The age you are right now. If we told you the best age was 13, what are you going to do, go back in time? If we told you the best age was 30, would you wait ten years? I've seen people of all ages, from three year olds to those over 50, take up martial arts as beginners. Everyone advances at different rates. The idea that one age is better than another, unless you're thinking about a competitive career, is only self-defeating.
There is no best age. We all learned at different ages and we all still arrive at the same destination. but i have seen 60 year old men begin to take classes. i have also seen many "real" black belts at 20 years of age. Honestly 20years old is a perfect age to learn, you are young and have enthusiasm, flexible and by the time your training is begining to get really serious you will be maturing more as a person not just as a student.
My personal opinion would be to avoid Krav Maga... Honestly i love all styles of Martial arts and do not like to speak bad of any but i really have an issue with Krav Maga. The only way you will get legitimate Krav Maga training is if you are in the Israeli military. Honestly my experience with it was that it ridiculed all other styles and i disagree with the approach it teaches to its students. Krav Maga is a self defense course dressed up as a martial art.
Well Shannon its usually better if a person takes up martial arts if they are somewhat younger and still growing and maturing. This is because as their body grows and matures then things like flexibility, speed, agility, and tendon strength also grow with them more naturally. While those things can be enhanced and developed in other ways like weight training and other things not everyone can develop them to the same level as if it was done more naturally when they were younger.
Take heart though because twenty is not too old by any means to take up martial arts. Many students start when they are much older than that really. All this just means is that you will maybe struggle a little more and have to work a little harder in some ways because your body has basically stopped growing now and some of those things I mentioned will have to be developed after the fact.
Flexibility is a good example and you will probably have some issues to begin with in regards to that. However you will see and learn that you can still develop it at 20 but will have to probably take some additional time and steps to in your training for that to happen. You also might never reach the level of flexibility that some others have who started earlier but that is not a show stopper either. You only have to develop it enough to the level that your art requires your to basically and that is usually enough in a lot of cases.
So take heart! All those older students that you see in classes; many of them did not start out as children while still growing either. They instead started as older teens and young or middle age adults or maybe older even. They just started sometime earlier than you is all but probably close to your age or even older in some cases and look at them now and what they can do. Remember this and keep it in mind when training and use it to help keep you motivated and you will discover what I am saying here is true.
It really doesn't matter. You can train at any age at all. At 20 years old, you're young compared to how old most people are when the start. The sooner you start, the better.
5 years old, early start is good for anything. Looks like your to late.
As soon as possible
Im approaching 20 and I am about to start krav maga, I feel its a bit old. So I was wondering what age yahoo answers feels is best to start a martial art.
