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Everyone will tell you that their style is the 'best.' They're wrong. Mine is. :-)
Really, the urinating contest among various martial arts enthusiasts (typically most obvious in the good old USA, a land that celebrates the ego that traditional martial arts seek to de-emphasize) is pathetic, but it is possible that some styles might be betetr for you than others. Whether they're handily available to you is another story.
Here's a capsule answer to your questions, via my own experience and seen through my own biases.
1. 'Kung Fu' - Chinese martial arts, also known as wushu, various names that include 'Shaolin' or 'sil lum,' and about a billion names given to the styles that have evolved over 4000 years of Chiense history. You can't generalize about Chinese martial arts, because they're just too diverse. However, of the styles that you're likely to see, there tend to be too main divisions - northern and southern Chinese.
You can read about all that on the Web and because this is s'posed to be just a capsule thing, let me just say that most Chinese styles tend to be extremely well-rounded - they tend to have particular fighting techniques and practice, a plethora of traditional weapons (WAY more than any other styles), various forms of meditating and chi-kung or breathing, higher-level emphasis on nerve strikes and other grappling or 'poison hand' techniques (great for self defence), a ton of predetermined routines ('forms') with both empty hand and weapons, and more.
Many Chinese martial arts styles tend to be very mobile, and many emphasize power through sheer speed rather than through muscular strength - the whole 'chi' concept is important here, as it is in most Asian martial arts. Basically, China - the Shaolin temples were sort of like martial universities - begat most (all?) other Asian martial arts that you're likely to see in the US. Yes, this is my favorite, in its multiplicity of styles, simply because it is aesthetically pleasing, has depth such that you could learn it just about forever and still never get all the way there, and because fighting in kung-fu is really the art of Chinese dirty fighting. The weapons are great, too.
So, primary distinguishing characteristic if you're just looking at the style being performed: speed, mobility, and circular movements - kung fu can be exceptionally graceful and is almost always very fluid, but people who think it's all just flowery dancing haven't felt the bite that it's got, much of which consists of hidden nerve attacks and the like. Ow.
2. Tai chi - this is a school (schools, actually) of Chinese martial arts that, along with Hsing-I, Pa Kua, and a few lesser-known styles, form the 'internal' Chinese martial arts. In many schools tai chi is taught in addition to the more rigorous (physically) external styles of 'kung fu.' The principles are basically the same - most fully-realized, traditional Chinese kung fu styles will, at their highest levels, basically become tai chi. And vice-versa for tai chi. The same is true of some other systems, like certain karate styles.
Tai chi is perhaps the ultimate martial art, but it takes a LONG time before it can really be used as such, whereas the less evolved 'external' styles will have you able to have a decent shot at defending yourself in a shorter time. I think with any style, though, you're talking at least three years before you can be confident that you can survive, if not prevail, against the average clueless opponent. Tai chi might not be right for you if you're impatient or want self-defense skills within this decade. :-) It's great for people nagged by injuries and is taught to older people - probably saves their lives. The proportion of people who teach it as a true martial art is low, because most teachers are really only familiar with its superficial benefits, considerable as they may be - improved health, flexibility, balance, etc.
3. Karate - again, this is a diverse grouping of many schools. Karate basically evolved in Okinawa, from techniques taught by Chinese martial artists, and was only exported to Japan in relatively recent times. Some styles are closer to the Chinese form than others - the various styles of kenpo karate, especially (many are almost indistinguishable from southern Chinese kung fu styles), but also styles like certain kinds of Goju-ryu and uechi-ryu - and they tend to have their roots betrayed by being more fluid and softer than the rigid styles that you usually see.
Most karate styles are built around just a subset of a couple of Chinese styles and so they're far shorter, repertoire-wise, and also lack all of the weapons. Most karate weapons are based on farmers' implements and the like, whereas many of the Chinese ones are military. Nunchaku, sai (double daggers), tonfa, and various staffs are typical weapons. Karate styles tend to be far harder - karateka, depending on style, typically don't gain as much power from whipping around the waist and they do tend to rely more on sheer muscular power than on speed. All martial arts will give you a good workout, but some karate styles will leave you as just a blob, totally wiped out.
What these dudes lack in fluidity, at least compared to kung fu, they tend to make up for with power. Say a Chines martial artist knows 51 techniques that'll exploit an opening of a particular kind....well, a karateka might know basically two or three. The difference is, though, that they practice those few techniques to the point of exhaustion and if you're on the wrong end of one, you're in trouble. Most Chinese drills are as much or more about concept than the actual technique, because so many techniques can be applied, but with certain karate styles it's front kick and reverse punch and that's about it. over and over and over again. And, boy, a Chinese fighter might be able to angle more effectively and bop in and out of range, but if they connect with a good solid karate punch or kick, they're likely to be hurting. Been there, done that. And I've been the karateka, too. Also, in modern tournament fighting and the like, karate fighters (and TKD fighters, and many Chinese fighters) will, in practice, often addopt a sort of boxing stance and use jabs and a couple of kicks....sometimes they're more mobile than their actual style calls for in those situations.
So, if its possible to generalize, karate offers power in a limited number of trusty techniques, and fewer weapons. It does tend to be more available than Chinese stuff, though most of what's sold as 'karate' in the US is actually TKD or some other Korean style. I believe that Japanese styles tend to be more rigid, physically, than the closer-to-Chinese Okinawan styles, and - like I said - some schools of kenpo almost ARE kung fu. If you're in a really hard-core traditionalists' school expect rigid discipline, too - kung fu and tai chi schools tend to be far more relaxed.
