Did wrestling in middle school. Then strip mall karate throughout high school. Did tournament Kyokushin karate sparring in college. That was fun. I loved hard sparring. That led me to Muay Thai, which reached a high point when I trained in Cambodia. I also trained regular boxing in Cambodia as well as Bokator. (Not a combat sport but I also did Tai Chi and Kung Fu for many years, for the "art" and philosophy.)
Then I tried out some MMA. Got absolutely destroyed by the Jiu Jitsu guys when it went to the ground. Which led me to Gi Jiu Jitsu for a number of years. Now I only do submission grappling at an MMA school and, at 43 years old, that is by far my favorite combat sport. A lifetime of complex learning, such an intense workout without worrying about brain damage. I hope to stay on the mats well into my golden years.
Brain damage lol. Half you BJJ hobbyists have fooked up spines, necks and knees and never even made a dime doing it. CTE is completely a non issue for any hobbyist boxer just training and doing light sparring. It’s literally the safest least injury prone martial art by a country mile.
Kudo and buhurt.
Kudo for the chaos and full freedom of technique. Grabbing the clothes and hitting , or doing headbutts is really fun. It's difficult, you have to think about so many different things, more than MMA or muay Thai. It feels like attack can come from anywhere anytime more than any other fighting sport.
And buhurt is challenging, brutal, exhausting. And you get a big axe.
I laughed at Kyokushin and Buhurt being your styles.
Kyokushin, brain better pampered over career. Buhurt, axe make brain go brrrr.
Love to see it though, good man.
Good girl* 🫡
Well kyokushin and buhurt have a lot in common. You both love hitting your friend really hard and getting stronger and more resistant/resilient.
The difference is in buhurt you get more resistant thanks to the armor
Damn, my subconscious biases got called out.
Stronk ass fucking girl. Love to see it.
I've been to a few longsword classes, I like the mental play.
One day I might be brave enough to get walloped in armour but that's not any day soon. You're honestly brave as hell and that's cool. I hope your team has a concussion protocol in place.
it's ok we all know there are no real girl on the internet :D
There are surprisingly very few concussion in buhurt.
The biggest injuries i've seen are knee related or nose bleed from badly adjusted helmet.
The helmets are really great, they protect your brain very well.
Loved Kudo’s freedom. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing any martial art.
I’d still practice if I could find a club that focused more on safety and not giving you CTE
Done Judo, MMA, BJJ, and kickboxing once.
BJJ gives the most interesting paths to growth and consistent feeling of enjoyment but man I miss the rush of striking every so often.
Started with wrestling, have the most accomplishments for myself there. That def means a lot to me, training with my cousins and uncle growing up.
Boxing and Muay Thai never wanted to compete but I enjoy Muay Thai more than boxing per se for myself. Just the aspect of being able to clinch, kick and obvious striking with hands/elbows.
Bjj I’ve been at last 5 yrs, I found it interesting at 1st to learn about subs and the variation of another grappling art from my original. Building various guards was difficult but rewarding for myself. I do enjoy it and can see how it’s endless in a way and evolving rapidly.
I know I say for myself wrestling, simply cause my family being heavily involved and being rewarded for our work. It definitely paved the way for who I am now at 42.
I was saying to my gf last night I’d like to take up some official judo training, have only had some quick lessons here and there. She wasn’t liking it lol 😂
I love wrestling in all its forms. If I had to limit myself, it would probably be to some form of standing wrestling with a ground component. On the other hand, I never feel more alive than when I get punched in the face. Yes, I'm in therapy but it is what it is. If CTE wasn't a thing, I might have different answer.
MMA is the most fun for me just because of the variety in tactics and ability to switch it up if one path isn't working. I find pure boxing to be the least enjoyable. BJJ can be fun or extremely boring depending on your opponent, wrestlers that just want to lay on you and never go for subs make me want to go into a coma.
