Judo helped me with wrestling and taught me some good grappling techniques. Tae Kwan Do taught me self control and got me in pretty good shape, some good kicking techniques too (and some basic weapons training). The little Kenpo I learned helped with hand speed and rushing. Muay Thai focuses a lot on elbow and knee strikes and of course great conditioning, it should be a blast. As you said each martial art has something unique and I've never gotten REALLY deep into one art. Like you said Urge, I may have to have knee surgery, my knee pops out and back in once in a while but hopefully Muay Thai will help with that. The instructor said to try it for a while and if it gets too painful have the surgery, heal up, and try again.

I've done some Muai Thai as the stand up aspect of Mixed Martials Arts.

MT is considered by most the most effective stand up art. Its very similar to European/Dutch style Kickboxing with the added weapons of the elbow/knee and clinch. Its touch but a great art.

I've done quite a bit of styles (12 years of Tae Kwon Do - 4 years japanese Ju Jitsu - some Kyokushin karate and the last few year BJJ).

At the end of the day ask you self what you want to get out of the training and that will help you decide what syle to do.

These days many people give Traditional martial arts a hard time partically since the increased popularity of MMA but at the end of the day people get different things from their training - not eevry one wants to fight in a cage with 4oz gloves.

Sounds quite good. I've never looked into the martial arts but I may do that.

I've not trained since I moved back from wales as my Gym had moved and was impossible to get to. But they now have a new place closer to me so it looks like I'll be back again when i come back from my Holidays.

Prolly going to do 2 classes of BJJ and one Mixed Martial Arts aweek..touch wood.

BJJ is fun and the basics alone can help you with your grappling and submissions. Even though I'm a huge MMA fan I don't like it when people consider MMA an art in itself. Where do you live/train? We have a great MMA gym in Brighton, MI.

http://www.gladmma.com/

I live in Dublin and I'm very lucky to be able to train with a SBG Black Belt.

Most who do MMA consider it a sport really rather than a Martial Art in the tradition sense. But even as a sport I'd consider it more effective than most traditional martial arts that focus on 'street defence'.

UNfortuanally today alot of Traditional Martial Arts don't really train against fully resisting partners so often their skills fall flat when put in a real situation.

MMA is a sport and when training, you probably know as well as I do, you train in a "fighting system" which is a combination of different martial arts and fighting styles. I'd say basic MMA skills are better as far as self defense goes but if you're fully dedicated to the studying of one martial art it can do you just as much good. With MMA training you don't have to learn much before you become more competent at defending yourself. I want a few years in Muay Thai and then I'd like to get a solid base in some kung fu. Eventually, my dream is to learn drunken kung fu, not for self defense but simply for the art itself.

Hmm...maybe I'm picking up wrong here - so maybe I'm wrong.

Personally I think how you train is mostly more important than the art itself - i'm talking about learning to 'fight' (not other benefits which can be just as important to some people).

A lot of traditional martial arts evote a lot of time to doing katas/forms/patterns - personally i can see very little practical applications to these - bear in mind I've done 12 years of TKD and taught it for 3+ years.

Lost of TMAs don't fight/train full contact to it or close to it. It makes a lot of difference when you do. There are some exceptions to this which i do rate highly - particualy Judo and knock down karate.

In a fight/self defense situation, I'd pick any over with 2 years of typical fight gym type training in MMA/Boxing/Muai Thai over a similar person with 5 years (Black Belt) in 'most' Traditional Martial Arts.

so you'll be learning from the incomperable Master Newb then ?