What's a good martial arts style to learn?

[Bleacher Creature]

Want to do something that's good exercise, somewhat spiritual and also self-defense oriented.

[Lars39]

1. My brother's a 2nd degree black belt:

http://www.yoshukai.com/about.shtml

*Not* a rinky dink outfit where you earn belts quickly either, like some programs.

[Greyskye]

2. Vote for Hapkido here

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hapkido
Excellent exercise and conditioning, and very good for self defense. The spiritual aspect is going to depend quite a bit on the instructor.

[redqueen]

3. Kung Fu is the best.

[taught_me_patience]

4. Jiu-Jitsu

Most useful for a real street fight. I took Karate (shotokan) for 4 years and found it to be very boring.

[LostinVA]

5. Aikido -- especially for your middle requirement

[struggle4progress]

6. Uzi-sculpting: aim at a marble block to reproduce the masterpieces of Michelangelo

Atomic ceramics: line up your raw pottery on an island & fire it with a small thermonuclear blast

[Lethe]

7. Judo!

CHOP!

It's a great, no "bullshido" martial art. Grappling, throwing, joint locks, chokes, and strikes. All these practiced at high speed real time in randori practice.

[DS1]

8. The one that makes you the baddest mofo low down around this town

[seemunkee]

9. Tai Chi, Ba Gua Zhang, Wing Chun

Depends on what is taught in your area. Do some research on what's availbable and what the instructors are like.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

16. Yeah, but they're all pretty useless for self-defense

[Recursion]

10. Hsing-I. Also Judo is cool.

[MineralMan]

11. Man, there are a brazillian of those martial arts, huh?

[Bertha Venation]

12. Iaido

Pronounced ee-EYE-doh. It uses a curved sword called a katana.

I'm not sure how good it would be for self-defense, but for spirituality and fitness it is awesome. My 18-yr-old nephew has been doing it for years and he is one tough, introspective and super-fit hombre.

[redqueen]

13. Perhaps you should consider a place that teaches a blend of styles.

That's the kind of place I went and I don't think I'd have enjoyed it as much if it were limited to only one discipline.

Kung Fu is still the best, though.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

14. greco-roman wrestling.

I'm series.

[deutsey]

15. I do Shotokan karate.

I like it (currently a purple belt), although I'm interested in Aikido (sp?), which I hear a lot of good things about.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

17. Aikido

Though for self-defense, I'd supplement it with some karate, krav maga, ju-jitsu, etc. Karate schools can vary in the amount of self-defense taught. My Isshinryu dojo does a lot of self-defense, but it's run by ex-military people.

Stay away from Tae kwon do, it's neither spiritual or useful.

[mwooldri]

18. Karate is sooo-factioned these days...

... I see plenty of outfits opening up with the word "Karate" above the door, only to find they teach Taekwondo - a Korean art, rather than karate, which is Japanese in origin.

Each style is different. I did Wado-ryu style karate from age 9 to 15, and attained junior brown belt (two more browns then black...) I couldn't say it was really "spiritual", but it wasn't a hard martial art where they planned on knockouts. The most we did was semi-contact - hitting enough for points in sparring, and even then for me that was severely restricted. Weapons weren't taught, probably the most impressive public display was the busting of a piece of pine (I never got to break any wood...) We did something before and after a training session: kneeling, and concentrating on our breathing for about 3 minutes, maybe that's as spiritual as it gets.

If you're more into the spiritual then Tai Chi... definitely.

Both Wado and Tai Chi will teach self defence, and both are good exercise.

Mark.