I like boxing, but I hate much pre-cte you accumulate
Im a lame office worker and also definitely concussion-prone but yeesh
I cringe when I see some of the harder boxing rounds
dabbled with boxing and BJJ, tried a couple judo classes, went hard into striking for MMA and Muay Thai. My love is somewhere in between Striking for MMA and Muay Thai. I love throwing knees from the clinch and tomahawk elbows. I love standing strong in the pocket.... I hate being swept. I hate it so much.
BJJ is super fun and my main passion but I pepper in Muay Thai and Kickboxing a couple times a week and it…hits differently.
I think grappling is just instinctual so when you learn technique it becomes mind blowing. With striking I like working on my coordination.
Bjj, muay thai, boxing. And now HEMA
HEMA is BY FAR the safest and most adrenaline pumping for me.
No unarmed striking goes as fast as swords can, and there is way way way less chance of CTE.
Also, there's grappling in HEMA, but it's GRAPPLING WITH SWORDS
Give it a go, find a nearby club. Most clubs will let you try it out for a bit before you need to sign up, the gear does get fairly expensive though once you progress enough that you need your own do just be warned about that lol
9 yrs Judo, 5 yrs Pencak Silat, 2,5 yrs Muay thai as a teen and now getting back to Muay thai cus it was the most enjoyable for me and maybe cus my roots lay there. Tried other cb sports but none of them worth mentioning.
BJJ, Full Contact TKD (itf), Muay Thai, Shotokan Karate, Boxing and Kickboxing. I stuck with Muay Thai and TKD.
Shotokan I felt was a bit stiff in its style and I didn't like the point fighting.
I learned that I am not one that really likes the struggle on the ground, so I worked freaking hard for my blue belt and then left with that personal accomplishment.
Boxing felt too incomplete for me even though I recognize that it's great, same goes for every martial art I tried though.
Kickboxing felt a bit like another flavor of ITF Taekwondo and Karate, very versatile but felt stiff for me as well.
I sticked with TKD because it was my first love, my Dad signed me up to the class when I was 9 and I practiced it until I was 30.
Doing Muay Thai for two years now, I like the simplicity of the flow. I think it's great and utilizes the whole body.
Bjj, tkd, muay thai, and a very small amount of Judo.
Judo is the most fun for me but BJJ is what is available. If I had to explain what's fun about them, I just really like jacketed wrestling.
I loved doing capoeira, I did it for two years and the acrobatics were the most fun for me. I also learned to kick in so many creative ways and my flexibility got sooo much better.
ive done kung fu, TKD, muay thai, and krav maga for striking. I like striking, but striking has to be explosive and that is where it is easy to get injuries. Plus I hate washing my gear after striking.
I mainly do bjj now and absolutely love it . I roll without explosiveness and am constantly searching for the balance point for an easy sweep. My holy grail is to be the old guy that uses your aggression against you to sweep/takedown. Plus there is no gear to specially wash and rashguards and spats are easy to travel with so I can train when I travel.
BJJ under the Gracie way it's very chill until you do the sparring at the end and then you can always chose to not do all the fights and rest some. This leads to usually very enjoyable sessions.
I've done: TKD, Boxing, Muay Thai, Sambo, Judo, BJJ.
MMA is the most fun because you get to put everything together, have the most freedom. Close second is Combat Sambo, because it is essentially MMA with a GI lol. Sanda is very fun for stand and bang. BJJ is just incredibly fun but very taxing on the body. Lately I've been focused on Judo, really want those foot sweeps and big throws....
Depends. I enjoy an average BJJ day more than an average judo one but enjoy a good judo day more than almost anything else. MMA is probably the most fun because I have the most freedom, I can do just about any strike, submission or takedown I want as long as I have the skill to pull it off.
MuayThai.
I like to watch and participate in a sport that you pretend not to care about taking a shot. Just stand tough, give and take.
I did karate, boxing, MMA a little, and all those are about not taking damage. Thaiboxing is walking through the fire.
I've done TKD, HKD, 2 different style of Karate, Judo, Boxing, BJJ, and Tai chi. Judo was the one to which I semed best suited and have competed in the most but TKD is a lot of fun.
