May Arts

I’m looking to get into martial arts. Any ideas on a form/style that may be good for a beginner?

I’d like to become stronger and more flexible as well as become more disciplined. I really enjoy the upper body work.

Any time you start a Martial Art (especially if you don’t have any experience to begin with) you’re going to start out as a beginner.

if you had some previous Martial Arts experience, it would be up to the instructor to determine your placement in the ranks of his or her school (that would be the fair thing to do)

Any Martial Art is gonig to help you become stronger and more flexible, and teach you discipline. but this is dependent upon how well you train. Speed, power, accuracy, flexibilty, etc. are all attributes that can only be improved by having a strong training ethic

There IS NOT a Martial Art that is designed or one that works for people with SPECIFIC body characteristics (height, weight, body type, gender, etc.)

Because the fact is that when people ask “what’s a good Martial Art for me to learn?” or “what’s the “best” Martial Art to learn” has 2 major problems (especially here in the Q & A forum):

1st: these questions just beg for the majority of people here to start blurting out names of disciplines that are probably not even available in your area.

2nd: Just because they recommend a Martial Art that they may (or worse MAY NOT) have studied and it just happened to become THEIR favorite Martial Art because they’re interested in studying it or it worked for them doesn’t mean that it’s going to work for you or guarantee that you’ll find it interesting.

First of all, what YOU need to do is research local schools by looking in the phone book or internet search engine to find out if there ARE any Martial Arts schools in your area.

Second, if you can find at least 3 schools that interest you, watch a few classes at each one and decide which one out of those 3 schools that interested you the most.

Third, the next thing you should do is find out if they have some trial classes (up to a weeks worth to help you make a decision, hopefully without being hassled to join or sign a contract to join the class), and if you find that you like the school, then enroll in the class.

You just need to find a Martial Arts School that will provide a safe, “family like” environment for you. The discipline DOESN’T MATTER because there is NO discipline that is better than another, because they ALL have their strengths AND weaknesses

What matters is that you feel comfortable in the classes (and like the classes) and feel comfortable that the instructor (and the instructor’s TEACHING style and not the discipline itself) can properly teach you self defense without the “smoke and mirrors” aspect. The instructor should also like to do it more for the teaching aspect rather than the “making money” which it is a business to make money after all; but it should not be the only reason for teaching the discipline.

The biggest problem you should worry about in finding a school is being aware of schools that’re a “McDojo’s” or “belt factory” type of school.

These schools usually do a lot of boasting; particularly about how soon their students make their 1st degree black belts. A prime example of this: having several “young black belts” that’re usually 9 or 10 yr old kids, which should be a rare thing to see unless the child started learning the discipline when they were 4 yrs old, or promising that as a student you’ll be making your black belt in about a year’s time (the average should be between 4 to 5 years or better) which often means that they have a high student turnout rate. This is a Red Flag

They may also try to get you to commit to (by signing) a contract, usually one that’s 6 months long or more or try to get you to pay down a large sum of money for that kind of time period. This is a BIG red flag

And don’t be fooled by these schools telling you about how many tournaments or competitions their students have entered and placed in or won a trophy, which is NOT a necessity in Martial Arts. Tournaments/competitions can be good to test your own skills at point sparring but again, it’s not necessary because they are the LEAST important aspect to concern yourself with in Martial Arts.

Long story short, these schools will basically “give” you your belt ranks every few months as long as you are paying the outrageous fees per month, and you won’t really learn self defense.

May Arts