I thought I would start this as a kind of addendum to the "best martial art" discussion. Instead of everyone debating about their favorite style or what a badass they are I would ask the question: What are your shortcomings as a combatant? What would you like to improve and how are you going to go about it?

Personally, I suck at control tactics i.e. joint locks and such. As a correctional employee, I know a few wrist locks and stuff like that which are applicable in a controlled setting, but don't work so well on the street. I've been working on improving my game in this area for a little while now, but still have a ways to go.

For me its my ground game. I have 4 really good tricks if we are both in the dirt and I better hope one of them works. If they don’t, I guess I call for mommy and hope they die laughing.

Not sure how I will go about improving my arsenal in that area.

Weapon defense, either a reality based system for gun/knife, or even something like silat for a more general understanding of knife fighting.

Hand to hand combat in any form of rough housing would be good for me

Im also trying to improve on my parkour activities as well

Im also working on finding other non violent ways to subdue a person and contain them until the police arrive

Cardio and ground, specifically getting my ass off the ground as fast as possible in a fight.
I"m not bad at grappling, but I want to pop off the ground as fast as possible and get better at wiggling and slipping to E&E attempts to grapple me while I land on my ass.

Conditioning and my standing game. My punches won't bust a grape, my kicks are too slow.
My ground games good,most people seem to have the opposite problem I do. Wish you guys lived closer; we could help eachother.

Doing the dailies and typing it here is about all we can afford.




I'm happy for this though.
I need to work to un-crooked my hand-strength

and
I got to work on my feet a lot
and

I HAVE to hand in my continuing credits

My ground game is slop. I was trained by a few good teachers, but I dislike being on the ground so much that I only keep it up just enough to make sure I don't get taken out and that I can break away to get back up and striking. I really just wish I liked rolling more than I do.

Stamina is garbage. When I started learning how to end situations really fast I started getting really lazy with my cardio. It was never an issue until I'd run up against someone I couldn't drop in a minute or less. First time that happened I was gasping for air like no-ones business. No fault of trainers or style though. I'll take full responsibility for that poor decision I made. luckily I can still end things fast most of the time though.

Here's a questionish item:

"...end things fast..."

Please define "things".

Chances are the types of "things" that cause a man to pull out his martial arts are different
from what would make a woman do so.

In Kenpo, we have a double wrist grab attack from the front.

One of the guys said that this was dumb - that no one does that.

I said, "Wait. Guys do that to gals OFTEN".

( this is not a question for this thread, eh?)

Well I was really just referring to any physical altercation in general. It could be anything from training, to when I was a bouncer, to when I was living under Santa Monica pier, to a standard street fight, a competition, or a life threatening event. I wasn't really talking about a specific instance because I'd say you really need to gauge the appropriate level of response to the event itself. No matter what the event is though, there is always a way to "end it fast".

hmmm too fascinating...must start new thread

As far as martial arts go, I have a lot of improving to do. Most of it will be aimed at being proficient enough not to have to hurt people. My choices now in many situations would be between not using force or potentially hurting someone really bad.

I'm not a good martial artist. I'm not completely ignorant. I have some limited experience, including experience that involved things happening, and I'm in reasonable shape.

I will focus on this more later, but I'm focusing on conditioning right now. I don't have the time to do everything I want to do.

I should get better.

I'm too 'gung-shi' (did I get that right?). Opposite of gung-ho. I hesitate too much and lose the decisive advantage.

Cardio,groud game and stop being scared to make those crucial turning point moves. I mean I spar alot with my friends because if I can't do well there how can I hope to be of any use in combat

Seconded on the cardio!
Also, I need to focus on strengthening my knee.

I feel a knee-lecture coming on

I think we covered that before.

have you given up shoes with a one-inch heel?
are you doing side leg lifts?

I never wear heels.
Yup!