Is martial arts for me?

[exile]

Thanks! All this has been very helpfull. But I guess I ran out of luck with the ninjutsu schools close to me. I have been looking all day and there are none in my area. So I guess I will have to look for a different art. What is the closest art to ninjutsu? I guess when I can drive I will be able to go some where else. But for now I will have to find some thing else. Any ideas?

If you send us out a list of the styles represented in the schools within your current radius of access, we can give you some feedback. That's probably the easiest way to do it. Call these schools, read their ad in the Yellow Pages and so on, takes some notes, and then send a note to this thread about who is offering what, and you'll get some responses about what those styles are all about and their relation to Ninjutsu, don't worry!

 

[oddball]

http://local.yahoo.com/results;_ylt...l+arts&csz=santa+clarita,+CA&fr=dd-local-more

I did a yahoo local search (if link doesn't show up, search martial arts in yahoo local and then santa clarita, ca).

 

[PeaceWarrior]

Hello, I resently found an intrest in martial arts and have been looking to join. But quite to my despair I am as you can say "out of shape." Not just a little but quite a bit. So should I wait to get in better shape before I join? Or would an art help me lose some weight? If so which art should I consider?

Thanks for the help.

Basically anything right now is gonna be good for your fitness; I wouldnt worry too much about being "out of shape" because no matter what you do is going to be better than sitting around watching tv right? As long as you train hard and stick to it, you will get results. Just get in the mindset of improving your fitness/body image/self defence. If you stick with it you will find out that martial arts is much more than even these things. If I were you, I would find a good school with a teacher that the students respect, and where you can get some good training in as well as a good workout.

good luck in your endevour! dont give up!

Keith

 

[chexmix]

Thanks again for all the help. Does this sound right? Can you have a mix of 3 different arts?

read
http://www.mafitnesscenter.com/juniors.html

 

[exile]

Thanks again for all the help. Does this sound right? Can you have a mix of 3 different arts?

read
http://www.mafitnesscenter.com/juniors.html

This place doesn't look like a school where you're going to learn much in the way of practical MA, whatever aerobic workouts you do. The stuff on TKD, for example, is laughable---90% foot techniques and only 10% hand techniques? There are probably as many different blocks in TKD as there are kicks! If you look at the hyungs---the patterns of movements in TKD, corresponding to katas in karate and similar patterns in Chinese and Indonesian MAs, which record the technical elements and how these can be combined into effective combat techniques---you'll see that even the most advanced and difficult forms have far more instances of hand techniques among the moves than foot techniques. The emphasis on Olympic sparring is a giveaway: they're telling you that you're going to be exposed to a few bits and pieces of a specialzed version of TKD that ignores the vast majority of the technical content of TKD, including various kinds of grip/strike combinations, locks, throws, sweeps, elbow strikes and a ton of other stuff.
I suspect the judo you'd be exposed to will be similarly gutted.

If all you wanted to do were aerobics using MA moves it probably wouldn't matter. But from your post, I gathered that you want to study MA seriously, and that you were worried about conditioning as an obstacle to that study. If I'm right about that, then what you should do is find a school that teaches a single MA in depth---and any real MA with a bit of history behind it has a lot of depth to explore. Mixing MAs when you don't have a solid background in any one of them is very likely going to leave you knowing not very much, especially not very much that you could actually use. Avoid places with profiles like this one if you want to develop the range of skills that the MAs make available to you...

 

[chexmix]

Thats what I needed to know. Thanks!

 

[ares]

Welcome. When I started Shaolin Kempo my weight was over 290 pounds. I'm down to 273 now. Just doing the forms is a good form of exercise. If you wait for yourself to get into shape, then you'll never get into a dojo. Just do it. As for a martial art, find out what you want to do. for some. kicking is good, I don't have that kind of flex in this body, so I went for an art that doesn't have me kick over my head. good luck with your training..stick with it. ares