Choosing the Martial Art that is right for you

I think I would like to try learning a martial art.

There are many reasons to learn martial arts, ranging from sport and fitness, to self defense, to confidence building, to the fact that your gym membership includes it, among others.  Whatever your reasons are, you should know what options are available to you.  Here are some general reasons for wanting to learn a martial art

• Tradition, structure, and discipline.
• Sport
• Self defense
• Art

For Fitness and Health

Honestly, any martial art will give you a good basis for a nice workout (if attending the classes don’t give you enough of a workout as it is).  Some martial arts, though, are known for giving the student a good work out.

Muay Thai, Tai Chi, and Krav Maga are good martial arts for a good workout.

For Self Defense

Self defense is a good reason to learn martial arts.  In some cases, such as military and law enforcement, it can become a very good career move.

Many martial arts can be adapted to serve the purpose of self defense, such as was all martial arts initial purpose.  There are a few martial arts that take a few extra steps to help you gain the confidence and safety of knowing that you have a much better chance than average to defend yourself (no martial art can cover all possibilities unfortunately).  Three popular or useful martial arts for self defense are Krav Maga, Hapkido, and Muay Thai.  Not in this list are those martial arts developed and used strictly by the military.

Do I want a hard style, or soft style martial art?

Another way to categorize martial arts is by hard or soft style.  Hard style martial arts tend to be those which focus on strikes (punches, kicks, knees, elbows), and also tend to be more aggressive.  Arts that fall into this category are those like Karate, Taekwondo, Muay Thai, and Krav Maga.

On the other hand, soft style martial arts tend to focus more on flowing, sometimes graceful movements (like water).  These arts can deal with energy (ki) redirection, joint locks, or throws.  Some Kung fu fall into this category, as well as Aikido, Tai Chi, and Judo.

Still some arts fall into the third category of hybrids, such as Hapkido.

Muay Thai

Muay Thai, or kickboxing, is a hard style martial art that has been gaining popularity over the recent years.  It is heavily practiced in competition (which have been known at times to be quite brutal).  One of the interesting concepts in Muay Thai that sets it apart from other martial arts is that it’s concept of “blocking” is more of an absorption.

Krav Maga

Krav Maga was founded in the late 1930’s by Israelis who were looking to better defend themselves, and in particular, against stacked odds.  This art promotes learning how to be aggressive when threatened.  It is also heavily used by military and law enforcement.  There is no formality in Krav Maga, and definitely none of the rules of honor and politeness found in other martial arts.  It strives to rely on slight modifications to natural human instincts to get you out of trouble.  Krav Maga is designed to be learned in a short amount of time.

Krav Maga is generally taught at a very high pace, with many distractions, and as such, gives a very good workout.

Tai Chi

The soft flowing movements of Tai Chi can be deceiving.  This art takes a lot of patience, but its practice is said to induce an almost meditative state.  Thai Chi has been recommended for older students, but is definitely not limited to such.

Tai Chi also utilizes the principles if energy (ki) redirection, and a flowing water movement.  It is said that applying this philosophy negates many issues of size between opponents, since the attackers energy is harnassed against them.

Taekwondo

Taekwondo is a Korean hard style martial art that focuses on kicking.  It’s classes are generally very formal.

Taekwondo is among the most practiced martial arts in the world.  Due to this, some people think that Taekwondo schools are prone to being belt factories (as in they don’t really teach anything), but I find that this varies greatly by school.

A few parting tips

Sit in on a few classes first.  Don’t be afraid to look at the advanced classes either.  After all, that’s where you will be if you stick with the school for a while.

Contracts:  a lot of people refuse to goto schools that make you sign contracts with the belief that if the school is actually good, it doesn’t need to have you sign a contract to have you stay.  Some schools will compromise by offering a discounted price with a contract.  This is, of course, not always true with all schools.

Belt factories:  Talking to martial artists, you will hear them talk about belt factories, schools that basically promote you through the ranks not on merit, but because you pay.  I say, if thats cool with you, I don’t care either. 

This is by no means a complete list, so get out there and do some research on the schools near you.  Don’t be afraid to look up information on their art on the net.  Also, feel free to add information to this guide :)

Traditional Martial Arts

This type of martial art would include most of your oriental arts, such as Taekwondo, Karate, Aikido, and any of the various styles of kung fu (including Tai Chi).  These arts are based on solid structure, which tends to yield better results with those seeking (more) structure in their lives.  The classes are usually conducted formally, with heavy emphasis (obviously) tradition.  Expect plenty of bows, and referring to people by their most formal title.

For Sport

While most martial arts have tournaments and competition, there are a few that are considered sport martial arts, if for any reason, then that others don’t emphasis the sport aspect of their art.

To progress deep into any martial art, you must become athletic, if not a total athlete, with some people spending their entire life working towards top honors with their art.

Martial arts as sports has quite a long history, back at the least to the original Olympic games.  Some of these are arts are so prevalent, that most people don’t even consider them as martial arts.

• Judo
• Wrestling (Greco-Roman)
• Boxing
• Muay Thai
• Taekwondo
• Karate

As an Art Form

Let’s face it, some of these martial arts can look very beautiful when performed.  Martial arts in movies tend to look more like elaborate dances than much else.  This is where the “art” of martial art comes into play.  Most of your traditional arts will have forms, kata, or something else to name what is pretty much the same thing; choreographed fighting.  There is even an art that is called ‘Dance Fighting’, also known as Capoeira, noted for its dance like movements and feints, and possible origin as folk dance.