What martial art should I learn?

[lawyerdad]

Originally Posted by mizanation

wow, that's awesome!

Yeah, on a rainy day when doing more traditional PE activities wasn't really in the cards, we'd try (sometimes successfully) to get him to break out his knives an nunchuks and what now.

I'm sure that now there would be a huge outcry about him having these "weapons" at school.

 

[mizanation]

that's crazy, he's like a living legend, many consider him to be the most knowledgable martial artist out there (whether that's true or not who knows). he was bruce lee's best and most trusted student--the heir apparent to the legacy of jeet kune do.

and he taught PE at your middle school. crazy. i wonder when he decided to be a fulltime martial arts legend?

 

[retronotmetro]

Originally Posted by mizanation

so, what is so traditional about traditional martial arts?

the original, "traditional" purpose of martial arts was to be able to fight effectively. in that case, wouldn't martial arts like MMA or Muay Thai, be considered the true, "traditional" martial arts? after all, they are concerned with performance first.

muay thai is hundreds of years old, so, why isn't it considered a "traditional" martial art? it predates karate styles that are considered "traditional."

Yeah, "traditional" martial art isn't always the most helpful term. When I hear or use the term TMA, I generally think of it as meaning a martial art that has a fairly rigid ruleset and/or training methodology, practiced by people with a fair amount of pissiness about any messing with the recipe. On that same note I don't think age is a necessary criterion for being a TMA. When you think about the fact that except for some of the Okinawan styles, most of the karate being trained today is mid-20th century in origin, you wouldn't call karate a TMA on age alone. So much has been monkeyed with that a practitioner from the early 20th century (probably even Funakoshi himself) would take one look at the training in a modern dojo and ask WTF happened.

I think of MMA as being a training methodology rather than an a single discernable art (feel free to offer your thoughts on that), so for that reason alone I wouldn't call it a TMA.

 

[Sifu]

If you want traditional --- than exposing yourself to arts like Karate, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, etc. will suffice. However, these alone probably aren't much help in self-defense (real world fighting) at all.

You would have you find what is offered in your area if you want more fighting experience. Krav Maga is very good, and the methodology is very simple to grasp (in your 30's, and new to martial arts). Muay Thai and Ju Jitsu are good (depending on the school), but if you are able to find somebody to teach you MMA (mixed martial arts) than i suggest that. They are usually experienced fighters that will train you in actual fighting situations.

On the mental aspect, you can do tai chi or yoga on your own time.

My suggestion, expose yourself to many different martial arts and see what you like best.

 

[Sifu]

I just found this forum tonight, and I just found it a funny coincidence how my first post is in this thread, and my alias is Sifu

completely not intentional.

 

[mizanation]

^^^ yeah, i thought that was ironic.

trained at chris haueter's house today for a semi-private lesson. finally felt first hand the slow crushing death of his pressure game. that guy is really ******* good.

he had two of his purple belts there who were good too.

all in all great day, but i'm sore as hell.

 

[kanye3000]

I am about to take my first muay thai class. This decision was solely based on seeing the movie The Protector

 

[The Deacon]