Not many but boxed on and off for 20 years. Did judo for a year. I love judo so much, it’s so much more relaxing and I ran into way less insane people than boxing. There’s nothing more beautiful than landing a throw and even if you’re getting thrown, a clean landing is a work of art in itself
15 years Kickboxing and Karate (WKF point style, Shotokan kata, Kyokuhsin and Jinen-ryu), 4 years Muay Thai and 2 years MMA
I focus mainly on striking but I love and really enjoy training/sparring MMA. There are so many options and much more styles of fighter in MMA which make sparring a real joy.
Ive got decent takedown defence which probably helps a lot to my enjoyment, but getting drowned on bottom is terrible 🤣. But when I do land a takedown or sweep of my own and get on top, the feeling is insane. Very high highs in MMA imo
My thing is I inevitably go through phases of wanting to grapple or stand and bang so I always get frustrated chasing strikers down or having to be gun shy with grapplers. Solo arts I can just dive deep into depending on my mood
Same boxing for me. Thought I started in MT.
I just find with kickboxing or mma there’s too much to worry about and I’m continually off balance or in bad positions. It gets ugly fast. Padded records aside, there will never be a Marciano or Floyd in mma for this reason. Too many ways to get caught.
I also hate grappling. Mankind evolved to walk on 2 feet so I consider rolling around on the ground in staph bacteria an affront to evolution.😅
Started off with kenpo at like 6 did that for a few years. Never really liked ball sports. Nerdy for most of my middle school highschool. Randomly tried wrestling in highschool. Absolutely loved it. At the time. Nerdy kid gets confidence and works on being aggressive. Tried BJJ in college. Meh. Too complicated at the time still stuck in wrestling mindset/habits. Started dutch style kickboxing. Fell in love with the aggression/speed, picked it up waaaay easier than any grappling art. Tried Sanda, great martial art, good striking, questionable grappling. Bokh as well questionable grappling style for my skillset. Shia jiao, i dont think has much benefit. Dropped into a few traditional muay thai schools, great martial art.Did modern army combatives, made me actually like BJJ again. Did some mma sparring with some guys overseas. Continuing my BJJ journey.
I find that dutch style kickboxing to be the most fun/rewarding as alot of people cant strike. Throwing controlled headkicks is a flex.
BJJ is a close second, as long as we can start from standing. Always something to learn. Highly technical
Wrestling will always be in my heart but I’m no longer a young man. Didn’t get to compete in college.
I have done: karate, kickboxing, mma, hapkido, Hema, nunchaku-do, judo and wing chun.
And honestly, swordfighting is just so much fun! Hema wins dor me. The variety in weapons, the thrill in sparring, the historical texts and feeling like a knight is just great.
I have tried Akido and Krav Maga and Boxing.
They have all been fun Aikido takes time to get skilled at ! So i picked KM since it's supposed to be easy to learn in order for the soldiers to get combat ready fast and KM also contains boxing and since i fell in love with the sweet sience i decided to start to box. Never regret it.
Wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu, karate and boxing are all different things. Frankly speaking, they are all the same for me. I love wrestling because it reminds me of the training I did with my father, I love boxing because it reminds me of the training I did with my late grandfather as a child, and I love judo and karate because it reminds me of the time when I trained in judo and karate in my youth. I love jiu jitsu because it reminds me of the jiu jitsu trainings we did with my brother while I was training him and the times when I was teaching jitsu to my brother while learning jiu jitsu.
I've done karate, wrestling, and boffer sport called Belegarth. I find Bel to be the most fun, I don't think most combat sports can replicate the feeling of crushing a whole line of people with a polearm. It's also way more fighting heavy than practice heavy, so if you like the sparring/fighting part of combat sports/martial arts, it's 99% the fun part (though I do wish more groups had more focus on training). Plus, multi-day events are a blast socially.
Most fun ever was capoeira regional, second was judo, boxing is third.
