got the name of the martial art i'm studying...

[Head Wreck]

Vadakkan Kalarippayattu

its rather grand. its what the shaou lin stuff is based on :grin

not to be confused with the other form of kalarippayat of the south..

[Rayne]

Vadakkan Kalarippayattu

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Vada ... whatta?

Sounds Scandinavian.

[Homicidalheathen]

Can you elaberate please? What are they types of moves....got a web site?

[Head Wreck]

its a rare form of kalarippayat practiced stricltly in monastaries in indie since the british occupation untill recently (the british banned it as they kind of got worried when unarmed peasents were simply taking the rifles of the british troops without even breaking a sweat). its mainly a defensive form that is based around harnessing an opponents momentum, disrupting an oponents balance, and using the oponents nerve points and unlike any other system i've tried and jacked in, the teachins is not done agressively where people line up and shout while punching the air, if anything, relaxing is the best way to do some of the moves.

i'm doing this twice weekly. wednesdays are strickly physical fitness nights, thursdays is meditation and combat. i've been going for about a month now and i'm allready shaping up half my beergut is gone allready.

it is said that an indian monk traveled to china to a small monestry where the monks were not physically fit enough to deal with the rigours of fasting and other exertions atat budhists of the time put themselves through, so the monk, named bodin dharma, who was allready a kalarippayat master taught the monks of the little tree monestry some of the basics. the monestrys name translated into chinese is shaou lin. and we know how potent that style is

as to links. i can only find links to the southern style of the art which was derived for millitary purposes and is an agressive form that concentrates on attack. this form is more common due to it being more accessable to the general populus than the monks style.

my teacher trained as a monk from the age of 5 so i got a lot to catch up on :D

[torn asunder]

it sounds a bit like aikido... interesting! :cheerful

[Head Wreck]

its a lot more free flowing than akido (my cousin teaches akido to the parachute regiment) and has a few nerve points which are usefull.

such as a nerve point to KO someone near instant, and a nerve point to revive someone who's fainted or been KO'ed (the ;last one is more interesting.

theres also accupressure involved and flexability training i have yet to go into.

you progress in this via physical fitness, which sounds better to me

[cptdeath]

how did you stumble across this? i'm surprised i never heard of it.

[Head Wreck]

theres a guy in my village who studied in a monestry from the age of 5. he's 64 now and one hell of a good teacher, and just as mucky minded as the rest of us unfortunatly.

as said, it is rare as the british had confined it to the monestries and when we left the monks kept it that way as it worked for them. Lal Krishna (my teacher) is one of very few people in the country who knows it well enouigh to teach, and he is a master at the art.

the lessons are word of mouth.

[torn asunder]

theres a guy in my village who studied in a monestry from the age of 5.  he's 64 now and one hell of a good teacher, and just as mucky minded as the rest of us unfortunatly.

as said, it is rare as the british had confined it to the monestries and when we left the monks kept it that way as it worked for them.  Lal Krishna (my teacher) is one of very few people in the country who knows it well enouigh to teach, and he is a master at the art.

the lessons are word of mouth.

wow! i'm terribly envious of you regarding this, hw - sounds awesome!

[Homicidalheathen]

It does sound unique

[cptdeath]

i feel privliged. maybee you shold keep it to your self if it's a secret.

village ? country?

sounds like fun. i got to show off some jujitsu the other day in tae kwon do. it was fun and it had been a while to, also i got to see sabu kick the giant in the head with a chair it was cool.

is more of an indian thing like real indian like indiana jones and the temple of doom.(not to let my ignorence seem insulting). ? would you think it would be easier to find more accounts of it from british history then my usual sources. i can never really seem to find much knowledge on martial arts of india just info on early weapon designs but nothing from the people that used them and to what effect.

[Head Wreck]

i tried tae kwon do once. and like akido and judo i just didnt get on with the way it was taught.

as far as its origins it originated by the monks in india who combined thier developing knowlage of the human body and the methosds they used to defend themselves against wild dogs into a method to defend themselves against brigands on the streets and roads. it was taught to the masses and then kalarippayat split into ywo seperate forms as the southern styles (like indiana jones) developed it for martial purposes introducing quite a few weapons (most of which are just horendusly savage, like 5 foot long flexable cats claws, 6 foot long swords that can be worn like a belt).

as to finding accounts form other sources. i'm finding it terribly difficult to find info which doesnt have abvious mistakes and confusions that i can pick out (one even said the northern style was the martial, the southern to be defensive, and a third style.).

as i find out more i'll add, lal occasionaly drops in bits of history in idle chatter about the style during instruction (and a few stories from when he ran a restraunt in swansea during its rougher years)