What martial art should I pick

[Bill Mattocks]

Thanks, that's very helpful. I didn't know karate had elbows and knees though.

Yeah, that's the problem. You don't know what you don't know. Not your bad; it's perfectly understandable.

Yes, karate has knees and elbows and lots of them. And many other martial arts have facets that are not generally known outside of the students of those arts.

Perhaps the question has been asked and answered, but I did not see it.

What do you want to learn martial arts FOR? In other words, do you seek self-defense training, or sport / tournament martial arts, or good exercise, or what? All are good reasons, but it does help to pick an art sometimes.

What do you LIKE to do? (I saw that asked but not the answer). Do you enjoy rolling on the ground, high kicks, or hard punches? What feels normal and natural to you?

As an example, I am 50 years old and started training at 46. I am relatively short at 5' 10" and I'm heavy. I do not have a lot of flexibility, but I can punch like a freight train and kick like a mule; but I can't kick very high. Oh, I can front snap-kick you in the face, but I can't do the fancy TKD kicks; so my art, Isshin-Ryu karate, is perfect FOR ME. It emphasizes exactly what I'm good at. The question is, what are YOU good at?

In the end, the best art for anyone is the one they will keep training in. If you try it and find you like it, and keep training in it and gain proficiency, then it is the 'best' art FOR YOU.

And really, no one else can tell you what that art might be. We can offer suggestions or tell you what we like about our own arts, but one man's meat is another man's poison. In the end, only you can know what's best for you.

Best of luck, and welcome to MT!

 

[Chris Parker]

Right. I'm feeling grumpy, so this'll be blunt.

Datisstom. There is no 'ultimate' martial art. There is no martial art that is the best for 'the street', or similar. Mainly as it isn't the art, it's the quality of the instruction and the way it's taught and trained. Without having experience (and therefore understanding) of what at least one art features, in detail, then no answers given to you about what is or isn't in any martial art will be of any use to you whatsoever. At all. You may think they do, but that's only due to your lack of understanding of the way martial training actually works. It's not a preference of what you think you want to do (kicks, strikes, throws etc), as they are all just as equally powerful when done and trained properly. Forget that idea, as it's irrelevant. The only factor that has any relevance there is what you personally enjoy, which has no bearing on what is most effective.

Finally, there is no martial art in the world that will get you good enough to handle some "jerks at your new school" before you leave school and leave them behind. It's basically a fantasy that has no place in reality. If that's your reason for learning a martial art, don't. It won't do you any good. If you have other reasons, then visit as many schools around you as you can, and decide if they're a good fit for you personally.

In the end, we don't know you, we don't know what you like, we don't know your tastes and preferences, we don't know your physical make-up, we don't know your ability to get to local schools, we don't know your local schools or instructors. The decision will end up being yours, but this line of questioning has one of two possible outcomes. Either you're confused as you don't get what we're saying here, or you have a false sense of knowledge as you don't get what we're saying here. And the more you come in with your cup full, so to speak, with ideas of what you think the martial arts are about, and what is good for self defence or not (without knowing anything about what self defence actually is), the less likely you are to actually hear what's being said.

Visit schools. Make up your own mind. Then, if you have questions based on the visits, by all means, ask. But for now? There isn't anything there for any real answer to be made.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

There is no 'ultimate' martial art. There is no martial art that is the best for 'the street', or similar. Mainly as it isn't the art, it's the quality of the instruction and the way it's taught and trained.

+1 and QFT. I'd like to add that it also has something to do with the aptitude of the student. My instructors are awesome. I am not, though I do my best. Many of my fellow students are on the path to awesome, though. So it can also depend on the student, I think.

If there was one 'best' martial art for ANYTHING, it would dominate; there would be almost nothing else. Instead, what we have is a pastiche of artists who are very good at what they've been trained in, who demonstrate the superiority of good training and good studentship in those arts. We regularly see Kung Fu stylists beat Karate stylists on Youtube; and vice-versa. And any style you can name, plus some I frankly don't recognize despite having names I know.

Even MMA got a shake up after it was starting to look like BJJ was 'the' art for MMA style fighting when some karate stylists showed up and started knocking people out; but it didn't make karate superior for MMA; and BJJ still dominates. But you cannot say that BJJ is superior for everything; those are a limited set of circumstances. It's all good though; we all want to cheer for our styles and see champions in them win.

The biggest problem I've seen in with recent styles that were invented by people who were unqualified to teach in any style, let alone the one they made up. I've seen a few at tournaments. I feel sorry for their students.

