5 Reasons To Consider Martial Arts Training

[applexcore]

Determining Your Training Goals
The first thing to do when considering taking a martial arts class is to determine what you hope to gain from martial arts training. Everyone has a reason for their interest in the martial arts, and it's important to know your options and goals so that you can really get the most out of your training and have a postive experience. Below are some common reasons for studying the martial arts and some examples of styles that fit those reasons.

Fitness/Fun Related Interests
The most common reason for training that I hear is that people want to have fun and get in better physical condition, whether that is losing weight, getting stronger or just getting more active. Martial arts is a great way to get in shape and can be really fun to learn. It will improve endurance, strength, flexibility, speed, coordination balance and helps with overall stress levels.While all martial arts training involves some amount of physical training, these styles are great to try for overall physical fitness:
-Tae Kwon Do
-Brazilian Ju Jitsu and other Grappling Arts
-Capoeira
-Non-traditional martial arts schools that feature fitness as a large part of their overall direction.

Self Defense
The second most common reason for studying martial arts is self defense; a very valid and important reason for learning. The following arts certainly aren't the only ones who teach self defense, but they are known to have self defense as their main focus:
-Hapkido
-Krav Maga
-Various non-traditional systems which are organized solely around self defense, often specializing in either law enforcement training or women's self defense. Many of these programs are offered by martial arts schools in addition to their core curriculum.

Interest In Traditional or Cultural Arts
Many people take great interest in the cultural or traditional aspects of martial arts training. They enjoy the discipline, traditions and methods of very traditional arts. A traditional style will features very structured training, and many people love that aspect as well. There are many traditional martial arts styles out there. Contact the classes and schools in your area to learn what is available to you.
-Shaolin Kung Fu
-Shotokan Karate
-Kuk Sool Won
-Iado
-Wing Chun
-Bujinkan

Full Contact/Combat Sports/MMA
With the success of such promotions as UFC, Pride and K1, there has been a surge of interest in training of this nature. The following arts have a full contact or combat sport focus and many times aren't traditional asian arts, but rather a mixture of multiple styles.

-San Shou
-Muay Thai
-Schools that focus on "mma" or mixed martial arts. These schools teach a combination of grappling/ground fighting such as Brazilian Ju Jitsu or catch wrestling, stand up fighting like boxing or kickboxing, and throws and submissions.

Sport, Tricks & Competition or "Xtreme" Martial Arts
Thanks to an increased presence in movies and television, a rapidly growing reason for training is for the flashy and acrobatic "Xtreme" martial arts, which combines martial basics with difficult jump kicks, flips and speedy hand combinations, done primarily for competitions. Schools that have a sport focus usually teach either a traditional or modified version of a traditional art, and simply have more of a sport focus than other schools. While competition is probably not the main feature of these schools, it can be a large part of what they do. Sport or Competition schools will teach things like traditional and creative forms or katas, gymnastics or trick martial arts techniques as well as light to medium contact sparring. Some styles where you will see this focus include:

-Tae Kwon Do
-Many otherwise traditional schools, most commonly Karate schools.
-A new breed of schools created specifically for teaching sport martial arts, run mostly by current or former champions. Hard to find, but they are certainly out there.

Once you know what you want to get out of your training and your goals are clearly defined, it will be much easier to pick a style and a school. You won't be so overwhelmed by the variety of martial arts schools available, and you will make the choice that you will be happiest with in the long run.

I found this on About.com and thought it had a lot of good information!! I hope it helps you!

[KarateKid]

Great stuff, thanks for the list.

I think the fitness and fun part is the reason I got into it, then it went from there and became a real spiritual thing as well.

[blueangel]

There are some nice things to think about in this article.

"Self Defense
The second most common reason for studying martial arts is self defense; a very valid and important reason for learning. The following arts certainly aren't the only ones who teach self defense, but they are known to have self defense as the...."

I have to agree with this part.
So many start martial arts to feel safer when they are away from home. In todays day and age there are so many bad things in the world that having the knowledge that you can protect yourself if anything does happen really can make a big difference in someones life.

think children who learn MA also have the advantage as they know if they are going to be bullied they can stand up and not fight back but at least protect themselves also.

Nice article.
Thankyou for posting

[John]

Its nice to be able to defend yourself no matter where you go.
But to me, I always found it weird that people think you can learn karate or something, then go and use it against someone who is attacking you for example.

Does it really work like that?

[disgruntled]

Originally Posted by John

Its nice to be able to defend yourself no matter where you go.
But to me, I always found it weird that people think you can learn karate or something, then go and use it against someone who is attacking you for example.

Does it really work like that?

yeah it does.... as long as you have a good martial arts instructor you should learn basic ways to defend your self. and as you learn the principals that MA are built on, there are few things that you cannot defend yourself against.

i find that the true key to self defense is not to panic. and therefore any amount of training will give you that added confidence that will keep your head clear so that you can find a way to defend yourself.

[sirdarksol]

I appreciate the amount of work that went into this post, but I find that it makes far too many generalizations.
I have found that, less than one art vs another, it has more to do with school, instructor, and in some cases, student, to determine how effective a particular style is for various purposes.
For example, I see no reason why BJJ would be a better "workout art" than traditional karate. BJJ may work more on building muscle, but a good karate workout works the heart really well. Nearly every art has certain muscles that it works on. For example, bo-jutsu builds upper body strength, while capoeira works the heart and likely the legs (never actually taken a capoeira class, so I'm basing this on observation, rather than experience).
TaeKwonDo and Karate are listed as primarily "show" arts, while Shotokan Karate is listed as a "Traditional" art. TaeKwonDo has a very rich, if relatively short, history, while Okinawan Karate has a far longer and more diverse history than Shotokan. Shotokan was developed as a national workout/social exercise meant to strengthen soldiers' bonds as well as a patriotic feeling. This is not to say that it is ineffective in self defense, nor does it mean that it doesn't have its own strong cultural ties to Japan.
Nearly every martial art possesses strong self defense capabilities, the question is whether the instructor and/or student recognize them and practice their application. Likewise, every art, save for, perhaps, the guy who comes up with "Street Self Defense Ultra" has cultural ties. It's a question of finding an instructor who cares to teach them.

Further, there are issues of the type of person a student is to determine its efficacy, particularly in self-defense application. Aikido is made to redirect force, while most karate styles meet force with force. Physically, this means that a small Aikido-ka has less of a disadvantage than a small karate-ka. Psychologically, this means that someone who abhors violence would be much more likely to be willing to use Aikido to defend himself than he would be to use Karate. Different arts capitalize more strongly on different traits, such as height, weight, agility, strength, flexibility, or even less obvious traits such as vision or quickness of thought.

All of these differences mean that it's not as simple as "karate is good for a show art" and "Shaolin is good for a cultural art". Such statements are incorrect more often than they are correct, as far as I have seen.

[Jewel]

Great list! I love that there are so many reasons to begin training in the martial arts, there are so many benefits!

[chokdee]

i think in self defense situations you need a lot of sparring and the right mind frame that comes with MA.
you would need more than one year plus i would think.
also i think MMA and muay thai would be classified in defense and weight loss and fitness as they do train very hard especially for fights.s