What are the different martial art styles?

Question

I am a black belt, and I am 14. I dropped out a couple years back, I had been in it for 9 years. I want to come back, but I can't even remember how to tie my belt. I don't know if I should go back to Karate, go back to Tae-Kwon-Do, or go back to Jujitsu. I want to try out Kung-Fu though too. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Based on the fact that you are 14 and you were 12 when you stoped training and you were a black belt. Tells me that you were training at a McDojo and probably only ever had to do basic Katas for grading or pay a large fee for it.
Because not even being able to tie your belt. The first thing you learn in any art with a Gi is to tie your belt. And to forget in 2 years. Wow...

Anyways. You have alot of time to learn and redevelop your skills and if you want still get far in competitions. Just be aware that if you do get into something like Jujutsu it is not like Karate it is full contact training and a very hard work out. Alot harder to work your way up the ranks. But do it now while your body is young and by time you're 20 you'll be a black belt.
13 years of Judo

Answer 2

First, a word of advice. If you are going to tell everyone you are a black belt, don't follow it up by saying you don't know how to tie a belt. You have discredited yourself already.

Next, I would recommend that you stick with Karate, but don't go back to the same school. Start at a new school as a new student. If you indeed trained for 9 years, the techniques should come back to you quite easily. Once you have some more training and a few more years of maturity, you can decide if you want to stick with Karate or branch out and learn something new. If you start something new now, you may not like it and decide to quite. But, if you go back to Karate and find it easier to learn you might stick with it longer.

Good luck.

Answer 3

I am a black belt in Kung Fu and I am 14. However, I dropped out a couple years back too. My Si-Fu joined the navy or something. I don't know too much about it but he had to go to Iraq or something and I haven't heard from him since then. I still remeber a lot though, as I do still practice at home. I highly recommend Kung Fu. It is best to study a variety of styles and not just one style. Kung Fu has a variety of styles. Snake, bear, monkey, dragon, tiger, preying mantis, panda, crane, eagle, etc. Unlike Karate, which has been in existence for 100 years, Kung Fu has been around for over 1,000 years. Karate's pretty cool though, it stems from Kung Fu.

Answer 4

Asking about martial arts can be an almost religios subjects. I have studied various martial arts. I have found that 80% or more are full of it. They just don't work or they traine wrong. Before I go into that, here are some things you will have to ask yourself.

What is it that you want from the martial arts. If all you want is to do kata then kungfu is great. They have beautifull katas. If you want dicipline then any form of karate, kungfu and or any traditional martial arts usually will do. If you want something more spiritual then you need something along the lines of aikido or taichi. If you want to be able to be a good fighter then you need kickboxin, boxin, brazilian jujitsu, thaiboxing, savate, wrestling or judo. Anything else and you will more than likely get your *** kicked. Is not that the other martial arts are not as effective. The problem is that they train wrong. If you hear something like, "we don't compete because our techniques are potentially dangerous blah blah blah" that means that the school is bullshit. think about it. How can you test if your art works if you don't put it to the test. In order to fight you have to hit but, you must also be able to take a hit. So thats what differentiate a lot of the arts. Its the way they train. Another example is the no grabing rule. Why? why can't you grab? Any guy on the street will grab you and then punch you repeatedly. Is almost second nature. Is stuff like that that you have to evaluate when looking for a fighting art.

Then there are the weapons martial arts. In my opinion almost any philipino system is great. There techniques are solid and very effective. Ofcourse if you like swords then kendo which is the sport version of the katana swod is good. There are other japanese style like aijutsu or something like that. Note that there are also other countries equivalent. There are some african system that are not well knows. There is a koren cxounter part to kendo and there is a thai weapon system krabi krabon. Even the hindus have their own system. One martial art that people over look is gun wielding. The most up to date martial art is being able to wield a gun effectively and using certain tactics with them. this however is almost exclusive to law enforcement and the military. Remember gun wins over any martial art. There are people that can empty a nine round magazine in about 1.5seconds. How many punches do you think you can throw in that time eh?

Note that martial arts are not all about fighting. If you like taichi or aikido and that fullfills you then by all means do it. Just don't expect it to work on the octagon. By the same token, a more street wise martial art may not be fullfilling. Sometimes they don't have the structure that some people look for.

Ok, now that you may have an idea of what you want now is time to pick up the phone book and look around. You will surprice how limited your options are. So in the end you may be limited by that. Still, you should shop around. Go to various schools and observe how they pratice. Look how technical the upper rank studens are. Notice posture. I have seen a lot of people trowing kicks with their hands at their sides (cuff tae kwon do cuff cuff). Thats is very very bad practice. Also, look at the pricing and payment policies.

Good luck.

Answer 5

The problem is, that you can't name ALL the Martial Arts disciplines without failing to miss one single discipline, plus there're too many to list here.

since you left a few years ago, it doesn't surprise me that you can't remember how to tie your belt, but hey don't worry about it, since you may be starting all over again in a different discipline. You might be able to advance faster in the next discipline you plan to study.

My only question is: why did you quit in the first place. recieving your first degree blackbelt isn't the end of your Martial Arts training. But it's a testament to your dedication to the discipline you began studying and should continue, because Martial Arts is a lifetime journey and that's why there are 7th, 8th, 9th and even 10th degree Grandmasters, because they had the dedication to keep training and improving themselves.

But on to my answer to your question.

The best way is to group them by the Nationality of the discipline: Chinese being the largest grouping of disciplines, followed by Japanese, Korean, Fillipino, Brazilian, American (there are some that have Asian fighting background, but were developed more in the United States.)

It sounds as if you already made up your mind about the type of Martial Arts discipline you want to study, but if you want to try out a discipline of Kung Fu then do it.

You don't need anyone to tell you which discipline that will best suit you, because only YOU can make that decision for yourself.

The only suggestion I can make for you is to research what Martial Arts schools that're available to you (especially if they are a Kung Fu discipline since you mentioned that you're interested in a Kung Fu discipline).

If you find at least 3 schools that interest you the most, then you should watch a few classes from each school to make your final decision as to which school you'll want to attend.

finally, you'll want to see if they have any trial classes to find out if you like the school, if you do; then enroll in the class.

It's your own choice as to which Martial Art that you want to study, every future Martial artist has to make that deciscion for themselves.

Answer 6

I would say that if you can't remember how to tie your belt after a couple of years, you might as well start with a different style. Either way you should start as a white belt again.

Answer 7

i dont believe you would forget to tie your belt after doing it for 9 years and you are not a black belt.young man you should not be dishonest.now come back and ask an honest question and there are many people here able to advise you.

Answer 8

If you have forgotten how to tie your belt, it probably doesn't matter since you will have to start as a beginner. If you remembered a lot from before, I would say go back to what you know.