Martial Arts ?

[Wolfie65]

I'm not a 'serious' student, but do dabble a little in various martial arts styles, primarily as a sort of cross-training. Didn't particularly like my stints in martial arts studios, something was always 'off', but have been thinking of trying one again.
Anyone here study a particular style and what are your experiences?

[turtlefanforever]

Martial arts are extremely fun and rewarding. Keep in mind a lot of these are sport as much as self defense. So you will be sore and you will get hurt, but you can't give up on it.

I've been seriously training MMA since i was 13, before that it was all karate. Which is rewarding in it's own right but compared to "real" combat sports and i mean that with real life implications like on the street or in a cage nowadays is a joke. No offense to anyone who practices that.

The thing about fighting sports is you can't really become a fighter. You can train it, you can be good at it, but it's sort of something ingrained in you. My great grandfather was a boxer, my dad was an mma fighter, a lot of my family got in a lot of scraps over the years. You have to like to get hit. You have to be able to accept you're gonna get hurt and use that to drive you to be better and inflict even more damage than the other guy, as cynical as that sounds.

But from a fun, exciting, and self defense standpoint BJJ is the way to go. (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) There's places you can train it all over. Also Eddie Bravo who i consider to be the best BJJ practitioner in the world today has his site and all his DVD techniques available for $5 a month. He loves the sport and his reasoning behind it was "i want even people without jobs to be able to afford it) All those Gracies and everyone else costs well over $20 a month. But once you get a certain point you need to actually start training with people.

Muay Thai is one of my favorites as well. But you should just try some different ones, and do what feels best. But those are the two i recommend in particular.

[Candy Kappa]

Ju-Jutsu for circa ten years, a bit of Karate and Kali Sikaran. Most recent I'm a member of the school Tenshin Shoden Katori Shinto Ryu, although I've not been active for a while.

[Davin]

I train and compete in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA.

I recommend each fundamentally from a self defense perspective. Of course some BJJ schools may focus mostly on one area specifically, sport or defense.

You may enjoy MMA since you like to cross train in styles. You'll learn many techniques from a variety of origins.

[senpai]

I took Judo a long time ago... But had to quit for a couple reasons. 1.) I ended up dating one of the teachers--that didn't work out so that made sparring awkward. 2.) I became insecure with myself because I bruise easily and after lessons I always looked like a victim of domesticated violence. 3.) S**T's expensive.

[CyberCubed]

I took Judo from the age of 5 to about 15, so about 10 years.

I don't know how that would help you in real life though, flipping guys over your shoulder who weigh twice the size of you probably wouldn't work.

[PangolinFeets]

I took a few Aikido classes and I've trained in BJJ a bit (my brother and sister-in-law both compete and own their own gym), but the only fighting style I've trained in long-term is boxing. I trained for 15 years, but never went beyond sparring in the ring. It's a great workout and lots of fun.

[Metalwolf]

I took Tae Qwan Do until I got up into Red Belt, then I had to go into the Army.

[billbot85]

I took Yuishinkai Karate and RyuKyu Kobujutsu (Kobudo) for about 6 years as a kid, then stopped when I was 15 and got to high school, since other commitments took over.

However, I finally got back into this system this past year after 14 years of not doing it, and I'm glad I did! Current weapons I train in include bo staff, sai, and tonfa.

In addition to these, I also now practice Tai Chi and Qigong.