Contact sports in the playground?

[Juggling Goth]

Hi,

I've been doing Shotokan karate for 3-4 years now; I just got my 3rd kyu. I also did a few years of Kyokushinkai in my early teens. I think I got my 6th kyu, but it was about fifteen years ago, so I don't really remember. (Occasionally I think "If I'd stuck at it the first time, I'd be doing this kata when I was young and skinny and my knees still worked".) Karate is my first and true love, and deserves a lot of credit for getting me out of the house and making me feel better when my mental health problems have been kicking my ass.

I just started roller derby and I'm loving it. I love karate for the discipline and the tradition, but sometimes it's nice to cut loose, put on a sparkly tutu, demand to be addressed as Jael Break, and knock people over.

I've done a few lessons of capoeira, which is technically a non-contact sport, but it's a martial art, so whatever. I found it insanely difficult because I'm a big clumsy tank; I can take a lot of hits and hit people right back, but acrobatics and dancing don't come naturally. Plus I can't sing in English, let alone Portugese. I had to give it up just because I didn't have the time or the energy, not because I wanted to quit. I'd love to go back to it sometime. It was just so different to everything else I've ever done.

So yeah. Any other martial artists or rollergirls (or rollerboys) in the playground?

[Icewalker]

Capoeeeeiiira! That's my dancing. :smallbiggrin:

I am a heck of a lanky fellow, so it quite works for me. But yeah, doesn't really count for this, seeing as the point of Capoeira (usually, not always) is to not hit your partner.

I've done some Kali, Filipino stick fighting. As it's weapons based, also a bit sketchy to put on this list. Honestly, as martial arts go, I haven't gotten much good training with actual body to body sparring. I took a few years of Tae Kwon Doe, but it doesn't really stand out much as a martial art, and as an added bonus it was super poorly taught.

Fencing! Again, close, but not really right.

[skywalker]

I've done some Kali, Filipino stick fighting. As it's weapons based, also a bit sketchy to put on this list.

Dog Brothers (http://dogbrothers.com/) think you're right to group it as "contact."

I did 9 years of martial arts, an obscure Korean business. It was fun. We weren't always supposed to hit each other, but sometimes these things happen. I don't think martial arts can be properly practiced without contact, generally.

Oh, and I love football, lacrosse, basketball (if it's not a contact sport, you aren't playing it right).

[KuReshtin]

Not an active practitioner of any contact sport right now, even if I played American Football for about 7 years before going into officiating (does officiating still count as practicing the contact sport?).

As part of the training regime that my team leader has set up for me, I do a bit of boxing drills, which is a bit of fun, but nothing more than that.

Love watching American Football and MMA.

[ZombyWoof]

Love football. Played a game in high school called "The Backpack Game." Basically we had this somewhat assymetrical playground at school and two backpacks. One was put in each tower. Two teams would try to retreive the other backpack CTF style, but more like rugby. After a point was scored, players swapped towers. Play continued until one team scored 4 points in a row.

[rakkoon]

25 years of Japanese Martial Arts (7 of which were Shotokan Karate) and 1 year of American Kempo over here. And of course full contact chess.

[Innis Cabal]

15 years of Isshin Ryu karate. Achieved my second degree brown before I quit.

[Eldan]

I once fistbumped someone after a game of warhammer. Does that count? :smalltongue:

[Icewalker]

Wait wait wait, full contact chess? This sounds like the best thing. Do tell. :smalltongue:

[Shyftir]

Well, I played Soccer in highschool, once again if you don't think its a contact sport, you ain't playin' it right!

I've done some Martial Arts an obscure style of Kung fu. (with a bit o' kenpo)

I was once very into and still occasionally play. Belegarth with is a full-contact foam-fighting Medieval combat recreation sport.
(You may be thinking that whacking each other with foam-covered fiberglass rods doesn't count, but when you break said fiberglass rods while wrestling over them, and have been shield-bashed/shield-kicked hard enough to knock you over, and have seen concussions and broken fingers/arms you stop doubting whether it qualifies.)

[Gaelbert]

25 years of Japanese Martial Arts (7 of which were Shotokan Karate) and 1 year of American Kempo over here. And of course full contact chess.

Is that chess-boxing or something different?

[Sacrieur]

Muay thai here, but I haven't competed or fought anyone, I merely train it.

[Trog]

Hmm... a few years of Tae Kwon Do, I suppose, and lots of games of "Kill the Carrier" as a kid.

When I got my driver's license we'd do full contact driving. That's where you're driving and suddenly everyone in the car grabs the wheel and tries to steer the car elsewhere instead. Some interesting struggles were had. :smallamused:

[Sarco_Phage]

I, too, am slightly schooled in Arnis/Kali, though I only ever got as far as knife/baston and solo baston forms, which are forms which employ a baton/machete/sword and a knife, and a single baton/machete/sword. The more advanced in Arnis/Kali you go, the more emphasis on non-weapon forms is placed, to the point that your elbows should be almost as good as your baston.

