Wich martial art do you recomend me?

[Vegeta]

I'd like to start with a martial art-combat sport, but I'm not sure wich to choose. I heard good coments of Karate, Aikido, Muai Thai, Box, Kick Boxing, but I can't decide yet, and I'm sure that there are other more that are great and I don't know about.
I know it's all about what's you're looking for, so I tell you, I'm not interesed in winning medals, gain superior belts, nice looking moves, as the majority I just want one that's effective in real life combats (Judo looks great but unless you decide to do something extreme like break your oponent's arm or worse, I think that you can't do much), and not too expensive.
I'm quite good at powerlifting and weightlifting, but the true is that I'm naked in combat sports.

[kristus]

Capoeira FTW

[Grazza]

Vegeta said:

Judo looks great but unless you decide to do something extreme like break your oponent's arm or worse, I think that you can't do much

If you throw someone onto a hard surface and they don't know how to do a breakfall, they'll be in a lot of trouble. Judo is very good for incapacitating an opponent. Armlocks can cause immense pain, while chokes and strangles will quickly cause a loss of consciousness.

So while it lacks much potential for blood spurting in all directions, overall I'd say it's pretty good for self-defence (I assume that's what you're looking for). And in practice (rather than in formal contests) there's nothing to stop you augmenting it with more crude techniques or modifications of standard judo methods.

[Remilia Scarlet]

I've actually just recently started Aikido and find it quite fun and practical. I'm not 100% sure of its "effectiveness", but I'm finding it worthwhile. In the end, it really depends on the person, but I would recommend trying it out. Some places will offer their first class free.

The other I would recommend, moreso than Aikido even, is San Soo (a style of Wushu, aka "Kung Fu"). San Soo was developed to purely be a self-defense form, and as such, is not going to be in tournaments. In fact, any serious San Soo practicioner will tell you not to ever use it except in defense, 'cause you can cause serious injury or even death to someone since "the art was developed and used for protection of life, [so] rules of fighting can not apply". Overall, I've found San Soo much more "effective".

I trained in San Soo much longer than in Aikido, but the place I was going to closed down, so I'm not in it anymore. And the alternative places where I could go are much too far out of the way for me. Otherwise I would still be practicing it. Here is a page with funny-looking videos and the official page of the man who brought it state-side.

I also took Tae Kwon Do for a bit, but found I didn't like it.

The thing is, "effectiveness" of a martial art depends on the person, the situation, and many other aspects. What's effective for me may not be for you or the next person.

[Vegeta]

Of course self defense, don't worry about that. Sounds very interesting what you say. You give me a new perspective about Judo, and San Soo sounds interesting. I heard Seagal practiced Aikido, but I also heard that what he does in movies isn't Aikido at all, and I know about the seagalogy.

[Lüt]

I've followed these discussions many times on many boards and they always end up in a 400-post flamewar. All I can say is the best way to find out is to learn by experience, and more than anything, learning from a good instructor gives you a better chance of learning something "effective" than whichever of the 4,000 available styles you choose to pursue.

[Sharessa]

If I ever had time or money or fitness for martial arts, I'd do capoeira or whatever. I have a love for dancing, so it would be right up my alley.

Drunken boxing is also awesome, but you have to know kung foo first probably and I heard it's one of the harder schools to master.

Edit: I think what you're really looking for is Judo. It's very practical and good at knocking opponents on their back and even involves a bit of weapon fighting. I have a few friends who are blackbelts in multiple martial arts so I hear them talking about thios stuff all the time.

[pilottobombadier]

I'd suggest either karate or jiujutsu. They're both pretty general martial arts and are pretty well-rounded.

[Zaldron]

Aikido if I were to recommend.
I'm only a puny white belt, but I find it very soothing to practice, and the fun starts right away. You won't be throwing punches or kicks, but it lends itself to the typical real life brawls where attacks don't have any shape or form. It's teachings lend themselves not only to life in general, from a philosophical point of view, but the way you're taught to flow with your body and mind should favour inmensely any other sport, or dancing, or whatever you set to practice.

[Rotting Corpse]

Mixed Martial is not a good one to start with. Nether is Muai Thai. Both are way to burtal for a beginner. I have seen way too many people try and start out in MMA or Muai Thai get hurt becouse they dont even know the basics of martial arts.

I have been doing both for 5 years.

If you do want to go into eather of them try Karate or Aikido fist.
Once you have a good understanding of what martial arts are then work your way up to them.

[Infinite Ammunition]

i used to take tang soo do (c.s. kim) a while back, from what i hear it's fairly similar to tae kwon do and quite a good choice

[Ed]

Combat Sambo (sombo ect..). Soviet martial arts based around judo and jujitsu.

[Vegeta]

I tried Aikido, I find it very brainwashing, the people who practice it act like robots, mindlesly they follow the traditions like the reverence to the photo of the founder, the "arigato" (or whatever it's spelled), and many little things (all that the instructor says), also the way the pupils talk one each others or about Aikido (as if it were the best martial art in the world) sounds like a cult.
Also I find the moves to be not that effective, if you are strong and can use your strengh fast it's quite easy to get free of the techniques (of course with someone highly experienced in Aikido would be harder), but also as with strengh it's easy to perform them in an effective way (I tested them with friends) I'll give it another chance in a diferent place.
But I don't like all the philosophy and traditions, if I don't like on this second chance I think that I'll move to Kick Boxing, or Muai Thai if I find a good place.

