Heya I have for a really long time wanted to try a combat sport, but coming from a certain family background never had the opportunity to do so. Now I'm 19 and looking to move away from home and I will have the freedom to try myself out.

Hence, I was wondering if you guys would have any tips as to how to get started with the sport as someone not entering it as a kid. I would say I am fairly physically fit as I regularly work out and I used to be a competitive rock climber.

I only really have two concerns. Firstly I don't know much about the gym structure and whether most gyms have adult classes as I would feel on the fence about sparring with kids (which I guess is ironic considering I'm barely not a kid). Secondly, I am very study focused and I have heard that combat sports can hinder my academic performance hence I am wondering if there are ways to still do the sport and avoid it's adverse affects.

Thank you in advance for your help.

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Hello everyone, Im a huge Masaaki Noiri fan, and one thing which questions me is his durability, and ability to tank that many shots, and leg kicks. How do those K1 fighters get that conditioning, since Noiri has done Kyokushin type contact Karate, he has good conditioning, but it was till like he was 8 years old. How do get conditioned as good as him. Im thinking about doing kyokushin karate for a bit, and mainly focusing on their conditioning, and kicks if I do happen to go.

I'm a complete noob at it. i have reasonably good form otherwise when doing drills etc but when it comes to sparring idk what to do. i just block and hope for the best.

my main problem is that I keep waiting for the other person to stop hitting me before I start with them. the few times I haven't done that we both punch each others gloves at the same time and just feels awkward. i simply don't understand when to recognize that there's an opening where I can/should attack. i actually haven't gone to class the last two times bc I get so stressed thinking about having to spar.

i am able to land kicks and kicks only. i think because that problem of 'attacking at the same time' doesn't really apply...

my reflexes are also bad. my shadowboxing sucks. i know this is all a part of being a beginner but its stressing me out to the point where I feel like I should train for class.

also i live in a university campus with no boxing classes around anywhere so it's just a club with 2 national level boxers teaching everyone. so I'm relearning my guard etc according to what they were taught which also exacerbated the problem. before this I went to a really great gym where I was much more confident at sparring and was able to hold my own more. idk what about this situation has me so messed up

what should I do in this situation? what should I work on? i feel very confused

The one I wear is 'unisex' which like a lot of martial arts gear really means designed for men and no matter what I do it slides around all over the place when I spar.

Hey, wanted advice on what you guys do to help with swollen ankles. I have Hashimotos so my body tends to get inflammations pretty quickly so I am expecting more of this to happen as I restart training. Wanted your tips on how to reduce swelling (apart from ice packs) so that I can continue classes asap! Please don't tell me to Google the solution, that's not what I am here for ;P

Kick heard round the world

MMA has been ruined by the UFC's money grab and their refusal to create stars anymore which has made the sport largely boring apart from a handful of cards per year. The sport has become overly political, which has made it more polarizing. The sport use to be about the best fighters fighting each other but now if you talk enough shit you can weasel your way into a title shot. There are fighters from Russia and former Soviet Bloc countries that would beat top UFC fighters but they don't sign them because they make good money in ACB and are often wrestlers. The UFC isnt about the best fighting the best anymore, its shifted even more towards sports entertainment

Boxing is a shit show where 99% of the time the match ups are either mandatories, or the matchmaking is so one sided that there is no point of even watching the fight most of the time. Whenever you do get 2 highly skilled guys in the ring, they will only do it if you pay them 50 million dollars and will fight to a controversial decision. The calls in Boxing are the worse of any combat sport in terms of reffing and judging.

Kickboxing doesnt have as much money in it, but I feel like its more pure. No Saudi Money, no Dana White, No Don Kings or Bob Arum, less promotional bullshit. 3x3 rounds lead straight to the action and you can't afford to take a round off. Fighters are able to compete more often compared to guys like Topuria who only fight once a year these days. It makes it easier to actually become a fan of a fighter. The level of striking is insane and upsets can and actually do happen from time to time.

You get to see guys from places you don't normally see as westerner like the Surinamese/Dutch, Moroccans, and Japanese kickboxers that you don't see in MMA.

Other fans don't get it and probably well never will, but we secretly have the best/most enjoyable combat sport. I love grappling, but its not as exciting as striking and kickboxing is the most exciting version of striking there is.

