looking to start martial arts

[ghostman]

As the summer draws near, I'm hoping to keep myself busy with some sort of activity. I heard a friend of a friend was doing some kickboxing, so that got me thinking. I wanted to do martial arts when I was a kid (I'm 22 now), but my parents always thought it was too dangerous. So this sounds like a good opportunity. But I don't know anything about any sort of martial arts, outside my 2 hour google search today.

 

So, a few questions:

 

1. Do you know of any good martial arts place in NYC? Google only turned up NYKK and Bo Law Kung Fu, and I don't know if any of them are good.

 

2. How much do lessons typically cost per month?

 

3. What should I learn? It's basically for fitness and self-defense at this stage, but I don't want to end up doing aerobic exercising like taebo (sp?).

 

Any input would be helpful. Thanks.

[Pacificshore]

Welcome aboard,

 

As for your search for MA instruction in NYC, start with the yellow pages within your surrounding area. Check out some of the places that may be of interest to you, and see if you can try them out w/o any obligation.

 

The internet search is fine to research different styles. Costs vary from place to place. You gotta look to see if it's a contract situation or a month to month place. Most here have their own personal opinions on the contract situation.....which is most don't care for them cause it can lock you in for up to a year.

 

As for learning, you want to start out with the basics, and most places will start you out at the basics, at least I hope so. Basics consist of blocks, hand strikes, kicks, and stances. It then progresses from there. Read up on the differnt catagories of the forum and see what peeks your interest.

 

Good luck, and welcome aboard once again

[italian_guy]

I think you can get lots of informations on different arts or styles looking at old/present thread in this forum.

 

Concerning my personal experience I would say that kickboxing and karate are both good for fitness (maybe between the two, kickboxing is a little better) kickboxing is a little faster to learn at basic level, karate takes more to learn but is richer in techniques.

[karatekid1975]

ghostman, you are in the middle of Martial Arts Central! There is such a wide range of martial arts schools in NYC. If you can tell me what part of NYC (Bronx, Queens, Staten Island, ect) you live in, I can better help you out. If I list ALL the schools in the general NYC area, it would take all day LOL.

 

But here is a short list for 10018 zip code (New York, NY) that had websites. I don't know how far you are willing to travel, but I searched within a 20 mile area:

 

http://www.kickboxingsites.com/afkka/ (Kickboxing)

 

http://www.jujitsusites.com/sijjk/ (Judo/Jujitsu)

 

http://www.martialartsites.com/jeffeisenberg/index.cfm?page=7

 

http://www.dojosites.com/sdk/

 

http://www.martialartsites.com/tcmai/ (Isshin Ryu)

 

There were a TON of places that didn't have websites.

[ghostman]

Thanks for the input everyone!

 

I'm in the Brooklyn area, but I work in Manhattan. IMO, Manhattan locations are generally better (based solely on movie theater experience), but it'll probably end up being a lot more expensive. If I don't sign on to any contracts (since I can't guarantee I'll have enough time to pursue this after summer) and only go on a month-by-month basis, how much should I expect to pay? None of these websites list prices, so I don't want to get ripped off.

 

I'll do some more reading up in the meantime.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

Here's something else to think about ghostman.

 

Myself, I would recommend steering away from the flashy, expensive commercial schools. In a city the size of NYC, there has to be hundreds of backyard dojo's taught by skilled sensei that aren't in it to make a living, but rather to pass on their knowledge to others. Those are, IMHO, some of the best people to learn from (that's how I did) because money isn't a factor in their teaching, but rather teaching something they love and want to share with others.

 

Just my 2 cents worth.

[ghostman]

Good point Shorinryu Sensei. I've only been calling around for the ones I can find webpages on so far (I realize that's a bad way to find a place, but they provide the most information about what they do.). One of them has a base plan of 6-months for ~$600. That's too big of an investment for me all at once since I'm not even sure this will work for me. Another won't tell me the price over the phone and insists that I try their free session first. I don't mind the free session, but I don't want to waste my time and find out that they also require a long-term comittment.

 

I guess it's time to give some other places a call.

[Shorinryu Sensei]

A suggestion. In a city the size of NYC, I would imagine there is a martial arts rournament nearly every weekend, especially in the summer. Go and check it out and maybe talk to some students sitting on the sidelines about any backyard dojo's that they might know about.

 

For me, $100/month is outragous and I wouldn't pay for it myself. I teach out of my attached garage and charge $40/month, but half my class is freebies anyway, and the other half are newbies that come and go.

 

Think about this. Do you need a juice bar in your dojo? Weights? Sauna/hottub, secretary, business manager, etc? You're paying for them if they have them.

[karatekid1975]

In my short MA career, I'm finding out what Shorinryu Sensei said to be so true these days.

 

I did a search and came up with so many schools in Brooklyn alone. I would suggest looking in your phone book under Martial arts, and start calling around. Go watch a few classes once you picked a few schools to check out.