Which martial art?

steve9859

Hi all, your advice would be appreciated. Im looking at starting a martial art, and am looking at some options.

My backround: Im 6 foot 5 and 215 pounds. Used to be an international level athlete (though not a particularly successfull one) until 4 years ago, and have kept up my endurance base and have good core stability. My flexibility need lots of work though.

Im at getting involved in a striking martial art (rather than judo for example). I want to toughen myself up and possibly compete at some stage. I'd like it to be a reasonably vibrant club scene as well, so something pretty mainstream

I love close to Dublin city centre, so would want a club to be in or near to the city

Im doing my own research, but comments / advice on which martial art you might recommend for me to study in Dublin would be appreciated.

Thanks
Steve

Colibri

How about Tae Kwon Do, or Karate? Both are effective martial arts. Striking? Check. Kicking? Check. Competitions are often held for both, too (mainly TKD though).


You may need good flexibility but from previous TKD experience (2 years), you stretch and kick enough so flexibility won't be a problem. I can't link to some clubs atm (on my phone) but there are loads of Dublin clubs. Good luck!

Doug Cartel

My usual response to these kinds of posts is to say that you should look up all the places that are within a reasonable commute and try them all.

That said, if you want to do striking and you want to compete, then Muay Thai is probably your best bet. That or maybe San-sho, or possibly kick-boxing, but kick-boxing is a very general term that seems to cover a lot of very different things.

Also while you say you don't want to do grappling, have you actually tried it? I did Muay Thai for ages before I tried judo, and I was really surprised by how much I liked it. I've pretty much stopped Muay Thai completely now and much prefer Judo and the odd bit of BJJ.

arybvtcw0eolkf

steve9859 wrote: »

Hi all, your advice would be appreciated. Im looking at starting a martial art, and am looking at some options.

My backround: Im 6 foot 5 and 215 pounds. Used to be an international level athlete (though not a particularly successfull one) until 4 years ago, and have kept up my endurance base and have good core stability.

Im at getting involved in a striking martial art (rather than judo for example).

Thank God your not considering Judo

Failing Judo, and your in the city center - can you travel?.

Well you have Wild Geese in Peirce St. with everything from BJJ, Judo, Muay Thai to god knows.

In Fairview you have Kokoro MMA.

Finglas you have Informed Performance (BJJ, Muay Thai & MMA), and with your athletic background this club/gym might suit you. Talk to Barry.Oglesby (and member here) about it.

There are a ton of other clubs/styles posting here, stick around and they'll be here shortly.

smacl

steve9859 wrote: »

Im at getting involved in a striking martial art (rather than judo for example).

There's quite a few martial arts out there, e.g. san shou, where you get a good mix of striking and wrestling, so this doesn't have to be an either/or decision. Reason I say this, is that as a lanky fella myself, I always thought I'd prefer striking to wrestling, particularly with that small bit of range advantge. A number of years training both, I'd say I enjoy wrestling a bit more.

The usual advice you'll get here is sound. Go down to all the clubs in your area and train for a session or two with each one. There are a few places where you walk in the door, and you know immediately that its not for you, but most are worth giving a try. Many will also give you a free try out session. IMHO, the group of people you train with, how you train, and the general club atmosphere is much more important than the style. As these are all very subjective measures, this can only be done first hand. It should be a fun exercise too!

Sid_Justice

1. Muay Thai
2. MMA
3. San shou/sanda
4. Boxing

my list in order of preference

Uriel.

Hi OP,

As some of the other boardsies in this forum would know, I have recently taken up Kyokushin. It's a full contact discipline of Karate. I am very much enjoying it despite it being a bit of a culture shock to me (having done no sports training for about 5 years). First grading coming up next week :eek:

There are Dojos in Killester, Finglas and Swords (and elsewhere). Might be another one for you to consider. AS others have said, have a look at a few types of MA and see which one you think suits your objectives best.

Good Luck.

http://www.kyokushinireland.com/

aFlabbyPanda

Muay thai, MMA or Sambo spring to mind.

TKD SC

steve9859 wrote: »

Hi all, your advice would be appreciated. Im looking at starting a martial art, and am looking at some options.


Im at getting involved in a striking martial art
compete at some stage. I love close to Dublin city centre, so would want a club to be in or near to the city

Hi Steve,
Just to throw in my 2 cent - tkd club link: http://www.terenuretkd.com/
Mon & Thurs at 8pm in Terenure so close enough to city. I live in Ranelagh and is 10/15min drive there. Covers the above criteria. Relaxed, good atmosphere club, mainly sparring focused so not too much of the traditional crap! Great workout!
ANyway, it's an option for you. As said in earlier posts, pick somwhere handy to get to and try out a few ones. You'll just click with a particular style / club / instructor and go from there.
Best of luck,
Simon

Peetrik

Yep just make sure to try Muay Thai early, you could save yourself years of searching

Sebash

Try these:
http://www.ku-dublin.com/index.html

http://koryu-uchinadi.com/

Zen65

steve9859 wrote: »

I love close to Dublin city centre, so would want a club to be in or near to the city

Have a look at www.karateireland.com - it's a good club, based in Fairview, though it does not focus to any great extent on competitions. It could be a convenient introduction to karate though.


Z

spadesaspade

I would def look into MMA, you wont ever look at another single martial art

Steba

If you were looking into Taekwon do, you have to understand that alot of it isn't sparring (im guessing that's what you mean by stiking).
In my club we train twice a week and in one month we might do at most 3 night of sparring. There's patterns, self defense, technique's and fitness.

I also train in another club doing Muay thai. There's a hell of a lot more contact in this. Comprised of mostly sparring and fighting technique's.

What i'd advise is to float around to different clubs/martial arts and just see which most suits you. I was too not a bit flexible when i started, 4 years on and i can see an amazing difference thanks to the taekwon do! And my overall speed has been immensely improved ( kicks = tkd and punching = muay thai)

themandan6611

try mma and see what you like from it

smashiner

Hi, I joined Kenpo Karate aged 37 about a year and a half ago and I am really enjoying it, I have just graded for purple belt now. It is very 'self defence' orientated and I feel would be useful in the real world too, should you ever need it (run if you can first ).

It is generally 'semi contact' in sparring and techniques, so you are able to go to work the following day , might be worth a go, there are lots of Kenpo clubs in Dublin and it is a fairly main stream form of Karate.