Martial arts? Hell, the only rounds I do these days are with a needle full of fent or some nitro buzz in a McDonald’s bathroom, just trying to keep my head above water. Did some boxing when I was a kid, but now my self-defense is more about dodging the cops and finding a spot to crash before the tranq kicks in. Lip-reading? Man, the only thing I’m reading is the bottom of the bottle. But hey, if you’re thinking of getting into Kung Fu, good on you. Maybe you’ll be the one to punch through the mess the rest of us are drowning in.

BJJ might be accessible for you. I used to roll with a blind guy who fucked me up on the regular

Jiu Jitsu, a rather traditional method. I’ve practiced lots of things over the last 3 decades, and have now landed on this because there’s a lot of good people practicing it.

What I like:

• it has a bit of everything
• judo throws are fun

What I don’t like:

• wrestling / grappling, never liked or been good at that
• kicks are pretty practical, no fancy acrobatic stuff
• no traditional weapon (staff, sword, nunchaku, etc) techniques

I suck at martial arts, but I’ve done it for so long that I’m sometimes able to fool people into thinking I’m not bad.

Not for self defense (obviously) and due to personal reasons on hiatus currently (if all goes well I will start again next year) - but I do Historical European Martial Arts (HEMA).

It’s fencing, but mainly with longsword (tried sword&buckler and a bit of rapier), techniques recreated based on historical fencing books and manuals. Really fun!

I did wushu aka chinese kungfu, but not for self defence, but for athletic reason. I doubt anything that doesn’t involve sparring with a knife is helpful in real world situation, but it’s definitely helpful when it’s time to run.

I did Judo as a kid. But it was more for health and fun. Never really needed to defend myself.

I practice Northern Long Fist KungFu and Shaolin KungFu. I have also practiced Uechi-Ryū in the past.

I chose these styles because all have practical applications in combat and have been used for combat at one point during their existence. To me, this alone proves they’re useful to learn.

I also spar and have applied what I’ve learned to matches. So I do believe these styles are worth looking into and learning.

To bring it back to your post. Self defence is great to know wherever you live, even if you’ll never use it. Most teachers are very loud and use visuals for teaching, I don’t think you’ll have any issues.

I am not. I was doing a year of kick-boxing when I was young but yeah that was it.

But my daughter is doing it and she just got her black belt level 1 3 weeks ago!

If you’re in a rough part of town martial arts will only serve you to better run away. While disarm techniques are taught in a lot of martial arts if the teacher doesn’t put emphasis on them being a last option then you shouldn’t go there. As skilled as you might get a blade or a gun is not something you can engage in hand to hand fighting really and even if you manage to disarm the attacker you’ll probably get stabbed or take a bullet for your troubles.

Martial arts are more useful as a good sport and for scaring away high school bullies. Life is not a movie, the rules of engagement are incapacitate and run away

I have been kick boxing for 3 years and I’m about to grade for my blue belt, I’m going to pick up some muay Thai as well soon which is very similar but adding in elbows and more clinching. I also did 3 years of karate reaching second green belt around 10 or so years ago. I stopped karate because I went travelling so couldn’t regularly visit the same gym to train.

I do it for a combination of reasons. It helps keep me fit although I do a lot of other sports / weight training that all play a role in overall cross training. It keeps me flexible which is more and more important as you get older and I like to fight. Coming into training and letting out some aggression on some pads whilst working up a good sweat is a great cathartic release from the stresses of day to day life. I also enjoy the sparring a lot, it helps hone your reflexes and I don’t mind at all getting hit to condition yourself for that possibility. I’ll hopefully be competing in some inter club / amateur fights soon which I can’t wait for. You do also have some peace of mins that should you need to defend yourself in day to day life you are able to do that.

Karate was a lot more ‘Zen’ in that the school I trained with didn’t do much sparring and was more concentrated on your technique and working through your katas. It builds up your body and technique as well as building up respect for your sensei and the other students you train with. It was a lot of fun and has given me a great basis with technique for moving onto kick boxing but I prefer kick boxing because it is a lot more aggressive. The training sessions are more intense physically and I want to spar and get hit etc, which isn’t for everyone.

Every school will be different, even if they are teaching the same style of martial art, in the way they approach things. The way they teach and way they go about things but you will always find a good supportive group of people who aren’t out to hurt you intentionally and are invested in you training well and hard and supporting you.

I wouldnt worry too much about your hearing, most things will be shouted at you and you can follow people around you if you get lost but I would recommend you give it a try if it is something you are interested in. If you go to a place where people aren’t respecting each other, their respective levels and their well being then leave and find yourself a better gym because I know they are out there. If you find a good one you can be part of a great community whilst pursuing fitness as well as a great skill.

In terms of what you should do, that is down to personal choice. Maybe try a few different ones. Obviously some concentrate on one thing or another like judo is a lot of throwing, muay Thai a lot of striking etc, so try and figure out what you want from it and maybe try some classes to see if you like it! :)

I was forced into taekwondo, never got past the white belt. And frankly, I was never interested to get a new belt anyway.

The only skills I still remember from that isn’t even the self defense stuff, but it’s counting in Korean.

I trained in Tang Soo Do for almost 5 years in my 30s, before I hurt myself (an injury not related to martial arts training). I’ve been wanting to get back into it in the years since, but haven’t been able to for various reasons.

I really enjoyed the training. I kept in good shape, and became very close with the people in my school… I still talk to them occasionally today despite having moved out of the area some years back. I enjoyed practicing the various techniques, pushing myself to my limits… I would highly recommend structured martial arts training to anyone.

That being said: martial arts are a LAST defense… they are NOT the go-to defense.