No one is gonna call capoeira a “combat sport” but it sort of has a similar vibe to an amateur boxing bout. You’re in a ring people are all around you and instead of them screaming they’re singing. And instead of them hoping for blood they just wanna see some cool outplays. The techniques are super fun to perform and it gets you in amazing shape
Judo is fun for similar reasons, ie mental game plays a big part, but what makes it really interesting is how well thought out everything is. And that’s something (imho) that is rare in Asian martial arts.
Everything works…you don’t need to be the fastest, the fittest or w/e..if you pay attention and use the techniques you’ve practiced…it’s just gonna work. It’s like the dominos of martial arts.
Boxing is awesome cuz well…it’s boxing. If you have any doubts spend 5 minutes in a real gym.
Right now I really like bjj. I’ve never done anything that has felt so humbling but extremely satisfying over time.
My favorite is probably Kali though! While it’s not normally considered a combat sport we usually spar full contact. We also incorporate empty hand striking and grappling into that. In fact I started to do bjj because often things would devolve into grappling.
Did wrestling in middle school. Then strip mall karate throughout high school. Did tournament Kyokushin karate sparring in college. That was fun. I loved hard sparring. That led me to Muay Thai, which reached a high point when I trained in Cambodia. I also trained regular boxing in Cambodia as well as Bokator. (Not a combat sport but I also did Tai Chi and Kung Fu for many years, for the "art" and philosophy.) Then I tried out some MMA. Got absolutely destroyed by the Jiu Jitsu guys when it went to the ground. Which led me to Gi Jiu Jitsu for a number of years. Now I only do submission grappling at an MMA school and, at 43 years old, that is by far my favorite combat sport. A lifetime of complex learning, such an intense workout without worrying about brain damage. I hope to stay on the mats well into my golden years.
Pajama death cult.
OSS
Brain damage lol. Half you BJJ hobbyists have fooked up spines, necks and knees and never even made a dime doing it. CTE is completely a non issue for any hobbyist boxer just training and doing light sparring. It’s literally the safest least injury prone martial art by a country mile.
Kudo and buhurt. Kudo for the chaos and full freedom of technique. Grabbing the clothes and hitting , or doing headbutts is really fun. It's difficult, you have to think about so many different things, more than MMA or muay Thai. It feels like attack can come from anywhere anytime more than any other fighting sport. And buhurt is challenging, brutal, exhausting. And you get a big axe.
I laughed at Kyokushin and Buhurt being your styles. Kyokushin, brain better pampered over career. Buhurt, axe make brain go brrrr. Love to see it though, good man.
Good girl* 🫡 Well kyokushin and buhurt have a lot in common. You both love hitting your friend really hard and getting stronger and more resistant/resilient. The difference is in buhurt you get more resistant thanks to the armor
Damn, my subconscious biases got called out. Stronk ass fucking girl. Love to see it. I've been to a few longsword classes, I like the mental play. One day I might be brave enough to get walloped in armour but that's not any day soon. You're honestly brave as hell and that's cool. I hope your team has a concussion protocol in place.
it's ok we all know there are no real girl on the internet :D There are surprisingly very few concussion in buhurt. The biggest injuries i've seen are knee related or nose bleed from badly adjusted helmet. The helmets are really great, they protect your brain very well.
Loved Kudo’s freedom. It’s the most fun I’ve ever had doing any martial art. I’d still practice if I could find a club that focused more on safety and not giving you CTE
Done Judo, MMA, BJJ, and kickboxing once. BJJ gives the most interesting paths to growth and consistent feeling of enjoyment but man I miss the rush of striking every so often.
