which martial art to choose?

[odsouza]

hi guys

need a little advice. i'm planning to start learning self defence from june. the choices available to me are hapkido/taekwondo/karate(shotokan). i am looking for a martial art that would be suitable for me.

i am 5 ' 11" , medium build ,27 years old. had learnt karate for a couple of years when i was younger i.e. 12 years back. what do u guys suggest?

personally i thought of trying either tkw or hapkido . not sure which one to go for. appreciate a little guidance.

od

[JusticeZero]

Go talk to the teachers, talk to the students. Also recognize that big well decorated school often means substandard instructors. Anything should work really, but the best teacher will trump all.

[CadetRay]

tkd

[jedimc]

Is it Traditional Taekwondo or the sporty version.

[mai tai]

wha do you want to get from the training. list in order.

1. phisical fitness

2. able to fight

3. spiritual fulfilment

4. have fun

then go to the various school and see what they are like.

even within the same art many schools train very differently.

me i want to fight

so i would look for.

1. are the advanced students out of shape

2. mean age should be in the 20 or 30s(not to say older guys cant fight, we got a few in our gym but they tend to hang and fight with young guys and are in great shape)

3.how important is sparing (i come to class looking to fight, it is my faovorite thing to do)

4. do they compete, some people are gonna down sport aspect but it my experieces the sport people are much better trained, they do what works (within the confines of the rules), are much more focused.

why its just law of the jungle, if they come to competitions in poor condition they lose

5. personnaly i like a place that is not form heavy. sure you can get a training effect from them but i have limmited time. and i dont think it is effective for learning to fight. its kinda like training for basketball and then playing football.

BEST ADVICE FIND A MAUY TAI GYM

[odsouza]

thanks for the advice guys. i'm lookinf for an art to enable me to defend myself. not sure if the taekwondo is traditional or sporty.( which is better?)

the instructor is a former national team coach. i'm working in a place called dubai in the gulf so that's where i'm based.

hapkido is taught by a guy called matt sayer. will go and check the place tomorrow.

thanks

[jedimc]

Traditional would be better, there self defence techniques are pretty effective.

[Mr Pockets]

Mai Tai had some pretty good advice. In general I would say the shotokan, hapkido, then tkd. However, depends on the places and the people there, so you will have to check them out yourself. Muay Thai would be a great choice if you find one.. or just boxing.

[y2_sub]

I would say Hapkido , shotokan , TKD .. however i advice you to try Kyokushinkai or Muayi tai ..

[mattyj]

as already stated it depends on the style of tkd... ull find a traditional style (like ITF) mabye more effective in a self defence situation than a sport one (i wont mention any names )

however, if you want to do ma purely for self defence (v.fun too), id do hapkido, it mixes the korean derivative of Daito-Ryu Aiki-Jutsu (v.effective), yool sool, with the striking that is quite similar to traditional taekwondo, so you get the striking aspect and the grappling aspect, which is cool.

having said this shotokan is awesome as well.

it would pay to go visit the schools and see what you like