Martial arts have been something I want to learn, and I think that I am going to start training. I have gotten some good information recently about Tae Kwon Do and it seems like something I would enjoy. There are a few other styles I am interested in as well, but I will probably start with one that I think would be good for a beginner. Looking at some of the different sites I’ve seen, it seems like there area few things that most of the styles have, and that is physical conditioning as well as respect. I know that respect is pretty important in anything, but I think it’s played up a lot in self defense schools because it’s an important thing to learn. Another thing I noticed is that people seem to have different opinions on whether things like breaking bricks are important. A lot of people will associate that with martial arts, but there are some who think that it’s a good test of skill, and others who think that it serves no purpose whatsoever. Whether or not I learn how to do that isn’t too important to me, but might be something that would be good to learn. There are some schools that make you break boards as part of your tests. And one style of breaking that looked kind of complicated was iron palm, which I read about on this site where there was a lot of good explanation of some of the training.
Maybe I will start with one style and then change to another, or maybe I will like the first style and stick with it. I think that there is probably something you can learn regardless of which kind you study, and I know there are people who study different styles at their own decision because they might feel like one is good at teaching certain things, and others might be better for other purposes. But that seems to be stuff that I will learn as I go, so I am going to check out what there is around here and maybe look at a few other places and then start my training. It is probably a good idea to start out by watching a class so you can get a feel for what it is like, and I would like that, too, so I can make sure that it seems like it would be a cool place to organize my learning. And it is probably also important to pick a place where you like the other people there, too, since you are going to be practicing with them.