# What Martial Art should I start with?



## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

Please forgive me, I am new to MMA, I do not even watch it. I have read up on different martial arts a bit.
I have a few questions, I would appreciate any help.

I'm 27, 6'3", 250lbs, fairly lean, could lose about 10lbs to get really lean though. I am not too flexible.

1) Am I too old to get into MMA and fighting? I mean my objective is to just do it for fun and health, but if I really like it maybe fight a couple years down the road. Is that getting too old to start?

2) What's a good martial art to start with for someone like me? Like I said, I want to do it for fun, and health, but also something that would help me if I decide to pursue fighting. Muay Thai?

3) How often does one practice and how long would it take if I did want to fight? Year? Two years?

Thank you so much.


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## name goes here (Aug 15, 2007)

Whatever is near you, where you like the instructor and set up. Some clubs are really friendly, some are just walk in do the drills go home. Whichever you prefer.

As your big, and you say its lean muscle, wrestling would play to your strengths. If you are intensely serious, boxing gyms seem to be the most serious as far as I can tell.


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## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

Thank you.
I'm in Winnipeg Manitoba Canada.
I did a search and seems to be a few good places here.
I found this one:
http://www.mundurucabjj.com/index.html
But seems to be BJJ, and I'm not sure if that's what I want? Teacher seems to be pretty good.


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## pauly_j (Nov 28, 2006)

If there are any pure mma clubs around you, I'd go with that. Too many people go looking for one strong martial art as a base. If you learn mma you get the best bits of all martial arts flowing into each other.


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## mikehmike (May 28, 2007)

Find a local MMA gym that offers basic thai boxing/boxing and BJJ/submission wrestling classes and go there. Get some cardio in, learn standup and learn BJJ and go from there


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## blanker (Jun 5, 2008)

i would say wrestling, just look at the huge number of top fighters who started out in wrestling :thumbsup:


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## Arlovski_Fan (Apr 25, 2007)

doscar said:


> Please forgive me, I am new to MMA, I do not even watch it. I have read up on different martial arts a bit.
> I have a few questions, I would appreciate any help.
> 
> I'm 27, 6'3", 250lbs, fairly lean, could lose about 10lbs to get really lean though. I am not too flexible.
> ...


1) Nope. Some really good fighters that are up and comers are like 33-34. 27 isn't too late.

2)I'm about your build, a little taller and a little rounder lol. If you think you can keep up with the conditioning, I'd do Muay Thai. Your hight most likely gives you a nice reach advantage. If you think your conditioning could use some work, start with BJJ. Although some of the best guys in the world at BJJ are really flexible, you don't have to be. I do BJJ and it's one of the funnest things I do (damn work keeps me from doing it more than 2 times a week though  )

3)Where I go each martial art is 1 hour long. In BJJ we learn a new skill for the first 1/2 hour and spar the second half. I know in Muay Thai there is less sparring because there are some older guys there. If you wanna fight I'm gonna guess it'll take at least a year, probably more like 2 or 3. Its a big time commitment but from what I have heard its worth it.


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## dontazo (Feb 29, 2008)

imo aikido


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## Ebc_Kyle (Sep 24, 2006)

I'd do something with wrestling/BJJ, because a lot of fights go to the ground.


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## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks for all the help, and Arlovski_Fan for very detailed help. I think I found one MMA in the area, apparently a good instructor too. I think I have more interest in Muay Thai than grappling/BJJ, but if I do decide to one day fight, I don't want to be 'behind', because I started with Muay Thai instead of a MMA place.


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## BloodJunkie (Jun 18, 2007)

doscar, go with the MMA gym for sure but you really should also look to excel in one area as well. If Muay Thai tickles your fancy I would put a little extra emphasis on that ( don't neglect the grappling though ). Before you decide to take an MMA fight I would suggest that you do some smoker fights in muay thai and grappling just to see if you really like the competitive side of fighting. Many people enjoy working out for fitness and fun but don't care much for competition. The smoker fights will give you a taste before you commit to an MMA fight.

Good luck bro!


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## Tripod87 (Dec 30, 2007)

I have a few takes on this buddy. It all depends on what route you really want to go. Here are your options.
1) Train and become serious in this and hopefully try and land some big fights later in your life.
2) Train more as a hobby and maybe fight a few amateur fights for fun and to say you "did it"
3) Do it for complete fun and to keep yourself in good shape

All three choices are great and none of them are the "wrong" choice to make. But I'm sure since you have little to no experience, you really haven't decided yet. So here is what I think.

