Can anyone recommend a style, organization, dojo, etc. that they like? It would be greatly appreciated.

I have already investigated a respectable ninjitsu dojo and a place (White Dragon Martial Arts) that teaches Choy Li Fut kung fu, but would still like some input.

The best answer is by :
Katana172 version3 :
First off it would be kind of pointless for me to recomend a style for you, like the others on here, just for the simple facts of:

1) I do not know every style that you have availible.- It would do no good for me to recomend BJJ or Muay thai or whatever if you don’t have a place near you that trains it.

2) I do not know what you are looking for, besides being physical and strenuous, which any style will be if you train it correctly.

Let me say disregard what Dmaud says from the get go, as he has a very warped view of the martial arts and all of his knowledge seems to be book learning and no actual experience.

My advice to you is to disregard style and focus more on the quality of instruction availible and the training methods.

Here are the steps I would take.

1) Locate all of the styles near you, and research them and what they contain and don’t contain. If you want weapons and a style does not do any weapons, then you can pretty much cross it of the list. You can get rid of quite a few choices this way.

2) Do a search on here for questions and answers on what to look for in a good instructor/school and what to avoid. There are hundreds of these on here and it would be redundent and a waste of time for me to list what to look for.

3) Go and watch each class that interests you, and compare it to the list you got from your research here. Watch/participate in more then one class.

4) Choose the school with the best instructor, that trains the right way, that will give you what you want, that you can afford, and start training.

Hope this helps.

Are there any good DVD's that teach people martial arts? If so that would be excellent. Any other suggestions would be great.
I am looking to learn self-defense fighting methods that are simplistic and vicious. The kinds that will, with little thought or effort allow me to turn an assailants attack against them. How can I learn these kidn of martial arts without classes and on my own?

This is was answered by :
My name is not bruce :
The only sound way i think you can learn self defense with no money is by being close friends with a martial artist or just getting into random street fights. Although if you want to learn Krav Maga, this requires you to get those random people you fight to pull a gun or knife on you. Even in a martial arts class, after teaching you knife defense for years, they tell you the number 1 thing to do is give in to the demands. If you can get out of it with your life, just by complying, then do it. Give the guy your wallet.

Maybe a ymca close by offers it cheap. I knwo my instructor used to charge $1 a lesson until the YMCA upped the rent.

Oh and i know you don't really wanna hear it, but with the website idea, its just bad. You really need someone who knows how to do the attacks, to do them to you, to properly defend. I mean practicing getting out of a choke hold with my little bro was helpful for technique, but then once i ranked up a few belts and the instructor is really choking me….its somethign different.

For example, we learned a few different ways to get out of a rear choke and one worked the best. So the instructor made a point by modifiying the choke and that way absoloutly didnt' work anymore. Had to tak ea differnet route to get out of it. These are the type of things you can't learn from a website / dvd.

Anywas..last option. Talk to an instructor about your situation. Might give you a discount…might have some alternatives for you like doing some clean up work.

This is was answered by :
Thinker :
Look into Wing Chun (Kung Fu) Very effective.

The question was answered by :
dmaud56 :
Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, if you can find a teacher that is, or Tae Kwan Do. In China, the Shaolin temple branched off into two separate schools, north and south. Even though the techniques were the same, and the Shaolin is the Shaolin no matter what, the northern school trained more in kicking, while the south trained more in hand forms. As monks left the temples in their respective areas they taught what they knew best, hence the reason why southern Kung Fu styles have mostly arm techniques and little kicking, while northern styles have much kicking with little arm techniques.

When the second Shaolin temple was burnt down, actually, both Shaolin temples, some monks of the northern school escaped to Korea, where they taught their art there. Combining with a native form of martial arts, Tae Kwan Do was born. If Tae Kwan Do looks similar to Karate, it is not because of the Japanese influence, so much as both arts descending from Shaolin.

Now, regarding your concern; the northern Kung Fu schools emphasized kicking because, the people of northern China are tall. People 6'3, like you, not at all uncommon. The advantage of a tall person, are long legs, therefore, develop kicking techniques, that was their thinking. Because many Koreans will grow just as tall as northern Chinese, their bodies were ideally suited to northern Chinese Kung Fu which they then simplified and modified as they felt was practical, and thus Tae Kwan Do was born.

Know that Northern Shaolin Kung Fu, and Tae Kwan Do, were created with tall people in mind. If you can find a Korean teacher, or a teacher who trained in Korea they will confirm this; the martial art is ideally suited for tall people because it was designed for them. Problem is because of your height, this will create leverage issues; be prepared for pain and agony in training, such as you have never dreamed. Its hard for a big guy to be agile, that is why pro wrestling coaches brutalize aspiring pro wrestlers. Its hard for a little guy to be strong, that is why bodybuilding coaches will brutalized skinny guys, to force the muscles to grow. In other words, you have physics to compensate for but, masters in the past have done it so with time and training you should be able to to if you are taking it up for the right reasons, namely, self improvement.

Another martial art suited for tall people is the Tibetan Crane Style of Kung fu, not to be confused with the Fujian style. The Tibetan Crane Style, emphasizes dodging a lot, so, if you do not want to seriously hurt anyone, look into it. Problem is, the Tibetan Crane Style, even the modern "simple" version, is a bitch to learn so, I hope you are either smart, or very determined, or hopefully both.

pace out.