I'm new, and have a question

[Lone_Knight]

Hello, my name's Brian and I just signed up.

I have one question. I've never practiced a martial art before, but i'm looking to find one. I originally wanted to do Judo, as it would help me in High School wrestling. However the closest Judo joint to my house is about 2 hours away. So away to the yellow pages I went. They're are four different martial art places that are accesible to me. They're is Tae Kwon Do, which I don't really think I wanna do. It looks like you're constantly off-balance. Then there was Gumdo, and I've got no clue what that was. Countless Karate places, and Aikido. I have to say Aikido definetaly sparked my interest. I saw a demo video of Aikido on youtube.com, and the guy took on about 4 people at the same time. From what I understand though, Aikido is only good against people who over-commit. I'm still interested in it though.

I just thought I'd get some advice from people who've actually done martial arts.

[Heim]

i didn't see the mention of the fourth school, but you could just give aikido a shot, and not for you then could always quit, but you may end up liking it

[Hardball]

From what is offered in your area I would choose akido or karate.

[osopardo]

Be aware that those aikido demos are exactly that - demos. They usually involve a very well rehearsed uke-tori cooperative relationship intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of the techniques when perfectly executed.



Oh, and gumdo is a Korean technique involving spitting your chewing gum at your opponent, as a distraction just prior to attacking them with a sword.

[Lone_Knight]

I've been reading about Aikido, and a lot of people say it would never help you in a real fight at all. They say it's not even a Martial Art. I even saw someone compare it to Tai Chi. Has anyone here ever practices Aikido before?

[Penance]

It sounds like you want an art that is good for self defense and/or will help your wrestling.

If those are your choices, I would see if any of the local colleges have a jiu jitsu club that is open to the public. Failing that, take boxing unless one of the karate schools has an MMA class of some sort.

BJJ and boxing/MMA will give you the most practical knowledge in the shortest amount of time.

Even if it's just once or twice a month, try hitting up that judo school, too.

[Scott Bolinger]

I've studied Aikido. The therories and techinques of Aikido would diffenatly help. Taking a couple months of that would probably be a big pluss to your wrestling.

[Hardball]

Akido is what you make it. Apply yourself and practice hard and you will benefit. After a couple of years you can cross train in other arts. What do you think Mr. Steven Segal does? He's no slouch!!!

[Penance]

Akido is what you make it. Apply yourself and practice hard and you will benefit. After a couple of years you can cross train in other arts. What do you think Mr. Steven Segal does? He's no slouch!!!

Did you really just bring Steven Segal into this discussion?

[Hardball]

Yea, what's the problem?

[eXcessiveForce]

he's kind of the poster child for fat out of shape martial artist wife beaters.


Really I'd check out all of the schools and watch what they do.

Gumdo is swords so if you aren't looking for weapons you might want to skip that one.

TKD and Karate are similar. I prefer TKD for many reasons, but a crap school is a crap school and I would chose a good school of another art than stick with a crap school teaching a good style.

Aikido is interesting, but takes some time to learn.

So check them all out. another thing is find who you are comfortable working out with. Some instructors are great some not so great Good technique sometimes is outweighed by bad personality.

[Hardball]

he's kind of the poster child for fat out of shape martial artist wife beaters.

That does not mean that he cannot teach. Some of the best teachers look like crap!!! You never know what happened in life that causes a Martial Artist to be out of shape.

[Hardball]

Did you really just bring Steven Segal into this discussion?

Yea, I heard he was Ex CIA,, a real Killer!!!

[eXcessiveForce]

I'm not trying to put the guy down, I like the movies, and other than that don't much care about the guy. However we have a school of his close by, and i've seen their demo's several times and haven't been real impressed.

Also I read an article about him,
He at one time said he could beat anybody in a fight, I forget which fighter it was but they called him up and challenged him. He backed off real quick. The fighter said they didn't care what he said about himself, but when he says he can beat anybody, he's talking about me.

I know I have still have the article, but it's in an issue of Blackbelt i think from probably 10 years ago.

Anyway, Segal has kind of a bad rep and less than stellar reputation when it comes to getting himself into scrapes and not always being on the winning end. That's why the question about bringing him up I think

[Hardball]

It's all good; nobody did any flame throwing.