Looking for martial arts training advice

[JOEQUEENSNY]

See post #7 above.

Tai chi will not save your life. It’s meditation. They’ve put tai chi masters and Kung fu masters in win Chun that practiced their entire lives verses blue belts that practiced for 2 years in juijitsu and the juijitsu practioners wiped the floor with “masters” effortlessly. There’s a lot of fake martial arts. Unless you aren’t looking to legitimately defend yourself. Some people do it for the spirtuality I get that. I personally work in a max A facility prison with murders and rapists so my goal is to protect my life.

[orangebottle]

I'm certainly not taking a **** on BJJ; I think it's widely recognized as one of the most effective 'true-fighting' styles available.To reiterate, it if was just for me -- even at my advanced age -- it would be a reasonable discipline to study.

But it's not just me. The unique situation here is that my wife and I are looking to do something together. We have somewhat different goals and levels of fitness, but feel that, given the wide variety of martial arts styles out there, we can find a medium-ground solution that works for both of us.

All that being said, I've found an aikijujitsu club nearby. The term was new to me, so I did a bit of research and found this. I'm hoping to check it soon.

[not.in.MY.town]

I'm certainly not taking a **** on BJJ; I think it's widely recognized as one of the most effective 'true-fighting' styles available.To reiterate, it if was just for me -- even at my advanced age -- it would be a reasonable discipline to study.

But it's not just me. The unique situation here is that my wife and I are looking to do something together. We have somewhat different goals and levels of fitness, but feel that, given the wide variety of martial arts styles out there, we can find a medium-ground solution that works for both of us.

All that being said, I've found an aikijujitsu club nearby. The term was new to me, so I did a bit of research and found this. I'm hoping to check it soon.

Have you considered kamasutra?

[orangebottle]

Have you considered kamasutra?

Martial arts...not 'marital' arts.

[JOEQUEENSNY]

I'm certainly not taking a **** on BJJ; I think it's widely recognized as one of the most effective 'true-fighting' styles available.To reiterate, it if was just for me -- even at my advanced age -- it would be a reasonable discipline to study.

But it's not just me. The unique situation here is that my wife and I are looking to do something together. We have somewhat different goals and levels of fitness, but feel that, given the wide variety of martial arts styles out there, we can find a medium-ground solution that works for both of us.

All that being said, I've found an aikijujitsu club nearby. The term was new to me, so I did a bit of research and found this. I'm hoping to check it soon.

I’m old school with martial arts I find A LOT of things to be complete BS. A lot of even legit styles are a huge money grab. Some styles like Kung fu...just don’t work. And when I say don’t work I’m talking about against a trained opponent. Like when’s the last time you’ve seen a Kung fu fighter in the UFC? Aikido? More bs. Basically if it’s not in combat fighting sports. It’s Bs in my humble opinion...think about it. If it were effective SOMEONE would had come along and at least competed in the UFC or Bellator. Juijitsu, Muay Tai, American boxing, wrestling, a few versions of karate and tae Keon do. (Not all). And probably a few others. But there’s a lot of fake martial arts. Ever see these “masters” with their students around them knocking them over with “chi”. Lol that stuff is Pretend magic. It’s not real at all. If you want a good laugh on people exposing martial arts check out the IG page “McDojo” it’ll have you on the floor with laughter.

[FireCop203]

I found Aikido to be effective.

[JOEQUEENSNY]

I found Aikido to be effective.

Aikido is bs.

[CCCSD]

A Stilson wrench. Best form of martial art...

[BlueLinerAZ]

I'm a fan of Krav Maga... HOWEVER as CCCSD has said most places that teach it are in fact jokes. Do your home work and find those who are affiliated w/ ties to instructors of the IDF/ISF past or present. Decent work outs come from most studios teaching this, but be wary of those who offer a 1 hour session and 30 mins is basically doing cardio.

BJJ is extremely useful if this is solely for you and your spouse to learn together, work out together and bond/better yourselves. If you're learning BJJ as a primary fighting style to take down an assailant.. Meh... Ground fighting is useful in a 1 on 1... But usually sh*tbirds travel in numbers of 2 or more... So while you are restraining 1, the others usually come out. So combo this w/ Muy Thai or maybe Kempo/Shotokan possibly?

Or just go old school and learn boxing. The exercise, striking and footwork alone here would give you an exceptional foundation.

[Aidokea]

Muay Thai and bjj are the best combo of you can try to get someone in your department to help you with training your hands too. Nothing works better on the streets than your hands and elbows.

Bjj should be fun with your wife too, a lot of classes will have cool instructors, but beware of the mentally ill instructors.

I trained bjj at one gym that was starting out it was my 2nd mma gym, and the assist inst. Was there 90% of the time, and he had some real mental issues. Like Everytime I asked a question he would start yelling at me. Last time I trained bjj was 2016. I could train it again if I had the money. But I live in New Jersey and most bjj gyms are looking to market off of you, by trying to force you to sign a contract. If your still on the job I think you should be good.

