to train striking and grappling, choose sports/MA’s that give you the best training in those particular disciplines. I’ve done wrestling, judo, and brazilian jiujitsu and love them all. They will make you much stronger and tougher and are a ton of fun. If money is tight, try a local wrestling or judo club. Braz. jiu jitsu is great but classes will be a bit more expensive. As far as the striking goes, some other members should probably chime in as I have only trained boxing for a brief amount of time. Look for a striking sport that allows for full-contact sparring (boxing/kickboxing/muay thai/K.Karate) and if you hear the words “death blows” run like the wind.
Although I do disagree with your classification of Kajukembo, I appreciate the input. It’s the variety that I like, but I also realize you can’t get the best of all worlds in a one-stop shop. Thanks again for the comments.
I notice that you are from Nebraska. Have you considered trying a wrestling club? That sport gave me more physical and mental toughness than anything I’ve ever done.
Honestly, for whatever reason, wrestling doesn’t interest me in the least. I know it would be very valuable, and would do a lot for my takedowns, but I guess I like the submissions and striking a bit too much.
I started off as a Muay Thai/BJJ guy myself, but Wrestling, as I look at it, is basically the ability to impose your will or gameplan. I prefer to stand and bang, but the only way to stay standing is using wrestling to keep myself vertical, on the flip side, if Im getting my shit wrecked by a better striker, only way to take them down is to out wrestle them and get the down. Muay Thai/BJJ or any other combination is a bit useless if you cant impose it.
Chi-Town is right to, wrestling is about as mentally tough an activity as you will find anywhere. I wrestled in high school, and between University and 2 jobs and training, nothing really rattles me as much as it used to before wrestling. If your looking for a good striking gym, stay the hell away from any gym that advertises as a Karate or Tae Kwon Do school (flame away MA purists) but in my experience, there not very effective.
Aim for something like “Martial Arts Academy” or “Martial Arts Training Center” or “MMA Training Facility” or something to that effect. These typically offer a variety of classes which typically include several of the following Boxing, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or MMA and generally have some sort of on-site weight/cardio facility to boot. On another note, if you walk into some of these places and they look like the basement in “Fight Club”, take a deep breath, and give it a shot.
Alot of people get turned off because they have seen a few episodes of “Countdown to UFC…” or “UFC All Access”. Not every gym is Xtreme Couture or Tri-Star or ATT. Alot of MMA gyms are fairly spartan, little more than a cage, a ring, some bags and some grappling mats in a large warehouse-ish space. Hell, my gym is in the basement of a discount lumber store beside a junk yard across the street from a Porta-John rental place. Just dont expect “Curves” when you walk in.
The best advice I can Think of is first watch every good rated video in youtube about the styles your interested and practice each system for at least 3 months (2/3 classes per week) and then choose.That´s one good way of making an informed choice.
Hope it helps
[quote]chitown34 wrote:
I notice that you are from Nebraska. Have you considered trying a wrestling club? That sport gave me more physical and mental toughness than anything I’ve ever done. [/quote]
Outside of selling all your possessions and moving to Thailand to train Thaiboxing. Wrestling is one of the toughest things you can do.
Hell, if you trained with a collegiate level team its the same damn thing.
There’s a reason that the Navy SEALs look very highly at recruits who wrestled. They have “the mindset”.
If I had to pick one martial art to study for effective street combat, I’d pick bjj. A close second would be boxing and muay thai third (especially concentrating on the clinch and knee strikes). Contrary to popular belief, many, but certainly not all street fights end up on the ground.
For effective mma though, I’d put wrestling right up there as the most effective discipline.
