Which is the best martial art for my 2 teenage girls to start training in?

What are the Pro's and Con's of diciplines such as Karate, TaeKwonDo, Hapkido, and Kick Boxing?





Which is best for attack, and which for defence, and which for both?





Which is better suited to one on one attackers and which for multiple attackers?





Which is best in real life situations where they may need to defend themselves, rather than just in the training room?





Their ages are 14 and 16...is this a good age to start, and once the stle is determined, how do I find a reputable school and work out which schools are to be avoided?

Which is the best martial art for my 2 teenage girls to start training in?
Shotokan Karate is the best for real life situations out of the ones you listed. The only weakness is that it doesn't teach grappling.





Hapkido is really good against one attacker and great ground (wrestling, grappling) technique.





TaeKwonDo and Kick Boxing are more for show and sport. They look good but aren't as effective.





14 and 16 is a good age to start. Make sure to put them in a coed club as they have get used to fighting/training against guys which will improve their skills faster.
Reply:Don't look for a particular art, just look for a good instructor regardless of the art. If your kids enjoy it and they are getting what you want for them to get out of it, then it's good. It should also have a safe friendly environment and you should feel comfortable there. Focus on quality training regardless of the style they teach. Belts and ranks shouldn't mean too much because outside the dojo/gym they don't mean anything.





There are some things you should try to avoid though. Avoid McDojos and belt factories, They are places that are only interested in taking your money and often teach useless material. These places only make you think you are getting a workout and learning how to defend yourself but you really are not.





Try to avoid any place that have frequent belt testings, make you pay for a belt testing, or sign a long term contract. You will regret signing a contract if they do not stick with it.





I also advise reading the guides below.





http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~mcweigel/rmafaq/r...


http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/com...





Good luck.
Reply:Hey Mate!





I am just a bit partial to kickboxing, so I would definitely say that would be a great choice. It will meet all of the criteria you listed, with the exception of multiple attackers. No Art can, in reality, teach someone to defend them self against multiple attackers. That's just the plain truth.





Your daughter's ages are perfect to begin kickboxing, or any other style they choose. That is really the point, let them choose the style they are interested in.





Avoid any school that says "Our Art is so dangerous, so deadly...blah...blah...blah". That's all a bunch of nonsense that is intended to impress you into joining. Don't fall for it.





Instead, find a school that is interested in your children's success outside of the school as well as inside the school. If they enforce the requirement to perform up to standard in their academics too, that is the school to enroll them in.
Reply:Reality based is the only system which deals with REAL situations shotokan is ok but they still have alot of that traditional stuff you dont need and waste your money on.


Reality Based Self Defence (RBSD) deals with real life situations they train you properly and you actually train in real life scenarios so you get the real feel for a situation.


No other system does that......... why?


Because they dont work !!


I strongly recomend at least having a look you wont be dissapointed.
Reply:For real world fight defense I would look into three general types of martial art:





Kung Fu San Soo - probably not taught in your area though. San Soo is a form of Chinese martial arts.





San Soo has its origins in the very basics of Chinese life two thousand years ago. These fighting tactics were begun in the Kwan-Yin (goddess of mercy) monastery in the village of Pon Hong, Guangdong Province of Southern China. It is said that the monks developed this form of martial arts to protect themselves from bandits and outlaws as they returned with supplies and donations from the nearby villages as well as to maintain their physical fitness. Combinations of kicks, punches, strikes and leverages are based on scientific principles of physics. It follows no set pattern, and is easy to adapt to any given situation.





Jimmy Woo (Chin Siu Dek) is credited with bringing the art to America in the 1930's, finally opening his own studio to teach formally in 1962.





San Soo is not a tournament sport. San Soo incorporates techniques that can remove a threat as quickly and effectively as possible being as it is a combative art. Typical moves during a fight could include blows to the throat, upward blows to the nose, or kicking to the groin, all of which are customarily banned from tournament fighting.





