[Flipside]

My vote is for Wing Chun, it's good for turning other peoples strength against them, also, after a while you do flag, sword and knife work (Oddly enough, I enjoyed the flag work most!)
If you are bigger built, Shotokan is a good form of karate to use, since it seems to be developing into a mixture of Karate, Judo and Street Fighting, my old 6th Dan japanese instructor used to say 'Where man's balls go, rest of him follow' when teaching self defence.
I always found Tai Kwon Do was only good as long as you weren't up against anyone who does Ju-Jitsu or Judo, both wrestling techniques,TKD is pretty useless against them

[Rand al Thor]

Ive done abit of all 3 in the past so Id like to think that what Im about to say wont be complete waffle.

Tae kwon do is supposedly the most scientifically structured martial arts around today as it only came into existence in 1960 or so in Korea, I think, due to its waring history and the desire for its people to be able to defend themselves. Its pretty structured and all about using momentum while keeping the body pretty rigid to do extra damage. Like was said its a striking art so theres very little grappling or holds. Its more practically oriented then Karate though, with of emphasis on sparing after certain grades have been reached.

Kickboxing is a real scrappers fighting method. Focuses on physical fitness and patches movements and holds/grappling from all forms of other techniques. Very freeform sparing and EVERYONE does it, even if its your first day. Gets interesting when you get a few belts under you and they start sparing you against the blackbelts.

Karate then was long ago but I remember it being very structured, lotsa discipline and forms. Wadu ryu concentrates on stick fighting as it was developed I think as the sword was being phased out.

Hmmm far as I can tell that does sound pretty convincing. Enjoy the bruises.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by vyper
Your sports union's site... its... informative... I'm not used to this!

Yeah, well it only took them 3 1/2 years to get that far........

[an0n]

Meditate and memorise all the Pressure Points.

Simple, easy and more effective than any amount of training.

If you remain calm, have strength and think while fighting you can take down any opponent.

Simply await an attack then take every opportunity to punch a pressure-point and/or grab-n-throw the attacker into the nearest big-n-heavy thing.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by Assassin
Maeg has summed up the arts pretty well.

However, I recommend you check out ALL of those classes for a lesson or three. See which one you click with. See which instructor you feel you can trust the most and would like teaching you. See which club boasts the most impressive and friendly senior students. Having a good learning environment and teacher is definitely just as important as the style you learn.

There is also a trend for clubs in Taekwondo and Karate to be called "McDojo" - these schools offer substandard training and in turn swallow your wallet with money for expensive and frequent gradings, training fees, and equipment costs.

So don't think style only. Think instructor, think cost, think environment.

My humble two pence.

Jack

[color=66ff00]An immensly valuable 2 pence.

BTW an0n isn't actually on the wrong end of the stick with what he's saying. The chinese refer to pressure point striking as 'Dim mak' or death point striking; somewhat analogus to acupuncture except obviously used to harm instead of heal.

Consider this though; one thing that learning a martial art will teach you that is critical is timing. I and a great many more skilled people than me consider it the most fundamental skill of a good fighter. You also pick up sensitivity to body language and awareness of the space around you. It's more than just learning to hit people, it's learning not to get hit, what your body is capable of and a whole plethora of other things too.

BTW talk to aldo, being a scotsman he's most likely trained in fuk yu, the ancient scottish art of headbutting and kicking them when they hit the ground. (thank you Mike Myers)
[/color]

[vyper]

[q]KRAV MAGA[/q] anyone know if  that's widespread in the UK? Looks cool 2 me.

[an0n]

Originally posted by Maeglamor

[color=66ff00]
BTW talk to aldo, being a scotsman he's most likely trained in fuk yu, the ancient scottish art of headbutting and kicking them when they hit the ground. (thank you Mike Myers)
[/color]

Ah, yes. The Glaswegian Kiss and the Edinburgh Hand-shake.

[Martinus]

[color=66ff00]Being non eastern it doesn't quite have the same draw as karate etc., it's bloody effective though, bloody effective. I've never heard of a school in the UK but I rarely look into anything like it.
[/color]

[vyper]

[q]Ah, yes. The Glaswegian Kiss[/q]

Or a screw top bottle, depending on one's location and state of sobriety.

[q]Edinburgh Hand-shake.[/q]
Bah, East of Scotland ain't anything like the west.

[diamondgeezer]

Despite some half hearted hijacking attempts, this thread has proven most useful. I shall contact some karate and TKD schools to see if I can get a taster sesh or somesuch.

I'll let you know when to start phearing my awesome ninja skillz

[vyper]

[q]I'll let you know when to start phearing my awesome ninja skillz[/q]

[q]"Ph34r teh penis" - diamondgeezer[/q]

Oh so much humour.

[Martinus]

Originally posted by diamondgeezer
Despite some half hearted hijacking attempts, this thread has proven most useful. I shall contact some karate and TKD schools to see if I can get a taster sesh or somesuch.

I'll let you know when to start phearing my awesome ninja skillz

[color=66ff00]May the schwartz be with you DG.
[/color]

[Stealth]

karate or taekwondo if you want to be like the mainstream... if you want to show off more than actually fight, and if you want to learn faster.

kung fu if you want to learn slower, but become much more effective, not showing off, and the benefits are much, much greater than with one of america's karate or taekwondo schools, which are geared for 99% show 1% combat.

or you could go all out and take an internal art .  i'd say Bagua, but then again i'm biased too  Any internal art will take a long time to master, but 10 years from now you'll be awesome

[an0n]

I also suggest taking up boxing and weights to some extent as it vastly increases your: power, stamina and fighting flexibility.

No-one expects a crane-kick to be followed by a full force right-jab.

[Fineus]

And to back that up, get yourself a nice Glock 17. You never see a full force right-jab followed by a shot to the head either.

[an0n]

Ninja-swords are more effective.

Sure, the prospect of being shot is pretty scary, but the prospect of slowly being carved up is an entirely different kettle of fish.

[magatsu1]

I've been doing Karate and Kickboxing for the past 2, 2 1/2  years so I can offer an informed opinion. I tried TKD as well.

In real terms, it depends mostly where and who you train with.

Kickboxing at my place is mostly combos. Punchs, Kicks, Elbow and knee strikes etc.  Not much grappling. Kickboxing is governed by boxing rules, as you might expect.

Karate is kinda like a bit of everything. Grappling, "take downs", Kicks, Punches, Joint manipulation etc. Lots of cool stuff.

TKD is mostly fast flurry of hard kicks. A bit mental really.

that's just my own personal experienc/opinion/observations 'course.

[aldo_14]

Originally posted by magatsu1
I can offer an informed opinion.

Dear god, no!  You'll destroy the very foundations of the internet!

[IPAndrews]

Snooker ball in a sock.

[Setekh]

Maeg, how did you get to know so much about fighting styles?