Which martial art would you recommend?

Question

I am thinking of taking up a martial art, for various reasons including increasing fitness levels, losing weight and being able to defend myself, if God forbid I ever ended up in a dangerous situation. Which would you recommend?

Answer 1

Taekwondo! It's a military martail art from South Korea so it teaches discipline, self defense and it's really fun! It's not all sparring like you see in the Olympics. There are lots of different sections to TKD so it'll suit everyone. For example if you are a perfectionist there is pattern work to do, if you are competitive you can do sparring or take part in Championships. And in my club there is theory work to be done aswell. It's also does wonders for your figure! When i first started i was all pudgy, but now i can do the splits!!!

I think you'll really like it :]

Answer 2

taekwondo.

Answer 3

Boxing. Not the kind you take at Bally's. I mean real boxing.

Quick to learn and no BS like belts and gradings. You're either better than the next guy of you're not.

Tons of opportunity for losing weight plus sparring is contact. (In most Karate/Kung Fu studios, sparring is just a game of light tag).

Answer 4

Aikido where you will learn to stop violence without destroying your attacker.

Be well.

Answer 5

My recommendation is Kung Fu because you can learn basic attacks moves (including advanced) samething with self-defense. You can learn some pretty good moves like...

Round house

Thrust Kick

Tornado Kick

Answer 6

Brazilian jujitsu. You could take out plenty of chicks with that if you learned it. It has shown to work well against strikers that don't have a ground game which is a lot of people. it used technique and leverage in place of strength as much as possible to wrestle people and get them into a choke or joint lock. It is potentially deadly and you will learn to break peoples bones in half the first month. Judo goes good with bjj to for a complete grapplers game. If you were good at that you could take boxing classes and you would be bad *** chick. A danger to the average women or an explosive danger to guys trying to rape or harass that are not expecting a throw followed by a joint lock or choke

Answer 7

I would suggest NINJUTSU. You know, it is not a hard martial training but it makes your body a very LETHAL weapon. In Ninjutsu, you don't need any other weapon to keep with youself when you have hands and legs.

Answer 8

Krav Maga - its not pretty but is deadly and very useful for self defense.  

Answer 9

Effective martial arts that will work in real life situations would include Krav Maga, Muay Thai, MMA (to an extent) and Boxing. These would get you very fit aswell as providing demanding training full with lots of physical contact.

Ineffective ones would include Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (I train BJJ but it is suicide to use it in the street, however as a sport it is brilliant), Wing Chun (weak, flowery movements which I have never used in the street and little emphasis on fitness), Judo and various other traditional eastern martial arts which have little basis in reality when a drunken maniac is grabbing you, headbutting, biting, and generally doing everything that you haven't trained for in the gym with your katas, forms and punching the air.

Answer 10

i would suggest Taekwondo. Taekwondo, aside from being an Olympic sport, is very active and fun. Basically you get a cardio workout, increase your flexibility and learn self defense. I've done a little karate and taekwondo and I definitely recommend taekwondo for fitness (karate is only good if you want a future in martial arts, it's very technical)

Answer 11

It depends on if you want to become a complete fighter or just know some basics. You need to know at least 3 Martial Arts to have a comprehensive fighting capacity with my favourite 3 being Muay Thai Kick Boxing for strikes, Brazilian Jui Jitsu for holds, chokes and grappling and then something like Escrima for weapons training. Some types of Kung-Fu incorporate a good basis for all these aspects of Self-Defence. Judo is good for Beginners and to build up your fitness and for you to decide if Martial Arts are for you. I'm not a big fan of Karate. To quote Bruce Lee ' In Karate you are taught to strike like an Iron Bar. In Kung-Fu you are taught to strike like a Ball and Chain'. The main thing is to enjoy yourself.

Answer 12

For a woman wanting to get into training, I would recommend Jui Jitsu as a learner class. If you're just wanting to learn basic self defense, Krav Maga would be good, and often times, your local police force will offer self defense classes to women for free. Might want to check with some local gyms and see what they might be able to recommend for your body type.  