The application of proper technique is paramount for San Soo. This paradigm can be used effectively by smaller, weaker persons against large assailants, as it does not rely on brute force. Therefore, San Soo is useful to women in rape prevention and self-defense. A basic premise of San Soo is there are "no rules in a fight" and hence it is an extremely brutal form of hand-to-hand combat. The swiftness of neutralizing an opponent is another aspect of this paradigm, with some practitioners aiming to end a fight within ten seconds, using merely three blows.





San Soo is an efficient form of hand to hand combat, but this doesn't preclude its practitioners from having respect for human life. This point is demonstrated with a quote from Jimmy H. Woo, “The art of San Soo does not lie in victory or defeat, but in building human character.”





(AND)





Krav Maga (Hebrew קרב מגע: "contact combat") is a self-defense and military hand-to-hand combat system developed in Israel. It came to prominence following its adoption by various Israeli Security Forces and is now used by military and law enforcement personnel, as well as civilians, around the world. The Krav Maga taught in civilian self defence classes is more often a simplified version that emphasizes personal self-defense, and excludes numerous 'more lethal' techniques taught to the military, plus holds and come-alongs taught to police forces- as there are legal proscriptions in some countries which govern and constrain the teaching of hazardous or life-threatening techniques to civilians.





(AND FINALLY)





Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) is a martial art and combat sport that focuses on grappling and especially ground fighting with the goal of gaining a dominant position and using joint-locks and chokeholds to force an opponent to submit. The system developed from a modified version of pre-World War II Judo including some techniques from Japanese Jujutsu and with a focus on ne-waza (ground technique). It promotes the principle that a smaller, weaker person using leverage and proper technique can successfully defend themselves against a bigger, stronger assailant. BJJ can be trained for self defense, sport grappling tournaments (gi and no-gi) and mixed martial arts (MMA) competition. Sparring (commonly referred to as 'rolling') and live drilling play a major role in training, and a premium is placed on performance, especially in competition.





I train in two of these three art KFSS and BJJ. I feel have a strong understanding of both stand up tactics and ground figiting techiques is helpful. KFSS has many ground techniques and of course leverages and chokes. KFSS also has no rules like Krav Maga it is very effective to stop a confrontation.





Martial arts is truly about building human character not hurting people. I think your girls should take time to visit many schools and find one that fits them physically and mentally. Ultimately whether they continue to train will be up to them in a couple of years so they better like what they are doing.





Make sure your art of choice deals with weapons their use and defense.





Good luck and enjoy your search and training.
Reply:Try wing chun as this was developed by a women this would be idea!
Reply:As far as Tae Kwon Do goes, it's not really practical. The place I went to felt like the fitness show Tae Boe (or whatever). For us we just learned kick and kicks, and weird forms where we walked for a little. I am probably going to start Karate once i get my license I heard Karate is really good. I also heard Hapkido is really good, especially for a girl for self defense because from what I understand you are taught to use opponents motion against them and take them down. And also taught how to fight bigger opponents. Well hope it helps
Reply:Personally I would reccomend BJJ for a woman, personally I don't like a system that focuses so much on the ground side of things however for a woman in self defence it makes a lot of sense to have experience on the ground as the most common threat that they are likely to experience is an attempted sexual assault (sorry to be so blunt about that.)





BJJ will give them the skills to overcome a bigger and stronger opponent on the ground.





Also if you are looking for a simliar system of stand up fighting then Wing Chun is probably the way to go, especially in Australia, this system was designed by a woman to take out bigger and stronger people and has many similarities with BJJ so the interlock nicely. In Sydney look up Rick Spain's schools as he teaches Wing Chun and BJJ and is a reputable teacher and skilled fighter.





I hope this helps.





