Poll: Which martial arts club should I join? (Vote): Karate-do (Vote): Jiu Jitsu (Vote): Kendo (Vote): Tae Kwon Do (Vote): Kickboxing (Vote): Judo
At the moment I'm most interested in Kendo. I'm not too keen on grappling/holds and I know very little about all martial arts.
Of course I'll be going to demos/free sessions and trying it out myself, so I suppose this is just a space for people to argue over which is the best martial art (don't anyone dare say they're all equal, you fucking objective shithead bastard).
Jiu Jitsu definitely man. I don't know if you ever plan on being able to use what you've learned, but at least in a one on one, I think Jiu Jitsu has the most use. Almost every fight ends up on the ground at some point and you'll be a whiz there.
if u dont want to grabble dont do jiu jitsu or judo. from the ones listed id say go for kick boxing. its the least smug. you know that kendo is a sword thing? u will mostly be learning forms there i suspect. as for karate, a kind of kickboxing but much more formalized meaning you will learn katas and spend much time chopping the air. perhaps you would like to look into some chinese martial arts? In the end i would choose the MA where your local training-center is the best.
If you're not big on grappling, Jiu-Jitsu and Judo are out the window. For self-defense/fitness, kickboxing, karate, and tae kwon do are all good; whether or not you enjoy them will probably depend more on the individual dojo than the style itself.
I personally do karate and enjoy it a lot. In terms of practical self-defense, any martial art will give you a big edge over an untrained opponent; unless you're aiming to be a professional fighter then I think it's not about which style is "best" but rather which one you're most interested in.
I voted karate.
Aikido and Wushu are both awesome in different ways --- might want to consider those too.
I only listed those because they're the ones I found at the university society fair today.
What I am a bit curious about is whether height plays a big role in any of these (yes I know short people can play non-professional basketball well too, but I'm just wondering). I'm a bit below average height.
When I first started MMA, I hated grappling and just wanted to practice my standup the entire time. Then slowly I became addicted to submission wrestling. Sure it feels good to catch someone with a clean punch on the forehead or a kick in the ribs but nothing satisfied me more than to sink in a beautiful rear naked choke or triangle someone from mount/side control.
Now, (maybe because I've began training at a school with mainly Muay Thai fighters) I can't get enough of sparring again. Sure I still love grappling but I find myself being torn between the two all the time.
I would recommend calling up your local schools and asking if you can jump in on a class just to see if you'd like it. They might require a drop in fee but i wouldn't pay anything more than 10 dollars.
If you're still unsure on what kind of style you'd like to learn, just join a MMA school. You'll learn decent standup and probably a really good ground game (the case with most MMA schools). To learn good standup youll have to join a muay thai school or some kind of kickboxing class.
I honestly think Jiu Jitsu is the one height matters the least. At least I used to rape my brother when we both practiced 3 centuries ago and he was like 8 times my size.
On October 08 2008 08:16 Nytefish wrote: Monty Python is great.
I only listed those because they're the ones I found at the university society fair today.
What I am a bit curious about is whether height plays a big role in any of these (yes I know short people can play non-professional basketball well too, but I'm just wondering). I'm a bit below average height.
When I first started training, some big huge black guy ( like 6'4 and 240 lbs of solid muscle) went up to my instructor and said "damn youre pretty short man". My instructor the time was probably about 5'7 and around 205 lbs. My instructor looks at him, shoots, slams him to the mat, mounts him, gets up, and says, " were all this tall on the ground" while holding his hands about a foot apart. I thought it was one of most awesome things ever.
That being said, height doesnt play much of a role in wrestling or grappling but it definitely does in any standup fighting style. Mostly because it will be harder for your opponent to hit you and you'll likely have a longer reach than them.
edit: im about 5'9 and its considerably more difficult to spar vs people who are a few inches taller than me than to spar vs people who are the same height or shorter me.
edit 2: ...mostly because their jab can reach me from further away which makes a kind of barrier between us.
On October 08 2008 08:25 statix wrote: satisfied me more than to sink in a beautiful rear naked choke
Oh that's how you call it? The literal translation of how we call that in Brazil would be something like "lion killer"
btw how do you call that arm-lock from mount? We call it "american lock", I've always wondered how americans call it lol. Talking about this one: [/offtopic]
On October 08 2008 08:25 statix wrote: satisfied me more than to sink in a beautiful rear naked choke
Oh that's how you call it? The literal translation of how we call that in Brazil would be something like "lion killer"
btw how do you call that arm-lock from mount? We call it "american lock", I've always wondered how americans call it lol. Talking about this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcUjQUQ5ils [/offtopic]
thats an americana...it says it in the title hehe
ive never even heard of the "lion killer". id be so lost in brazil
A distinction needs to be made between BRAZILIAN Jiu Jitsu and regular Japanese Jiu Jitsu. BJJ is generally gonna be of higher quality.
Also you need to tell us what your goal is - if it's fitness all of them are probably fine. If you want self-defence, judo, jiu jitsu, kickboxing (preferably muay thai) and DEFINITELY not kendo or tae kwon do (there might be exceptions, but they are rare).
