An introduction, and a question

[Ryujin]

Hello everyone! I'd just like to say that I've been around the site for a few days now, mostly just reading and making the odd post (as you can see by my pathetic post count ) and I think you guys have a quality forum here with excellent, knowledgeable members.

Lately I've been thinking of starting martial arts, for a few reasons. I want to boost my confidence, get in control of my sometimes heated temper and get in shape. Basically, I want to improve my body and my mind, and become more in tune with both. And of course, as a usefull side effect, I will also learn to defend myself. I have luckily never been in a situation where I have had to fight someone, but I know that because of my absolute lack of experience, should I ever need to, I would be creamed. The style I'm thinking of getting into is Karate, but I have a few questions for you guys/gals first. First of all, I've heard/read about different styles of karate. Is there really a big difference between them all and should I worry about this when I choose where I'm gonna train? I've also read that when you choose your style you should choose one that matches your body type, I'm about 5'11" or 6' and 200lbs (not ALL muscle unfortunatly ) So would karate suit my body type? For those of you who take karate, do you find it a well rounded art, with a good balance of grappling, strikes, and weapons training? Because I'm interested in all of them and don't want to get into something that emphasises to much on just on of those. And lastely, what's a good training schedule like, as in how many lessons a week? I don't want to invest in something without first knowing I'm going to have enough time to get anything out of it. Because of heard that if you only go lets say once a week, you wont get enough out of it to make it worth your while. I know thats a lot to ask, I'm sorry, but I know you are all knowledgeable so I'm sure you'll be able to answer my n00bish questions Thanks alot for all your help in advance

Edit: Thanks for moving my thread, I didn't notice I placed it in the wrong place.

[P.A.L]

this is one way of looking at karate

A. sportive

A.1. light contact like shotokan,wado ryu, shito ryu,goju kai

A.2 full contact Kyukoshin kai

B.non sportive like most of traditional okinawan style

sportive karate in A.1 may go to Olympics sooner or later they compite in Kumite section and kata.

if you like to spar then shotokan is a good place if like to compite in kata then goju kai and shito ryu

kyukoshin has it's own rules of sparring they only mix with others in open tournoment and most of the time the winner of open is a kyukoshin guy.

non sportive karate steel does the sparing some times even full contact but tournoments are not the goal

since there is no clear boundry these are all mixed , you may find a totaly traditional shotokan dojo or a very sportive shorin ryu school.

weapons in karate comes mostly from two major school of weapons in okinawa, in some style it is incorprated into style in some it is totaly seprated.

grappling is part of karate but a karateka normally avoid going down if they go they try to stand up. in my style all the trows or locks come after the first hit when the oponent is already losen up, if i take somebody doen i won't try to put him in chock,i just drive my knee into his ribs.

normally 2 times per week is the minimum but if you don't have time, then as much as you can, for me this is part of life ,i train any time i can ,i don't put any upper or lower limite ,if you plan to do it to the end then number of days are not that important. you are younger you practice more i am older i practice as much as i can.

look around in your town and ask people about dojos, best of the bests are not in the dojos with big signs ,most of them practice in their garages or small dojos and most of them have a morning job, at least this is what i have seen.

[Jay]

different types of karate suit different body types