Most Popular Martial Arts Practiced by KF Members

[Patrick]

Hello,

For our 500,000 posts celebration, I thought that it would be fun to provide a general snapshot of the most popular martial arts practiced by members of KarateForums.com.

In order to piece this together, I took a look at what every member had entered into the styles field in their profile at the moment that we hit 500,000 posts. With more than 14,000 members, this is a lot of data to try to summarize, so I turned to a friend of mine, Chrispian Burks, for help extracting the data and merging it where possible in order to present the most complete picture.

It's important to note that you can enter anything into the styles field, so different members call the same art by different names, spell it different ways, etc. But with Chris' help, and myself pouring over the data for several hours, I believe that we have come up with a list that accurately depicts the diversity of the martial arts practiced by our members.

One thing Chris was able to do for me was to split the art names when members enter more than one. For example, if your profile field is "Karate, TKD, JKD," then we were able to divide that into the three specific arts and count it with everyone who entered "Karate," "TKD" and "JKD." That's a big deal because many of you have multiple arts. A big thank you to Chris for his help.

In order to make this project possible, I decided that I would not include anything entered by only 1 member. These numbers only take into account entries that exist on a minimum of 2 member profiles. Kind of like how the game show Family Feud works, if you are familiar with it. At least two people have to have the specific art, spelled in a given manner, for it to be included in this list. For this reason, the real numbers for the arts listed here are actually slightly larger than the numbers I have provided, because of the people who listed some uniquely phrased version of something, like "Super Duper Karate."

Furthermore, I tried to be smart about grouping the same or similar arts together under one banner. But I'm sure it isn't perfect. For this reason, I have opted to also include what arts fell under a specific banner, so if you don't feel it fits, you can then do the math and cut out that art to provide a more accurate picture for yourself.

There were some terms that were used generically and I tried to be faithful to those. Things like karate, grappling, wrestling and Shaolin, that can apply in multiple contexts. For example, I decided to lump all seemingly generic forms of karate into one listing.

The only category that I am not really sure about is Kali or, in my categorization, Filipino Martial Arts. As these are often grouped together, I decided to group them together under one category and Kali was the most popular one.

But obviously I am not familiar with every martial art. I did spend a fair amount of time researching, so I feel pretty good about this list and the picture it represents. But again, if you disagree with inclusions, that's why I defined what was included so you can form your own pictures.

Where I thought it was interesting or worthwhile, I also left various spellings of the same art, so that you can see which spellings are the most popular. For instance, people spell tae kwon do in many different ways. Each art is labeled with the most popular spelling that represents the arts in that category.

I put the cutoff on this list at 10 members. Meaning, the style had to be listed on the profiles of at least 10 members in order to be included here. This ended up producing the top 57.

That said, if you have a question about an art that isn't listed here, I'd be happy to look it up for you individually and tell you if it is on any member profiles and how many.

Without further ado, here are the top 57 most popular entries in the styles fields of KarateForums.com members:

1. Shotokan Karate, 793 members

Including JKA Shotokan (10), Traditional Shotokan (5), American Shotokan (3) and Shotokan Ryu Kase Ha (2)

2. Tae Kwon Do, 749

Including Tae Kwon Do (239), TKD (204), Taekwondo (163), Tae Kwan Do (18), Taekwon-Do (13), ITF TKD (13), Tae-Kwon-Do (10), WTF Taekwondo (9), ITF (, ATA Taekwondo (7), WTF (7), Songahm Taekwondo (6), ITF Taekwon-Do (5), WTF Tae Kwon Do (5), ITF Taekwondo (5), Tai Kwon Do (4), ITF Tae Kwon Do (4), WTF TKD (4), Teakwondo (3), Taekwon Do (3), Tea Kwon Do (3), ATA TKD (3), ATA (3), Taekwondoe (2), Tae-Kwon-Doe (2), Taikwondo (2), Taekwando (2) and American TKD (2)

3. Kenpo, 357

Including Kenpo (130), Kempo (86), American Kenpo (41), Shaolin Kempo (28), Okinawan Kenpo (15), Ryukyu Kempo (11), Shaolin Kempo Karate (9), Chinese Kenpo (, Tracy Kenpo (4), Shaolin Kenpo (4), Ed Parker Kenpo (3), Kara-Ho Kempo (3), Chinese Kempo (3), Shorinji Kempo (3), Kosho Ryu Kempo (3), IKCA Kenpo (2), American Kempo (2) and Kosho Shorei Ryu Kempo (2)

