MY QUEST FOR MA

[Aero]

Rightyo chaps, good old Tommy boy is looking to start some proper martial arts, so he can really serve one right to those bloody Germans.
I'm thinking Jiu Jitsu or Ninjitsu, so want to find somewhere decent for those in Reading. I've found of a place that sounds good for Ninjitsu over at Woodley, but it's on the other side of Reading from Pangbourne, and my parents are all like "baww it's a really long drive" even though it's about half an hour according to multimap. What's the nearest train station to there? I can't even understand buses so that's a last resort or I'll just end up somewhere completely lost because I got on the wrong bus.
http://www.bujinkanreading.co.uk/index.htm

RECOMMENDATIONS PLEASE? I'd prefer it if it was fairly cheap, because that ninjitsu with all the insurance fees, annual kyu fees, 5 quid a lesson, will add up.
Or if you have any other good ideas for martial arts.

[Dom]

Traditional wushu at loddon valley (next to asda) without a doubt. Wushu owns.

I belive alex tried a few ninjitsu classes in reading so can probably advise on ones to try or avoid.

[ercle]

Last i knew, there was a ninjitsu place by reading west train station. was

[Dom]

Alex, you are getting confused with contemporary wushu. I'm talking about traditional wushu.

[Aero]

Do you know if you need to be with Bujinkan for the place by west station? Because that almost seems like a con with all the money you need to pay for that.
oshit its ninjutsu not ninjitsu i just realised

[Andy]

The terms ninjutsu and ninjitsu are inter-chanagable. You're more than likely get dickheads who watch too much Naruto chucking around the term ninjutsu tho. You'd mainly want to attend a Bujinkan Budo class, it incorporates the ninjitsu and samurai schools all into one class. It's alot of fun.

For most practicality, you want jiu jitsu. No matter how good you are, a fight is almost certain to end up on the ground in a scrabble of grapples. Jiu Jitsu and some form of boxing, is by far your best bet. Anyone that says any different is wrong. Full stop.

As for wu shu, not a huge fan. Wu Shu, Shaolin, Karate, Judo are all good for the basic form of self defence and are good for fitness, plus wu shu is totally a girls martial art.

[Dom]

You can't compare wushu to something like karate or judo, they are about as opposite from one another as chalk and cheese. I think like alex you are again confusing the non contact sport wushu with the efficient semi and full contact traditional styles. Take a look on youtube for "sanshou" to see the difference for yourself.

If you want pure brutatliy, muay thai is probably a martial art worth looking at. Certainly looked cool in ong bak

If I were you I'd pick a handful of martial arts you like the sound of and try out all of them. Theres a good chance you could try 3 or more in one week if they are on different days. Theres a lot more to a MA school than just the martial art iself. You have to take everything into consideration .. the instructors teaching style, if you get on with them and their style, if you get on well with the other people who go there, how long it takes you to get there and how much it costs.

There are good MA instructors out there and bad ones, if you make the wrong choice you wont progress as fast or learn as much as you would have somewhere else. Then theres your own dedication as well. It doesnt matter how good the school/class/instructor is, if you are lazy and dont train hard and dont train at home outside of the classes you go to then you wont see the full benefits. Someone who trains with true dedication in the worst martial arts system in the world is almost alwasy going to beat the person who trains in the best system but doesnt take it seriously.

[Andy]

Sorry, should have elaborated furthe rin my comparison, you;re right, they're very different. However they're all commonly good purely for the basics of self defence.

Muay Thai comes under boxing imo, and although you're more than aware it's worth clarifying that Ong bak and Tom Yum Goong are not good indications of muay thai, more gymnastic showcases with a few kickboxing moves thrown in, more than anything.

I stand by it, Jiu Jitsu and boxing (you'll be ace at boxing tom).

Wu Shu is still for girls tho

[Dom]

Sanshou is basically the chinese/wushu version of muay thai/kickboxing

[Aero]

I was gonna start boxing a few years ago, but my parents were like HURR YOU'LL GET DRAIN BRAMAGE, and nowadays I don't really see much difference (practically) between doing boxing and just throwing a good punch.
I'll look into jiu jitsu, ninjiuiutsu, and sanshou then - but is there anywhere to do sanshou in reading?

[Dom]

Chen wu quan do Qingda which is semi contact sparring. To be honest if you're just starting out that's not a bad idea cause if you do sanshou now with no prior training you will get owned and I dont mean just bruises, more like broken nose/ribs etc.

[Aero]

Argh everywhere I find out is either on the other side of Reading, or you have to be 16 or 18. If I was a year older and lived somewhere else that wouldn't be a problem, but there you go.

loledit: I've found both Ju Jitsu and bujinkan Ninjutsu in Thatcham, which isn't too bad for me, since I can either get the train from Theale or if not it's not -too- far to drive, and both are on either mondays or wednesdays which should be fine for me, I just hope I'll be old enough.

loledit: This seems pretty decent, at Rivermead and Loddon Valley. Different styles, I'm guessing they're all taught together but I don't know. Must be pretty expensive.
http://www.nemesismartialarts.co.uk/

[Andy]

How did it come along Tom? Joined up a class yet?

[Jack2]

Rivermead... leisure centre? nearer caversham? I heard tis average... give it a go though if ya want