That said, there are some things to consider when looking for the best fit of martial arts for you.

Physical Condition: Some martial arts types, such as Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and MMA, require a high level of physical fitness. Further, it’s recommended that you actually come into the gym or school in reasonableshape or risk some very hard early days. Along with this, if it’s justthat you’re out of shape, no problem. All you’ll need is the drive toget yourself back in excellent physical condition before gettinginvolved in such a program. Work that cardio and core, if you will.

On the other hand, if age or injuries are a significant factor, you may want to stay away from high contact schools or those that have very high intensity workouts. Further, depending on where your particular injuries are and how they flare up, you may want to give thenext consideration some thought.

Striking, Grappling, or Both: Do you want to fight standing up via the use of punches, kicks, knees, elbows, and more? Then consider the striking arts of kickboxing, or kung fu, karate, and Tae Kwon Do, for example. Do you want to grapple? Then get involved in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, wrestling, or judo (although judo is a throwing style, there are many schools that also go heavily into ground fighting as well).

Then again, perhaps you want to do both, in which case an MMA gym or school that teaches multiple styles may be right for you. Remember to think about your physical condition, as was noted previously, when deciding on the kind of martial arts to partake in.For example, if you have a recurring neck injury then Brazilian JiuJitsu, an art where people are continually trying to choke you fromvarious positions, may not be for you.

Schedule and Distance: Just remember that before joining a martial arts school, distance and the schedule matters. If the schedule doesn’t work for you, it will eventually wear on you. In addition, ifthe school is too far away then that’s not exactly going to make iteasy to keep going either.

Set yourself up for success.

Self-Defense Martial Arts Arguments: Simply put, this is something that you should know when talking with instructors and looking at schools, as it’s sure to come up. Are you looking to learn amartial arts style that claims it will teach you self-defense? Thenyou’re in luck.

Pretty much all martial arts styles claim to do just that. However, be aware that there are those in the martial arts community that believe sport martial arts do not really teach real-world self-defense skills,as sports are designed to allow practitioners to continue fighting,whereas real world self defense requires that practitioners end a fightquickly. After all, if sport martial arts allowed killing moves thenthere would be fewer athletes around after tournaments, no?

On the flip side, some sports martial artists believe styles that do not allow sparring at full go or near full go do not prepare martial artists to truly test themselves in real life situations. In other words, if you only practice moves partially either by stoppingshort, etc., then they’re likely to not work in real life. Such is thecase with some traditional styles and schools. These people also pointto mixed martial arts tournaments like the UFC, where many of thetraditional martial arts styles did poorly early on.

Then again, some of their finishing moves were illegal at the time.

Of course, there is more to the argument than the aforementioned and this article is hardly about taking sides. But just be aware that you may hear some of these ideologies being thrown around in your searchfor the best martial arts type for you. Thus, it's something toconsider.

Sport Martial Arts: Some people are looking to engage in martial arts as a sport. Along with this, many styles of martial arts have a sport associated with them. For example, judo was actually invented byDr. Jigori Kano in order to be just that—a sport. Further, there arenumerous Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, karate, kung fu, and Tae Kwon Dotournaments available for would-be practitioners.

However, not all sport martial arts are considered equal in terms of the contact involved. Kickboxing, for example, will likely involve a significant amount of stand up sparring and contact. Brazilian JiuJitsu will involve little to none of that, but will certainly test yourgrappling skills at a full go pace. On the other hand, there areseveral karate schools out there where there is almost no full contactsparring going on. Included are tournaments that involve only mildcontact.

These are some of the considerations for would-be sport martial artists.