If you’re attacked, especially by multiple assailants, RUNNING is what you’re looking to do. Your self-defense skills are primarily there to CREATE an opportunity to flee, if you don’t have one immediately available.

Life is not a 1960’s kung-fu movie, and you risk a lot by trying to stand your ground when you don’t have to, so fight is rarely the correct answer when presented with a fight-or-flight scenario. It’s better to not be in that mindset.

I got my Kendo first dan during winter, and work toward the second (and the Iaido first dan).

Obviously not for self defence because I don’t carry a katana, but hitting people with swords while yelling is fun. I feel like the whole mold the body and the mind through the sword in order to build better human feels a bit like bullshit. That said, it’s a great patience school both with the slow learning and the don’t do anything stupid, and wait to be 100% sure before attacking

I’ve done several years of grecco-roman and freestyle wrestling, a little boxing, and several years of taekwondo, hapkido, and judo.

I’m an okay striker, but I like the close-up stuff more; joint locks, submissions, take downs, etc.

Looking to transition into Chinese martial arts in a few years.

I trained Aikido for 10+ years, but that’s now also 10+ years ago. Aikido used to be pretty well regarded and was hyped for some years thanks to being featured in martial arts movies and Steven Seagal in particular. Unfortunately, with MMA fights becoming popular, people realized that a lot of “traditional” martial arts where more art than actual fighting. Over time Aikido became a laughing stock among martial arts enthusiasts. This process was again helped by Steven Seagal, who -as the defacto face of Aikido to the rest of the world outside japan- just got more and more ridiculous and heinous in his statements and actions.

This is all very unfortunate, because Aikido is a really fascinating and cool looking martial art. To this day a lot of the throws in action movies (for example in the John Wick franchise) are actual Aikido techniques. (Some traditional Ju-Juitsu practitioners might argue that it’s actually JJ, because Aikido has adopted a lot of techniques from JJ and Judo, but I would disagree, looking at the way they are applied. In the end that’s just a nerd argument either way.)

Aikido was developed by Morihei Ueshiba, a man with a fascinating history! It grew with his physical, spiritual and philosophical development from a straight forward, practical combat system (at the time called Aiki-Jutsu) into a non-violent, spiritual martial art (then called Aikido). One of the reasons there are very different kinds of Aikido practiced today, distinct in how violent and spiritual they are, is that their masters studied at different times under Ueshiba, who continually became softer and more spiritual with his age. However, although developed decidedly after the time of the Samurai in Japan a lot of the techniques still focus on disarming people carrying swords or reversely focus on attackers trying to prevent you from drawing your sword. This means most of the attacks trained in Aikido are people grabbing your wrist and then not letting go, which looks weird if there is no sword. This also limits the practicality. Towards the end of Ueshiba’s life his focus was not to teach a system to defend yourself anymore. His goal was to unite the world spiritually through Aikido, literally. He sent his top students out into the world often in countries, which languages they don’t even speak, to teach and spread Aikido. Not to gain money or fame, but genuinely to make the world a better place by helping people to spiritually grow through the practice of Aikido.

What and how Aikido is practiced varies depending on the style and your teacher. It goes the extreme from what is called practical Aikido, which is still dedicated to self-defense, to styles that are practiced solo in the form of Katas, resembling what you might see from Tai-Chi or Qui-Gong practitioners in the park. Generally, it is practiced in pairs with a so-called “cooperating” opponent (as opposed to an “resisting” opponent as would be usual for Ju-Juitsu). Actually, in Aikido we don’t speak of an opponent. There is only a “giving”/“throwing” and a “receiving”/“getting thrown” partner, because Aikido is supposed to be peaceful. I’ll still call it opponent or attacker here, though.

The central idea of Aikido is to embrace and merge the attackers energy with yours and then redirecting it without harming anyone, breaking only the attackers balance and/or throwing them. This is of course a very high-level goal. Basically you’re trying to skip all the nitty-gritty, violent, messy fighting (that Ueshiba did learn and teach extensively back in the day) and concentrate on the end goal of non-violently dissolving confrontations. Assuming that with enough training this goal can be reached, it means you will not be able to use most of what you practice in a real-life fight until you pretty much have “mastered Aikido”. Then you will, supposedly, be at such a level that you can defend any attack peacefully. Most Aikido practitioners are wise enough not to test this out, mostly because they prefer peace and harmony and aren’t training to prove anything. Most Aikidokas I know are training to better themselves, but there will always be exceptions. The teachers I’ve trained under did not make Aikido out to be about self-defense at all. When questioned by new students they usually say, that it might help you a little, but this is not what we train here.

Practicing Aikido will help you get in better shape, improve your health and especially your balance. Aikido practice will teach you how to properly roll and fall, which -at least where I live- will come in handy much more often than fighting skills. It is also a lot of fun to practice and it looks cool. Most schools will also train with wood swords (Aiki-ken) and short staffs (Aiki-bo). This all will be especially cool, if you’re into Japan, because Aikido is very much a traditional Japanese martial art, even though it is rather young, so we’re basically cosplaying as Samurai while training.

The best advice I can give you for selecting a martial art and gym is this:

• It is almost more important who you train with and under than what you are training. Try out every gym and see if you like the people and vibe there.
• Pick something that’s fun. Otherwise you will have trouble going regularly and making progress. If you don’t do it for fun, you will most likely quit the first time you encounter resistance or stop making fast progress
• Pick a gym that’s easy to get to, because having to travel a long time will make it harder to stick with it
• Prepare your training bag and put it besides your door so you just have to pick it up and go. This will make it much easier to go, when your motivation is low