Welcome to Gaia! ::

Since I was a little kid I've wanted to take some form of martial arts. However, there's always been some kind of obstacle preventing me from taking classes. WhenI was little, my family didn't have the money;when I was older, my family needed me to stay home and babysit all the time.

Now I finally have the time and money to take classes! =D However, as luck would have it, the art I wanted to take - kung fu - only has one dojo that I could find, and it's two hours away. gonk

I was really hoping to learn kung fu, but it looks like I'm going to have to learn some other form. My boyfriend takes aikido and he's been bugging me to take a class with him, but I don't know. For some reason, it just doesn't strike me like kung fu does (no pun intended). What do y'all think?
I was wondering if anyone here takes martial arts. Any cool stories you want to share about what you've learned? Want to make a recommendation for ZeeFishee? xD

I find Aikido interesting, though I've never taken it. I've studied Judo (more as a sport than an art) and Hapkido(very briefly). I want to take more martial arts, but I don't really have the time, and I'm nowhere near in shape enough(That's not really an excuse). I've talked to several people who say that learning how to grapple is one of the most important things you can learn when learning a martial art, because it teaches you how to handle being close to a hostile person. Many people panic when they are grabbed, but grapplers tend to...enjoy it. When I took Hapkido, my sensei always used to say "if you really want to learn how to fight, you need three things, a good foundation in grappling like judo, aikido, or even wrestling, and a good base in an art which concentrates on strikes and blocks.