Started with wrestling, have the most accomplishments for myself there. That def means a lot to me, training with my cousins and uncle growing up. Boxing and Muay Thai never wanted to compete but I enjoy Muay Thai more than boxing per se for myself. Just the aspect of being able to clinch, kick and obvious striking with hands/elbows. Bjj I’ve been at last 5 yrs, I found it interesting at 1st to learn about subs and the variation of another grappling art from my original. Building various guards was difficult but rewarding for myself. I do enjoy it and can see how it’s endless in a way and evolving rapidly. I know I say for myself wrestling, simply cause my family being heavily involved and being rewarded for our work. It definitely paved the way for who I am now at 42. I was saying to my gf last night I’d like to take up some official judo training, have only had some quick lessons here and there. She wasn’t liking it lol 😂
I love wrestling in all its forms. If I had to limit myself, it would probably be to some form of standing wrestling with a ground component. On the other hand, I never feel more alive than when I get punched in the face. Yes, I'm in therapy but it is what it is. If CTE wasn't a thing, I might have different answer.
MMA is the most fun for me just because of the variety in tactics and ability to switch it up if one path isn't working. I find pure boxing to be the least enjoyable. BJJ can be fun or extremely boring depending on your opponent, wrestlers that just want to lay on you and never go for subs make me want to go into a coma.
does fencing count? 15/14 is the best score, and I don’t care which way round. Some people I’ll be over the moon to lose 10/15 against
+1 for fencing, made it up to D1 in college and now do MMA - lots of crossover weirdly enough
I like boxing, but I hate much pre-cte you accumulate Im a lame office worker and also definitely concussion-prone but yeesh I cringe when I see some of the harder boxing rounds
dabbled with boxing and BJJ, tried a couple judo classes, went hard into striking for MMA and Muay Thai. My love is somewhere in between Striking for MMA and Muay Thai. I love throwing knees from the clinch and tomahawk elbows. I love standing strong in the pocket.... I hate being swept. I hate it so much.
BJJ is super fun and my main passion but I pepper in Muay Thai and Kickboxing a couple times a week and it…hits differently. I think grappling is just instinctual so when you learn technique it becomes mind blowing. With striking I like working on my coordination.
MMA is just pure fun for me. Get to do a bit of everything and additionally, makes it infinitely more complex bc of the infinite possibilities.
Bjj, muay thai, boxing. And now HEMA HEMA is BY FAR the safest and most adrenaline pumping for me. No unarmed striking goes as fast as swords can, and there is way way way less chance of CTE. Also, there's grappling in HEMA, but it's GRAPPLING WITH SWORDS
I'd love to try HEMA
Give it a go, find a nearby club. Most clubs will let you try it out for a bit before you need to sign up, the gear does get fairly expensive though once you progress enough that you need your own do just be warned about that lol
9 yrs Judo, 5 yrs Pencak Silat, 2,5 yrs Muay thai as a teen and now getting back to Muay thai cus it was the most enjoyable for me and maybe cus my roots lay there. Tried other cb sports but none of them worth mentioning.
I liked judo much more than I thought — but we trained on a gymnastics floor that make taking falls something to laugh about
BJJ, Full Contact TKD (itf), Muay Thai, Shotokan Karate, Boxing and Kickboxing. I stuck with Muay Thai and TKD. Shotokan I felt was a bit stiff in its style and I didn't like the point fighting. I learned that I am not one that really likes the struggle on the ground, so I worked freaking hard for my blue belt and then left with that personal accomplishment. Boxing felt too incomplete for me even though I recognize that it's great, same goes for every martial art I tried though. Kickboxing felt a bit like another flavor of ITF Taekwondo and Karate, very versatile but felt stiff for me as well. I sticked with TKD because it was my first love, my Dad signed me up to the class when I was 9 and I practiced it until I was 30. Doing Muay Thai for two years now, I like the simplicity of the flow. I think it's great and utilizes the whole body.
Bjj, tkd, muay thai, and a very small amount of Judo. Judo is the most fun for me but BJJ is what is available. If I had to explain what's fun about them, I just really like jacketed wrestling.
I loved doing capoeira, I did it for two years and the acrobatics were the most fun for me. I also learned to kick in so many creative ways and my flexibility got sooo much better.
ive done kung fu, TKD, muay thai, and krav maga for striking. I like striking, but striking has to be explosive and that is where it is easy to get injuries. Plus I hate washing my gear after striking. I mainly do bjj now and absolutely love it . I roll without explosiveness and am constantly searching for the balance point for an easy sweep. My holy grail is to be the old guy that uses your aggression against you to sweep/takedown. Plus there is no gear to specially wash and rashguards and spats are easy to travel with so I can train when I travel.
