Body Type and MA's

[Infinite]

I've heard quite a bit about different martial arts being a better fit to different body styles.

How do people here feel? Are there some martial arts that go for different body types? I know we had a poll but maybe we could cement it a bit more,

So pick an art and try to match it to a body style.

For example,

JKD is probably most suited to atheltic body styles. Focusing on breaking rythyms and interception / trapping mean that faster is better than more power traditionally.

So I guess its either flame on for people who disagree with the whole concept or it could just disagreeing with my assessment of JKD

 

[terryl965]

Well I do TKD and I was the body type Twenty years ago but I find myself more suited for it now that I'm older and wiser about the Art aspect. I feel no-matter what body style you have it is more abouit the desire than the actual body style. Just my two cents worth

 

[Infinite]

Well I do TKD and I was the body type Twenty years ago but I find myself more suited for it now that I'm older and wiser about the Art aspect. I feel no-matter what body style you have it is more abouit the desire than the actual body style. Just my two cents worth

Oh I agree completly but there are still better arts for better body styles IMHO.

Everyone would benifit from any martial art they chose to persue. There may be some that are easier to learn based on body type to start off with.

I was thinking more in that direction.

 

[terryl965]

Oh I agree completly but there are still better arts for better body styles IMHO.

Everyone would benifit from any martial art they chose to persue. There may be some that are easier to learn based on body type to start off with.

I was thinking more in that direction.

OK I see let me think about what you are asking for and then I shall give a response

 

[Carol]

Personally what makes something easy to learn is how my brain works, not necessarily my body size. I can't folllow an instructor that expects me to watch and repeat. I can follow an instructor that helps me along kinaesthetically or grinds a powerful amount of detail in to my geeky brain.

Where I do find that body type matters isn't in the learning, but in execution. I can raise a whole lotta hell with another 5' 2" female with an average build. With a 6' 200 pound dude, I may not be as good.

I enjoy my training now because it uses commonplace weapons and leverage. With my size and skill, I find that to be more effective than punches and kicks.

 

[zDom]

There are definately body types that give advantages in various martial art sports:

a thick, short, heavy body, for example, tends to do especially well in Judo.

and

tall, lanky, long-limbed folk tend to do well in Olympic TKD.

I'm sure there are other examples, but those two come to mind.

 

[Christina05]

There are definately body types that give advantages in various martial art sports:

a thick, short, heavy body, for example, tends to do especially well in Judo.

and

tall, lanky, long-limbed folk tend to do well in Olympic TKD.

I'm sure there are other examples, but those two come to mind.

I agre. When I saw the post those were the two styles that came to mind.

 

[Mariachi Joe]

I know it's been said before but go to several different studios and try them out then go with whichever seems to fit you best

 

[wade]

My opinion, I agree with both terry and Carol, it's more mental than physical. One on my instructors is 6'2" and weighs about 350 lbs. I've got BB's that are tall and lanky, they might be faster but that doesn't make them better. It's all in the mind set. We've all seen big people that were light on their feet and small people that moved like they weighed a ton. Me, I'm short 5'6" and weigh 201. I don't care about judo nor wrestling, I fight heavy but I still like to kick so.............like I said, to me it's more mental than physical.

 

[kodo]

Every major art has many aspects that suit different body types. While a karatedo that's really tall may be great for punching and kicking because of reach, a short karatedo may still be superior, using flying techniques. A tall, limber person may be great for capoiera(spelling?) but may do just as well in b.j.j. because of being limber.
I chose to stick with Kyokushin, because I had goals for my body type.

 

[Xue Sheng]

I don’t think body type matters much, but I suppose it could be a factor. I agree that mentality matters more. Of course depending on the style you do flexibility also is a factor. But I have had Tai Chi teachers, all shorter than me toss me around fairly easily and then there are people both shorter and taller than me I have been able to handle pretty well using Tai Chi. My Sanda Sifu is about the same height as me but I doubt he cares about a persons size and the only thing that matters to him is physical fitness to properly train. My last Xingyi Sifu was taller than me and can quite effectively pound me into the ground. But I have seen Xingyi people shorter than me that you could not pay me enough to go up against. I have seen both thin and heavy martial artists some good some bad but I still think it is more the attitude of the martial artists.

But with all that said it is my understanding (and I currently have no real proof to back this up beyond word of mouth) that many martial arts teachers in old China did except students, at least to some extent, based on body type.

And I will say that I felt more comfortable training Xingyi than just about anything else but I still do not think that is my body type. I still think it is more mentality or attitude, I just like the idea of attack being defense and that whole hit them like a freight train thing.

 

[still learning]

Hello, Anyone can learn and take up most martial arts. The body type is not so important. What is important is the body type of person you meet on the street (real fights).

What ever you decide to take...train hard, practice everyday...you will become adept to the art you are taking.

In our Shotokan, Kempo, and Judo classes...it doesn't matter the body type....but the willness to learn and train.

Finding a excellant tearcher is more important...not your body type....

If rideing a horse....UM? larger body (Huge) people this could be a problem for a small horse.

.......Aloha

 

[exile]

My problem with the way this question was originally posed is that it seems to ask for a correlation between two kinds of things each of which seems much too complex and diverse to permit that kind of correlation.