This is Rick Spain's school's website http://combatcentres.com
Reply:I can first give you a list of martial arts that won't provide any practical methods of self-defense: Tae Kwon Do, any type of Karate, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Hapkido, and Wu-Shu. I'm not bashing those arts, they just aren't practical in a real fight. Kick boxing is great for men and women of all ages. If you want to know where the future of martial arts is heading, check out Filipino martial arts if you can.
Reply:For girls, I would suggest Gracie Jiu jitsu or no gi jiu jitsu. The reason for this is that jiu jitsu focuses on stopping opponents that may be larger or stronger than you. Many fights end up on the ground, and for women, if they are attacked by a man, they will probably be overpowered easily, so a lot of striking martial arts will not be any good. Jiu jitsu will counter this weakness.





Also, if your daughters are in a rape type of situation, they'll be able to choke out the bastard or break his arm and get out of the situation. A striking art will leave them in a bad situation.





Get them jiu jitsu training!!!
Reply:Kenpo Karate.


Oldest Martial Art.


Can be very Deadly!


Watch out for phoney teachers and their war stories.
Reply:Hello there - I strongly suggest staying away from arts such as Tae kwon Do, Hapkido, or Shotokan Karate. They are wonderful arts, but not relevant or realistic in today's society.





I mixture of Muay Thai and Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu is as close as you can get to real life situation defense arts. Muay Thai will give your daughters the ability to defend themselves while standing up and BJJ will give your girls the tools for defending themselves in rape (ground) situations.





Most schools give free/trial lessons. I would scout schools - you can use it as a way of enjoying time with your girls while getting a feel for what they feel comfortable with. Watching classes will also give you an idea of the instructor and how well his female students are doing. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) schools tend to teach a combination of MT and BJJ.





Real life self defense is not necessarily pretty or fancy. It should provide skills that are executable during high stress situations.





Muay Thai: knees, elbows, kicks, punches


BJJ: breaks, chokes, arm bars
Reply:Karate, Taekwondo, Hapkido, and Kick Boxing are all great martial arts. Exactly your daughters learn to do is all up to the teacher and not the art. Some Taekwondo and kickboxing will probably be very sport like, and not so good with real life situations. If you want to focus on self defence, I would suggest Hapkido or Karate. Both have nice joint locks and stuff like that. All of these arts will help in handling multiple attackers. I suggest getting advice from friends or anyone who takes one of these martial arts in a school near you. You should really go to the schools near you and try to get some trial classes and see if they fit your daughters.
Reply:I am gonna answer this question our of experience. I am a teenage girl myself... and i chose to learn KARATE before college. I am 17 years old, and i started to learn Karate a year ago. Till now, i could use everything i have learn to discipline and defend myself, and respect others.





Tae Kwon Do and Kickboxing are mostly for sports and cardiovascular exercise. Karate taught me how to defend myself, especially since i was going away from my family for College.





Karate is good for attacking but it is recommended for defense. It is always said that it is better to avoid the fight than to fight back.





I cannot help you however on schools, but i suggest that you try to check out some of the dojos near you. There are different styles of Karate. i think Shotokan is the most famous.. but i suggest Wado-Ryu.
Reply:This may sound biased because I practice it myself, but I am going to have to suggest Brazilian/Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Why?





Well, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is, to be basic, submission ground fighting. It focuses very, very heavily on technique and there is little to no strength involved what-so-ever. Most of the techniques involved in jiu-jitsu are based on using your opponent's bodyweight against him, basic fulcrums, and the gold old laws of gravity. Helio Gracie, the man who created Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, weighs 130 pounds, is 92 years old, and defeats opponents 1/3 of his age and twice his size. In fact, the martial art itself was created to give smaller, weaker people an advantage against larger opponents. Size/strength means very little in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu!





As far as the actual agressive techniques go, most of them are join locks (armbars to break arms, chokes to put someone down, knee-bars/heel-hooks to disable a leg). Those are great. However, where I think Brazilian Jiu Jitsu really shines in self defense is guard-work. If you are attacked on the street and brought to the ground, you can hold someone in guard and scream for help, or wait for help to arrive. Personally, I strongly support Brazilian Jiu Jitsu in a one-on-one self defense situation...





