Anyone ever take a Martial Art?

[CommonSyns]

I'm just wondering if anyone at one point at sometime in their life took a Martial Art. I'm an adopted Asian as well as my elder brother, and our parents I guess decided when we were at a young age to follow the stereotype and force their Asian kin to learn some form of Martial Art. It ended badly for me but for my brother he exceeded at everything Asian about the art and quickly rose though the ranks before quitting the dojo at a "Rec". I know this may sound bad for me but for every Asian friend I had ever though my life during elementary, middle, high school, has at one point taken a martial art. I don't see this as a bad thing, but one thing I do know is that because of some movies everywhere I went had a Taekwondo place, Literally everywhere, or some martial art school.

I remember going to Tiger Shomans Karate or some name like that, Apparently it was everywhere in America at the time of the 90's.

I'm just wondering if anyone here has or is currently taking a Martial Art, I'm thinking of doing TKD after hearing my friend who moved to LA has to use it to defend his friends and himself with his girlfriend from people on the street, I, after hearing this rethought what TKD is, it was originally made to kill people during wars and conflicts. So how useless can it actually be in a real fight?, I don't ever want to get into a real fight, I am more of a self defense person, I.E, you attack me I will defend myself.

Then again, if following that current train of thought, that TKD was made for killing, how about the other styles? All other styles were made for self defense, depending on how good the aggressor or defender is it may kill them. But which one besides Krav Magra is best?

When it comes down to it, when is a martial art just art? And when is it more Martial? Does the person using it decide? Probably.

Reason why I'm asking this is because I really want to delve deeper into martial arts and actually make a living doing it, I.E Professional Fighting. I want to go into a martial art oriented university or collage that actually focuses on martial arts.

If I were to learn TKD, what should I prepare myself for? I have done some martial arts in the past but I was never past yellow belt due to the patterns. I was really young about 5-6.

While I don't think martial arts is as it portrayed in the movies but there's got to be fights out there that involve martial arts in self defense.

[TeamHT]

http://www.stevemeadedesigns.com/board/topic/161976-what-martial-art/?fromsearch=1

I know, I have a weird sense of memory.

I still study wing chun and although there is no longer a wing tsun master I practice what I've been taught. Personally I've been working on adapting aikido with my wing chun and mma to create my own style good for MMA fighting and street protection.

[TeamHT]

[CommonSyns]

I forgot about that thread, Thanks for bringing it up.

I have a friend that told me during the street fights in LA he mixed TKD with Kung Fu, I'm not sure what type of kung fu though. I watched Jet Li's Fearless last night, And that is a very good scene.

One thing I noticed in watching Akido in videos I found on youtube, it seems that in professional fighting like MMA, if your opponent dosen't actually do the follow through of the movement, your getting a disqualification for breaking a limb. That's not exactly ideal in professional like what I want to try to do. I thought that if I mixed TKD with something else I could do MMA, But I don't know what its like, I can only assume its like the videos I watch on youtube.

TeamHT, I assume you do MMA because you mentioned it in your post. What should I expect to see in a fight of mma? I know that there's people in UFC and MMA fighting that have done some form of martial art that I have mentioned, TKD, Karate, Judo, among other things.

My brother believes in MMA Boxing and BJJ, reign supreme in mma, him saying that once you knock your opponent to the ground BJJ will make you tap out.

What have you seen in any fight? I just want to know what to expect in a MMA match. I've seen people take up makeshift stances in a fight but those were bar fights or street fights. And of course on youtube you can see people get into a "boxing" stance but you can clearly tell they aren't trained in boxing and are doing it purely on instinct or reflex.

My friend who moved to LA said that he used TKD as a basis for all the other martial arts hes done, the only problem is trying to differentiate the two arts, I.E TKD and Kung Fu.

My thinking currently is take one martial art and get good at it I.E Black Belt or so, or take 2 different martial arts at the same time.

Its weird, but I feel as if I would be really good at martial arts, its almost like its fits me, but I never really tried to do it in fear of anxiety, I have severe social anxiety and a severe lack of self confidence.

I feel as if martial arts is almost natural to me, must be because I'm Asian, JK lol.

[Tarball]

Martial Arts is not necessarily about fighting, it's more a way of life. Fighting or the ability to fight is more a result and expression of that way of life.