Also, I know basic Muay Thai techniques, but that's it.

[Dogmantra]

One time I had a tooth knocked out playing Rugby when I had to at school (and yes, I had a mouthguard) one of my fellow students told me later that when I retrieved it from the ground they thought I had gone straight from being tackled rather poorly to picking up a daisy. Fun times.

You know, I've never been too keen on contact sports. I WONDER WHY

[Juggling Goth]

My utterly unscientific and no-evidence-whatsoever feeling is that you're more likely to get hurt playing something like rugby than you are doing a martial art. I think it's to do with the violence being a means to an end, rather than the whole point, so people aren't as careful? That would be my guess. Which doesn't bode that well for my new love of roller derby :)

Ooh, nasty. The first aid for a tooth getting knocked out is to stick it straight back in again, but somehow I wouldn't want to do that after it'd been trampled in the mud...

Also, IMO, school sports suck. They are a very bad way to get people healthy or make them want to do other sports. Now I do karate, roller derby and triathlon, but at school I hated everything, and if anything, it put me off for several years. Of course, the utterly rubbish set of options available to us in a posh all-girls school didn't help, and nor did the ridiculous pleated skirts. Although a friend of mine did once start teaching me taekwondo forms when we should've been playing tennis, and the gym teacher had the sense to see we were doing more exercise and being happier about it.

[rakkoon]

Full contact chess is what I challenge my opponent to when I realise that they are way out of my league :smallsmile:

(= normal chess)

[Dogmantra]

Ooh, nasty. The first aid for a tooth getting knocked out is to stick it straight back in again, but somehow I wouldn't want to do that after it'd been trampled in the mud...

Fun fact.
That's what happened. Luckily it was not a particularly rainy day, the grass was damp but the ground wasn't muddy. It did hurt a lot though.

[ForzaFiori]

I practiced Okinawan Gojo-ryu and Karate-do for 10 years, stopped to play sports in HS, where I played football, soccer, and cross country (all of which are full contact when done right).

Now in college I'm thinking about taking a kenjitsu or Hapkido class once I get back in shape... if I get back in shape

[Scarlet Knight]

Also, IMO, school sports suck. They are a very bad way to get people healthy or make them want to do other sports...Although a friend of mine did once start teaching me taekwondo forms when we should've been playing tennis, and the gym teacher had the sense to see we were doing more exercise and being happier about it.

Unfortunately, since the invention of video games, school sports seem the only way to get kids to actually start to play, well, anything.

Also, it seems as though kids either have no interest or parents turn them into robo-atheletes without a healthy middle ground. Where I live, you almost can't join a sport in high school ( except track) unless you've already been playing since 8 years old...

[Juggling Goth]

Unfortunately, since the invention of video games, school sports seem the only way to get kids to actually start to play, well, anything.

Well, that was the theory when I was young, too, only instead of video games, I read books. At least now they might be on the Wii Fit :D


Also, it seems as though kids either have no interest or parents turn them into robo-atheletes without a healthy middle ground. Where I live, you almost can't join a sport in high school ( except track) unless you've already been playing since 8 years old...

Yeah, that's the problem. There's no place for people who don't necessarily hate the idea (I did swimming and horseriding outside school, as a kid), but aren't that great and don't see why they should have two hours scheduled public humiliation a week. I don't know what would help this, but for schools like mine, I'd recommend not putting girls on the cusp of puberty in leotards and making them do gym in a room with giant windows where the walls should be. You know, unless you're actually trying to knock the self-esteem out of them.

There's got to be a way to make it less punitive. Cos the way it was for me, it didn't make me healthier. It just made me hate the idea for years. The sports I do now are absolutely not ones that were offered in school, and with the exception of roller derby, they're all pretty solitary. Team sports are still my idea of hell.

[skywalker]

Not an active practitioner of any contact sport right now, even if I played American Football for about 7 years before going into officiating (does officiating still count as practicing the contact sport?).

I've seen enough videos of umpires being used as screens, and in particular one umpire was in the secondary when a running back shot the gap right in front of him, about to run him over. Ump laid the kid out!

So yes, I would say so.


\When I got my driver's license we'd do full contact driving. That's where you're driving and suddenly everyone in the car grabs the wheel and tries to steer the car elsewhere instead. Some interesting struggles were had. :smallamused:

:smallamused:? More like :eek:

[H Birchgrove]

I've played soccer, floorball, ice hockey, bandy, dodgeball and basketball as a kid. Of those I preferred floorball, ice hockey and bandy.

I've tried boxing but not for "real". I want to begin with Jeet Kuen Do, thai muay, savate and kendo some time. I hope Bartitsu will get popular in Sweden so I can try it too.