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Go and have a look at all the clubs around where you live. Train once or watch a session. Then pick the one that has the best instructor, the more friendly students, and the one you had the most fun with. Style is second to whoever is teaching you, to whomever you train with, and to however much fun it is. All in equal measures.
answered Feb 13 '12 at 17:24
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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21
A wrestler will say wrestling, a bjj player will say bjj, a muay thai fighter will say muay thai.
But to be fair, they are all right.
There isn't really one specific art that is better then the other for a base. I know, some people will argue with me for this, but if you look at the current state of mma, there are champions with a wide assortment of ...
17
Young male, not looking for anything specific, but I am a huge fan of
MMA in general.
You just answered your own question: try something that has already caught your interest. It's not at all hard to find a school in your area. Look some up and check them out.
15
First, men who know nothing about martial arts may see a woman leading the class and immediately think that they (the men) could beat up the female teacher. So they think there is no reason why the woman could teach them anything about fighting.
Second, some men might not want to train with women at all (students or teachers), because it would be awkward ...
14
A full blown martial art takes too long to master to help you for that specific situation. Also, in most traditional martial arts, the actual self-defense or "streetfight" part is small, if it exists at all. For example, the self-defense / streetfight classes in my Kung Fu school teach us the following options, to be considered in that order:
avoid ...
11
There is a famous zen story, one of the variation is this…
Nan-in, a Japanese master during the Meiji era (1868-1912), received a
university professor who came to inquire about Zen.
Nan-in served tea. He poured his visitor’s cup full, and then kept on
pouring. The professor watched the overflow until he no longer could restrain himself. “It is ...
answered Aug 7 '17 at 12:56
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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10
This is going to be less about the specific martial art, and more about the instructor. The answers to this question are going to be relevant.
Some of the big things to keep in mind when selecting a dojang for this sort of application:
Do they emphasize operant conditioning?
Does it train you to miss through light contact sparring? Probably not ideal.
Do ...
10
While bouncing I have used a single component of my skill set actively - clinch wrestling (or Greco-Roman if you will, but I only ever trained Freestyle). Every single altercation I handled by clinching, holding and talking to the trouble maker until they settled down.
I kept other things in mind, and adjusted specifically how I did it to account for ...
10
Aikido sounds like something you should check out. I would seek a ki-aikido school, if such existed where you lived based on your comment on "spiritual peace". Aikido generally relies on re-directing the attackers' momentum (and creating opportunity to do so) to either throw or pin. Technique is more important than strength and I have seen tiny females ...
answered Aug 12 '13 at 16:37
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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10
There's a few things to navigate and untangle in your question, but the short answer is YES, there are martial arts out there that do this.
Mostly it comes down to instructor rather than specific style, although obviously certain styles tend to be grouped around testing, you can find instructors who do not participate in that manner.
Holding Back ...
10
Long answer short, no it shouldn't influence your choice. Your body can be shaped in any form you want, and even if you are heavy, light or middle weighted you have to learn how to use your body anyway to be succesfull in any martial art.
Long answer:
If you are looking among all the wide array of martial arts this can be a great question, take for example ...
10
I have had the occasion to spar with a national senior champion in karate (the guy is a little over 60). I am 30 years old and reasonnably fit as well, and I have 10+ years of practice of light contact karate (and a few in full contact).
I wouldn't have been surprised for the guy to beat me because of superior sense of distance, timing, etc., but to my ...
9
Honestly, the best thing you can probably start with is not going to be a martial art at all. Instead, try the following:
Strength Training
One of the biggest culprits in back pain, knee pain, etc can actually be corrected by increasing the strength of the surrounding muscles. I had hip issues and years and years of martial arts did not fix my hip issues, ...
9
Aikido, judo and karate are all complementary arts: One (karate) focus on strikes, the others on avoidance, control of the opponent, and using body physiognomy to control/throw. Judo works from grapples and Aikido from a distance. As such, they are all good additions to each other.
Whatever art you chose to do, remember to "empty your cup" before ...
answered Feb 1 '12 at 7:37
Sardathrion - against SE abuse
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8
Personally, I've had classes in both traditional and more modern forms, and I have to recommend Muay Thai. At least in my experience it fits your requirements:
Base - Muay Thai is more or less where most modern MMA fighters start. And in that sense it's a bit more practical than (for instance) kung fu.