4. Karate, 337

Including American Karate (20), Freestyle Karate (9), Traditional Karate (6), Okinawan Karate (6), Full Contact Karate (4), American Freestyle Karate (4), Combat Karate (4), Knockdown Karate (3), Sport Karate (3), Japanese Karate (2) and English Contact Karate (2)

5. Goju Ryu, 271

Including Goju (45), Okinawan Goju Ryu (39), Goju Kai (10), USA Goju (4), Goju Karate (3), Sansei Goju-Ryu (2) and Okinawan Goju (2)

6. Muay Thai, 270

Including Thai Boxing (16) and Muay Thai Kickboxing (6)

7. BJJ, 261

Including Gracie Jiu-Jitsu (6), Gracie Barra Jiu-Jitsu (2) and Gracie Combatives (2)

8. Judo, 246

Including Kodokan Judo (10) and Sansoo Judo (2)

9. Jujitsu, 232

Including Jujitsu (74), Jiu Jitsu (31), Jujutsu (25), Ju Jitsu (24), Ju-Jitsu (22), Jiu-Jitsu (20), Jiujitsu (9), Ju Jutsu (7), Japanese Jujitsu (5), Small Circle Jujitsu (3), Jui-Jitsu (2), Jui Jitsu (2), Danzan Ryu Jujitsu (2), Jiu Jutsu (2), Iaijutsu (2) and Japanese Jujutsu (2)

10. Kickboxing, 198

Including American Kickboxing (5), Sport Kickboxing (2), Chinese Kickboxing (2) and Cardio Kickboxing (2)

11. Aikido, 192

Including Tomiki Aikido (4), Yoshinkan Aikido (4), Aikikai Aikido (3), Combat Aikido (2) and Nihon Goshin Aikido (2)

12. Shorin Ryu, 190

Including Shorin Ryu (72), Shorin-Ryu (50), Shorin-Ryu Shorinkan (7), Matsubayashi Shorin-Ryu (7), Kobayashi Shorin-Ryu (7), Joshinmon Shorin Ryu (6), Shorin-Ryu Karate (6), Shorin Ryu Karate (5), Shorin (4), Shorin Ryu Shorinkan (4), Kobayashi Shorin Ryu (3), Matsumura Shorin Ryu (3), Shorinryu (2), Shobayashi Shorin-Ryu (2), Matsumura Seito Shorin-Ryu (2), Shorin-Ryu Kata (2), Okinawan Shorin Ryu (2), Shorin Ryu Matsumura Seito (2), Okinawa Shorin Ryu (2) and Shurin Ryu (2)

13. Tang Soo Do, 167

Including Moo Duk Kwan Tang Soo Do (, Tang Soo Do Mi Guk Kwan (3) and American Tang Soo Do (2)

14. Boxing, 165

Including Western Boxing (12), Chinese Boxing (4) and American Boxing (4)

15. Kyokushin, 161

Including Kyokushinkai (20), Kyokushin Budokai (2) amd Kyokushin Kaikan (2)

15. Kung Fu, 161

Including Hung Gar (20), Kung Fu San Soo (18), Shaolin Kung Fu (13), Lau Gar (5), Jow Ga Kung Fu (2), Northern Shaolin Kung Fu (2), White Crane Kung Fu (2), Sil Lum Kung Fu (2), Praying Mantis Kung Fu (2) and Shaolin Longfist (2)

17. Wado Ryu, 160

Including Wado Ryu (66), Wado-Ryu (31), Wado Ryu Karate (16), Wado-Ryu Karate (11), Wado (10), Wado Kai (5), Wadoryu (5), Wado Kai Karate (3), Wado-Kai (3), Wado Ryu Karate Do (2), Wadokai (2), Wado Karate (2), Shintani Wado Kai (2) and Wado-Ryu Karate-Do (2)

18. Hapkido, 155

Including Combat Hapkido (11) and Sin Moo Hapkido (3)

19. JKD, 140

Including JKD Concepts (4) and JKDC (2)

20. Isshinryu, 138

Including Isshinryu (64), Isshin-Ryu (21), Isshinryu Karate (19), Isshin Ryu (17), Isshin Ryu Karate (6), Ishinryu (3), Isshin-Ryu Karate (3). Isshin-Ryu Karate-Do (3) and Ishin Ryu (2)

21. Shito Ryu, 133

Including Shito Ryu (47), Shito-Ryu (41), Shitoryu (11), Shito-Ryu Karate (10), Shito Ryu Karate (5), Shito (5), Motobu Ha Shito Ryu (2), Hayashi-Ha Shitoryu (2), Seito Shito-Ryu (2), Shito Ryu Genbu Kai (2), Hayashi-Ha Shito Ryu (2), Shito-Ryu Seiko-Kai (2) and Hayashi-Ha Shito-Ryu (2)

