Help me pick a martial art

[Alobar]

I took Tae Kwan Do for 4 years when I was younger (up to the age of 11), but remember nothing about it except that I hated having to go(typical little kid). Anyway, it's something ive always thought about starting again now that im older, but have never done anything about.

Lastnight my GF out of the blue says she wants to take Karate because she wants to get in shape. Shes skinny but never works out and has shown minimal interest in doing anything active with me. I'm 100% in support of anything she wants to do that involves athletics and since this was so out of nowhere and she seemed serious about it, I figured Id better run with it before she loses interest. Since its something ive always thought about doing again I figure it could be the perfect thing for us to do together and if we are both doing it she will be more likely to stick with it.

I looked some stuff up in the phone book and there seem to be like a million different places and a million different kinds of martial arts. How do I go about finding a good "gym" (not sure what word to use...dojo?)? What are some good questions to ask? And is there something better than tae kwan do? I dont think shed be into any sort of grappling, but id like to do something more than glorified tae bo and it would also be cool if she learned some real world stuff she could use to defened herself if something ever happened.

Any advice from thos with knowledge would be greatly appreciated

here are some hot girl pics for your troubles

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[KDawg]

if you want a striking art that is good for the real world, then check out a Muay Thai(Thai Kickboxing, or you could do kickboxing in general) place. Brazillion Jiu-Jitsu is a good grappling art if you want to get in shape and learn some chokes and armbars. Judo can be good for throws. Most striking arts though aren't the most practicle arts for defending yourself, but Muay Thai is very effective and is pretty much the one striking art that you'd want to learn if you want to go that route

[AntonHeat]

Muay Thai ftw yo

[mmbt0ne]

Capoeira is good enough for Monica Bellucci's husband.

[Rev. Good Will]

if you're gonna take classes w/ the GF, Capoeira would be the most fun IMO

[Dave G.]

Which martial art you decide to do depends really on what you want out of it. Do you want exercise, tournament fighting, or real world defense?

A lot of fighting arts aren't very realistic in the sense that things you do in training won't work in a lot of real world situations. For example, back turning kicks or high kicks in general of any kind are practically useless on the street. You try one of those in a street fight and you'll most likely go straight to the ground.

Anything relying on physical strength is also going to be fairly useless in the real world (particularly for a woman) - what good are techniques that fail when your opponent is bigger and stronger than you? You can't usually choose your opponent (it's even worse; they choose YOU, and people don't typically target other people that they think stronger than they are - so, most of your opponents will be stronger than you). Additionally, if the martial art has a high requirement of physical strength, your woman will probably lose interest very quickly.

The above also relates to grappling - grappling is very seriously overrated. It just doesn't work in the real world because you might come up against someone much stronger than you, or someone might get the jump on you. Grappling with someone stronger than you is a sure way to get your head kicked in - you may have a chance if they're untrained, but the consequences of losing are usually severe. And if you are facing two or three opponents, grappling won't help you at all. (Of course, in such a situation, not much will - your plan is to make one or two quick powerful strikes that give you an opportunity to run like hell - and then you run.) Instead of spending hundreds of hours training a technique that will fail you most of the time that you need it, spend that time training powerful strikes that will work.

I train in Wing Chun Kung Fu, and I'd recommend it to anyone considering taking up a martial art. There's nothing fancy about it - it's simple, but brutal and effective. It's ideal for a woman, who will virtually always be facing someone much stronger than her if she gets attacked, in that the Wing Chun does not rely on physical strength to work. Also, it's a style that's not geared at all towards tournaments - it's all about fighting in real world situations - on the street, in a club, whatever.

Anyhow, this obviously depends on the quality of the place that you train. I'm lucky to have found a very good place. The art itself doesn't make the place good.

Some questions to ask:
- How much real world street training do they do?
- How much sparring is involved? This will vary from place to place. Some places do it primarily; others not at all. It's up to you how much you want to do, but sparring is in my opinion a very necessary part of training. It's fun too.
- How much physical strength is required to be proficient?
- What is the lineage of the master? This may just be more of an interest thing, but it also helps you to gauge his background and experience.

Hope that helps.

[kidcolin]

my friend is super, super into Praying Mantis Kung Fu. He's been studying it in China for the past year 2 years, and will be teaching it upon his return.

It ain't fancy. It just kicks an enormous amount of ass. Very much geared towards combat, not show or tournaments.

My friend's mentor, Ilya Profatilov, translated a lot of Praying Mantis text into English. Some info can be found here: www.prayingmantisboxing.com

[HtotheNootch]

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

[Slonye6]

I took several years of Shaolin style Kung Fu. I highly reccommend it as a striking art, and it does in fact beat a whole lot more ass than any form of Karate I've ever come across. Muay Thai is dastardly also, and I would hate to come up against (another) practiced fighter that uses it.

I would also suggest for you to consider Aikido. It's all about using others force against them, and especially, disarming hand to hand weapons such as knives, clubs, etc. I would be hard pressed to choose between my Kung Fu and Aikido in terms of practical application. You really don't want to mug anyone that knows Aikido with less than a gun.

Finding a good school is a matter of taste. I prefer a brutal one where people get the crap kicked out of them, to an extent. You don't learn to fight just doing forms and light sparring, you need to take home some 'love marks' from time to time if you want to feel truly ready in a more chaotic situation. If exercise is the main consideration, just find somewhere that is comfortable. I'd suggest to take a look at the students, if anyone past the first or perhaps second rank looks or seems out of shape, look elsewhere.

[Blarg]

I've written a ton about this kind of stuff, and there have been some very involved threads about this kind of thing before, with a lot of good input. If the search engine isn't acting finicky again, some of the threads already written on this subject are really pretty good.