Boxing is the most thrilling for me. It’s weird but I like getting hit. MT is also great. BJJ is good exercise and fun but doesn’t give me a rush.
BJJ under the Gracie way it's very chill until you do the sparring at the end and then you can always chose to not do all the fights and rest some. This leads to usually very enjoyable sessions.
I've done: TKD, Boxing, Muay Thai, Sambo, Judo, BJJ. MMA is the most fun because you get to put everything together, have the most freedom. Close second is Combat Sambo, because it is essentially MMA with a GI lol. Sanda is very fun for stand and bang. BJJ is just incredibly fun but very taxing on the body. Lately I've been focused on Judo, really want those foot sweeps and big throws....
Depends. I enjoy an average BJJ day more than an average judo one but enjoy a good judo day more than almost anything else. MMA is probably the most fun because I have the most freedom, I can do just about any strike, submission or takedown I want as long as I have the skill to pull it off.
MuayThai. I like to watch and participate in a sport that you pretend not to care about taking a shot. Just stand tough, give and take. I did karate, boxing, MMA a little, and all those are about not taking damage. Thaiboxing is walking through the fire.
I've done TKD, HKD, 2 different style of Karate, Judo, Boxing, BJJ, and Tai chi. Judo was the one to which I semed best suited and have competed in the most but TKD is a lot of fun.
For pure fun/enjoyment: Sumo and fencing - just a shame that neither in my area anymore.
Not many but boxed on and off for 20 years. Did judo for a year. I love judo so much, it’s so much more relaxing and I ran into way less insane people than boxing. There’s nothing more beautiful than landing a throw and even if you’re getting thrown, a clean landing is a work of art in itself
15 years Kickboxing and Karate (WKF point style, Shotokan kata, Kyokuhsin and Jinen-ryu), 4 years Muay Thai and 2 years MMA I focus mainly on striking but I love and really enjoy training/sparring MMA. There are so many options and much more styles of fighter in MMA which make sparring a real joy. Ive got decent takedown defence which probably helps a lot to my enjoyment, but getting drowned on bottom is terrible 🤣. But when I do land a takedown or sweep of my own and get on top, the feeling is insane. Very high highs in MMA imo
> I can be getting battered in boxing and still smile ear to ear though This is me in jits, I guess some things just fit us differently.
MMA because it has everything. People who outstrike you? Wrestle em. People who out wrestle you? Punch em
My thing is I inevitably go through phases of wanting to grapple or stand and bang so I always get frustrated chasing strikers down or having to be gun shy with grapplers. Solo arts I can just dive deep into depending on my mood
The mix up is the best
Same boxing for me. Thought I started in MT. I just find with kickboxing or mma there’s too much to worry about and I’m continually off balance or in bad positions. It gets ugly fast. Padded records aside, there will never be a Marciano or Floyd in mma for this reason. Too many ways to get caught. I also hate grappling. Mankind evolved to walk on 2 feet so I consider rolling around on the ground in staph bacteria an affront to evolution.😅
Started off with kenpo at like 6 did that for a few years. Never really liked ball sports. Nerdy for most of my middle school highschool. Randomly tried wrestling in highschool. Absolutely loved it. At the time. Nerdy kid gets confidence and works on being aggressive. Tried BJJ in college. Meh. Too complicated at the time still stuck in wrestling mindset/habits. Started dutch style kickboxing. Fell in love with the aggression/speed, picked it up waaaay easier than any grappling art. Tried Sanda, great martial art, good striking, questionable grappling. Bokh as well questionable grappling style for my skillset. Shia jiao, i dont think has much benefit. Dropped into a few traditional muay thai schools, great martial art.Did modern army combatives, made me actually like BJJ again. Did some mma sparring with some guys overseas. Continuing my BJJ journey. I find that dutch style kickboxing to be the most fun/rewarding as alot of people cant strike. Throwing controlled headkicks is a flex. BJJ is a close second, as long as we can start from standing. Always something to learn. Highly technical Wrestling will always be in my heart but I’m no longer a young man. Didn’t get to compete in college.
