Which martial arts style would the best to start with?

[CTEGod]

In a nutshell:

1. Figure out what your goals are. Are you training to be a MMA fighter? Just want to get in shape?

2. Try out every school that interests you. They should all let you watch a free class or even take part a little to see how you like it. Stay away from the ones that don't.

3. Enroll in the school that you like. Stay away from schools that force you into a long contract. That way you can always leave if it's not what you thought it was going to be.

4. Have fun and leave your ego at the door when you train.

 

[flydaddy78]

Wow, thanks for all the replies. I think I am going to go BJJ and Muay thai and see how that goes.

 

[KOU In3]

Yeah. Since point sparring is useful knowledge in MMA

If you do any Taekwondo at all, do WTF. It condones continuous sparring at the expense of punches, but it's more realistic than that rediculous point sparring (match stops each time a point is scored, so that it can be tallied. The match then resumes. Repeat as necessary).

Thank God someone said it! I'll be the first to admit that WTF TKD is NOT your best bet for MMA. But it's a damn site better than ITF TKD. When you open up the the rules, most decent WTF player will own the ITF guys. (Meaning even if you allow their strike zones but leave the match continuos, most of the ITF guys can't hang).

BTW, I agree on avoiding the ATA TKD as well though. Unfortunately I've never seen one that wasn't some watered down McDojo.

 

[46and2]

I recently started Judo and i found they did a lot more ground game then I expected. And as for starting out with Judo and a striking martial art, thats good but I was in TKD and then I started Judo and I kept standing the wrong way and shit. If you start doing 2 martial arts at the same time make sure you don't mix 'em up. Another thing was that I found Judo is difficult to get good at. Some of the throws, I thought were quite complicated. Very specific ya know?

 

[z0nk]

Start with Muay Thai for standup then do either MMA or Brazilian Jiu Jitsu for all round fighting.

 

[RizRan]

Depends what you want. Conditioning, Striking, Takedowns/throws, grappling, street theres a wide range that only you can choose what you want. For conditioning theres boxing which isnt really MA. For striking theres boxing, MT and TKD (not the chest pad TKD lmao) BJJ for grappling and perhaps KRav MAga for street. It depends on what your lookign for really