Which martial arts draw the most adult students?

[Makalakumu]

If you were to consider the age demographics of the various martial arts, which arts do you think draw the most adults?

Consider the arts that might draw the highest percentage of adults and the consider the arts that draw the highest numbers of adults. I suppose they could be different.

What about these arts do you think draws the numbers of adult students?

 

[Makalakumu]

I found this article on age demographics in the martial arts interesting.

http://mainemartialarts.com/martial-arts/martial-arts-statistics-demographics-people-practice/

According to this article, Simmons Market Research, studied the number of people participating in martial arts in the US – this is what they found:
Somewhere around 18.1 million Americans participated in karate or some other form of martial art at least once in the past year. That includes 9.4 million adults, 5.5 million teenagers and 3.2 million kids.
5 percent of adults say they participated in martial arts last year at least once, and a quarter of those (28 percent) say they do martial arts “every chance they get.” This number is split split 52% men to 48% and women.
Adult age groups:
18-34 63%
35-49 25%
50 or older 11%
Asian American adults are no more likely to participate in martial arts than are whites; 5 % of each group is involved in the sport. Blacks are more likely than whites or Asians to engage in martial arts, with 7 % saying they have participated in the sport at least once in the past year.
25% of all teenage boys and 22% of teen girls say they have participated in martial arts in the past year.
75 % of teens who practice karate say that they have also played golf in the past year, 74 % have skateboarded, 69 % have practiced yoga, and 41 % have gone downhill or cross-country skiing.
Teens who spar are even more likely to see their activities as beneficial to their overall health and social life than do their equally active peers. 67 % of teens who practice martial arts say, “Sports are a part of my social life,” and 77 %, “Sports are important to keep healthy.” For those teens who participate in a sport other than karate, the figures are 59 % and 71 %, respectively.
13 % of children ages 6 to 11 have participated in some kind of martial arts activity in the past year. With kids,boys are significantly more interested than girls: 61 % are boys, and only 39 % are girls.
The likelihood that a child will partake in martial arts increases proportionately with the income of his or her parents. 15 % of kids whose parents earn $75,000 or more a year participate in martial arts, compared with 13 % of those whose parents make between $50,000 and $75,000. Only 10 % of kids whose parents earn $50,000 or less participate in the sport.
21 % of youngsters who practice martial arts agree with the statement “I like to be the first to try new things,” compared with just 16 % of kids who don’t participate in martial arts. 58 % of children who participate in martial arts say they want to be famous, compared with 52 % of kids who do not.
Adults who participate in martial arts are more likely than nonparticipants to say that they enjoy taking risks.

 

[TKDTony2179]

You did say think right? Well, I would say MMA now days because of the exposure. Next to that I would say TKD because it is pretty much every where. But most of them are parents that try to keep their kids intrested. After that I would say grappling arts. Akido, hapkido, and BJJ. Out of the chineses arts I would say wing chun. Now I am not saying that TKD brings more adults than the other arts. It is probably more likely to bring more adults over all because it is in more places. I do believe more adults would do other arts before TKD.

Cold facts I don't know. But that is what I think.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

MMA, Krav Maga, Systema, Silat all have a high percentage of adults if not almost all. BJJ initially was all adults when I was training solely at one school. Now of course that has changed dramatically as more BJJ schools opened where the emphasis is more on business. (ie. someone trying to make their sole living) In IRT we have about a 96% adult to teen ratio.

 

[geezer]

MMA, Krav Maga, Systema, Silat all have a high percentage of adults if not almost all.

Good observations. FMA in general is more adult oriented. One of my associates has experimented with a kid's class, stick only. But once blades come into the equation, I feel it would be irresponsible to train kids.

My Ving Tsun class is entirely made up of adults. I am willing to accept mature youth (teenagers) as part of our adult class. But since I'm a high school teacher by day and a father of two teens, I see quite enough teenagers without actively pursuing that demographic!

The traditional Chinese internal arts also seem to appeal more to adults.

 

[Blindside]

I don't think I have ever seen an iaido class geared for kids.

I would agree with FMA, my adult classes are 18 and up, and the average age is actually more like 35.

 

[TKDTony2179]

I don't think I had my thinking cap on yesterday but I would agree that more self defense driven arts like krav, fma and the mma would attract adults more.

 

[WaterGal]

I'm pretty sure the MMA place here in town doesn't take students under 12 at all. So that's obviously going to be mainly adults.

At our school, our TKD program is almost entirely kids and teens, and our HKD program is almost entirely teens and adults. We've got two kids doing HKD with their dad, and a few teenage girls, but the other students are all 18+ (ETA: and GM's school had similar demographics). But I know that another school around here does only HKD and has mostly kids classes, so I don't know whether Hapkido is generally an "adult style".

 

[Xue Sheng]

I have never seen any children in Taijiquan, or Xingyiquan in the USA. I think the youngest person I have seen in anyone of those was in their 20s. and believe it or not that was in Taijiquan. Xingyiquan tends towards 30s and up, but honestly I would now be on the older side in the average Xingyiquan class. The Wing Chun classes I have been in are all adults as well and again the youngest person I have seen was in their 20s. But I have heard of younger classes in Wing Chun

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

If you were to consider the age demographics of the various martial arts, which arts do you think draw the most adults?

Consider the arts that might draw the highest percentage of adults and the consider the arts that draw the highest numbers of adults. I suppose they could be different.

What about these arts do you think draws the numbers of adult students?

Do you mean percentage of adults or total number? If you're talking total number, I'd say taekwondo hands down, regardless of the reason.

If you mean percentage of adults (18+) vs. kids (17-), I'd probably say tai chi, iaido or koryu arts.

If you mean both a high average of adult students and a high quantity, I'd say tai chi, aikido or kendo.

No hard data; just personal observation.

 

[tshadowchaser]

Of the 5 or so schools in my area most only have adults with a few kids (if any). The exception being the TKD schools which seem to have more kids and teens than adults.
I think that because of the structure of TKD it allows a more friendly atmosphere for kids.

 

[Daniel Sullivan]

I think that because of the structure of TKD it allows a more friendly atmosphere for kids.

I would go further and say that TKD (KKW/WTF at least) is aimed squarely at kids. It's the same reason football, gymnastics, fencing, and other sports are aimed at kids; those are the years that you develop your top athletes and top performers. If you're a kid who's interested in football, by the time you get to high school, you're at a severe disadvantage, and if you haven't gotten involved by the end of high school, your ship has most likely sailed.

 

[arnisador]

I agree on FMA--in part b/c some don't want to teach it to kids due to the knife techniques. I'd add JKD (in my experience, at least) to the list.

 

[Brian R. VanCise]

I can't believe I did not mention that Budo Taijutsu is almost exclusively adults. It is also a very big organization. (Bujinkan)

 

[aaradia]

I have never seen any children in Taijiquan, or Xingyiquan in the USA. I think the youngest person I have seen in anyone of those was in their 20s. and believe it or not that was in Taijiquan. Xingyiquan tends towards 30s and up, but honestly I would now be on the older side in the average Xingyiquan class. The Wing Chun classes I have been in are all adults as well and again the youngest person I have seen was in their 20s. But I have heard of younger classes in Wing Chun

We have one TCC student in our classes that is a kid. He just turned 12. He has been doing it for years. We have a few other kids that do the group class. (Certain Choy Li Fut memberships allow access to TCC group class. They aren't full fledged TCC students studying the TCC curriculum though.)They usually don't seem to stick with it. This includes the teens. But the one young boy I mentioned is a full fledged TCC student.

He is the exception though. I agree that our TCC seems to mostly be adults.