Wolf Nightshade
What is offered in your area first off?
There are a lot of styles im interested in but I have little options here and I understand my physical limits. I didn't care for Tae Kwon Do it was mainly focused on sport tournament style stuff and I hate that. I have come to the conclusion that although I like the kicks I don't feel it's for me I never learned any of the fancy kicks I didn't stay long. TKD is very common and uses a lot of kicking techniques very fast at multiple kicks. Probably one of the most devastating is the Axe kick dropped right on someones collar bone you will break it. Another common art in many areas is Karate typically I see these two in the same tournaments and things they are very similar arts most wouldn't be able to tell the difference by watching them without some knowledge of Martial arts. If your into competing these 2 are a good start im not into it really. MMA is becoming very popular because of the UFC mainly. It's a combination of different arts but it is geared to sport use and probably wont offer things a traditional school would. MMA or something like Boxing due to the training and focus on full contact fighting is usually better training for use in an actual fight. MMA is more rounded than a lot of traditional schools that focus on one style of fighting Boxing would fit here due to lack of kicks and ground fighting. Most traditional schools in the West have become very weak they train for sport or say they are used for combat exclusively but then never spar in a way that would make their students effective fighters.
I say students not style because the art isn't to blame if you train in a realistic manner after gaining an understanding of the techniques one will become proficient in the use of them for actual combat rather than drills. You need to find out what the options are in your area then visit each school ask if they will offer a free lesson or lessons to help you decide. Some may even give you a demonstration if you ask. I tend to stay away from places that have trophies everywhere because it tells me they care a lot about sport and I just don't care for it. Ask questions like who is the head of the system where did the teacher learn and take notes look this stuff up later. It's a trial and error sort of thing if it sounds like they are trying to sell you something and asking you to pay long periods in advance I would not go back. I know we have a Karate school here that is expensive but I don't remember how much and you must sign a contract. When I started Wing Chun I signed a paper saying if I was hurt they wouldn't be held responsible. I payed $30 a month because I was in high school and kids payed $30. After school it was $40 a month and once you reach instructor you payed nothing. My friend and I now run a school out of his house with some help from our old teachers. We charge between $40 and $20 a month a few don't pay anything. We don't care about money but we like to get equipment to help our class the monthly fee is symbolic mostly. Our teacher told us if you don't charge people don't take it seriously if they pay it's like they are losing money by being lazy so they focus more.
Some schools do a lot of physical fitness we focus more on techniques and application spending most of our class time doing drills, forms and light sparing up to working with padded equipment so we can push ourselves safely. We spar more than our teachers did when we started at the old school but we are much younger. My teacher just felt he was to old I guess but we spar and we do so with no set rules other than not to seriously injure anyone. We get hit we stop ask if the person is ok laugh a bit and continue on. My focus is to learn and become better and to help my students do the same. We question our techniques all the time and try different things to figure out how best to use them. I don't know of many schools here that are anything like ours. I know it's a good school and I wish to make it better through training harder.
This place I am going to right now, offers Hapkido, Brazilian jiujitsu and something else I don't remember.
They are both really unpleasing to me. I really want to go in to martial arts for the defense and for the art aspect, that I am doing beautiful art. The two lack art, and hapkido seems too situational and I can't remember any of the holds.
Neither seem to emphasize with straight forward striking and speed.
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