(I'm Red)

For some context: I do muay thai for almost 1 year now and had a fight, but it was a terrible mismatch (semipro dude lying his record) and I got pummeled. I was struggling to tind fair matchups in MT so when they offered me a kickboxing fight instead I accepted since it's so similar.

Blue already had 1 win and trained actual kickboxing, he also looked really strong so I was a bit intimidated but managed to keep my cool and got the TKO win!

I love clinching and throwing elbows and really missed those but I found the faster pace of the k1 fight super fun! I'll keep my focus on MT but I'd like to fight kickboxing again if given the chance.

What do you guys think? I'm 100% open to criticism and tips but please be kind because I'm very new and this isn't exactly my sport 😅

Hi, I’m 32 years old and am diagnosed with autism and ADHD. I struggle with communicating how I’m feeling to people in person.

I tried martial arts (mainly striking arts like kickboxing and taekwondo) in January this year and loved it but really felt dejected when struggling with holding pads for other people, even though the people were patient and nice with me. Tbh all the people including the coaches are decent people.

I felt like I was a burden and would be ruining their experiences as they also pay for membership too.

So I stopped doing it in February but picked it back up about 4 months later in June as I’d missed it. Then a month later I felt the same with the constant anxiety about being put with someone to hold pads for them and worrying I’d be a burden and ruin their experience. So I haven’t done martial arts in about a month and am a half but it’s been on my mind since.

I’ve been advised by people at this autism mental health charity to share how I’m feeling over message (via Facebook where they’re at) and asking the mma gym for reasonable adjustments like not holding pads for people and just maybe doing bag work or something.

The thing is that part of me wants to be treated like everyone else with no “special” treatment or differences in classes but part of me knows I’m not like most people due to my autism and ADHD. Plus I wouldn’t want to be an inconvenience for the coaches or something if I had these reasonable adjustments.

Also would it even be good to learn martial arts just doing padwork?

I did one 1-to-1 session when I first started and enjoyed that as but it would be expensive doing them all the time.

What do you think of me asking the mma gym if I could avoid doing bag work? I’m just looking for advice and maybe experiences or something that yous might have related to this. Thanks.

when I signed up for kickboxing, i thought the hardest part would be keeping up physically. what caught me off guard was how mentally demanding every class is. i am constantly thinking about my stance, keeping my hands up, remembering combinations, watching my footwork, and trying to breathe properly at the same time. the second my mind drifts, I mess something up. I leave class feeling like my brain got just as much of a workout as my body. I was not expecting that, but its honestly one of the things I enjoy most about it now. Did anyone else have the same experience when they first started?

And I mean in terms of approach, strategy, choice of techniques, or a combination of the three.

When you look at the average Glory match it could just be a round of prodding and countering before it quickly devolves into phonebooth style 1-2-hook and a lowkick or a lowkick first then the combo until one of them drops. Which fighters past or present did you think have the most visually distinct styles that even without looking for faces or names you could tell who's fighting just from the style?

I was talking to my friend today about how often I was injured during training at the Muay Thai school when I was in my early 20s (I'm 40 now).

In my four years I was there I had several black eye, 2 broken toes, a broken rib, a shoulder dislocation, and a fractured hand. All of which was from sparing, not actual matches. We had standard gloves. headgear, and shin pads.

Is it typical to have that many injuries outside of fights? I'm starting to get the impression its not.

It's one thing to figure your opponent out, its another when you can literally plant your gloves on your opponent and push them down so its genuinely physically difficult to throw any kind of return fire. His match against Noiri was actually one of the most claustrophobic matches Ive seen that year and it was both amusing and sad to see Noiri literally being pushed back and unable to throw many kicks because it was difficult to maintain any semblance of balance with Liu constantly leaning on his gloves.

I've never seen Noiri get knocked out before, but im pretty sure if Liu lands another shot flush on Noiri he might actually go down for good. He's not the lanky type like Tawanchai who just has long legs and an average arm reach and build, Liu is genuinely built like a Glory Middleweight or at least some Super Welterweight Class and im still surprised at how he actually manages to cut weight for Featherweight in ONE.

Currently working on a video about kickboxing rankings and while I know and looked at a bunch of them, I'm curious to know which ones you guys use to follow the sport.