Looking to get into the Martial Arts

[Atomic Punk]

Hello everyone,

I am looking to get into martial arts, and just looking for a little advice on how to pick a good school, which ones to stay away from, and your opinions on which martial art is the most useful for self-defense and fitness. If you have links to websites when I can read about it myself, that's fine as well, because I'm sure there's so much out there. Also, if there is anyone that posts here from the Northern VA area that knows of good schools please let me know! I appreciate any information you all can provide.


AP

[jcolvin]

A very good question. I think you should approach it for what exactly you want to learn and that will narrow the scope of you search. Personally, I think you should try to become balanced meaning a school where you can learn stand up and where you can learn ground work. Everyone has an opinion about which is best, so I will leave that to you to decide. Then after you have made that determination you should look at how the instructors of the school teach. A couple of questions you should ask yourself are is the school just about preparing me to fight in the ring? Is the school just about the theory of fighting, ie we are practicing techs but never can put them to work in sparring? What type of attention will I get from the instructor? Also, a very important one is how are the other students in class?

Just my opinon. Hope it helps

Joe

[Guest]

Get into Thai Boxing as well as Judo.

[Guest]

No. But thanks for assisting the guy with his thread.

[thirtytwohits]

what the **** is all this flame about, Bri was simply giving suggestions. rorny, u come out of nowhere and start shit.
ask yourself, "who was dissing bjj?"

[Guest]

Forgive him 32hits. He knows not what he does........

[BellyOfTheBeast]

I think what else you should look for is what you want to accomplish out of it, like what are you looking for. Are you looking to become in better shape, are you looking to take it for fighting reasons and theres probably a lot more. Just give some different schools a try and take the one you feel most comfortable with. For some basic stuff I would try Muay Thai and then maybe get into some ground fighting like bjj. Its good to be proficient in all areas of fighting stand up and ground. Also I don't really think one art is better then another art, its up to the fighter and the person who decides that. IMO