Please stop talking. You're not a cop, so you're not dealing with the daily threats that we have to deal with. And I've seen your "Rex Kwon Do" Instagram videos- you have no business giving "advice" to cops, especially in this area.

[Kzanuriel]

I'm new to the forum, but I wanted to chime in on this thread. It's great that you and your wife are interested in starting martial arts together! Given your background and goals, I think a good place to start would be Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) or Krav Maga.
BJJ focuses on grappling and ground fighting, which can be useful for self-defense situations. Krav Maga, on the other hand, is a more practical self-defense system that focuses on real-world scenarios and techniques.
Both of these disciplines are generally affordable and can be done together as a couple. I'd also recommend using best gloves for beginner boxing when practicing any sports to keep your hands safe.

[Captain Max]

You're fortunate to live in an area where you have choices.

I don't think you can go wrong with Tae Kwon Do, Tang So Do, or Ching-Ching.

[ReconRoninGJR]

..........

[Aidokea]

Late the party on an old topic. Frankly, not sure why I feel compelled to respond with so much of my view. Perhaps it's for myself and maybe I'm just fooling myself that there's someone that might actually find value in it...

I've been training in martial arts seriously and consistently since the age of 5 to deal with both anger issues and a dark passion to inflict pain. It redirected my anger toward positive things, and lead me to have an incredible, meaningful career that I love.

From the age of 13, I focused all my energy on sparring full contact everyday if possible, and I consistently competed in tournaments from the age of 13 to 21, and won regional championships. I'm not ashamed to say I did not win any nationals, and have lost plenty of tournaments. That's partly because I did not compete to win. I competed to beat the living snot out of people. I've delivered many broken bones, and received some as well. Whenever I would get hit, it would make me even angrier. When I lost, I made sure my opponents were limping, bleeding, or tearing. Yes, I have issues, hence the whole reason for me sticking with martial arts my entire life.

I trained in the following and for the most part all seriously: Taekwondo, Judo, Boxing, Wrestling, Kendo, Fencing, Hapkido, Aikido, Jeet Kune Do and Brazilian Jujitsu (ehem Jujutsu). I dabbled a bit in a couple different Kung Fu disciplines, and getting ahead of myself in this post that's way too long, but you might as well train in dance if that's what you do.

I also was and still am passionate about physical fitness. I started weight lifting when I was 15. When I was 18 I could do 90 pushups a minute, and amazingly I still can, as well as 30+ clapping push-ups, 20+ handstand pushups, etc. I'm trying really hard to not make this about bragging, but more so as background regarding my perspective.

So with that, here are just some of my thoughts, based on my experiences, for someone who might be new to hand to hand combat and martial arts:
1) Physical capability and physical training is a must. Don't even bother trying to learn how to fight if you aren't even able to do push-ups. Prioritize this, always and consistently.
2) "Blocking" which is integral to many East Asian arts is worse than complete fiction. Defending well is made up of dodging- slipping and rolling, having a tight guard, and after that it's throwing and grappling- from standing and then from the floor.
3) ALL arts are overrated, but many serve an effective purpose, but only that purpose. To rip on the last decade's favorite - BJJ is great for the one on one cage match, but not great for most real life situations including multiple opponents and even worse while needing to protect another person and get away/create distance, or if you have sensitive equipment/gear, or unstable/unusual ground/environment, even something as basic as stairs or in a vehicle. The list is endless where BJJ goes starts to go out the window... Don't get me wrong, when there is someone on top of me, and I don't have a knife, or the person amazingly has enough skill and strength to keep me from using it, I will use BJJ techniques (which I had already learned by extension of Judo anyway which includes Jujutsu; not "jujitsu"...). But that's pretty much it for BJJ; serves well for an important purpose, but extremely overrated. I can say similar things for every other martial art/style.
4) Instead of buying into any hype, the best approach for most people is to go with both boxing and wrestling, which not coincidentally have a heavy focus on physical fitness. Forget any of the fancy or trendy stuff unless you start at 5 years old like me and consistently train your entire life.
5) If you do go with another art/style, you must spar full contact everyday if possible. You must actively engage in fighting everyday to develop any effectiveness for a real fight. That's one great thing about BJJ (like boxing and wrestling), they spar a lot.

And here is a thought for any of you ungrateful civvies out there who think you're somehow above others just because you took some lessons for a few years, and for some reason lurking around here...
1) You suck at fighting. And I can shoot you. A lot. In just a couple seconds. And then proceed to stab you endlessly without any limitation of ammo. So stop acting like you're anything but a computer nerd or accountant (no offense). Training is great, but it doesn't suddenly make you superman, so sit your @$$ down.

I obviously mean all this in a light-hearted way and do not mean to truly offend anyone. And maybe someone finds this useful or interesting.

Whiskey,
Tango,
Foxtrot...