Just moved to Olympia and am looking for a good school. The only one I found a review of on here was of Premier Martial Arts and it was less than favorable.
I’m not set on any specific style of martial arts. Mostly wanting to improve self defense skills, and stay active. Any suggestions would be appreciated.
well there’s this: http://nwhighintensitytc.com
best suggestion I can give is look at the Krav Maga/self defence threads (i.e. Krav Maga redux), it more or less outlines Bullshido’s collective opinion on self defence programmes, and why they suck
I don’t really have a lot of time and my google-fu is somewhat lacking, so I can’t really help you with finding mma gyms. I’d suggest doing a search for muay thai, boxing, BJJ and mma in your local area, and possibly expanding it out to Judo, Sambo clubs if your not entirely set on solely doing the more quintessential mma formula
Dlntx9, I hope you enjoy your journey in “martial arts” for more than just self-defense. It is a fascinating opportunity to meet wonderful people, and lots of posers and users. Please be careful in that.
When looking for a style, everyone has a different opinion. If you end up with a mediocre instructor, is the problem with the style of martial art or the instructor? People often blame the system, and overlook the other influencing factors.
The influencing factors can include what fits your own physical capabilities. It’s not just the training. For example, some people are physically or psychologically more suited for karate but maybe not as much suited judo, or in reverse. Some people don’t have good reflexes, and so on.
If someone doesn’t have naturally good reflexes and they take boxing, if they don’t learn well is it the fault of the trainer or the fault of boxing? No. That particular person simply will not capture the material as well as someone who is better suited for that specific training.
There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to your general question about style. Please just remain realistic in your expectations, and honest with your self and with others.
If you want to learn to fight, you need to practice fighting, aka sparring. If your school doesn’t spar, you’ll never be successful in a real fight. If your sparring is point fighting your reactions in a real fight are going to be shit.
So a lot of the schools that cater to “self defense” lack a critical part called aliveness
Like any skill you have to do that skill in a live environment to improve on that skill.
Its like thinking one can watch food network but not doing any actual cooking in order to learn how to cook.
That is what most Reality based Self Defense programs are like.
Don’t ever let anyone tell you that Fighting and Self Defense are different. You cannot defend yourself without the ability to fight.
The only way to learn to fight is by fighting.
Hence why the sport based martial arts tend to actually work better for self defense.
MMA is a good choice so is any number of FMAs, Boxing, Kick Boxing, Judo, BJJ, Wrestling, SAMBO, ect ect ect.
This place on a cursory glance looks REALLY good.