Ask HN: What martial arts do you practice? What do you recommend?

There are many different approaches to Tai Chi - from the 'spiritual', via 'health', the 'form', 'weapons', 'push hands', ... , all the way to 'tournament fighting'. I've just come home from a lesson where we had to wear chest protectors...

But one thing that I've heard, and I kind of agree with : I don't recommend Tai Chi to anyone. If someone wants to do it, then I'm happy to point them in the right direction. But I don't want to push people into something that they're only going to try because I've persuaded them. They've got to have an inkling that it's something they'd enjoy.

I had previously do some Jiu Jitsu (cool), and Aikido (v. nice). But what's kept me doing Tai Chi is the fact that my shoulders don't get dislocated so often (YMMV - but it's notable that many of the students at my school are musicians that have consciously chosen a martial art that won't damage them).

Another point is that while one can feel 'dangerous' more quickly doing other martial arts, that is usually an illusion : being an over-confident beginner is much more likely to get you in trouble. Tai Chi students doesn't suffer from that so much - since for the first few years, they're only directing traffic in the park :-)

I originally started in 1999 because I figured I needed some external activity to take my mind off my startup - and the health stuff has been a pleasant side effect. Mostly I do Push Hands now, with a dash of mornings in the park helping others 'tuck in'. ( ChuTaiChi.com )

It 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 knowledge about small joint manipulation and breakage, which in a street fight is invaluable. There are others like small-circle that still retail small-joint along with weapons disarmament.

For sport and limberness Taekwondo is a good choice, as well if you want to compete at some point but dont like the idea of getting pummeled, Taekwondo is the largest point sparing art. Point sparing is not fighting, it is a sport where you achieve points for landing a strike, it is fully padded and once a blow is landed the opponents reset and start over, it is similar to fencing. Just keep in mind, it does not prepare you to be a well rounded street fighter.

Aikido is an awesome art that is very effective in street combat. You do not see it in UFC style fighting because it focuses on small joint breaks, pressure points and a good deal of stuff that is outlawed in the sport of MMA for obvious reasons. None the less it is extremely effective and can be deadly when mastered. It is also the art that takes the longest to achieve mastery.

Kung Fu is very philosophical and is one of the oldest arts, some of it is not as practical as more contemporary arts but it has value in exercise and meditation.

Honest opinion, I think that Judo, Kempo and most of the other arts are not well rounded enough to focus your time on. Jiu-Jitsu covers Judo and more, Boxing or Taekwondo or better striking arts than Kempo and its joint techniques are inferior to Aikido or Jiu-Jitsu. Most of the other Karate based arts kind of fall into the same trap, other arts have surpassed them.

The only other ones I can think of are muay-thai which is a good boxing art, I think Taekwondo has better kicking form but muay-thai has better hand boxing and knees and elbow strikes.

The other would be Jeet Kune Do which was Bruce Lees art and combination of disciplines. It was a very interesting art but the reality was that it was 1. unfinished and 2. all of the masters are deceased so the art has for all intents and purposes died. While Lee documented it, learning technique from a book never suffices for the real thing, and all of the masters today have learned from the reconstruction of techniques in the book.

If 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 instructor?

The master sets the tone, culture, and norms of the school. In a sense the master is the school.

I've been training Hapkido in Melbourne, AU (www.hkd.com.au) for the past 12 years, which ticks all the above boxes.

Congrats on everyone so far avoiding the 'martial' as 'marital' typo :)

If you just want fitness/exercise, might I recommend parkour? Most people don't consider it a martial art, but they do consider it a discipline rather than a sport. It requires the same level of dedication and practice to be good at, and enhances your world view in a similar way to martial arts. The real benefit, I find, is that it is far more social than martial arts; there's a great community of traceurs around the world who are constantly trying new things and helping each other out. I'm not going to go into much more detail unless you're interested, so reply here if you are.