Ease to get into - Again this fits the bill. Get ...
8
All martial arts—if properly understood—can lead to "spiritual peace" (that's in quotes because in context, this would mean [the second half of] "calm"; but explaining that is a whole chapter of a book).
Examples
Ju Do "judo" (the gentle way). Understand its concepts and you need not exert any strength at all.
Tai Chi: Understanding the forces of nature ...
8
Virtually all of the martial arts use the hands in some way. Even Taekwondo, which uses mostly kicks during sparring, will use the hands to block and punch. Whereas, grappling arts use the hands to grab onto the gi or wrists or whatever. It's not uncommon in Brazilian Jiujitsu or Judo to sprain your pinky and ring fingers due to the fact that your grip ...
8
I've always considered non contact tournaments to be a lottery, but even in full contact matches you will get calls that go against you that you don't agree with - that is the nature of the sport.
I would (politely!!) question the organisers and determine whether they have a review process for decisions. If they do then the referees/judges will have to ...
8
I think that when something is a sport, you obviously can't learn all the things, as someone who is better at something and is competitive, she/he won't teach you the best techniques as you could use that against her/him at some competition.
Your assumption is wrong. Plenty of coaches teach all the techniques of their style, either because they're trying to ...
7
Aikido is all about controlling someone without harming them. Aikido is basically ju-jitsu without strikes or kicks. The practice includes defense against bladed weapons and multiple attackers.
7
You say you are young.
If you are still in middle or high school you should join the wrestling team.
This will be free daily training, and you will have bi weekly competitions if not more often. So Once you can fight MMA legally (18 usually) you will have already had 100 or so competitions, which is a huge advantage when it comes to the adrenaline dump of ...
7
There's a good reason why an instructor pairs two students of unequal skill together. The student that is of lesser skill will begin to accelerate their knowledge when exposed to someone of greater skill. The student that is of greater skill, on the other hand, improves his/her knowledge of the art by being put in a position to explain things to the lesser ...
6
I'd say, none of the shows are by definition useful as a source of truth or any really useful information. They are mostly entertainment programs targeted at a specific audience of would-be martial arts enthusiasts.
Do not get me wrong - martial arts shows are nice in the sense that they give general overview of what's out there, but I would not refer to ...
6
Quite surprised by all these big NOs.
I would say: it depends.
If competing and consequently having better chances at winning competitions are your goals, then your body type can definitely give you an edge.
As common sense goes, grappling-based disciplines is more suited to stocky, strong people. There are notable exceptions: Paulo Miyao is a 64Kg bjj ...
6
First things first, I think you should see a doctor that could give you a "go". A specialist could tell you if he thinks it would be safe for your knee if you restarted doing martial arts. If the doctor says no, you're putting yourself at risk if you restart. Let's face it, even if you feel your health is deteriorating, it is much better than with a ...
6
MMA
Go to your local MMA gym's sparring sessions. We have beginners come in all the time that just want to fight and not learn technique. They get absolutely destroyed and never come back, but whatever, if that's what they want. Remember to tap early, even to strikes. You're going to get hurt.
Answering your question aside, you should instead sign up for ...
5
You are probably correct about jiu-jitsu if you ever want to compete. Forrest Griffin makes a distinction between being a fighter and a martial artist in Got Fight. He seems to emphasize jiu-jitsu and grappling for success in being a professional MMA fighter. I've learned some karate, judo, boxing, hwa-rang-do, and most recently Aikido. I am most interested ...
5
Aikido is not simply about locking and throwing, it also has striking (atemi waza).
Aikido complements a lot of other arts; once you have practiced some of the Aikido techniques you will find it very beneficial to your karate blocks (uke), and you will find some of the same Aikido concepts buried within your karate bunkai.
5
There are various versions of the rubber jigsaw mats that are pretty good, I've trained on a number and have had them for home. They are not cheap cheap, but also not that expensive. But there are options, it gets more pricey the thicker you get them. Any thickness is pretty good for purely grappling.
For throwing / takedowns then the thicker the ...
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