What martial art should I study? How to choose a martial art.

Summary: You should choose a martial art based on your goals of what you want to get out of it. There are many styles and this is a guide to introduce you to a few categorized by common goals.

I meet a lot of people looking to start learning martial arts. The most common question I get is "What art should I pick?". The answer is, "What do you want to get out of it?". People have different goals and different arts will fit each person differently. This is a guide about where to start looking.

This article is aimed at people just starting to get involved in martial arts and also experienced martial artists looking where to go next. I will talk about picking an art, not a school. See my followup post on choosing a school for that.

Common goals I hear:

1. Self-Defense
2. Fitness
3. Get my kids into something structured that will enrich their lives.
4. Competitive fighting
5. Real fighting (offense included, not just defense)
6. Culture

I number these in the undocumented frequency with which I believe I run into them. I'll go over each one in detail and give some examples of arts you may want to consider. This is not a comprehensive list. All the arts I list here I have personally studied to some degree. Note that I am not saying these arts only fit into the categories I've assigned them. I categorize them by their greatest strengths (as I see it).

1. Self-Defense - By far the most common reason. Most people looking to get into martial arts want to know what to do should they end up in a physical conflict. If this is your main goal you should consider street-practical arts. Kicking and punching won't get you anywhere if you're not training for real-life scenarios. Examples of arts you should try:
   
   • Krav Maga - used by the Israeli military. Extremely practical and self-defense based. No rules. Easy learning curve, quick to make you effective. Highly recommended.
   • Kali / Escrima / Arnis / Filipino Martial Arts (FMA) - The Filipino Martial Arts were developed for real combat. No rules. Kali/Escrima/Arnis are the names given to the FMA system that is largely based around weapons fighting. The style with which they train weapons is designed to be instantly applicable to empty-hand combat. FMA are often taught in conjuction with Silat, Jeet Kune Do (JKD) and Chinese Martial Arts as a result of a close relationship between Bruce Lee and FMA's main figure in the United States, Dan Inosanto.
   • Systema - Used by Russian Military. Practical and continues to evolve as a martial art to this day. Difficult to find in the United States. I consider it the more practical cousin to Aikido.
   • Hapkido - A Korean martial art and cousin to Aiki Jiu-jitsu. Throws, strikes and joint manipulation.
   • Aiki Jiu-jitsu - A Japanese martial art and cousin to Hapkido. Throws, strikes and joint manipulation.
   
   
2. Fitness - Almost as common as self-defense and usually desired in conjunction with self-defense. Almost any martial art you study will provide you a significant amount of fitness training. Pick one of the arts in the self-defense section if you want both. If fitness is your only goal seek out a school that focuses on body training more than martial training.
   
   • Capoeira - An Afro-Brazilian martial art. Highly acrobatic and extreme physical demands in this art. It's beautiful to both watch and practice. If you have a side goal of learning how to break dance this may be the art for you.
   • Chinese Martial Arts (aka Kung Fu, Wushu) - This is a broad term referring to many different styles of martial arts originating in China. Common styles in the United States include Wing Chun and Tai Chi Chuan.
   • Karate - A Japanese martial art. In the United States there is often heavy focus on physical fitness in many schools of Karate. Somewhat practical.
   • Tae Kwon Do - A Korean martial art. In the United States there is often heavy focus on physical fitness in many schools of TKD. Somewhat practical.
   • Silat - an Indonesian art that, when taught at its full capacity, is extremely athletic. Can also be very practical.
3. Get my kids into something structured that will enrich their lives - This is a difficult one. Do you want your kids to learn real martial arts that can protect them and also enable them to readily injure others or do you just want them structured? How old are they? Many of the more practical martial arts schools will not accept children into their regular programs; some have a separate kids program. Tae Kwon Do and Karate schools in the United States are often geared toward children and provide a high (some consider it excessive) amount of progression (belts, stripes on belts, testings). A lot of these schools are setup in a way that is designed to directly cater to kids. While the arts may not reflect practicality, their focus may reflect what you want for your kids. There will be more kids there for yours to socialize with and parents for you to socialize with.
   
   • Karate - (See above)
   • Tae Kwon Do - (See above)
   • Capoeira - (See above). Not always many kids found in these schools. More geared toward ages 12-30.
   • Aikido - A Japanese martial art. "Soft" is one way to describe Aikido. In general, striking is not a large part of the art and it is more based around throws and joint manipulation. A great art for kids, but not all schools have a special class for kids-only. I have taught this to kids classes before with much success.
   
   If you want to focus on practicality look into the arts under self-defense.
4. Competitive fighting - If you want to actually fight you may already have an idea of how. There are a few general classifications:
   
   • Ground fighting
     
     • Brazilian Jiu-jitsu (BJJ) - A Brazilian martial art based on Japanese Jujutsu. Almost exclusively ground fighting. Lots of competitive opportunities available. Usually a main component to mixed-martial-arts training.
     • Judo - A Japanese martial art. More standing technique than BJJ, but still very much a ground art. More throwing and tripping involved than BJJ.
   • Hand to hand
     
     • Tae Kwon Do - Lots of competitive matches, but is focused mostly around sparring-style fighting. However, there are full-contact TKD matches.
     • Boxing - Fight with your gloved hands only. Lots of competitive opportunities available.
     • Muay Thai - Fight with every part of your body. Fists, elbows, knees, legs. Full-contact fights widely available. Usually a main component to mixed-martial-arts training. Also a street-practical art.
   • Weapons
     
     • Kali / Escrima / Arnis - (See above). Lots of competitive opportunities, extremely varied. Most are done on a point basis (you hit someone, you get a point). Commonly blended with full-contact fighting including ground fighting. Can be extremely aggressive.
     • Kendo - A Japanese fencing art. Suit up and hit your opponent with a bamboo sword. Very structured competitions available.
     • Society for Creative Anachronism (SCA) - A historical re-creation group that teaches both heavy combat (full armor, hit each other with rattan sticks) and 'light' combat (different styles of European fencing). Not really great for competitive because hits are based on your opponent acknowledging the blow out of honor. Still fun though.
     • Belegarth and other foam fighting (associated with LARP) - Different foam fighting groups have their own codes for how you should act. Some allow fantasy, others are historical-re-creation-only. Fight with foam weapons and shields. Hits are based on opponent acknowledgement of the blow.
   • Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) - both ground and hand to hand, maybe even weapons in some places. There are tons of MMA opportunities that are of similar nature to what you see with the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). You'll usually want to train a few different arts before you decide to do this.
     
   
   
5. Real fighting (offense included, not just defense) - On occasion I find a person who wants to know how to fight for real and may even want to be the aggressor.
   
   • Filipino Martial Arts + Silat + JKD - (See above).
   • Systema - (See above).
   • Krav Maga - (See above).
6. Culture - Rarely do I hear this from anyone, but it happens sometimes. If you are particularly interested in Eastern culture there is a lot of opportunity in martial arts to learn about this. Just about any art will give you some insight. Most Eastern arts are trained with a lot of tradition involved so you will get a good dose.

Before you decide for sure on an art be sure to check out a few local schools first. Sometimes your decision should be based on the school, not the style, when the schools available for your most desired art are sub-par. There are tons of martial arts schools out there and any martial art will teach you some very basic principles about body mechanics, defense and fitness that are applicable to any art and every day life.

Please feel free to comment and also make your own additions to the lists.