Main Page Contents of Main Other Main Pages     The first step in choosing a martial art is being honest with yourself about why you want to learn. Have you seen all of the Jet Li movies and want to do what he does (without the string props)? Have you been attacked or beaten up and want a way to defend yourself from future assault? Do you want a new way to achieve fitness that doesn't involve endless hours in the weight room? Or are you simply curious? By identifying your motives, you can consciously select a martial art which conforms to your needs.     In choosing a martial art, there are two points at which you can begin your search. The first is to research what martial arts are available in your area. The second is to learn as much as you can about as many martial arts as you can, and then start searching for the ones that appeal most to you.

    The advantage of making note of what martial arts are available in your area is that you know how to limit your knowledge search. If there are no schools for Wing Chun in your area, then knowledge of its history and traditions may be of limited use to you. The fist place to start looking, since you are obviously already there, is the World Wide Web. Many instructors have pages up for their classes. Some are very flashy, others completely functional. Don't be too awe inspired by the flashy pages or put off by the simple ones. The main thing to look for is content. Some instructors, like mine, do the pages themselves and learn as they go; and while they're learning, they still want to ensure that you get as much information as they can give. I have been to some very nice looking pages that still left me with many questions, and I have been to very bare pages that gave me many answers. The opposite still holds true though; I have been to pages that have nothing but training times and give no information at all - now that's bare. And I have been to some beautifully designed pages that give fountains of information. So, again, it is the information that counts.

    Do no limit yourself, however, to the Web for information on classes in your area. Expand your search to the yellow pages (or whatever written medium businesses use to advertise in your region). This will probably give you the widest spectrum of martial arts classes available, all at your fingertips. The disadvantage though is that you do not truly get any information, just points of contact and possibly a quick snippet about the school.

    The other step to take is to learn as much as you can, either about as many martial arts as you can, or about the ones in your area which appealed to you the most. If you have never studied a martial art before, then this is a very important step. Many people have pre-formed ideas about some martial arts based on their representation in the movies. I won't embarrass myself by saying what my notions on ninjutsu were, since they were formed from years of old Chinese kung fu movies. Suffice it to say that I haven't quite learned how to disappear in a cloud of smoke, or jump and land softly on the ledge two stories behind me. Acquiring knowledge on martial arts, therefore, is a key step. The benefit of learning of as many as you can is that you start to find similarities between some systems. Therefore if one isn't available in your area, you will have the knowledge to know which martial art of the ones that are in your area are very similar to it. The other benefit, and this one is big, is that you will have a better chance of spotting the frauds. Ladies and gentlemen, I cannot stress this enough: You do not want to study under a fraud. The martial arts are a dangerous pass time. Unless you are doing something similar to meditative Tai Chi, you are placing your self in danger of minor to serious injury. You can be bruised and battered in the course of normal training, and hurt by students who are either over eager, who do not have the amount of control that they think they have, or who simply have a chip on their shoulders. And that is in the security of the dojo. Outside, when you may have to put what you are learning into practice against the muggers, rapists, and murderers of the world, is not the time to find out that you have been fed lies. I have seen some schools who teach sword disarms (where the attacker has a sword and the defender does not) in which the defender does not move anything but their upper body. While there are ways to defend yourself unarmed against a sword (or any long weapon) they all require movement. As my sensei says, "If someone was swinging a 2 foot long razor blade at you, would you just stand there?" I for one wouldn't. One of the ways to spot frauds is to have enough knowledge of the martial art that the instructor claims to teach that you can say, "Yes, this looks like what I've read about."

    The downside to all this research, however, is that it may not always be correct. I have seen books that claim that ninja never existed, some that said that they existed but are no longer extant, and yet others who say that they are very much active in today's world. So who is correct? As with anything you read, keep an open mind and try to corroborate the stories. What are the credentials of the person writing? How did they come by their findings? Did they travel, or was it "armchair research"? You would be surprised how many "authorities" of the martial arts have never studied, and have never traveled outside of the United States for their research. Therefore, in doing your research, use the written word as guidelines on what to look for in a particular martial art, unless the book was written by an accredited instructor of the particular martial art.

    The next step is the grunt/foot work. This is actually going out into the world and sitting in on each martial art. The various aspects of this are covered in the links below.