striking or grappling?

[Still Water]

What's up? I'm trying to decide whether to take kickboxing at a very good school, or take jiu jitsu at a very good school. If anyone from Minnesota is reading this, I'm trying to decide on either Minnesota Martial Arts Academy (kickboxing) or Warrior's Cove (jiu jitsu). I'm leaning more towards kickboxing(which is more expensive, I think 125$ a month) just because I'm long, lean, and more into striking by nature, but jiu jitsu sounds fun too, and a good workout. Any thoughts?

 

[CHawkins]

You don't necessarily have to choose one or the other. Why not do (for example) 2 kickboxing classes and 2 JJ classes each week?

 

[AgentZ]

Try take both if you can, otherwise (and I am pretty sure I will get flamed for saying this but anyways) I would rather take the grappling. I find that you can get good at striking in about a year or two, but grappling takes many, many years to get good at.

Any type of wrestling is an excelent place to get your roots from. I think a strong base will help a lot more for if or when you decide to give striking a go. A good way to kind of visualise what I am trying to say is thinking of a tree compared to a statue. The tree will be harder to knock over because it has its roots gripping into the ground.

...But you could always just try out both classes and see which you enjoy more.

 

[Still Water]

I can see where you're coming from. My reply is that I've heard teaching striking to a grappler is harder than teaching grappling to a striker. I don't know man.

 

[phenomfan1529]

You should take karate instead! jus playin, but since your leaning more towards kickboxing, go with that. But if you could, you should try to do both.

 

[TexAngel]

Strike it's also a little more practical for real life altercations. But grappling would be cool too. It's like you said you're long and lean, you probably have good spring and snap to your punches and kicks. I'm 5'9" and weigh 218, ground fighting is what I'm built for. Go with your gut, but mostly do what sounds like the most fun that you can succeed at.

 

[Spoonman7]

take which ever one interests you more, if they both interest you a great deal, then take one and start to save money for the other.

 

[TequillaSlammer]

If you're looking at it from a self defence stand point then learning to grapple should be a relatively quick experience, all you need to learn is to defend takedowns (a priority for the street), get out from underneath people as quickly as possible, taking top control and some basic chokes.
Personally I'd say start with kickboxing, all the kickboxers I roll with seem to have an extreme aversion to being put on their back.

 

[eljabo]

My advice, take both if at all possible. If finacial matters are a problem (which is the case for most of us) do a 3 on 3 off training cycle. 3 months at one school, and then 3 of the other. All the time honing the skills you have picked up at the school you are not attending at that time, getting your tech down. More important than anything you will probably pick up a few brothers along the way to train with outside various dojos to keep sharp.Being well rounded is a very important thing.Striking and Ground Work are both equally important. You dont want to become one dimensional.Best of luck Bro.

 

[Herculean]

My reply is that I've heard teaching striking to a grappler is harder than teaching grappling to a striker. I don't know man.

you heard this ? did anyone give you a logical reason why ? didnt think so because it makes no sense at all ...


you cannot neglect either striking or grappling, all i would say is that if you were to take grappling , you could at least practise striking on the heavey bag at home, shadow box etc for a while until you saved up enough to go and do both , otherwise i think it would be much harder to train grappling on your own ...


train whatever you want anyway they are all good , you sound like you want to do kickboxing right now, so maybe you should go train it ..

 

[Falero]

Try both, train whichever is the most pleasant and fun. If they

 

[hando]

yeah dude take up both!!

 

[Shiroryuu]

I would say go with whichever one you want to do.

 

[Remember Me?]

I think striking is a lot more fun. I've tried grappling and I was just bored by it. I would go with kickboxing but it's whatever you want.

 

[Gregster]

If you prefer striking, stick with striking. I suspect you'll be more enthusiastic and train better at that which you prefer. If you can't afford to do both (being a well-rounded fighter means you have to cover all your bases) then maybe in a few months or a year, depending on how well you're progressing, once you get your striking game decent you could take a few months off and try a sojourn into grappling for a few months and develop a foundation in the basics (the basics of any art, I find, is often the best and most practical against the average dick on the street anyway), thus rounding you out with the added benefit of helping you avoid getting burnt out on striking training.

 

[tokian]

If you're looking at it from a self defence stand point then learning to grapple should be a relatively quick experience, all you need to learn is to defend takedowns (a priority for the street), get out from underneath people as quickly as possible, taking top control and some basic chokes.
Personally I'd say start with kickboxing, all the kickboxers I roll with seem to have an extreme aversion to being put on their back.

----


This guy just described my training habits. I can keep people from coming in, if not get basic chokes when they are in or defend well enough to stay alive on the ground.

My suggestion, is to work THE FUCK out of the kickboxing class, get CAPABLE and STRONG. While doing this, try to grapple AS MANY PEOPLE as you can. I would grapple before i would spar. Bag and Pad drills and shadow boxing will help you're accuracy, timing, and coordination for striking at first.

Last of all: TRAIN HARD!

 

[$uperman]

If you can train both.

 

[MTJJ_PuMpED]

take both man. Even if one is more fun then the other. YOu wanna be well rounded homie.

 

[Zankou]

I think it's slightly easier to learn striking first ... at least for me training grappling is much, much less intense than training full contact striking. It's more comfortable and natural to go from striking to ground than from ground to striking. Obviously both is better, but if you had to choose one first, I'd go striking first.

Also, striking will get you in much better cardio shape than BJJ in my opinion, which will put you in great position to learn grappling later. You can get away with being in mediocre shape in training BJJ, but you will get your head knocked off if you try that in striking.

 

[nopardaid]

Forget those, find Prince and get some ball lessons!
Take what you will stick with, if not both.