Please help me decide between these three Martial Arts schools in my area

[Steve]

I'm not sure MMA is the best choice for self-defense. We see more stories about MMA fighting outside of the ring than any other system. Much of which is the opposite of what you would do with a self defense mindset.

MMA will give you the most sparring time but it may not satisfy your other interest and concerns. When it comes to your health concerns the other martial arts systems will do a better job with satisfying that.

Post 6 above on page one of the thread.

This is an odd comment. Are you talking spiritual health? Like chi stuff? You would be hard pressed to find more physically healthy people than the typical person at an MMA school.

That's my response. Looking to understand what you really meant.

Not wanting to train MMA is one thing. Nothing wrong with having a personal preference. If you want to train weapons, find an escrima school.

But what you're saying above about mental and physical health makes zero sense.

This is what I said.

Yep. spiritual health, chi, (qui), weapons, lion dance, forms (kata), forms competition, point sparring, weapons sparring, lessons on internal vs external, soft vs hard. Traditional training methods.. For the physical part you can't beat age or the problems that come with it. As much as we like to bang things out we can't always do that. There will come a time when our training will change, unless you talking about the non-fighting parts of MMA. I just don't see 80 large group of 80 year old dudes in the MMA ring. But I can find a large number of 80 year old people practicing there TMA system staying active and being healthy. I don't see the TMA people getting in to the ring either. At some point of the time, it becomes necessary to stop banging the body out like young people do.

And... that's what you said. There was a point in this thread, you were basically just writing word salad, so I understand completely that you don't remember what you wrote.

 

[zenfrog]

Hi everybody, this is my first post. I am an adult male age 35, I would like to learn a martial art(s) while I still can, mostly for self-defense, as well as for health and self-esteem reasons. I made an account on here to seek advice and opinions. In my area, there's a Shotokan Karate dojo within walking distance from me. But there's also a Kyokushin Karate dojo as well as a Tang Soo Do dojo about a 10 minute drive from me. I'm leaning towards the Kyokushin one because from what I read it's most effective for self-defense. In my childhood, I did take a few YMCA Karate classes but that's my only experience. Looking forward to replies and chatting with you all, take care.

The style that makes you happy.