Answer 13

Judo and Taekowndo both have an Olympic profile which in the context you are interested in means it should be easy for you to find a club that does one or the other.  Of course boxing is an Olympic sport too, but successfully using that as a form of self defence will depend largely on your size (and the size of your assailant), and less on technique.

(Unarmed) Martial arts are split into two types, either grappling or striking.  Which type to do really comes down to personal preference.  

I've done both, and in terms of fitness and losing weight I would say that they are pretty evenly matched.

In terms of self-defence, I'd say Taekwondo edges it, but I'm sure many would call it the other way around.  My reasons are simply that the moves performed in Taekwondo can be used to good effect whilst still a novice, whilst Judo would be technically more difficult to employ in the same situation.

Aside from the two Olympic sports there are loads of others, and the issue really comes down to what you can learn in your area.  Karate is widely taught, whilst it may be difficult to find somewhere to learn Savate.

I think your best bet is to see what is offered locally, then research each one and then see if you can pop along and watch to see what you think.

I've put a link below for the Wikipedia article on martial arts which is about as comprehensive as any.

Answer 14

Depends on your type of personality

That's the same thing as me saying: what job should i do?

                  ITS NOT THE STLYE ITS THE TEACHER

You might aswell ask people to list their style, thats all their doing!!

Answer 15

I've actually been attacked in the street, so my opinion is not purely theoretical. But the truth is there is no perfect answer. There is a lot to support Brazilian Jiu Jitsu as a well rounded fighting method, but say you get hit hard and take the fight to the ground only to find your opponent pulls a weapon out or his mates pile in. Ooops!

So BJJ is a great all-round fighting method which will teach you how to survive in a real fight - it just depends whether that is where you want to be in the first place. In terms of personal safety I would advise you learn some defenses (and Jujitsu is great for that, although there are plenty of options) that will keep your attacker busy while you run like h**l. "Better part of valour" and all that!

Answer 16

There is no best martial art. that is y MMA came about,, some are better that others here and there but none is the best.. my sugestion is that you study more than one, say you have a stand up fight you use Thia kick boxing, you take advantage of the distance, or old fashioned Boxing, if you get in a scrap you can take it to the ground with BJJ. and go for the ground and pound, and if that doesn't work carry a stun gun... be diverse if its just for getting in shape Thia bo really does work and you get to learn some kicks...

  

Answer 17

Karate is good for self discipline but not good for self defence, I'd say go for Jujitsu

Answer 18

Though not mutually exclusive, learning to defend yourself and losing weight are different goals.  I would suggest a competitive martial art since that is a way to combine the two.  If you were only looking at self-defense I would suggest Krav Maga, Hapkido, Kali, Silat or Jeet Kune Do and even possibly Wing Chun Kung Fu.  If you were looking at losing weight I would suggest light weights and some sort of aerobic exercise.  

For a combination, choose something that competes at a level that makes you want to get into shape such as full-contact grappling arts like Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu or Japanese Jujitsu.  Or full-contact stand up arts such as Boxing, Kickboxing or Muay Thai.  There's always mma for learning self-defense while getting into great shape.

Answer 19

Japanese Jiu-jitsu I'd suggest..

Best wishes :)***

Answer 20

wing-chun,systema or krav-maga. any of those are easy to learn. depending on the perspective of the Sifu,Sensei,Guru,depends on fitness initiative.good luck.

Answer 21

I would say judo and karate are good for losing weight but I would do a mixed martial art class for self defence.

http://forum.mesomorphosis.com/general-d...

Answer 22

I think karate.

Answer 23

the best martial art period is snake fang deathcore drunken monkey flying squirrel kenryublanca gung fu karate extreme because if you learn it you will fight like a street fighter, you will be able to pierce through someones body like the fang of a snake, you will have drunken movements which will make your opponent confused, and you can fly like jet li and it is extreme so you cant lose, ever.

