shikantaza

my Gracie Jiujitsu gym charges $190/mo, min 3 months. Fine with me: I feel lucky to have access to honest training.

Ninja outfits look sadly silly unless you're going to a small party of close friends only. Being discreet about martial arts, the study of violence to preserve or restore peace and health, can often be miss understood and miss represented. Osu

Depends on the instructor(s), your effort and your willingness to handle pain and risks to injury, and the advanced students you will learn with by sparring with. My path combines training at a "full contact" karate dojo, Kyokushin-derived, and training at a jiu-jiutsu gym, another form of "full contact," but I already have a decent background in martial arts from several years of hapkido and taekwondo-karate. Osu

excellent observation. even during MMA sparring, I wear muay Thai headgear, shin-instep pads, and make "honest" contact, not blasting away as hard I I can hit (well, pretty close, but with some control and being mindful of gauaging the damage), least so these amatueur UFC "fighters" will not fully crush me. a.k.a. Havamal

Concentrate on full contact (jissen kumite) karate first. After a solid base, add judo/jiu-jitsu. Amazing to me how the majority of karate-ka are not actually interested in learning how to fight (AKA self-defense), to learn to build confidence by managing fears and risks to injury: Nice that they pay tuition, but that's the down side of having to pay bills and make a profit.

judo/jiu-Jitsu, then, later, after a solid base, say brown or black belt, of judo/bjj, take on muay Thai or free style kickboxing that allows kicks to legs and elbows to face. I hear boxing's very useful, but I know that kicking to leg's very useful for sport or for self-defense. p.s. 45ACP pistol (obtain a CCW Permit, if you can), 308 rifle, and 12 gauage shotgun should be your weapons styles.