If you are trying MMA for self defense then what is your Karate for? MMA is sport not self defense. Karate can be taught for sport but originally it was self defense first. MMA never was self defense always sport. There is a huge difference in how you train sport and how you train self defense.

Your quote: "Karate has worked for me so far; it gives me the mind set to be alert but not paranoid. It gives me confidence, but also a core set of moves that aren't too outlandish to try to use. "

So what is it you want then? What makes you think the grass is greener on the other side? What do you think it will teach you that Karate is not teaching you? Only have the answers and if you don't you better stick with Karate.

Your question clearly indicates that you have very little understanding what different martial art are for or what it is you are learning or even what you want. So before you make a decision you need to do a lot more research. Otherwise you might end up with something you do not want and will regret.

Edit: Karate is not just kicking and punching. Stop spreading lies about things you have no knowledge of. Karate too has ground fighting, grappling, joint locks and throws if you stick with it long enough to learn it.

There's good and bad with each. A good karate school should teach a multitude of self defense applications. On the bad side if all you do is block traditional karate punches then you won't be effectivel on the street. Street fights don't happen like karate training.

MMA teaches very effective attacks but doesn't teach the most effective things because they are against the rules. Also, taking someone to the ground during a fight may get you kicked to death and or a back full of glass or gravel. On the other had if your karate stlye stresses high kicks in self defense then you better know ground fighting because you're going to wind up there.

If you are interested in just self defense then a karate school with an instructor with a back ground in ju jitsu or some sort of self defense is best. However if there's a ju jitsu school available take that, if you want to fight in the ring take that. If you can only find schools that teach just kick punch or sport karate then take anything else.

It's up to you, but I think it's best to stick with Karate. If you keep switching schools you will get nowhere. Karate is great for self defense if it is taught properly. MMA is a combat sport, meaning it trains under rules and is for competition. It can be adapted to work in one on one unarmed fighting, but Karate has much more variety of self defense. Some people on here will say that Karate doesn't work or X is a better style or X is the best, just ignore them. If you goal is self defense and not competition, stick with Karate. Good luck.

If you want to be in sports, then going to MMA wouldn't be a problem. But if you want to stick to self defense, then stick to Karate. MMA is good, but not so great for self defense, since its only works with street fights, it never teaches you how to disarm weapons, or how to fight with sticks.

Try watching the UFC tonight on cagewatcher(dot)eu and then you'll see if you really love it. Thats what I did. Best decision of my life. I've been working out at the MMA gym for 6 months now

well any martial arts can aid u in mma.. however you needa go into mma with a willingless to learn.. if you go in there and just try and use your karate youll fail miserably.. but if u use karate and work on boxing, muey thai, Brazilian jijitsue youll do fine.. be willing to adapt your karate into all the other martial arts then youll be ok

Unlike most systems of "karate", MMA teaches the 4 ranges of fighting; punching, kicking, trapping, and grappling. I think that most MMA schools teach "realistic" self defense compared to most karate schools which are geared towards teaching point fighting and charge students for belt testing.

Don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great things about traditional martial arts like teaching students concentration and respect for other people, but in these schools the students don't get to train for a knockdown, drag out fight the way that MMA students do.

The only thing karate has going for it is no one will expect some of its attacks if u keep a normal stance...ull have to memorize kata and useless blocks so mma is better...I personally am training mma and looking to add combat hapkido training in the mix cuz I'm in love with the throws and low kick sweeps and attacks

mma is better for self defense its also more fun ive trained in karate before too longer then i did mma im not just saying this because i do mma , i do mma because what i just said is true

I do karate and I love it. But I'm wondering if I should try mma (it would be exclusively for self defense and conditionning) or should I stay with karate?

I'm not interested at all in competition (and am only mildly interested in the "good looks" it'll give me). I've always wanted to be able to defend myself (I never really pick fights, but you never know). But I've heard that so many moves were illegal in the ufc (which is for what most if not all mma gyms train for; they train with the restrictions of the ufc) that it actually limited its' effectiveness some times, is that true?

Karate has worked for me so far; it gives me the mind set to be alert but not paranoid. It gives me confidence, but also a core set of moves that aren't too outlandish to try to use.

Waddya think, and why? (Please no trolling or stupid answers) Thank you