Answer 24

I've recently taken up martial arts (2 months ago).  I started to karate (Wado ryu) and I'm not sure if its just our school or specific to Wado in general but we do quite a bit of self defence and grappling (we get in a brazillian jujitsu coach) on top of the regular karate syllabus.  Personally, I enjoy the BJJ most and once I manage to get my black belt in the karate (good few years to go!) I intend to pursue further BJJ training.  

From a fitness point of view, I find the BJJ much more strenuous so of great weightloss benefit.

With regards to self defence; in a 1-on-1 situation I would put my money on a BJJ fighter triumphing over a pure karate fighter; but you need to go to the floor and in a streetfight you definitely don't want to be on the floor as if there's more than one of them you'll be in trouble!  

So my verdict; if its the norm for Wado Ryo Karate schools to teach jujitsu on top of the karate (most likely the case as the founder of Wado was originally a jujitsu expert) go for this as you will be a well-rounded fighter, able to handle yourself in a standup fight, and if the fight goes to the ground you'll no what to do to incapacitate or put your opponent to slepp.

Answer 25

It's amaizing isn't it. You ask how to actually do a technique and get very few responses, yet aska best or what style question and the experts come out of the woodwork.

What you need to understand is that very few of these people who responded actually train. They are telling you what they have seen in the UFC, on fight quest or human weapon, or read in other answers on here.

Not knowing what is availible in your area it is hard for me to recomend something, because what if it is not near you.

All martial arts if taught correctly and trained right will give you what you need, they just have variations.

Not knowing what styles or schools are availible in your area I suggest the following:

1) Do a search on here about finding a good school. there are many excellent answers about what to look for and what to avoid.

2) Locate all of the schools in your area, and research what the style's they teach include. You can eliminate a lot of possibilities just by doing this. Say you want weapons for sure, there is no sense even looking at a style or school that doesn't train them. Make sure it is an actual style, not just generic karate or kung fu etc.

3) Go to each of the schools that you decide to check out and watch at least 2 classes. Compare them to the list you got from the search.

4) Choose the style that most interests you that has the best instruction and training that you can afford.

Chances are if you are unwilling to do this you will not stick qwith any style anyway.

I don't care if you decide on Tai Chi, Judo, Bjj, Muay Thai, Any style of karate, etc., as long as you find the best school you can.

Answer 26

kung fu/wing chun, if you want un armed, but if you would like to take up something including a weapn, kendo, also  

Answer 27

For women I would recomend Krav Maga (check spelling please).

The reason being it's not about strength or power, it's more like biting, kneeing, poking, scratching, hitting genitals, gouging etc. It sounds horrific but isn't if taught properly.

It's so Women can defend theirselves against b@stard rapists etc who are usually bigger, stronger etc.

For fitness and losing weight ect, do cardio. Running is the best for burning calories, losing weight and fat loss but if you go to a gym do 7-8 mins on all the cardio equipment- rower, treadmill,x trainer and bike. if you can't afford the gym, hit the road with jogging and on a bike.

Answer 28

The Drunken Master technique is the most deadly form of martial art.

All you need is 20 pints of beer everyday for 30 days and you are there.

Answer 29

Wing Chun...Easy to pick up, easy to use.

Answer 30

tae kwon do its for the best of us it is a military discipline its not flashy its hard core fighting  

Answer 31

There are many factors to consider for picking a martial art such as what clubs teach near you and what style you like.

There is no best martial art they all have there own strengths and weaknesses.

Tang soo do is an old martial art designed for serious self defense  it focuses on powerful punches kicks and blocks .the kicks come in a wide variety from jumping   to high kicks and are very powerful

Tae Kwon Do is derived from tang soo do so they are similar but unlike tang soo do it gives most attention to the feet and little to

punching

it is the most popular martial art in numbers of practitioners.

Muay thi is thai kick boxing which uses punches kicks knees and elbows it is the national sport of Thailand and is quite effective

Krav maga is used by the Israeli military  and is very effective it is designed for serious self defense in a combat situation and uses techniques designed to create opportunities to escape such as powerful kicks to the genitalia and so on.