its not the style that makes it effective its the instructor. you pointed out this point in you question. your instructor is the one that focused your training on tournaments not the style. you need to find an instructor that focuses more on self defense and not point fighting.
each one of those kata movements is meant to be the beginning and to end of a fight, for multiple situations. if you learned the application properly you would have know this
There is no best style.
They will all work as long as you train right and have a good instructor.
Your size, body type and sex have nothing to do with the style you want to choose. People that think that your size and body type determine the style know little to nothing about martial arts
styles are made to adapt to your body type
Most people will tell you there style is the best or they heard such and such is a great style,
The style is not important, what matters is how good your instructor is and how you train. The style is secondary, they all have there pro's and con's there are no superior styles.
If you have an instructor that can’t teach you how to fight, regardless of the style, what good would it do you?
Choose a school with a good instructor in the end that’s all that matters, that and how you train.
Its the person that has the ability to fight not the style
If you took Shotokan for 12 years already why throw it all away and start something new. It will take you years to get good enough to defend yourself. Would it not be more efficient to safe some time instead and build on what you already have? Find an instructor who teaches Karate for self defense. I know they are out there. I started in sports and got tired of it. I went on to explore the self defense aspect of my martial arts. The Kata were guidelines when I ran out of good teachers in my area and finally needed teachers from other styles to teach me the self defense applications of the moves that were in the Kata. My Kata help me make sure that what I learn fits with what I already have. Not everything fits together.
Kung Fu is hundreds of styles in Chinese martial arts. Which Kung Fu style are you talking about?
Karate is heavily influenced by Shaolin Kung Fu, Hsing I and the crane style also comes from China. So yes some Chinese martial arts will blend nicely with your experience in Karate. Trying to find a good teacher who is proficient in Chinese martial arts is very difficult. There are many Chinese martial arts schools but very few good teachers. There is an international Chinese martial arts competition circuit that this guy is involved in:
http://kungfutoday.com/
I would contact them and ask to help you find a Chinese martial arts school in your area. It is your best bet that you don't end up in a bad Chinese martial arts school again and wast another 12 years if you want to go this route. But again keep in mind in Chinese martial arts again not everything will fit together.
No no no no gynastics moves......you need jujutsu. Being in the air decreases your streghth by half. Jujusu not only is deadly you come in fast and break thing's and finish the fight quickly and bad a**. I took it and have never lost a fight....trust me you would never lose. Think about all the chicks you would get too. Finishing the guy off quickly and deadly shows how tough and strong you really are. Kung fu and mostly all the other's make you look flamboyant.
It's not a "style" you need to "Change To". Rather your problem is that you need to change yourself and how you learn things. It's not about joining a school or style, copying whatever they have, and becoming a master. That's not the path of mastery. The path of mastery, or being more than proficient at doing things, is by improving yourself, changing yourself, and using other people's tools to adjust what you have personally.
So if you want to learn kicks, you might get a teacher and school that does kicking, and learn things from them. But that doesn't mean you copy everything they have, then declare yourself a black belt master at the top. That's not normally how it worked in the ancient martial arts world.
Few people are complete enough in their martial art that they can transfer the knowledge completely to their students. So unless you are lucky in finding someone like that, you'll have to learn things on your own, whether using dojos, books, or the internet.
The problem with beginning martial arts is learning what questions to ask. If you don't know how to fight, obviously it's difficult to ask questions about how to fight better, lacking the details. Angles, range, force projection, speed development, muscle reflex conditioning, are all "components" you put in a tool box, forge a tool, and then grab the tool. Only then do you use a tool to solve a problem.
What a lot of martial art students do is to copy somebody else's tools, collect a lot of techniques, and then try to solve as many problems as they can with one tool. There's only so many things a hammer can solve. Being limited in knowledge of your tools also limits your options in terms of having the resources to deal with life's challenges.
There will always be a trade off. Leg kicks have greater range and end point force impact, but you have to eat the risk of only moving on one leg until you recover. Whether that's a favorable trade off, is something the user must decide. Your teacher is NOT going to be standing by your side telling you how to fight or fighting for you. You have to learn to make judgments on your own, by yourself, for yourself. And to do that you need knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses of various martial art fields.
Range. Angles. Force projection. Power generation. All of it and any of it is useful.
As for which ryu or school to join, that's like asking a swimmer what ocean or lake they should swim in first. If you know how to swim, truly, then the place matters less than you think, concerning your environment at least. You can choose a stricter or harsher environment like MMA free sparring, or a more quiet training environment like Taiji Chuan or Aikido. But first you must learn their training methods, to choose. Once again, back to the knowledge board. If a swimmer can improve their craft in any body of water, then martial artists should be the same in any location or dojo.
according to what ur soul is attracted or u feel what for martial arts
for example
Judo is power and strength
Aikido is peace and harmony
Boxing is rage (but its not m art)
so something like that
And there is no the best martial art, cuz if for example someone said that muay thai is the best and u train it all life but its not in the rythm with ur body and someone just could beat u up easily. So u need to choose in what m art you feel pleasure.
I train Aikido and i totally feel great and no matter what i will be training it
I don't agree with this, but most people out there are going to tell you that BJJ or MMA are the best.
There is no Best.
Only better instructors and teachers.
I was into shotokan since 12 years old but I soon realised that my sensei trained me only for competitions for kata. As I was zero in combat, he never tried to improve me in it and when I think about it, it will never help me as self defence one day.
Im 18 now. So, I am thinking of changing style itself. I want to know which one will be able to help me as a REAL self defence and street fights. I prefer with some gymnastic moves, a bit like Capoera.
Please suggest some really good ones and help me out please. Its very important! Thank you!
PS:Is kung fu good enough?
