Which martial art do you think is more effective

Question

I'm thinking about Aikido or Tae Kwon Do

Answer 1

learn bajiquan and piquaquan , they are really a destructuve chinese arts.

Answer 2

if you like the idea of throwing your opponents go with Aikido.  If you like kicking go with the latter

Answer 3

Well it really all depends on what you want to get out of it.

Aikido is primarily an art that focuses on throws and joint locks, depending on the school they may or may not teach striking and some schools are really focused on the internal side of Aikido which means meditation and self examination.

Tae Kwon Do is an art that is striking based and focuses mostly on kicks. Some schools do more punching than others and some of them also include deep breathing and meditation.

If you are looking for an art for self defense and these are the 2 closest to you I would recommend going to the school and checking them out. Most of the time I would say an Aikido school is going to have a better self defense course, but I have been in some TKD schools that had good self defense programs as well. If you are just doing it for your own pleasure than I would go with whether you are interested in learning to do more striking or more throws and joint locks.

Good luck!!!

Answer 4

it is my believe that the best martial arts is the ones that teach you to heal, before it teaches you to hurt. have a nice day

Answer 5

It depends on what you are looking to learn from the art.  Go to both classes and observe what is being taught and how and if that is what you want then go for it.  

Answer 6

If it is ITF TKD, I would go with that.  Even WTF TKD would be a better pick, but it is way too dependent on high kicks.  Aikido teaches alot of good things, but it is too passive and most of the techniques are too complicated to get good enough at in the short term to be effective.

Answer 7

From what I've seen, these are two of the least effective styles for self defense.  

Most American taekwondo focus on point sparring, which is not a realistic simulation of fighting.  They also emphasize kicking over punching, which is not ideal in a self defense situation as you would be wearing street clothes and shoes, and you would not be stretched out or warmed up, and your muscles would be tense from adrenneline, all of which would slow your kicks down significantly - a recipie for getting your leg caught.  

Most aikido schools do not spar with fully resisting opponents, they just go through the movements with cooperating partners who fall on cue.  

While I'm sure there are some good TKD and aikido schools out there in terms of self defense, on average I would say they are not as effective as most other arts.  

Answer 8

Japanese Jiu-jitsu.

Best wishes :)***

Answer 9

I would go with mito Sensei's answer, it is a good one. Make sure that you check the school out first though to see if it's legit.

As for sword dude, check out the questions he has been asking:

http://answers.yahoo.com/my/profile;_ylt...

Why would you want advice from somebody who has never really trained anything and has no real experience, and probably doesn't comprehend the fact that if you didn't ask about MMA's, there is probably not a school in your area, or you already checked it out and didn't care for it. just another UFC nutgrabber.

Answer 10

In the long term, Aikido will be far more effective.  It will train you to center yourself, and teach you how to be flexible and meet any attack with the appropriate response.  It has a far wider array of responses available to it.

That being said, it will take you far longer to achieve any sort of proficiency in Aikido than in TKD.  Aikido is a true art, and takes years of study to master.

Aikido is realistic training, because we never pull our punches as attacker.  The throws are modulated to prevent injuring a less experienced uke, or they can be as hard as you can if Uke can take it.

Aikido will be cheaper, as almost all dojos are non-profit.  The people you meet in Aikido will be the nicest people you ever want to meet, because the ******* who want to learn to beat people up get frustrated and leave Aikido pretty quickly.

If you have any doubts about the effectiveness of Aikido, attend an advanced class or a seminar.  It will take years for you to get there, but it's an awesome feeling!  Last spring I was selected to be uke for a demonstration by a 7th dan shihan.  He was demonstrating how to manipulate your attackers hold when the attacker is grabbing and pushing as hard as he can.  I was thrown HARD, but bounced right back up unhurt, because I've learned to take that kind of ukemi.

A few months ago, I was training with the sensei (5 Dan) in a class taught by one of the junior instructors.  I hope he was throwing me as hard as he could, because I'd hate to think someone could throw harder.  It's a mark of confidence when an instructor throws you that hard.  It means he thinks you know what you're doing.

In response to Alex, it does look as if Uke falls on cue sometimes.  The objective is not confrontation, but cooperative learning.  As Uke, I am loaning my body to Nage to practice with with my attack.  As Nage, it's my responsibility to protect Uke and return his body to him in the same shape it was in when he loaned it to me.

I might seem to fall on cue, but with an advanced partner, that may be because that the ONLY rational way to protect myself from what nage is potentially doing.  Many of the techniques require balance and leverage which takes time to learn.  It doesn't help nage if I make it impossible to do the technique every time.because he doesn't "get it".  He gets close, I reward him with a fall.  He gets closer, I might resist more.  My resistance will point out weaknesses in his technique, but I should always allow him the possibility to succeed.  With someone more my level, I may fool with him, and try to reverse.  It depends on the person.  Some people I will never do that sort of thing with, because they are strong or they lack control, and I am risking serious injury if I do.

The observer might also be fooled by what is too subtle for someone who has not done it.  Why did uke suddenly throw himself over Nage's hand?  It was too quick to see, and very subtle, but it's a good bet that Nage was about to break his wrist if he didn't do that!

Answer 11

You mean if someone come at you with a baseball bat, or in the case of United Kingdom, a knife?

Or are you talking about someone holding a gun to your face?