4. Tae Kwon Do, Hapkido, etc - I've never done hapkido, but I do know that it's a style that heavily emphasizes kicking (lots of high kicks) and also has a lot of grappling, that's good stuff. Ditto Kuk Sul Won and some of the other more obscure Korean styles. TKD is the biggie and it's very popular - an Olympic sport, no less. I'll give it short shrift here, though, because TKD has evolved almost totally to a martial sport.
TKD was formed in 1945, I think, by the recently-departed General Choi, and was based largely on Shotokan karate. Like the Japanese styles, it has few forms (those prearranged routines) and I don't know that it has any weapons at all. It's also relatively rigid, though tends to be far more loose than many karate styles and significantly more mobile, with a higher stance. TKD is basically all about kicking, and really about high kicking. High kicking is good exercise and good for flexibility, but it's worse than useless for street fighting, at least under most conditions - very dangerous. Further, the tournament-oriented nature of most American TKD - I think it's become more so in the last couple of decades - has TKD fighters doing stuff like coming out almost backwards toward their opponent (the back's an illegal target in TKD matches - it isn't in some kung fu tournaments) and that's a really good way to ensure that you're swiftly killed or crippled on the street. TKD guys who're good at TKD have exceptional kicks, though some teachers train their kickers to kick in manners that do a lot of damage to the body. Get kicked by a TKD person and you know you've been kicked. Typically, though, their hands are almost useless. A major failing.
Bottom line: for sport, sure, but there are better options for self-defense and also if you're interested in forms (and certainly weapons). Because TKD is so hugely popular it does tend to be ripe ground for fly-by-nighters, too, so watch out. And, like I said, most American 'karate' schools are TKD, Tang Soo Do, or some electic 'modern American' variant thereof. By the way, some of these eclectic 'modern' styles may be fine - it's a caveat emptor thing.
5. Aikido - I've never done this one, but it seems liek agreat one. Lots of grappling and throws, and a very chi-based energy that makes it probably the closest major martial art system to tai chi. Founded by a little Japanese guy earlier last Century - it's not an old art, but it's based on some older things from the time of the Samurai (and, I think, some Chinese influence). I'd unhesitatingly urge you to check it out, at least. Lots of flowing, lots of 'soft' moves, and lots of good things in store for your body (repetitive falling can be a problem, though, but a good teacher will minimize such troubles). The end result is that the bad guy ends up on the floor without quite knowing how he got there, perhaps with you lovingly threatening his shoulder with dislocation. Cool.
6. Ju-jitsu, judo - Ju-jitsu was based on samurai stuff, too, and influenced by Chinese styles heavy on grappling. It's really brutal - talk about dirty fighting. There're several schools, including a tai-chi-ish one, but the one that everyone's talking about these past few years is 'Brazilian ju-jitsu.' They focus a lot on ground fighting, a good skill to have, but they've completely turned me off by their posing and the challenges that they've issued (these are the hairy-chested guys behind the 'Ultimate Fighting Challenge'). Call me bound in tradition, but doing pro-wrestling type shouting about how great you are and how you're going to put whoever in the hospital is NOT what martial arts should be about. It sickens me - once again, Americans (and Brazilians, who're US based and just doing it the A,merican Way) have f***ed up another good thing. They're good at marketing, though, and they know what Americans want - blood and bluster. Sure, it may be effective as a martial art, but don't buy into that egomaniacal crap that they want to sell you along with it. Also remember that there are traditional Japanese schools of ju-jitsu out there still, too.
Judo is another martial sport, basically a less brutal version of ju-jitsu. It can still be effective on the street and is great conditioning - it'd certainly be a good martial starting point, especially for children.
7. Mixed martial arts and the like - most are undeniably a fast-track to self-defense skill, but many lose the values that I treasure about martial arts, including the philosophies associated. Martial arts, traditionally, have been about survival but they have ultimate NOT been about fighting and killing, in the long run. Certainly not today - the gun has effectively made all traditional martial arts, and certainly the weapons, obsolete as self-defense systems. That's not entirely true, of course, but what is true is that someone who's only fired a gun once in their life can easily take out a martial artist who's trained hard for 30 years. There's way more to martial arts than that. And, sure, encounters with less dramatic weapons, or with no weapons, happen often, so unarmed self-defense is still valuable.
My attitude toward most American 'Mixed Martial Arts' is the same as that toward Brazilian ju-jitsu, because most are the spawn of the Ultimate Fighting Challenge and, basically, their ugly attitudes suck. They may be tough fighters, but they missed the point of martial arts, not that they care.
One exception, and there are a few, is an eclectic Israeli style called Krav Maga - very trendy now (the Terminator 3 babe trained in it for the film) and great for self-defense. It basically borrows from all sorts of traditional styles (heavy on the southern Chinese), and simplifies it all for the street to take advantage of natural human reaction. This style also includes firearms training - it's basically a Special Forces kind of regimen.
Anyway, that's more than enough about all that. How about your 'hood? well, I was hoping to find a branch of a certain superlative kung fu school there, but no luck yet. here's what I've found so far. I can't vouch for these, but they would be worth checking. Bottom line is that ALL martial arts have worth, if taught by a good teacher, but some are inherently more 'complete' than others and some are particularly strong for certain aspects of what martial arts are or for certain people (build, history of injury, etc). Check them out, anyway:
Sarasota Aikikai Aikido
2105 12th St
Sarasota, FL 34237-2703
941-365-6366
Sarasota Shaolin Academy
2260 Whitfield Park Dr # J19
Sarasota, FL 34243-5412
941-954-2236
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