As to competency...we have a young ni-dan in our dojo who has been training very hard since he was 13; he's now 21. He can beat me sparring and he's MUCH better at me at kata, weapons, etc. But I can knock him down and toss him around like a rag doll pretty much at will if I want to go tribal on him; and I've done it. I outweigh him by over 100 pounds and I've got 30 years age on him. Even though I have only four years of training to his many years, and my skill is not even close to his, there are some things that even martial arts training doesn't change. If we for some reason fought 'for real', he'd have to beat me quickly, and he'd have to knock me out or otherwise incapacitate me, or I'd knock him through a wall. That's kind of the way it is. On the other hand, we have some 3rd-degree black belts in my dojo that I could not even lay a hand on unless they permitted it; they'd destroy me at ANYTHING. So just keep this in mind.

Bottom line: find a recognized art, taught by an instructor with real credentials (and many of us can help you with that), and dedicate yourself to the training. You may find that you do yourself a world of good for your entire lifetime; not just for the issues you see before you at this time.

 

[Haakon]

So I wanna get into a martial art and I've been looking for schools in my city. I have the following options:

Pencak silat
Boxing
Muay thai
Karate wado and shotokan
Muay boran
Taekwondo
Judo

Which one is closest to your home, or closest to your commute route? The reality is, few people will go far out of their way for training several times a week. If it's inconvenient to go, people will make excuses not to. If the most uber, elite, super defense academy is on the other side of town and you only go once every other week you're not going to get nearly as much out of it as the Judo school on the route home that you train at every day.

 

[Black Belt Jedi]

You can take whatever Martial Art system that your heart desires. It's best to take up Muay-Thai if you want to compete against MMA practitioners. Muay Thai is meant to go against an evenly skilled fighter.

 

[Bill Mattocks]

You can take whatever Martial Art system that your heart desires. It's best to take up Muay-Thai if you want to compete against MMA practitioners. Muay Thai is meant to go against an evenly skilled fighter.

That's some seriously bad advice right there.

 

[datisstom]

Today I visited a great MA school and saw some kids doing karate. I made an appointment for tomorrow to train along with the others @ muay thai.
Tonight I looked up the prices and they ask 400 euros a year! That's financially not possible for us, so I'll have to go with another school.
The pricy school was very close, it had it's own building and very good instructors. It's a shame..

 

[Haakon]

400 euros / year sounds really cheap, I pay almost 3x that now. I havent paid the equilivant of $44 /month since the 1980's.

 

[datisstom]

Well the other MA schools here cost around 100 E a year.

edit: I can understand the difference though. The pricey one has a specialised building and everything looks really nice. The lessons are really good as well, the Dutch youth champion muay thai trains there.

The cheap one rents a big hall twice a week, and the teachers don't even wear white karate suits (don't know their name). It al looks very amateuristic. I'm not a spoilt brat but I have my doubts about the quality of the lessons.

 

[Cyriacus]

Well the other MA schools here cost around 100 E a year.

edit: I can understand the difference though. The pricey one has a specialised building and everything looks really nice. The lessons are really good as well, the Dutch youth champion muay thai trains there.

The cheap one rents a big hall twice a week, and the teachers don't even wear white karate suits (don't know their name). It al looks very amateuristic. I'm not a spoilt brat but I have my doubts about the quality of the lessons.

GIs. Theyre called GIs.

One thing: Not wearing uniforms doesnt make them amateurs.
Being too soft, might.
And if it 'feels' laid back, it probably is.
So You may be on the right track to swerve clear.
Them renting a hall is irrelevant though.

 

[datisstom]

I've chosen wado ryu karate. I follow 3 classes a week.

 

[datisstom]

On monday, after training, a student said he wanted to compete in some tournament. The teacher and the student talked about it a bit, and the teacher said that the first time he would get his *** kicked because the school isn't a competition-school. This seems weird to me, because if it isn't a competition school, what is it?

 

[Instructor]

It's difficult to say without having been a part of the whole conversation. I do not want to slight your teacher. Perhaps he simply meant that they focus on traditional martial arts training and not on tournement training. You will learn that their is a difference between Martial arts and Martial Sports.

 

[Chris Parker]

I've chosen wado ryu karate. I follow 3 classes a week.

Cool, I hope you enjoy it there!

On monday, after training, a student said he wanted to compete in some tournament. The teacher and the student talked about it a bit, and the teacher said that the first time he would get his *** kicked because the school isn't a competition-school. This seems weird to me, because if it isn't a competition school, what is it?

Ha, me being me, I'd say it's a martial art school...

A little less flippantly, not all martial arts even have a competitive side to them, so it then follows that not all schools have a competitive training focus or aspect. Some arts are virtually impossible to do without that competitive form (Kendo, for instance), some consider competition to be completely anathema to their training ideals (many traditional arts are that way, and I agree with that approach myself), and then you have arts which may or may not have a competitive form, and the focus will be dependant on the individual instructor/organisation/dojo itself. Assuming, or even thinking that all martial arts are the same, have the same focus, beliefs, ideals, or anything else, can be a mistake.

Realistically, there not being a competitive focus only really means anything if you were looking for a competition experience, and wanted a dojo that catered to that. If not, there's no issue.