That said, I hasten to add that many styles touted in the U.S. as MA, are in their homelands considered martial sports. Tae Kwon Do being an example. Compared with the Tang Soo Do taught the Korean military (a mixed art that CAN really be deadly) it is either a dance class or a pillow fight.

I started my study in Okinawa in a Shorinji dojo, then being relocated to Hokkaido Japan I was lucky enough to find a Akijutsu teacher. Note that Aikijutsu and Akido are NOT the same thing (except in America, where we call anything by whatever name is popular at the moment). Aikido was developed as a form of meditation like Qigong, Aikijutsu focuses on joint dislocation and bone breaking.

As I stated before, you can learn from any style, but MMA is not a style, it is showmanship.

As for Bruce Lee, he wrote some very good books, but the only evidence that he was ever in a fight of any kind are his own stories from “back in the neighborhood.”

@Jason – Make sure you make your hand as big as possible when wrapping it, that way there’s some give when you close your fist. I wrap them firm, not too hard, but definitely not light. Adding tape over top adds some stability too.

@Martin – great point about warming up.

@Dylan – I’d definitely go to a gym that has fighters, it should be cheaper than more of a 1-on-1 instructor and you’ll get better instruction/experience. If you don’t like a gym, just leave and go to another one, try a few out and see where you fit best.

@Nick good response to @Sam – spraining or twisting a wrist, much like an ankle actually weakens the surrounding ligaments, making it more likely to sprain again.

I don’t mean to put you or your efforts down, but finding an authentic teacher is very hard to do. You can learn something from anyone, so I’m not saying stop as long as you are learning new things–just be aware of my motto, “When all is said and done, a lot more is said than done.”

As for the joys of pain–read my post above.

The phalanges are the bones of the fingers and toes. Each toe and finger contains three bones, except the great toe and thumb which have two bones each. As we mature these long bones have to continue to grow. They do this by adding new, softer tissue to the ends of the bones. If this tissue is damaged as it might be by delivering a hard punch to a hard body part, it can stop or deform the growth pattern of that bone. This process continues to about age 20+/-. Since violence is not always avoidable our younger students were taught to use the heel of the hand instead. We were taught specific techniques, but it wouldn’t take a lot of thought to come up with a fair arsenal of your own. Just do not limit yourself to upward strikes, and strike as if you were going to hit with your fingertips with a snap of the wrist just before contact. I’ve seen 16 year-olds bread boards and bricks with these strikes, so they are not weak. Practice with a bag of sand on a rope as a target. This way you can practice strikes at all levels. Start easy and build up.

I do quite a bit of boxing, and I find gel wraps to do more harm than good. I’d recommend a decent pair of old fashioned hand wraps. What gloves are you using? Longer handwraps and gel handwraps don’t always function as well beneath 4oz or mma gloves. When I did Karate, we never used them. For boxing they are absolutely essential, but for self defense training it doesn’t hurt to toughen and condition your hands and wrists for throwing punches.