I've taken Capoeira in the past, which was a lot of fun. I'm currently taking Krav Maga, which technically isn't a "martial art", but a "Self-defense system". It's really practical and a great workout too.
Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
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Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#72Aikido - Stands at the top. I'm training at http://www.jpnarts.org/
Please stop by if you are around. First lesson is free and each 1 hour lesson is just $15. Cost effective..
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#73The Sikh Martial Art of Gatka. Ignore the first 15 seconds of this BBC video. The rest of it is spot on: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PllesuGevI
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#74If you have no prior affiliation or interest in a particular martial art, choose a school based on the master and the school's culture, rather than the type of martial art. A good master will make any martial art learning experience great. A poor one will ruin any school. Go watch a class - are the students training diligently, treating each other respectfully, and being taught firmly but carefully by their instructo…
Luke!!! You're on HN! Small world indeed.
Luke's my instructor who taught me a lot already and keeps teaching, so here's one more vote for hapkido I guess.
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#75I've been doing Wing Tsun kung fu for over ten years. If you find a good school, it's a very methodical, highly intelligent and very technical martial art. There's a lot of depth to it, and as you get better, it gets more and more subtle (as well as a lot more effective). Unfortunately, there's also a lot of schools that are not very good (as with any martial art), so your experience may vary. In my experience, the g…
Note that Krav Maga is used by IDF SpecFor
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#76Another Vote for Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Make sure to find a gym that does not specialize in tough guys.
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#77I've been doing brazilian jiu-jitsu for about 5 years, and would highly recommend it to anyone. I know a wide range of people who practice it, from professional fighters to little kids to a guy in his 60s. I think it fits especially well for the HN crowd, because there's generally very little mystical bs that goes on, and although this analogy gets abused, it's basically human chess. There's a very analytical approac…
Have you tried other martial arts like karate or taekwondo? How does it compare? I recently moved to Toronto and have yet to find a great (ie. non belt promotion based) school downtown. I've found a number of potential BJJ schools though and have been curious.
I think that if you are in Toronto, it's worth checking out aikido seishinkai. I used to go there before I moved and missed it ever since. They don't have a website but:
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#78If you are looking at martial arts that are practical in real life defense situations, stick to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, Muay Thai, Judo or Krav Maga.
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#79Practicality is important to me, and difficult to judge without some experience. Properly practiced Jujitsu, Sambo and Krav Maga are practical. There are useful lessons in Muay Thai and hard American kickboxing. Judo is acceptable, particularly if you are not possessed of great strength. Wing Chun's pitch sounds reasonable, but I cannot speak to its efficacy. Avoid most schools of Karate (Kenpo especially), Capoeira,…
If you find karate impractical, try a good school of kyokushin karate and tell me that it's not useful. As for kung fu not being practical, that depends entirely on your school (kung fu covers so many different types of martial arts including wing chun). Aikido is very useful but not by itself (most MMA champs have studied aikido).
The real thing that should be said is that every martial art style is practical and what really matters is the quality of the dojo at which you study. I've studied the same martial art in two different school and can say that the quality of the school is by far the most important factor.
Re: Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?
#80It really depends on what you want to get out of it, if you want street defense then there is really nothing better that Jiu-Jitsu or Aikido. I like small circle Jiu-Jitsu out of all the Jiu-Jitsu disciplines, but it is hard to find schools. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is a good art just keep in mind that it has been adapted over the years to focus on competing in MMA tournaments. As such it has eliminated a good deal of kno…
The main reason Brazilian jiu-jitsu doesn't spend much time with small joint manipulation, striking and other such unpleasant techniques is because live sparring is an integral part of training. The focus is on techniques that you can apply to your sparring partners without injuring them.
That is true even for the "old-style" Gracie school, which tends to focus primarily on jiu-jitsu as self-defense and "no-holds-barred fighting" (a.k.a. street fighting) rather than MMA or even BJJ competition.
I think live sparring is one of great things about judo and BJJ.