Question:
martial arts for beginners

I am about 20 months post op and have been really getting into working out at the gym but I'd like to try something different in addition to the workouts I do now. I have been trying to research different kinds of martial arts to see which one might be good to try but there are so many I don't know where to start. I'd like to go to schools to observe some classes but which types of M/A should I look into first?    — citygirl1971 (posted on April 4, 2005)

April 4, 2005
There are definitly so many different styles ranging from so many different countries that I can understand your confusion! LOL! Here is my advice: Ask yourself what you are looking for in martial arts. Is it spiritual balnce? Heavy workout? Flexibility and strength? OR just plain fun? Then ask yourself if you are partial to a specific culture such as Japanese, Korean, Chinese, African, etc... Just these two questions alone will help you narrow the field! Then consider how much you are willing to spend in time and money to learn your new art? What area do you live in? What is available to you? For example, we are a military family and we have been assigned to Korea twice so when choosing a martial art for our son we chose a Korean based one since we knew that most likely we would return to Korea again, and we thought it would keep some consistancy in his training. I also wanted to keep him in a style that was more condusive to flexibility, strength, and dicipline as apposed to a style that was focused on defense or fighting. So we enrolled him into Hapkido. (More dance and technique than hand to hand training.) Eventually we moved to a new base, however, and the new duty station did not have a Hapkido school even remotely close. Wanting to keep with a Korean MA we allowed him to join TaeKwonDo (if there had been a style from another culture avaiable in our area that was similar to Hapkido we would have choosen that instead). Since we wanted our son to focus on technique, dicipline and strength more than fighting, we decided to join him in his training as a family so we have more control over what he focuses on personally. Anyways, if we had lived in an area that offered more in the way of martial arts, like my hometown. I would have kept my son in Hapkido, TaeChi or something along those lines. My husband and I are very interested in Capoeira (Brazilian Martial Art) and probably would have enrolled ourselves in that! My sister is more interested in breaking a sweat than anything else so she studys different kinds of kickboxing and my other sister is interested more in spiritual centeredness and she practices TaeChi and some other Chinese art (I can't remember...LOL) So you really have to ask yourself what you are looking for (and what is available to you) and that will narrow your search down immensly! Hope that helps! (BTW- check out the martial arts forum of this website, folks there might be able to help you too!)
   — MagickalMom

April 4, 2005
I would look into cardio Kickboxing. It is a wonderful workout and its fun. Also, you will learn some self defense.
   — *Malena* M.

April 4, 2005
Hi Monique, I've dabbled in the martial arts most of my life. This is a great question. First and foremost you should make sure the school and the instructor are fully qualified and enjoy a good reputation. After that you may want to find out if you want to study an art that stresses grappling techniques like judo or a one that stresses kicking and punching. You can e-mail me at [email protected] and I'll be happy to go into a little more detail for you. Joe Crist
   — Joe C.