Open-minded JKD

[grunch]

Hello, I am new to defend.net, and I do think it is a highly informative site. I live in chicago usa. And there are literally hundreds of schools to choose from(some located more conveniently than others of course)Actually so many schools that it becomes kind of difficult to choose where to spend your hard earned $$. I thought I would ask JKD people for advice because JKD in and of itself seems to be one of the more open minded styles in the martial arts.(Oddly enough the one school I cannot find in Chicago is JKD,actually there is one place but the price is exorbidant to say the least)Please forgive my ramblings. I have narrowed down my choices as far as times , price and location. Without any style bashing (PLEASE!) can you you blokes and/or blokettes give some educated opinions on what choice you would make if you were in my shoes.My options are hapkido,wing chun,defensor method (a filipino style sort of silat/muay thai/weapons)and judo. Ive taken a free class in all of these and they all rock. I truly believe any choice will be a good one and I am totally prepared to dedicate myself. Also I can take the WC and judo together or I can take the defensor and judo together due to great pricing and times.And one more thing(oh my god he's not done yet!!!) the wing chun is privite lessons which I really like (but its not much of a workout)and do you believe you can really learn to defend yourself if you are not training against resisting partners? I would like to improve my fitness as well as learn some worthy self defense. I will now politely shut up and hope for some friendly advice.
Thank you very much, Danny

[NHBMARK1]

First off, welcome aboard!!

For a nice practical art & great for fitness, I'd go with Muay Thai.
If I read that correctly & you get Judo & weapons training in that class as well, I think you have a winner right there.

You get a brutal/practical standup style that offers a great workout (ever seen a fat thai boxer?) & Judo with weapons training.? forget about it.

Just curious, What do they all charge?

[grunch]

The judo is $30 a month for 2 days a week and the defensor
(MT, Silat ,weapons ) is $40 amonth for one day a week. so its $70/month for 3 days a week of training. Thank you for your reply/advice. You know ,I dont want to live my life in fear but I know judoka that are in there 50's and these guys can hardly walk from injuries and general beating of there bodies and I have watched a few MT matches where these guys are completely bludgeoned. Thats why I was wondering what kind of opinions there might be out there as far as resisting opponents / live training is concerned.Do you really need to destroy yourself to get some useful self defense and get in shape at the same time?
Danny

[NHBMARK1]

70 a month isn't bad at all in my opinion.

I would asume for both Judo & MT (since their trained in an alive manner) MT is anyway, your bound to get banged up a little bit. (but to me it's worth it cause your more ready for the street.

Watch a few classes & talk to a student or two.
Also, I'd welcome others on this board to drop their opinion.
Martial arts legends like Burt Richardson & Matt Thornton (and many of their students) post here.

I would asume it's very different to train MT vs becoming a MT fighter.

[grunch]

I absolutely welcome and eagerly anticipate any and all advice. Cheers.

[grunch]

Yeah,like I said I really dont live my life in fear during training but Ive read once "if your training hurts more than than the mugging ...train in something else."

[GeorgeK]

grunch,

Have you found any schools to train yet? What part of Chicago are you from? I am from Chicago as well and can give you a tonn of info on schools and styles 'cause I researched and visited a lot of schools here.

[Uber_Tap]

$70 a month is not a bad price at all. You probably will get banged up with MT and Judo, but if you have to throw down for real won't the bumps and bruises you got during training be worth it if you can handle your business when it counts?