Basically, any martial art you pursue will get you to the same end, provided it is taught by a good teacher. The goal is an understanding of movement, which takes many many years.
Different arts will take different approaches to reaching that goal, but with enough study and training, you'll get there.
That being said, the quality of the instruction is the most important thing. I strongly reccommend against the big business martial arts schools, where you're in a class with 30 other people. Find a smaller school, max 10-12 people per class. My school has 5 senior students that never miss a class (one girl hasn't missed a class in 2 years!!!) and 3 more that miss a few classes here and there... because there are so few of us, it feels like a family!
Another benefit of the smaller schools is that it is MUCH harder to decide to quit if you are so closely bonded with your classmates - while quitting a 30 person class could go unnoticed.
Finding a school will be the hardest part. Check on the internet first. Search for "martial art" +your town name.... and see what you come up with. Look for Grandmaster level instructors that operate schools in your area. In my case, I found that a GM lived in the next city to me (only 20 mins away).. I emailed him and found that one of his students has a satellite school closer to me.. so I tried it out and it turned out to be perfect!!! This school was not even in the phone book, so I wouldn't have found it otherwise.
Be wary of the school that takes out a full page ad in the yellow pages. They are just out there to make money.
Steer clear of any school that talks about 'secret techniques' and boasts of fast promotion to black belt. Also, make sure you take part in a trial class at whatever school you find. Is everyone friendly? Are there 9 year old black belts? (that's bad by the way). Make sure it's a nice environment where you can come and enjoy yourself.
Stick with it and you WILL see improvement, but the first while you'll feel like you have no clue what you're doing. Swallow your pride, concentrate on technique, not power, and it will all come into place eventually
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"If you're not weird, you're not interesting".
I'm very interesting ...
seizei; (adv - Japanese) at the most; at best; to the utmost; as much (far) as possible. (pronounced - say-zay)
Last edited by seizei; 09-25-2003 at 09:26 AM..
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