Note, I said one-on-one. It is not very effective against multiple attackers and I will be the first to admit such things. Since it is ground based, there is little you can do from the ground to subdue multiple opponents at once. For this, I would have to suggest a martial art that focuses on pressure points/dirtier styles of fighting. Krav Maga, I have heard, is extremely useful for multiple aggressor situations. I am by no means an expert on this martial art, so I couldn't begin to explain the basics of it to you.





Regarding their age, that is a perfect age to start. Please stress to them that BELTS AND RANKS MEAN ABSOLUTELY NOTHING in martial arts. Don't worry about the color of your belt, worry about the techniques that you are learning. To find a reputable school, I would suggest checking out how long the school has been around, tournament records (if available), and searching for any reviews of the school on the internet. Research is the best. Schools that have a lot of black belts, I would stay away from. Those tend to be McDojos (bad schools) and are primarily worried about money and making buisness, rather than teaching their art to the best of their ability. Most Brazilian Jiu Jitsu schools promote their belts based on skill, rather than money/time which is why I chose the art initially as well. I hope this helped you, any questions feel free to IM me at MACH2000 via AOL Instant Messenger.
Reply:I hope this is of help. Of the arts you mentioned I have personal experience in Karate and a Mu Do Kwan, an art similar to Tae Kwon Do, based fighting art.





Pros.


Karate: Traditional karate contains all of the technique components to make it a complete martial art and has a long history of very effective self defense. The techniques and combative philosophies were designed to take care of business when you have no other choice but to defend yourself. I knew a young women, who studied the same karate system as I, who had been studying a little over two years and was able to defend herself against a knife wielding assailant. Her hands were cut but she left him on his knees as she made her escape. My first karate teacher was a bodyguard for the band KISS and a former MP in the U.S. Marine Corp. My second teacher though not an MP or bodyguard has real life experience using his art and fought full contact matches internationally as well. Both of their techniques are real and effective. Simply put Karate works.


I suggest doing a general internet search on karate history, past karate masters i.e. people like Gichin Funakoshi – he is responsible for bringing karate from Okinawa to Japan, and try to do a comparison of the various karate styles taught in your area. If possible contact the headquarters for these arts and ask pointed questions dealing with what concerns you the most then do the same with the various schools in your area.





Tae Kwon Do: Tae Kwon Do incorporates vigorous training so will help the student get in decent shape. I have met some practitioners who could fight well so given the right teacher this can be an effective art.





Hapkido: Hapkido, like Tae Kwon Do is a Korean martial art. What I have seen of this art qualifies it as something I would have studied when I was younger had it been taught by a traditional teacher.





Kickboxing: Very good workouts that will get the student in good fighting condition. The techniques are a mix of boxing and kicking skills, thus the name, both of which can be effective in a stand up fight.





Cons:





Karate: Karate can be very rigid both in its approach and application. This can lead to the student not being taught in a manner in accord with their physical and mental make up. Often times in a highly structured teaching approach the art is taught a certain way because their teacher taught it the same way.





Tae Kwon Do: Originally this was most likely a very effective martial art but sadly, the tournament mentality has taken over much of the teaching focus for many schools. There may still be schools that focus on the combative aspects of the art but they will be few and far between. As far as preparing the student for a potentially deadly situation on the street against a determined attacker, most of what I have seen of this art does not fit the bill. It never hurts to look though you just might find an older teacher who focuses on the real thing.





Hapkido: Unfortunately, I do not know enough about this art to offer much help.


Kickboxing: What I have seen of kickboxing shows a few weak areas. As a standup fighting method it contains predominately punches and kicks. Missing are grappling – joint locks and breaks, throws, how to use various areas of the body for self defense, and the use of various weapons. This provides a distinct disadvantage when confronted by someone who is a more complete fighter.





