Training in Korea

[isshinryu5toforever]

I am in the midst of a move, and I want to start doing martial arts fairly seriously again. I train a lot on my own, but I want to join a school, hit other people, etc. I have a few choices. First, what I have already accomplished:

4th degree black belt in Isshinryu Karate

1st degree black belt in Taekwondo (WTF)

experience (unranked) in Aikido

Here are my choices and thoughts. The three martial arts I have considered are Kumdo (Kendo), Yudo (Judo), and Kyokushin Karate.

Yudo would compliment the Karate and Taekwondo I have already done quite well, but there is a really huge push here to compete, so you really only practice competition techniques, and a lot of the schools seem a bit haphazardly organized.

Kendo is something I have always thought would be a lot of fun, but the monetary commitment for equipment can be quite steep.

Kyokushin might not be necessary at this point in my training, but I'm still young, and you have to admit hitting people full contact is a lot of fun.

Any advice?

[kamahlthedruid]

gong kwon yusul looks awesome! I saw it on youtube and it looks like like kyokushin combined with jujitsu and judo!

[bushido_man96]

If hitting people is high on the priority list, then I don't see how you can go wrong with Kyokushin.

But, Kendo would be fun, too....getting hit with shinai....good times! I did SCA combat for a while, and getting hit and hitting with large rattan sticks is a BLAST!!!! So, I think Kendo would be just as much fun.

[tonydee]

Hapkido's worth considering... a few years rounded out my hard-style taekwondo and gave me better tactile sensitivity, explosiveness, footwork, and control of the opponent - even though the techniques are a lot less practical than simple striking. Kyokushin technique and tactics seem pretty basic to me... not sure there's a lot to learn if you've already got a solid foundation in karate, but there's the contact side if you haven't been in a style that concentrates on conditioning and/or knockdown sparring.... Judo looks like great fun to me, but I'm not sure about a martial art. Kendo - might be good for untelegraphed movement and reflexes, footwork...? Could also be frustrating for someone with a martial arts background, as so many things have to be done in the prescribed way irrespective of whether you could affect an equally or more effective strike in some other way... true at least when practiced in Japan, but then Korea has been more flexible in that regard in the martial arts generally....