First, go to an all purpose MMA school/gym and learn MMA in general. Practice, go through the motions, learn some basics and understand what's going on. Spar a little bit, and hopefully within 1-2 months, you've gone through some pretty intense sparring to get a good idea of what's going on. _After_ this, make your decision of how you want to approach fighting.

1) If you choose this route, I would really recommend you do some exclusive training in one style first. Many many fighters have said that it is definitely a good thing to have one style to fall back on. It's like your bread and butter. Every sport has one. In wrestling, a wrestler has their bread and butter takedown of choice. In football, a team has a bread and butter play that find the most success in, etc. Since you are taller, I would recommend Muay Thai or Kickboxing, but of course wrestling is a very good style too since it dictates where the fight goes. This is completely up to you.

2) If you choose this route (which is what I want to do in my mma future) it would probably be best to find an overall MMA place that has more emphasis on one style, but still teaches MMA as a whole. I think a great example is phil cardella's place in Austin. Here's the link: http://www.gracieaustin.com/index.htm
It's obviously centered around BJJ, but they also offer Muay Thai classes. This will help you still develop a bread and butter but learn a bit of everything so that it is more fun.

3) This option is similar to 2 but since you're not extremely interested in fighting, you should do just whatever is fun. If you hated your striking sparring earlier, find some places to just roll and learn some fun moves. At the same time, if you hated rolling those first 2 or so months, find a place that emphasizes striking. And of course, if everything was fun, but you just didn't find the sport of fighting something you wanted to get into but still wanted to stay in shape, just stay and train and continue having fun.

Sorry that was so long, but it was just how I felt on the matter. I know these aren't your ONLY options but I felt like these are the main things you can choose from. Hope it helped!


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## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

thanks.


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## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

Thanks Tripod87 too. Just posted as I did.
I think #2 is more so me, unless I don't like it.
To be honest my biggest fear is getting my face really messed up, lol. I consider myself some what good looking, and scared I'm going to get messed up, ie broken nose, etc.

If I got toa MMA place, is it normal to train two things at once? Or is that just confusing? Like I focused mainly on Muay Thai but did some BJJ stuff, is that too much? Or is that a good idea?

Also, how many times a week do you go? once?


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## swpthleg (Dec 31, 2006)

Just keep yr hands up and watch out for the body shot that turns into a head kick lol.


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## Tripod87 (Dec 30, 2007)

doscar said:


> Thanks Tripod87 too. Just posted as I did.
> I think #2 is more so me, unless I don't like it.
> To be honest my biggest fear is getting my face really messed up, lol. I consider myself some what good looking, and scared I'm going to get messed up, ie broken nose, etc.
> 
> ...


Don't get too worried about getting messed up. Most MMA places are pretty good about sparring and the people there aren't looking to take your head off but actually learn. So they do go full speed but not full power. That's my experience anyways. And focusing on two styles at once isn't too bad. I don't come from the same background though since I wrestled in high school and kind of have my bread and butter already. But it shouldn't be confusing doing two styles at once. It's like learning English and Math at the same time, not too confusing. Whereas learning Geometry and Algebra at the same time could be slightly confusing, which could relate to something like...BJJ and submission wrestling? Don't know if I'm making a good point, but I'm just saying learning two styles at once shouldn't be too bad lol.


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## Suvaco (Mar 31, 2007)

doscar said:


> Thanks for all the help, and Arlovski_Fan for very detailed help. I think I found one MMA in the area, apparently a good instructor too. I think I have more interest in Muay Thai than grappling/BJJ, but if I do decide to one day fight, I don't want to be 'behind', because I started with Muay Thai instead of a MMA place.


That's what I thought before I started BJJ. Until I started training I never really had much respect for the ground game, but training BJJ is by far my favorite thing to do.


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## doscar (Jun 5, 2008)

Thank you everyone.


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## mr08sports (Jun 26, 2008)

I've trained BJJ for about 1 year now. I would have to say to go with BJJ from the start. You learn great body movement. Most fights will go to the ground and a lot of boxing clinics don't show you what to do if you get there. 
Don't get me wrong, a great stand up game is good to have as well, but you should have a strong ground game to start out with.

I'm 24 and I'm not looking to make it into the UFC or anything, so I know how you feel.

Find a gym that has a basis in BJJ and go from there. The gym I go to is under Pedro Sauers (a great BJJ fighter) and we not only go over some BJJ, but also real world stuff as well.

BJJ started the whole UFC craze. It wasn't just by chance.

In the end, just get out there and have fun. BJJ, or what ever you choose, should be something you are passionate about. I look forward every day to get my A** kicked to get better. I get asked every week why I do it and it's always the same answer "because I love it." You'll find your nitch. Just get out there and try it!


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