You ask only about these particular arts but do not say if they are the only arts in your area. If they are not, I suggest that you check out all of the available teachers in the area whether they have a commercial school or not. There are many good fighting systems available. Unfortunately, in today’s world, because of the secrecy inherent in the old ways of teaching, there are fewer and fewer complete martial systems being taught. By complete I mean that an art should cover all aspects of personal combat i.e. punches, kicks, joint manipulation, throws, pressure point strikes, weapons, fighting distances, attack and defense, fighting from various positions including on the ground, as well as the mental conditioning necessary to persevere no matter how scared or badly hurt you may be, etc. I do not recommend choosing a school that focuses on tournaments as they will have many deficiencies when it comes to real life situations. As for which arts are better than others for various situations I would say that all of the ones you mentioned lean toward the agressive approach but will contain equal elements of defense as well.





If your daughters are looking for real life self defense skills then you must do your research into what is being taught in your area and make an informed choice. Visit the various teachers and watch their classes. If the students do not look like they can use what they are being taught then politely excuse yourself and scratch that one of your list. Find a good school that covers most of the components that make up a complete art, master what is being taught, then look elsewhere to fill in the holes. With all of that said, what is gained from an art is in direct proportion to what is put into it. Serious study of a martial art is both physically and mentally demanding. Make sure that your daughters understand this before they begin.





My personal choices for martial study are Escrima, Hsing-I Chuan, Ba Gua Chang, and Tai Chi Chuan, but I am a lot older than your daughters.





Good luck with finding what you need.





Jim
Reply:I have been training in Muay Thai for the last year and love it, it would definaltley give your girls a good solid chance to defend themselve's if the unfortuant situation was to arise... but this a brutal art to learn so hopefully they are not to sensitive to pain, because they will get covered in alot of bruises and have sore muscles most of the time from training.. It will keep your girls in tip-top shape and will teach them to be more intune to fighting or threatening situations.. and hopefully be able to avoid these before they become targets...


I am in perth, but have heard of a good Muay thai gym that has branches throughout australia (quiet possibly they have two in sydney) called Bulldog Muay thai gym.. give them a call, or if they are too far away they might be able to reccomend a good school nearby...
Reply:full contact karate. if you don't find full contact karate in your area,then kickboxing
Reply:id do zen do kai if you live in australia :p





zen do kai is all over australia and they are a good self defence school
Reply:I am a practitioner of 3 martial arts and yoga. I find that each martial art has its own applications in a fight.





The martial arts I practice are ki-aikido, capoeira, and shaolin-do.





I will go into detail about the first 2 because the last one is a line of schools in the US (not sure if available elsewhere-might be).





Ki-aikido is a martial art that teaches people ways to throw people who are significantly larger than they are. It also teaches many ways of dodging attacks and pinning an attacker. There is a girl in my ki-aikido class who is a head shorter than me, and she can throw people who are 4 heads taller than herself and with relative ease. This martial art also teaches you how to fall without hurting yourself and how to improve your grounding. I myself am unable to push many of these people, or budge them. The philosophy of this class is to remain calm in battle and to attain mental clarity.





All good ki-aikido schools are part of something called the Ki society. They may have a website with locations of dojos in your area.





Capoeira is the afro brazilian martial art developed by slaves in brazil. This martial art has becaome very popular and its practitioners quickly become stronger and learn to perform great acrobatic feats. This martial art is not about being flashy, because any of these atttacks can really hurt (expereicene). There are many videos on you tube that contain capoeira practitioners going at it. Pay attention to ones with Bahia or batuque in the name. A good one was called "capoeira prodigy". Any one with a mestre (master) in it are usually very good.





A good way to test the authenticity of a capoeira school is if they will tell you the history of capoeira or if they will tell you who their master is. Good capoeria schools often have Bahia or Batuque somewhere in their name.
Reply:Judo or Jujitsu


Both offer forms of attack if needed but better yet the have a better defense system.


Both will teach how to fall and will give the basics for most other styles of martial art.


Look at some of the famous people that have taken Judo


Chuck Norris is a Brown belt then he went on to another style


When he attacks people he uses Karate but when someone attacks him watch what he uses, a shoulder throw, a sacrifice throw or a choke all from Judo.





Start with Judo then get them into something else.


Find an instructor that will teach them the art of judo not the sport.

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