HI,I'm new and ive studied martial arts for awhile. i'm preparing to return to my training after a 3 yr break, but i'm loking for the best style for me. I KNOW I WANT SOMETHING EFFECTIVE IN SELF DEFENSE GETS ME IN GREAT SHAPE AND THE BASICS ARE EASY TO LEARN.The most important thing is that it is effective in self defense.Now ive ben doing reasearch on styles for sd on MA sites/forums. I notice that people argue that some arts are not effective. I think when people think of effective they start to think of MA MOVIES EVEN THOUGH THEY KNOW THERE NOT REAL. Martial arts was not meant for you to beable to beat the hell out of 7 guys more athlectic then u tko on them with no effort then moon walk out of the room. Now an effective martial art is an art that the basics are easy to learn,can be affective with the least amount of athecticism(strenght,speed,agility,quickness),and the common person can use. I think people go towards japnese/chinese arts like okinawankarate/shaolinkungfu because it is more suited for common non-athlectic people and is still very effective,rather koreas tkd or thailands MT because which is more for athlethes. Now the more athlecticism you have the more arts are suited for you. I have mediocre athlecicism so I am now in a process of choosing between shaolin kungfu ,kravmaga muay thai(I HAVE ENOUGH ATHLECTICISM TO PULL THIS OFF I THINK)and some forms of karate if i could find a style of karate that involved joint locks and throws in its basic curriculum. I am seriously considering cross training. Styles become more effective when you cross train them. EXAMPLE(TKD=OK/ TKD + JUDO= PRETTY EFFECTIVE TKD+HAPKIDO=VERY EFFECTIVE /TKD+HPK+WESTERN BOXING=HIGHLY EFFECTIVE/ TKD+HPK+ JKD=SUPER EFFECTIVE). This could become confusing as far as fighting applications to the diffrent styles for beginners but luckily I'm not new to the MA world and I HAVE OVER 300 MARTIAL ARTS SCHOOLS AT MY DIS POSAL BECAUSE I LIVE IN A HUGE CITYOF CHICAGO. Tell me your opinion oh yeh great forums very in formative. jeet kune do is an option as well for me. ive studied tae kwondo and aikido and kenpo karate in the past. [/b]