Conde Koma's World Tour

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 1:01am

Not sure if this is the right place, but it's the closest I could think of for my topic. If there's a more appropriate place, help would be appreciated.

So, I've got this crazy plan that I've been going over in my head for a while now, and I think we've reached the stage of our relationship where I can share it with you all. All the working and saving and training I've been doing thus far will be put to this.

Like my namesake, I wish to do a world tour of the martial arts. I'll be taking all of 2011 off to travel the world and train with great fighters, hopefully landing in London just in time for the 2012 Summer Olympics. I doubt I'd be good enough to even consider competing, but it'd be cool to just be there.

The issue right now is what I want to study, where, and for how long. I'd ideally like to study in each location for about 3 months, but that limits me to only 7 locations. The more places I go, the less time I'll have at each place. In the interest of streamlining my training, I'm debating whether or not to study strictly grappling or to incorporate striking/weaponry. Here's what I've got so far (season, place, style, school):

Current route:
Winter of 2011 - Thailand - Muay Thai (or Muay Chaiya?) - Probably Tiger Muay Thai or Muay Thai Chaiya (maybe Por. Pramuk?)
Spring of 2011 - Japan - Judo, Subgrappling, MMA (and karate?) - Nihon Top Team
Summer of 2011 - Korea - Judo (and Taekkyon or TKD?) - Yong-In University
Fall of 2011 - Russia - Sambo, MMA - Red Devil Sports Club
Winter of 2012 - Greece - Pankration - (suggestions?)
Spring of 2012 - France - Judo (and Savate/La Canne?) - (suggestions?)
Summer of 2012 - England - Catch Wrestling (and boxing?) - (suggestions?)

As you can see, I'm still working out the details. One of the reasons I'm starting so early is so I can work everything out before I actually leave. If I stick to just grappling, it'll make things a lot easier in terms of training (theoretically), but studying stuff like Savate and Muay Thai just seem too fun to ignore.

Places and styles I'd like to work into my route:
China/Taiwan - Shuai Jiao, Sanshou
Mongolia - Mongolian Wrestling
Brazil - BJJ, Vale Tudo, Capoeira
Iceland/Netherlands/Norway/Northernish-Easternis Europe - Glima, Pantsgrip, other folk wrestling styles
India - Malla-yuddha
Pilipines - Escrima, Arnis, Kali, other FMA

Of course, there are so many styles all over the world, it's just about impossible to go and learn each one. If you guys have any suggestions on ways to improve my route, places I should definitely or definitely not train at, or ways to do this without getting myself killed along the way, please post it and let me know.

I'm almost positive I'm going to be doing this one way or another, although I may or may not have a friend with me to help me document the experience. It'd be super cool to get the Travel channel or Zuffa to sponsor me in some way, but I have no idea how I would go about doing that. Suggestions to help with that would be cool too.

If you're along my route, I'd love to stop in and have a mini-throwdown with any one of you as well. :D

**Byuki** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 5:35am

All i can say is don't miss out on Brazil, the BJJ will be great and the capoeira will be very refreshing from all the other stuff.

**Coach Josh** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 7:39am

Come to Louisiana and learn white trash juijitsu

**sempaiman** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 7:52am

Are you planning to work in each place or you saved up your money...more training time if you don't work.

**galois** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 7:58am

When you come to England you should train in pikey face wrestling. The basic idea is to keep your hands down by your sides and thrust your face at people. The key to victory is to pick on people who don't look as if they're going to fight back.

This video has done the rounds but is a good example of the style.
YouTube - Chav gets smacked by martial arts expert

***jnp*** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 7:58am

Here's a question to ask yourself before posting a thread in the technique forums, is this thread about technique? No?

Then don't post it in the technique forums!

**Conde Koma** · Posted On: 10/12/2009 12:20pm

I assumed that since I was asking general questions about training, it would fall under that forum. I'm spanning a lot of countries and a lot of styles, so I wasn't sure if it'd fit under any of the Traditional Styles forums either. The other option I was thinking about was to put it under Throwdowns, but as I'm not organizing a specific throwdown session, I didn't think it would fit under there either.

Is there some place else this could be moved? I'd really like this to be taken seriously, as I really am looking for suggestions, and threads here don't tend to get much legitimate response.

Sempaiman: I plan on training full time, so I'm working right now to save up as much as I can.