22. Wing Chun, 126

Including Wing Tsun (, Wing Chun Kung Fu (, Wing Chung (3), WC (3) and Traditional Wing Chun (2)

23. Kali, 114

Including Kali (41), Escrima (26), Arnis (20), Modern Arnis (, Eskrima (6), FMA (6), Filipino Martial Arts (4), Kali Escrima (3) and Inayan Eskrima (2)

24. Tai Chi, 113

Including Taijiquan (16), Tai Chi Chuan (14), Yang Tai Chi (9) and Chen Style Taijiquan (2)

25. Kobudo, 86

Including Okinawan Kobudo (12), Ryukyu Kobudo (7), Matayoshi Kobudo (6) and Jissen Kobudo (2)

25. Wrestling, 86

Including Submission Wrestling (11), Freestyle Wrestling (7), Greco-Roman Wrestling (6), Catch Wrestling (3), High School Wrestling (2)

27. MMA, 83

Including Mixed (2)

28. Ninjutsu, 49

Including Ninjitsu (15) and Bujinkan Ninjutsu (2)

29. Krav Maga, 46

Including Krav Maga Joe Lewis Kick Boxing (2)

30. Shukokai, 44

Including Kimura Shukokai (4)

31. Kendo, 40

32. GKR, 36

33. Kuk Sool Won, 34

33. Uechi-Ryu, 34

Including Uechi (2) and Original-Style Uechiryu Karatedo (2)

33. None, 34

Including None Yet (10)

36. Iaido, 32

Including Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iaido (2)

37. Grappling, 30

Including Combat Grappling (2)

38. Kajukenbo, 27

Including Kajukembo (4)

39. Shudokan, 26

40. All, 25

Including All Styles (4) and Martial Arts (4)

41. Shaolin, 24

Including Northern Shaolin (4) and Shaolin-Do (2)

42. Capoeira, 23

42. Freestyle, 23

Including American Freestyle (6)

44. Wushu, 21

Including Wu Shu (4)

45. Chun Kuk Do, 18

46. Chito-Ryu, 17

46. Bagua, 17

Including Baguazhang (4)

48. Eugue Ryu, 16

49. Praying Mantis, 14

49. Seido, 14

Including Seido Karate (3) and Seido Juku (3)

49. Bujinkan, 14

Including Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu (4) and Bujinkan Ninjutsu (2)

52. Silat, 13

52. Shuri-Ryu, 13

Including Okinawan Shuri Ryu (2) and Shuri (2)

54. Fencing, 12

Including European Fencing (2)

55. Kenjutsu, 11

56. Cuong Nhu, 10

56. Soo Bahk Do, 10

Quite a list! Thank you to all members who fill out their styles field and give us an idea of their backgrounds.

Sincerely,

Patrick

Edited November 8, 2013 by Patrick

[sensei8]

Quite a list indeed!! Thanks for taking the time to create said list.

[ninjanurse]

Great list-I'm in both the top 2-yay!

[Harkon72]

Fantastic List! A great cross-section of the Martial Arts world.

I find no surprise that Shotokan Karate is number 1, it is and has been a great example of a style that speaks to people all over the world. My style, Shukokai is way down the list, maybe because it is a young derivative. Kobudo is popular as is Shorin Ryu. Tae Kwon Do is one of the most popular styles in the world if not here in Wales; it would be interesting to compare any correlation between style and location. Thank you for compiling this list, it took hard work and it is very interesting.

[DWx]

Wow that must have taken quite a bit of time and effort to collate! Didn't quite realise how many styles we had.

[MasterPain]

Very cool! Interesting to see. I wish we had more FMA and Silat people here.

One thing I must point out though, Bujin Bugei Jutsu is not associated with the Bujinkan, so with 4 members we should be #57.

[CredoTe]

Great list, great diversity... No surprise that Shotokan and TKD took the top spots, but, what is surprising to me is that JJ/BJJ aren't higher on the list. I thought for sure it would score in the top 3, top 5 at least...

[Patrick]

Thank you for the replies, all. Glad that you are enjoying the list.

Thank you for the tip, Bill. When I was searching for it, I came across things like "Bujinkan Bugei Taijutsu," etc. so ended up including it, but it's good to know for sure. I've adjusted the list to reflect this.

Unfortunately, splitting the art off means that it falls off the list, as there is a minimum of 10 to be listed and 4 would put it far down below #57. Sorry.

Thanks,

Patrick

[tallgeese]

That is a really cool idea, Patrick. It's neat to see just how much experience floats around this board!

[Nidan Melbourne]

Great list patrick!!!