[Regen]

The version of "tae kwon do" i practiced had that relegion/cult attitude within it also.

"United tae kwon do" was a detroit area based martial arts studio ran by a master in the art. he had about 12 locations strewn about the area and each one had a huge mural of himself that you had to bow down to and chant something at (cant remember what it was though) as you entered and exited the "dojo" each time.

True story -he was ran down by a disgruntled student in his car in one of the parking lots of his studio's, killing him instantly. they changed over to a "Usa Fitness" within the following year. guess he couldnt jump high enough like he did in his advertisements..

[Zaldron]

The rigor, the tradition, all the "little things" you speak of are a staple of most martial arts. They're not brainwashing devices nor anything of the like, merely devices on which you can learn to rely to improve relaxation and focus. Paying attention to the instructor, even for the quirky little details that annoy you, is the way to learn the trust you need to be taught something.

You will bump into this in pretty much any place you go. I wouldn't put much trust to a martial art that doesn't teach humbleness (you do not necesarilly know better than your instructors) or admiration and love for the art itself.

Perhaps you're doing it in a weird place. I must confess my instructor is a Ki Aikido Federation of Britain black belt, kind of an aikido branch founded by the only non-japanese student of Abbe Sensei (first generation). It's got some differences.

Besides, stupid arrogant students are everywhere, and is mainly the reason why these kind of threads go into the shitbucket after the third post or so.

[Janderson]

Heh, when I did Sho Rin Ryu Streetfighting... a rip off of Shorin-Ryu (lol) the instructor all ways emphasised that our strikes should kill, maim or break the opponent's limbs. He'd make you do pushups on your front two nuckles and finger tips to make the skin fuse with bone (or something) and had you punching metal or a wall for the same reason.

One of the tests for moving up would be a surprise hit, if you didn't block it you failed and to add injury to insult you'd be floor or winded. And since it's on arab land it's not illegal to punch kids. Yay! Or in during demonstrations, maim collegues. I recommend Sho Rin Ryu.

Btw, whatever you choose, competition is important. It teaches you how to fight an unpredictable enemy.

[VileSlay]

I find it very brainwashing, the people who practice it act like robots

part of the reason that many martial arts do that is focus the mind and body to function as a weapon and to instill the discipline to use it correctly. this is very much the same principle behind military L.I.N.E. (Linear Involuntary Neurological override Engagement) training. the movement become ingrained in you and become an almost automatic reaction, but without the discipline to control it you'll be killing someone when they tap you on the shoulder. one thing that most people fail to realize is that true fighting is ugly and brutal and involves limb breaking, maiming, and even killing. also it would be better not to limit yourself to one form of martial art. boxing and wrestling are very much overlooked and would be great suplemental skills to aquire.

some suggestion of efficient fighting techniques: krav maga (israeli military), marine corp. L.I.N.E. combat, wing chun kung fu, judo, jiujitsu, aikido, and combat-ki. any mix of these disciplines should prove to make a formidable fighter.

[Gokuma]

Wrestling is crap compared to any full grappling art. Except Greco-Roman is respectible. Otherwise it's shit for stupid jocks who don't know how to bath properly and spread ringworm, herpes, and various fungus.

I recommend arts that stay hardcore with traditional technique and intensity but aren't bound to tradition and have evolved and mix other stuff in.

For all around badassness
Jeet Kune Do Concepts: anyone/place that's Close Range Combat Acacdemy certified. It's primarily modified Wing Chun with its whole blocking system with a heavy escrima/kali/arnis influence with various Chinese animal styles and some Muay Thai. Includes loads of good trapping and chi sou.
Muay Thai: I particularly like this Muay Thai based kickboxing that keeps all the traditional intensity (like a session ending with 400 kicks to a multi-hundred pound tree trunk of a bag) but tries to improve on some perceived shortcomings such as with handwork other than elbows. Muay Thai also includes a good amount of standing grappling with leg catches and clinches going for knees and some throws.
As far as karate goes, look for some badass Okinawan style stuff or a good composite art. Typically karates, TKD's, and Tang Soo Do's just fall short and dangerously give people false confidence. Last I checked it out, the TKD associated with the official Korean organization added some jujutsu style wrist locks, but it's too little, too late. Someone can still practice your average Karate/TKD/TSD and become a badass, but there are some things lacking that could leave them unprepared for situations.

For grappling:
Russian Martial Art ROSS or "Systema" which includes renovated Sambo. Or Just Sambo is good. ROSS is actually a good all around art but it's most badass when it comes to grappling with seems to permeate throughout mostly all of the art's severel directions.
A hardcore Jujutsu or similar art that really gets into ground grappling as well as standing.

Just cool and hard to describe:
Capoeira.

Also, don't expect an art no matter how good it is, to give you incredible fighting ability. Just going through the motions is not good enough. And I've found some colleges clubs to be good and inexpensive hardcore stuff, not to be confused with shitty classes for credit which are typically even worse than the average commercial school (but are a nice way to get your required health course credits, heh).


Kristus, you do Capoeira?

[Scuba Steve]

A handgun.