So on the on hand, we've got this notion `body type', but I've never really understood just what this broad-brush notion, with its coarse packaging of a very complex phenomenon, actually buys you. People can be tall or short, lightly or heavily built, very quick or rather slow in their reaction times, fast or slow metabolically,.... the list goes on and on, and the point is, there's no clear linkage among these binary choices: you can be tall, lightly built, slow-reflexed with an average metabolism, or short, lightly built, quick-reflexed with a slow metabolism, or... or virtually any combination of these `menu choices'. In the face of this kind of human variety, the simplistic division I've seen here and there into endomorphic, mesomorphic and ectomorphic body types seems as arbitrary and biogenetically pointless as the old racial division into Caucasic, Negroid and Mongolian left over from bad nineteenth century physical anthropology which still sometimes surfaces on official forms, but which were know among geneticists more than half a century ago to be biologically spurious. There are very quick endomorphs with low blood pressure and painfully slow ectomorphs who suffer from Type II diabetes, and everything in between.

And on the other hand, we have a huge range of martial arts, each of which involves techniques requiring (or seriously benefiting from) quickness in certain cases, power in other cases, raw strength in still other cases, and complex balance and flexibility skills that are hard to correlate with body shapes/sizes/neurological properties/etc. in any simple way. The example of Olympic TKD that was brought up earlier strikes me as something of a red herring: given the rather artificial point scoring system in that sport, which has made the description `foot-tag' into a truism, a longer-limbed practitioner has a certain advantage, all other things being equal (which is of course very rarely the case). But I've seen absolutely fearsome TKD fighters—the kind of people whose application of their art would win the approval of serious pavement warriors—of every physical description: short, tall, lean, heavy....

Trying to force a linkage between a simplified picture of human physical capabilities on the one hand and the often formulaic descriptions of particular martial arts on the other doesn't seem to me likely to lead to any conclusions you could take to the bank. I think a more realistic way to see it is that there will be a dozen somewhat different karates associated respectively with a dozen different karatekas, and for each of those karatekas, the karate that s/he practices is the right martial art for his or her `body type' (whatever that really is)—but they'll all share a single combat strategy and repertoire of techniques based on fundamental martial principles which constitutes the essence of karate as a martial art. And the one who does best in a brutal physical altercation with an aggressive assailant will be the one who's trained hardest and most realistically for that situation. And the same with TKD, or Wing Chun, or Arnis, or...........

 

[KempoGuy06]

im 6'4" 260lbs. what would people think best suits my build?

Honestly it is all bull to me. Trying to relate a certain body type to a certain are is trying to say that some one is pre-genetically disposed to be better in that area than someone else. While genetic make-up plays a part in the physically abilities in people to a cetain extant (someone who is 6'10" is more likely going to have an easier time dunking than someone who is 5'10") doesnt mean they matter for everything (that same 5'10 person could wipe the mats with the 6'10" person in the same art). if you want to study an art and you have made up your mind that you will train as hard as you possibly can, then the only thing that would restrict you is youself.

Basically i argee with exile, good post

B

 

[Xue Sheng]

im 6'4" 260lbs. what would people think best suits my build?

Actually at 6'4" and 250 and a Shaolin kempo guy... I think we should be asking you what you would like to suit your build… answer any style you want sir

 

[CoryKS]

Every time this topic comes up, the image of Danny Devito doing TKD pops into my head. :erg:

 

[Xue Sheng]

I tend to think of Kareem Abdul-Jabbar doing JKD

 

[snapmule]

Ive always heard that bigger, stockier people are better suited for certain japanese styles like aikido, jui jitsu, judo or wrestling styles. Smaller frames work better for offensive styles like Korean where there are more kicks and speedy moves.

Im a big guy but I prefer chinese styles like wushu and wing chun. Id also like to learn judo and aikido.

 

[bushidomartialarts]

Every time this topic comes up, the image of Danny Devito doing TKD pops into my head. :erg:

how about danny devito doing capoeira?


though i agree absolutely that body type can't disqualify a motivated learner from doing martial arts, i have to say there are definitely body types better suited to one martial art or another.

i was tall for my weight in high school. i wrestled a lot of guys a full foot shorter than me and they typically handed my *** to me. some were better. most were stronger. but often it was simply a matter of their body being better for grappling than mine.

when i started kickboxing, my body type proved to be an advantage over those little dudes built like a beer keg.

but it can't be overstressed that body type should never be a barrier to entry on any martial art.

 

[Gufbal1982]

Ive always heard that bigger, stockier people are better suited for certain japanese styles like aikido, jui jitsu, judo or wrestling styles. Smaller frames work better for offensive styles like Korean where there are more kicks and speedy moves.

Im a big guy but I prefer chinese styles like wushu and wing chun. Id also like to learn judo and aikido.

I would agree here. I like studying Kung Fu, but my body frame is better suited for wrestling and jiu jitsu (it helps that I love wrestling and BJJ though...heck, I love vale tudo too!). It's also good for Taiji Push Hands. Stocky people learn sensitivity by studying other arts, and that's a good portion of push hands.