If you don't like grappling then DEFINITELY don't do judo or jiu jitsu, that's ALL grappling.
Further you really need to find out exactly what type of karate it is.. Is it kyokushin or daido juku? Then hell yeah, great for self-defence. If it's point-karate with no contact sparring then....... yeah, no. Not good.
If you want to look good doing highkicks then tae kwon do is probably for you, just don't expect any of it to actually work in a fight.
I like kendo the most out of the ones you listed. A classmate of mine practices kendo and we did some sparring with cola bottles sometime and fuck he's fast as lightning :O karate is second best imo, if your not interested in kung fu.
Allow me to clarify what I meant as well. I of course read where you said you don't like grappling, but I suggest you learn to like it. Grappling is in my opinion the most important aspect of a well rounded fighter; which I know you didn't say you were aspiring to be, but I suggest you at least give it a try.
I know a friend of mine who has been training BJJ (FA is right, much better quality) for quite awhile now and he it suits his build perfectly. He has a light frame and low body fat, but hes very flexible, hes almost akin to BJ Penn if you follow MMA, i've seen his sparring matches and he can pull things off that are incredible. Although I must say he acts like he is the shit now, which can be annoying.
I used to do taekwondo and I went up to second degree black belt. It's pretty useless in the practical aspect. I stopped taking martial arts altogether after picking up music, so I don't really know what type of martial arts might be good, but just don't take taekwondo. It's a waste of time.
On October 08 2008 09:53 FrozenArbiter wrote: A distinction needs to be made between BRAZILIAN Jiu Jitsu and regular Japanese Jiu Jitsu. BJJ is generally gonna be of higher quality.
This is important. "Jiu-jitsu" is not synonymous with BJJ - failing to qualify this just spreads ignorance and confusion. The term "Jiu-jitsu" means nothing on its own, and often refers to modern systems which are random amalgamations of other arts created by people who are frequently not even japanese.
Nytefish - what are you looking to get out of training in martial arts?
If you are looking for something that has self defense application I would recommend Judo. You may not like grappling, but if you get nothing else out of Judo you'll be excellent at staying on your feet, which is very important in self defense situations where the primary goal is to get away as fast as possible. Furthermore, you'll learn to throw/take people down, and in a good school you'll learn to be fairly good on the ground.
BJJ would also be an excellent choice though a lot of schools tend to focus very heavily on groundwork at the expense of learning to take people down/avoid being taken down. If you have the time/incentive to crosstrain BJJ with something like Judo or wrestling then that would be ideal, but for the average consumer I think the lack of standing work may limit the value of the carryover.
However you can certainly find BJJ schools which also train their throws/takedowns to a high level. It should also be noted that as a Judoka I am biased.
Either way, the nice thing about Judo/BJJ is that unlike something like muay thai or full contact kickboxing, you can train a lot at a high intensity without lots of brain damage which is usually seen as a good thing.
It's only implied when talking with people who understand the difference. Otherwise it's just spreading ignorance.
Also, Koryu Bujutsu (in which Jujutsu first evolved) is still around in Japan, and at the very least is culturally very interesting. There are also lots of other systems that use the term, most of which are, however, probably terrible in most respects.
I understand what you mean - I use the term when talking with friends who train in BJJ or MMA, but the distinction should definitely be noted for those who don't know, if for no other reason than that ignorance is just plain bad.
The only two martials arts I can speak up for are TKD and kendo. These two aren't exactly very practical and it's mostly just about staying active and whatnot. TKD helped me quite a bit on flexibility and really synced well with plyometric work. Kendo just seems to work out your forearm and shoulders like crazy, although I haven't done it as extensively as TKD so I can't say for sure. If you want to look for practicality, like stuff you'd use in street situations, you should avoid doing these two.
Although it would be pretty badass to see someone take down a mugger with a flying 720 tornado kick...
Im gonna be a mma whore and say Muay Thai/Kickboxing, or even boxing if youre not going to do grappling (if you change your mind, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is considered the most useful as of now). But for the love of God, dont do TKD. I would place that the lowest out of all the arts you listed.
On October 08 2008 13:00 Ozarugold wrote: The only two martials arts I can speak up for are TKD and kendo. These two aren't exactly very practical and it's mostly just about staying active and whatnot. TKD helped me quite a bit on flexibility and really synced well with plyometric work. Kendo just seems to work out your forearm and shoulders like crazy, although I haven't done it as extensively as TKD so I can't say for sure. If you want to look for practicality, like stuff you'd use in street situations, you should avoid doing these two.
Although it would be pretty badass to see someone take down a mugger with a flying 720 tornado kick...
It was kinda cool being able to show off some really flashy kicks, I guess. I kinda wish I could still pull them off.
Eskrima is the shit yo it led to Ferdinand Magellan's death
its stick fighting but you progress from weapon based kata to empty hand based kata instead of the other way around also it teaches you how to shatter bones with the butt of a sword/gun
krav maga is also good, there's a good reason why it's listed as a "see also" under Gun Kata on wikipedia
EPT