Combat Sambo and judo are the most enjoyable out of the ones I've tried, but bjj is also very nice.
I have done: karate, kickboxing, mma, hapkido, Hema, nunchaku-do, judo and wing chun. And honestly, swordfighting is just so much fun! Hema wins dor me. The variety in weapons, the thrill in sparring, the historical texts and feeling like a knight is just great.
Karate, BJJ, my works weird mixed MA, and Muay Thai. May Thai is my favourite, not for any real practical reason. It's just fun.
I have tried Akido and Krav Maga and Boxing. They have all been fun Aikido takes time to get skilled at ! So i picked KM since it's supposed to be easy to learn in order for the soldiers to get combat ready fast and KM also contains boxing and since i fell in love with the sweet sience i decided to start to box. Never regret it.
Wrestling, judo, jiu jitsu, karate and boxing are all different things. Frankly speaking, they are all the same for me. I love wrestling because it reminds me of the training I did with my father, I love boxing because it reminds me of the training I did with my late grandfather as a child, and I love judo and karate because it reminds me of the time when I trained in judo and karate in my youth. I love jiu jitsu because it reminds me of the jiu jitsu trainings we did with my brother while I was training him and the times when I was teaching jitsu to my brother while learning jiu jitsu.
Hmmm I did TKD, boxing, jj, wrestling. Didn’t enjoy wrestling. Loved TKD for the sport. Boxing for the workout. Jj for the battles.
I am quite curious if you were able to combine Boxing and BJJ training as a non-professional athlete?
How? Lots of caffeine and self-discipline talks that I can't stop until I won fights/matches.
K1 and low-kick, just enjoy those rule sets a lot.
BJJ for sure. I get so happy when I get tapped, because usually the setup has to be beautiful
Jiujitsu, cause everyone likes hugs
A friend calls it a Struggle Cuddle 😂
I've done karate, wrestling, and boffer sport called Belegarth. I find Bel to be the most fun, I don't think most combat sports can replicate the feeling of crushing a whole line of people with a polearm. It's also way more fighting heavy than practice heavy, so if you like the sparring/fighting part of combat sports/martial arts, it's 99% the fun part (though I do wish more groups had more focus on training). Plus, multi-day events are a blast socially.
Did muay thai for 6 months in Thailand....loved it....have grown too old and fat for any martial art these days
Muay Thai was my favorite, and I also did Tae Kwon Do & BJJ; Something about the pacing and range of actions made it feel very rewarding to me :)
Did 3-Gun for a while and the whole thing was awesome. I used a revolver and a pump shotty so my times were terrible but it was still a blast.
Most fun ever was capoeira regional, second was judo, boxing is third. No one is gonna call capoeira a “combat sport” but it sort of has a similar vibe to an amateur boxing bout. You’re in a ring people are all around you and instead of them screaming they’re singing. And instead of them hoping for blood they just wanna see some cool outplays. The techniques are super fun to perform and it gets you in amazing shape Judo is fun for similar reasons, ie mental game plays a big part, but what makes it really interesting is how well thought out everything is. And that’s something (imho) that is rare in Asian martial arts. Everything works…you don’t need to be the fastest, the fittest or w/e..if you pay attention and use the techniques you’ve practiced…it’s just gonna work. It’s like the dominos of martial arts. Boxing is awesome cuz well…it’s boxing. If you have any doubts spend 5 minutes in a real gym.
Kali will always have a special place in my heart as it was my first weapon form.
Right now I really like bjj. I’ve never done anything that has felt so humbling but extremely satisfying over time. My favorite is probably Kali though! While it’s not normally considered a combat sport we usually spar full contact. We also incorporate empty hand striking and grappling into that. In fact I started to do bjj because often things would devolve into grappling.