Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'newbie monk'.
-
Since one of my epic goals is to learn a martial art and develop mad reasonable self-defense skills, I figured I could start now instead of some hypothetical time in the future. The problem is, I have no idea what to pick. I'm looking for something that would have practical applications - I'm not planning to get into a fight, but if that happens, I would like to know how to defend myself. On the other hand, I do like 'flashy' stuff, high kicks and the like (Taido and Kung Fu animal styles, I'm looking at you). Also, I'm a 5'4" woman, so I'm never going to stand up to 6'+ guys with brute force, I need something that doesn't rely entirely/mainly on strenght. So far, I'm considering: Taekwon-Do (ITF/WTF): There are quite a lot of schools in my city, so I have where to choose from. TKD looks like it has a lot of variety, and if I ever wanted to compete, I'd have that option.Karate (Goju-Ryu): I have a yellow belt in Shorinjiryu Renshinkan Karate, but they don't have that style in my city. But that was like ten years ago, so I don't remember much.Jujutsu (Hokutoryu): Hokutoryu's developed and modernized from traditional Japanese jujutsu. It seems quite practical and varied, but their demo videos kind of scare me - full of big duded throwing each other around, makes me fear I'd break all my bones. And I really can't injure myself at this point of my life.Han Moo Do: Same advantages as TKD, plus weapons! I'm really interested in this, but don't know anyone who studies it, so I have no-one whose brain to pick.Hapkido (Sin Moo): Also has weapons, which is a plus. Doesn't do katas and is at least described to be developed for real-life situations and places importance on technique over power, which sounds useful to a person my size.Anyone has recommendations? Advice, opinions? You can also recommend styles outside of my list, my city has quite a lot of options. I need to make the choice soon and have no idea yet.