Karate 'masters' are always a disappointment.
I remember expecting them to be all Van Damme and shit, but to a man, they were slightly pot-bellied hairy shouters with thick forearms and an almost-American degree of misguided self-belief.
( Wet-chinned bag shanker Cannot parse Wogan, Fri 20 Jan 2012, 9:47, 1 reply)

I trained in Karate for 9 long, hard years....
My technique was beautiful, I was supple, I was graceful. I was a flowing creature of martial art perfection. No one in my association could touch me...

And then I walked into a Muay Thai gym and got the biggest shoeing of my life. Simultaneously the best/worst lesson I ever learned - There is always someone better, Karate is shit and I had wasted 10 years of my youth when I should have been out drinking and shagging lasses.

Fucksocks.
(Mr Fudge It shouldn't be illegal to have sex with an eagle, Fri 20 Jan 2012, 10:10, closed)

Despite it's background as a method of defence for impoverished farmhands,
I long suspected that karate would be of limited use in a real fight.
From what I've seen of Muay Thai, it's far more concerned with beating the shit out of people, so I will encourage my kids to learn that, instead (I watched a class training in the local park, recently, and it was mostly small children kicking the crap out of each other - great stuff).
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Fri 20 Jan 2012, 12:41, closed)

How did you know
that I was an impoverished farmhand? Have we met?

Totally agree that Muay Thai is awesome though. 3 months of training 3 times a week and I was in better shape than ever before and learned more about martial arts than I was taught in a decade of Karate.

PS - Top noncing for watching the kids in the park. Bravo.
(Mr Fudge It shouldn't be illegal to have sex with an eagle, Fri 20 Jan 2012, 14:48, closed)