# Not sure what Martial arts style for small person



## LadySakura (Mar 30, 2016)

Hello,
How is everyone today? Well I have decided that I want to start a Martial arts. I know I will have to loose little bit more weight. I am 5 ft and 207lbs. My reasons for learning are I want to protect my family, friends , and loved ones. I also want to learn discipline for my life. This is a personal reason but I do have low self confidence and with that I just dont want to feel weak anymore. So if anyone has advice i will gladly accept it!!

Thank you


----------



## Tames D (Mar 30, 2016)

Welcome to MT. First off I would say that I believe you should separate fitness (losing weight) and your chosen martial art. Join a gym, or work out at home to get in shape. Your martial art should focus on learning to fight and defend yourself, short of warming up.  You will want to make every minute count to get your moneys worth in your training.
The first art that comes to mind that you might benefit from is Wing Chun. 
Wing Chun could help you fend off larger stronger assailants.


----------



## Bill Mattocks (Mar 30, 2016)

Go with whatever style appeals to you. The key is to keep training through adversity. Welcome to MT.


----------



## Monkey Turned Wolf (Mar 30, 2016)

What do you have near you? Whatever we suggest doesn't matter if its not nearby or affordable


----------



## drop bear (Mar 31, 2016)

You can be good at anything you want.  Including martial arts.  So just pick an interesting one.


----------



## Buka (Mar 31, 2016)

Welcome to MT, LadyS.

Maybe.....go the most convenient Martial Arts place to your home or job. Go get your feet wet for six months to a year. Then look around to see if there's something that might suit you better. Most important, just go start training. You might really like it.

Wishing you the best in your quest.


----------



## Lameman (Mar 31, 2016)

First, fighting is fighting. Techniques are just a means to an end. Find something ou can trust, and enjoy. If you don't enjoy it, you probably won't stick with it. EDIT: If you have questions about what you see when you are looking post those here. A lot of experienced people here who can steer you away from a con, or calm you fears of what is normal.


----------



## Tony Dismukes (Mar 31, 2016)

Which Art Is Best For You?


----------



## Emilee <3 (Mar 31, 2016)

LadySakura said:


> Hello,
> How is everyone today? Well I have decided that I want to start a Martial arts. I know I will have to loose little bit more weight. I am 5 ft and 207lbs. My reasons for learning are I want to protect my family, friends , and loved ones. I also want to learn discipline for my life. This is a personal reason but I do have low self confidence and with that I just dont want to feel weak anymore. So if anyone has advice i will gladly accept it!!
> 
> Thank you




Ok first, awesome profile pic! Second (to answer your question), I would recommend taekwondo. It helps with all the things you listed above (getting in shape, learning self defense skills, building self esteem and discipline, etc) and it's a fairly popular martial art, so it won't be too hard to find a dojang. Maybe I'm biased (since I've been training in this martial art for three years), but I can say from experience that it has changed my life in so many ways and I also feel confident in my self defense skills. Also, I'm about the same height as you, so just remember not to let your height deter you from reaching your goals. Martial arts is all about adapting and improving, and no matter which martial art you choose, I'm sure you'll find a fighting style that is unique to you and your goals. Good luck!  [bonus note: there's a blog called "Karate by Jessie" and he posted a list of 92 signs of a McDojo, some of it is made up of jokes but there is some legitimate advice in there, so check it out if you're not sure about the authenticity of a school]


----------



## jezr74 (Mar 31, 2016)

Hi Lady Sakura,

Like mentioned already, just train. The more you learn the more you will mature in taking care of yourself in new ways. Eat healthy, put effort into training and it will come.


----------



## marques (Apr 1, 2016)

Judo. Wrestling...


----------



## Transk53 (Apr 1, 2016)

All good advice. Personally I would seek a few opinions from different instructors on what could be best for you. Trying out different arts is great in itself, but finding one that fits can be difficult. I am not saying that to be detrimental, just that trying all sorts of things can be confusing. Weight or size, or power or strength is not an issue in the main, it is about what fits yourself in general. Just gently feel you're way into it, you will find what you feel comfortable with. It is admirable with that you have concrete aims, but the mortar has to be right. Try a few different things, but just keep yourself a little detached until you get that feeling that you have found something that you really want to explore. It may not be right first time, but at least you have started the journey. Just my opinion without being judgemental. All the best


----------



## Paul_D (Apr 3, 2016)

LadySakura said:


> Hello,
> How is everyone today? Well I have decided that I want to start a Martial arts.......My reasons for learning are I want to protect my family, friends , and loved ones.



The first thing to understand is that martial arts and self protection are two (almost) completely different things.

