My whole life I wanted to study and train in a martial art but never got around to it or was unable to, due to personal reasons. It wasn't until I came very close to getting my butt beat at a bar last week where I realized I need to learn how to defend myself, especially if it saves my life one day. So, I started looking around via Google for any martial arts school(minus kickboxing and boxing), that would conform with my work schedule and is something that will be effective in a street fight. The first place I checked out is a http://www.brooklynbjj.com/ I was interested, but then realized BJJ is useless if I am fighting 1 guy on the ground and his 3 friends are kicking me in my face while I'm down there. The second place that conforms to my work schedule is a Wing Chun school (Moy Yat lineage) http://www.nycvingtsun.com/Welcome.html As for the third, well I went to a shotokan karate school yesterday http://www.ruskinkarate.com/, just to see a class and check it out. The class was about a hour long and I liked the teacher, but I have some reservations about it. I was watching a class with all brown belts and I was not really impressed. One guy, it seemed, had no idea what he was doing, kicking super slow, not listening, it made me wonder just how he got that brown belt and why. After class, the teacher wanted to sign me up right away. He told me I can do month to month or get a 6 month/1 year plan. If I paid once a month its $140 to go 2 times a week and $160 to go 3 times a week. That really seems a bit high. I told him I wanted to check out other schools before I made my decision and he seemed so insulted. He asked which schools and after I told him the schools he repeated, "You'll be back" like 10 times. Then he said how most teachers don't know how to teach and how he was the best teacher. This was a BIG turnoff to me. I don't like pushy salesman, they are my antithesis. The only real upside to this place was I got there in 10 minutes from my house which is nice. Later in the week, I am going to check out a MMA/Martial arts gym http://www.fightfactoryny.com/. They are rather expensive but with the price you pay you get full access to a gym with free weights and smith machines along with 3 classes (1.5 hours a class) of your choice a week; they offer, MMA Fighting, Muay Thai, Boxing, Karate, Wrestling. For them it's $200 a month if I sign up for a year. My biggest fear is that I get injured like 4 months into the training and then I'm out a big chunk of change, so I really want something that is month to month. This is not making my life any easier because there are so many, "McDojos" out there and I dont want to invest my money in something that is taught by a hack and/or is bogus. FWIW, I will be checking out a Kyokukshin karate place http://brooklynkyokushinkarate.com/ later this week. It's about a 15 minute highway drive from my house, but their website shows that its $99 a month with no contract. I'm not sure how Kyokukshin karate differes from Shotokan karate? Anyway, I'm going crazy here trying to figure out what to do. In Brooklyn alone there are 5.5 million people, you would think their would be more/better schools to choose from. My Stats: •25 Year old •5'10 •168 lbs •14%-15% body fat •Never worked out more than 6 months in my whole life Any tips or feedback would be great. Thanks!
