Oh yes; the advantage of grappling martial arts is that you get to a LOT of sparring. That's why I am taking judo and wrestling. But of course, you can see how biased I am for obvious reasons.

Regarding TKD, I will say this as a Korean who practiced it for 6 years and has a black belt.

Fuck. That. Shit. So hard.

If you really want to learn a strike-based martial art that has kicks, you are much better off taking muay thai.

edited 10th May '13 8:11:38 AM by dRoy

I've actually sort of thought of a pony martial arts league of some sort, but most of it would be kicks and leg-based grappling.

edited 10th May '13 8:12:09 AM by edvedd

@ keg

No.

This might be tricky though, since I can't see the keys having many towns big enough to support teams.

edited 10th May '13 8:12:49 AM by ApplelightLimited

See for me, I'm more in for a martial art that gives me as much and as holistic a workout as possible. I'm a pacifist, so I don't really care about what the martial art can do. Judo is extremely good exercise - not to mention the fact that you often put everything you have into a grapple makes it a hell of a lot of fun.

If your teacher's not doing sparring as a part of class, then your teacher is crap and you should find another.

@kegisak - Grappling in general is a hell lot more workout (I am not comparing the effectiveness here) than striking so you are good.

edited 10th May '13 8:15:06 AM by dRoy

*knows nothing about martial arts and doesn't really care*

I wonder if the show is ever going to tackle organized sports, and if they do whether it'll be an existing sport or if they'll make something up.

Alas, at the moment I don't have the time or money for it. Or any exercise equipment. I'm getting all fat and lazy.

I kinda hope they make something up... so I can try and analyze the rules to see how fair they are, and adjust them accordingly.

edited 10th May '13 8:17:35 AM by kegisak

That would be fun to see, what kind of sports they have in Equestria.

Rariquest

My fanon has it that Pegasi were the first to have organized sports competitions, something like the situation with the Greeks and Romans.

There is just something so humbling and yet enlightening about getting your ass kicked, again, again, and again. Heh, during the first month in my wrestling club, I would always, always, get my ass kicked, even against someone much lighter than me. Nowadays I at least don't (usually) lose against anyone lighter than me.

Okay, enough with martial arts/combat sports talk from me.

I get like 90% of my exercise from walking, and from this thing.◊

(This'll be my last too, I suppose)

Yeah, I know the feeling. MY class was almost entirely brownbelts or higher when I started, and some of them were tiny. In fact one of the blackbelts I was probably a foot taller than, and a hundred pounds heavier than at least... and he pitched me across the room. It was kinda funny, actually.

@JT - You call THAT exercise? It's not an exercise until you get all touchy and grabby with bunch of sweaty, muscular men!

But seriously, grappling, especially wrestling, can be very, very homoerotic.

Okay, I am done. For real, this time.

edited 10th May '13 8:21:31 AM by dRoy

Ah yes, MMA. Porn with shorts on.

Probably even better for the ponies, since they wouldn't even wear the shorts. Must be a very popular program with mares.

edited 10th May '13 8:22:38 AM by kegisak

I need to find that request list...but I'm focusing more on writing these days. I can't do a comic. Well, an ongoing one anyway. I'm not good enough.

Ha!

edited 10th May '13 8:27:21 AM by ApplelightLimited

Lyra was inspired

@kegisak - Just like the Greeks.

Random I-Wish-This-Was-A-Thing: Ponified The Sims

I would love to be a sadistic pony god!

@Kegi: They do it for the 'sport'

And FFS, why can't the Wonderbolt minifig on my desk STAY upright? It always seems to be toppled over every other time I look at it.

edited 10th May '13 8:43:31 AM by edvedd

I wonder if Pegasi could play something like Quidditch.

Pegasi prolly have some kind of golflike sport, while Unicorns have golf or croquet.

@D Roy: Yet another reason for me to not take up martial arts.

Well, we know pony roller derby exists...

edited 10th May '13 8:51:48 AM by JapaneseTeeth

Hey everyone, what's going on over here?

@Martial Arts. I'm a bit proud to know at least the basics of Silat. The few trainers I've had taught me a mix of different styles so it's no one set type. I just use whatever works.

Keg: At least for the ones that are into stallion on stallion.

Breakfalling is a big thing that stuck with me too. More than a decade later I know that I can and will still do them. I'm pretty sure there's more than a few times where I avoided serious injury while snowboarding because of it (and I've heard of enough injuries on the hill during my few year stint that I think it should be a requirement to learn it before starting boarding).

I took Hapkido, which pretty much had the problems d Roy was complaining about for traditional striking martial arts. It was also kind of a jack-of-all trades type martial art, so while we learning grappling and how to get out of them, it was 95% drills. We did do sparring, but it was pretty much a once every six classes type deal. It was my favourite part, though, particularly because it broke up the repetitiveness.

I can't exactly remember what led up to it, but I ended up in a match with my third degree black instructor when I was around the orange level. It was pretty much just him completely shutting down my offense and countering the whole time. I do remember being really happy that I managed to sneak one blow (that would have been entirely inconsequential, but still) in under his guard, though.

Back to relating it to ponies, yes, definitely think mane and tail grabbing would have to be out as far as organized competitions go, especially with how full and flowing most of them are.