You can't compare martial arts but you can compare instructors.
Karate: Is a striking art using punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes and open hand techniques such as knife-hands, spear-hands,and palm-heel strikes.
Taekwondo: It focuses in punching, kicking, knee strikes, elbow strikes, grappling and join locks BUT if you want to do self defence don't do WTF (World Taekwondo Federation) or ATA (American Taekwondo Association) ATA will empy your wallet and get you a black belt in less than 6 months but ITF it's a good style.
It's harder to find a good Taekwondo school than a Karate school because there are so many McDojos out there but if the school seems legit them go for it.
Both are the same. Either will get you killed if a person has a weapon. It will only be a joke, unless you're doing it in sports. Trust me, I have a friend that takes Karate, and I know some MMA. I could wrestle him down easy and beat him. Because Either Karate or Taekwondo isn't for ground fighting.
There is a very simple way of finding out which school you should train with. Go visit both, watch them train and if there are free lessons available use them. Labels mean Jack S#!t, the education you will get is determined by the quality of the classes that you train in. Visit both schools, watch and train and find out which one has the better classes.
Then choose that one.
To be honest I wouldn't choose either of those. Both of those are infamous for being full of McDojos. And I just have to say that originality doesn't mean it's good. The new sports as you call them are in a sense the evolution of martial art. Go and try TKD/karate for a month. Then go and try MMA for a month. Come back then and tell me which is tougher, which is better.
Taekwondo probably worth the time .
Karate isn't the best in real fight or in ring/cage
I completly donot agree with the first and second answerer ..... go with Taekwondo .. it is good ...
both are impractical and dont work in the real world. believe me ive seen balck belts get beat up
first,i wanna thank you for reading this (^_^!)
now i'm 18,and i want to learn a martial art between karate and taekwon-do
i want a self defense one,not just an exercise to improve my health and my body,but also it can be used in real life when i'm in trouble.
there are 2 martial art schools that near my home.
1st one is ShorinRyu Seibukan,teaching by master Michael Kloesser. He is a student of master Jamal Measara,i guess some one know them,right :)
and the other one is an ITF Taekwon-Do.
i know both of them are good,but i only have an opportunity to learn one.
what should i learn?? i have no idea about them,except only thing i know that they are both original styles ,not the styles using to compete in sport event.
sorry for.my bad english. thank you all :D
