Ok so I've been taking TKD for 2 years now and have finally come to the realization that its not really worth anything (I have to give a big shout out to bullshido.com for that). Even though it is the ITA branch and it allows puching to the head and fairly realistic sparing I get the feeling that its still a dead art. So I think I'm going to try to get into MMA. Theres a school not far from where I live that I might join. But I do have a couple of questions...

1. Whats the best way to figure out if its training methods are BS or not? Their website is pretty informative and their memebers seem to have had a lot of success.

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/afapraxis/

2. I've never done full contact before. Whats the best way to get ready for it? How do you learn to cope with a knockout puch or kick? I'm ok with feeling pain but I think it would be a good idea to learn how to deal with it beforehand. Maybe I should have my brother clober me a few times until I can get over it...

Any advice would be great.

You owe yourself an apology.

I'd personally want to know if it is possible to train there and not go in the 'sport' direction.

Of course if you are interested in sport, they look great for that.

Ok so I've been taking TKD for 2 years now and have finally come to the realization that its not really worth anything (I have to give a big shout out to bullshido.com for that). Even though it is the ITA branch and it allows puching to the head and fairly realistic sparing I get the feeling that its still a dead art. So I think I'm going to try to get into MMA. Theres a school not far from where I live that I might join. But I do have a couple of questions....

I always thought ITA was the worst for realistic sparring ... I am problably just getting my abreviations confused .


1. Whats the best way to figure out if its training methods are BS or not? Their website is pretty informative and their memebers seem to have had a lot of success.

http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/afapraxis/.
Spar them and spar hard with them . If they are not open to hard or full contact sparring they really arent a place I want to assiocate with .

If its grappling they should be competing or atleast have a "team" that travels and/or competes localy .


2. I've never done full contact before. Whats the best way to get ready for it? How do you learn to cope with a knockout puch or kick? I'm ok with feeling pain but I think it would be a good idea to learn how to deal with it beforehand. Maybe I should have my brother clober me a few times until I can get over it...

Any advice would be great.

I wouldn't suggest full contact full range sparing unless you know when and how to tap .

If it is just stand up it's kinda hard to really **** up with gloves , cup , mouth peice , and some sort of padding on the floor ( grass , matts , lava ... etc ..)

Start off slow and work your way up . It is only rocket science as you get a better game ... just get comfortable with hitting and getting hit at first .

The ITA (according to my instructors) is an offshoot of USTA. Apparently some instructors in the USTA had a problem with their training and sparing methods and decided to leave. Some of the differences I noticed are the fact that we don't were the dorky body armor with the spots and we can puch to the head during regular sparring (not in tournaments though).

And thanks for the advice!

The ITA (according to my instructors) is an offshoot of USTA. Apparently some instructors in the USTA had a problem with their training and sparing methods and decided to leave. Some of the differences I noticed are the fact that we don't were the dorky body armor with the spots and we can puch to the head during regular sparring (not in tournaments though).

And thanks for the advice!

I was thinking ATA ... ... never actually heard of ITA or USTA .Nice to have heard that atleast some of them ( refering to TKD ) have lost the chest protectors .

I wouldn't be suprised. The ITA is realy obscure...you can probably find only a couple of refrences on the web. Maybe 3 or 4. It's an ok style, but its still a dead art with 0 grappling.

a lack of grappling does not a dead art make.

Did someone say that it did?