[Mars]

It's been suggested to me that I take up a martial art. Tai Chi and Aikido were on the specifics.

How is it? And perhaps most of all, is it calming?

[Bob-san]

Aikido is my suggestion. It's different: and depends on instructor more then the art.

[Roanoke]

I did freestyle karate and kickboxing for a few years. Don't know about calming but you'll probably (should ?) be too knackered to make a nuisance of yourself.

[Flipside]

I did Shotokan for a good few years, very gruelling regime, but relies heavily on brute force rather than subtleness.

You might want to try something like Wing Chun, despite it's reputation as a 'girls' martial art, I studied that for a while, and it's specifically designed to work against the more 'power-based' ones, it's very subtle, and requires a great deal of self-control, fighting Wing Chun is like a game of chess, it's all about bluffs, counters and feints.

[Bob-san]

Your experiences may vary, mostly depending on instructor. Find a good person: you don't want some jackass with 5 years experience teaching you how to kill people using brute strength and stupidity. I did a form of Seidojuku for about 4 years, and the school was based a lot on kata, self defenses (of various levels of effectiveness real-world), and kumite (sparring). Again, depends on your instructors.

[General Battuta]

Take krav maga!

...but only if you live near New York, where the instructors are legitimate, and only if you don't let the focus on practical application make you more aggressive in the real world.

And, also, other martial arts are probably better at being soothing.

[watsisname]

I have a difficult time imagining a martial art being "calming".  Martial arts involve and require training in speed, power, and stamina, and you can't improve those skills without a modest to heavy amount of hard excercise.  If you're not sweating after a good session, I don't think you're getting enough out of doing it.  Also expect the first few sessions to be painful on your body if you're not already in top shape.

Granted this is my own opinion and it's coming from me practicing a rather intensely physical martial art (Gumdo).  You may find differing views from people practicing other arts.  I also second Bob-san in suggesting Aikido.  It might be right up your alley.

[Mars]

I think calming was the wrong word, I wrote this in something of a hurry.

Basically I have had some anger management issues, and martial arts was recommended as a method to channel that. Calming was not the word I was looking for, not likely to make me a psychopathy was more in line with my thinking.

[General Battuta]

It may help with discipline and control, yeah. And confidence. And exercise is great for brain chemistry!

[KappaWing]

I'd look into Yue-Chia kung fu. Its good for skinny little weaklings like me since its mostly using the other guy's energy against him. It also incorporates plenty of meditation and other non-fighting practices which should help with your anger management.

[Herra Tohtori]

I have a difficult time imagining a martial art being "calming".  Martial arts involve and require training in speed, power, and stamina, and you can't improve those skills without a modest to heavy amount of hard excercise.  If you're not sweating after a good session, I don't think you're getting enough out of doing it.  Also expect the first few sessions to be painful on your body if you're not already in top shape.

There are many ways of calming down. One is to do nothing, but being calm and doing nothing at the same time can be difficult... Another way (easier by far IMO) is to distract oneself by doing something, anything, that takes a lot of concentration and control to do well. I find that Aikido practice does tend to make me more relaxed and in the practice I can't really be thinking of much more than what I'm doing and how. Same applies to archery, but it's a different kind of calm that is required there.

Granted this is my own opinion and it's coming from me practicing a rather intensely physical martial art (Gumdo).  You may find differing views from people practicing other arts.  I also second Bob-san in suggesting Aikido.  It might be right up your alley.

Aikido is cool. As soon as you learn the ukemi backwards, forwards and sideways (literally)... There's something rather intriguing in the concept of being tossed around by white-dressed people and slammed repeatedly to a padded floor while not getting hurt*.

*your mileage may wary. I have a reasonably high pain tolerance, so I never really felt pain in Aikido practice to a degree that I could say that I got hurt... While learning to do the ukemi correctly you might feel uncomfortable (especially doing hard breakfalls) in the beginning, but once you get that down and get used to it, it's all fine and dandy. And of course throws are only one part of Aikido - small joint manipulation techniques are actually in a more pronounced role than throws. Also, most people don't immediately believe that those locks actually work... before being in the receiving end of correctly applied techniques.

[BlackDove]

It's been suggested to me that I take up a martial art. Tai Chi and Aikido were on the specifics.

How is it? And perhaps most of all, is it calming?

It is a tremendous time sink if you want to get into it proper. Everything less is failure. Make sure it's what you want before you take the plunge. I suggest watching what other people do for at least a month or two (going to the sessions, but just watching) to see if it's something you'll be wasting your time on.

[Bob-san]

It's been suggested to me that I take up a martial art. Tai Chi and Aikido were on the specifics.

How is it? And perhaps most of all, is it calming?

It is a tremendous time sink if you want to get into it proper. Everything less is failure. Make sure it's what you want before you take the plunge. I suggest watching what other people do for at least a month or two (going to the sessions, but just watching) to see if it's something you'll be wasting your time on.

I wouldn't go that far--get into the game, learn first-hand. You can get a good feel for the instructor and the art by first-hand experience. Don't be shy to ask more experienced people about techniques. If you dislike the art, try to get whatever you have problems cleared up. If the instructors won't accommodate you, move on. There are better instructors in the same art or different arts.

[General Battuta]

I think BlackDove must've been kidding.

At least in krav, you just start right off, and you're doing useful, practical material by the end of the first session.

[Roanoke]

It's been suggested to me that I take up a martial art. Tai Chi and Aikido were on the specifics.

How is it? And perhaps most of all, is it calming?

It is a tremendous time sink if you want to get into it proper. Everything less is failure. Make sure it's what you want before you take the plunge. I suggest watching what other people do for at least a month or two (going to the sessions, but just watching) to see if it's something you'll be wasting your time on.

Well I agree with the time sink. That's why I got bored and left it behind.

[General Battuta]

Hmm. How much time do you usually spend per week? (I am genuinely curious, not being facetious.)

[Roanoke]

Well I went to a place which was fairly far away so it took just about the whole evening for 2hours training (that's 1 hour k/boxing, 1 hour karate). K/boxing was just on the side for the extra training/exercise.

At height I'd do the 2 hours monday, 1 hour tuesday, 2 hours wednesday then 1 hour Sat morning not including travelling. It was never a chore though. One thing I really miss is that knackered feeling post training. I was totally empty but it felt good. If I was lazy, and missed a night, it just felt wasted.
Then they changed the timetable and I couldn't combine k/boxing and karate onto one evening and it was never really the same. 
This would be about 3 or 4 years ago. Now I'm a fat waster same as everyone else.

[Bob-san]

Hmm. How much time do you usually spend per week? (I am genuinely curious, not being facetious.)

As much as you want to spend. We'd have people come once a week for a one-hour class, we'd have people come five or six times a week for 1-2 hours each. Kickboxing is typically alright--as well as a weapons class at some dojos. I would typically do two classes over Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday, then two classes Saturday. Three for karate, one for kobudo.

[Dark Hunter]

I earned my black belt in Kenpo. It was... tough.

Unfortunately, I learned little of practical stuff. A few counters, and some basic sparring strategy, but most of the rest was kata and longer strings of moves that I can't really see being useful...

Ah well, it was fun, and now I get to call myself a black belt, which is awesome.
It certainly kept me in shape for those years I took classes... then school began getting more demanding and I quit. Needed more time to study.

I'll never forget the black belt test, though. Wow, that was probably the hardest thing I've ever done in my life. I never really knew the meaning of "dead tired" until afterward...

[Mika]

Typical training week consists of about 16 - 20 practising hours. It is a time sink if you let it become one.

Mika