Self-protection is 95% Threat Awareness & Evaluation and Target Hardening.  4% Verbal Descalation and 1% physical techniques*.  So spending 95% of your time performing physical techniques in a martial arts class is not the most productive use of your time if you goal is self-protection.  Martial Arts will not teach you most of the things required for effective civilian self protection (The Rituals of Violence, The Fence, Threat & Awareness Evaluation, Target Hardening, Coopers Colour Codes. Habitual Acts Of Violence, etc).

Learning martial arts for self protection is like learning to cross the road safely by making no attempt to avoid being hit by a car, and instead learning how to do a stuntman roll over the car and then hoping once you get hit by a car you’ll be able to pull it off.  You, of course don’t do that, you spend you time instead learning how to avoid getting hit by the car in the first place.  Martial artists however, have a rather unfortunate habit of completely ignoring the varied and many different non physical skill that will allow you to avoid a situation devolping to the point where violence becomes necessary.  Largely because they don’t have those other skills, all they have is violence and so they jump straight to _the **** has hit the fan this is what you do._

As for which art to do, try out everything that is in your area, and pick the one you enjoy the most, as the one you enjoy the most is the one you are most likely to stick with, and therefore become good at. 

*There is no scientific proof of these statistics by the way, they are just used by Iain Abernethy, and my own personl  experince leads me to agree with them, hence I use them ;-)


----------



## Monkey Turned Wolf (Apr 3, 2016)

Paul_D said:


> The first thing to understand is that martial arts and self protection are two (almost) completely different things.
> 
> Self-protection is 95% Threat Awareness & Evaluation and Target Hardening.  4% Verbal Descalation and 1% physical techniques*.


Getting off topic, but personally I would say this is age dependent. As a teenager, Verbal deescalation played a much larger role than 4%, considering the emotions and attitudes of other teens. In my 20's now, I would say that the need for Verbal deescalation has decreased considerably, but is still in play a bit. In a couple years I can see it leveling out at around 4% or even less.


----------



## KenpoMaster805 (Jun 20, 2016)

Pick anything you want there's a Variety of Martial Arts that can Fit ya but I recommend America Kenpo Karate


----------



## Tortoise (Jun 20, 2016)

LadySakura said:


> Hello,
> How is everyone today? Well I have decided that I want to start a Martial arts. I know I will have to loose little bit more weight. I am 5 ft and 207lbs. My reasons for learning are I want to protect my family, friends , and loved ones. I also want to learn discipline for my life. This is a personal reason but I do have low self confidence and with that I just dont want to feel weak anymore. So if anyone has advice i will gladly accept it!!
> 
> Thank you



I am about 5 ft. tall as well.  I have been doing American Kenpo for almost 6 years.  I also did some Chinese Kenpo, Kung Fu, and Jiu Jitsu in the past.  What I like about American Kenpo is that it can be tailored to whatever challenges you have whether you are short, inflexible, or older.  Good luck!


----------



## marques (Jun 21, 2016)

Tames D said:


> Welcome to MT. First off I would say that I believe you should separate fitness (losing weight) and your chosen martial art. Join a gym, or work out at home to get in shape. Your martial art should focus on learning to fight and defend yourself, short of warming up.  You will want to make every minute count to get your moneys worth in your training.


I totally agree. It is a waste of time (and neurons) doing fitness instead of martial _arts_, in a martial arts class. And it is safer don't mix it.

At the same time,  some styles are fitness dependents. I believe martial _sports_ just have a different way of training with different advantages and disadvantages. It can be the best option, according to personal objectives.


----------



## Midnight-shadow (Jun 21, 2016)

Tames D said:


> Welcome to MT. First off I would say that I believe you should separate fitness (losing weight) and your chosen martial art. Join a gym, or work out at home to get in shape. Your martial art should focus on learning to fight and defend yourself, short of warming up.  You will want to make every minute count to get your moneys worth in your training.
> The first art that comes to mind that you might benefit from is Wing Chun.
> Wing Chun could help you fend off larger stronger assailants.



I don't know about you but I'm getting plenty of fitness workout in my Martial Arts training. The 2 go hand-in-hand. For me a balanced workout includes equal parts body conditioning, fighting techniques and forms practice. For example, when training at home I will do my basic punches and kicks in my warm-up. Then when I do my forms I will do 10 push-ups or 10 sit-ups in between each form. The trick is finding exercises that train your fighting skills and give you a good workout at the same time. Yes, you want to focus on your technique but at the same time you also want to condition your body, so that when you hit someone it actually does some damage.


----------



## Spinedoc (Jun 21, 2016)

Two things....Aikido MIGHT be for you, might not, but there isn't any real emphasis on strength. In fact, strength can kind of work against you in Aikido.

Additionally, women tend to do better as students and even progress a little faster than men, primarily because they don't try to overpower everything, like men do. Women sort of intuitively understand the blending and flow that happens.

Another possibility would be BJJ, again, smaller, weaker persons can often succeed against bigger opponents with BJJ.

Judo is another one...but a little more strength IMO is needed.


----------

