Chosing the right Martial Arts?

Though I have no intention of joining the UFC, or becoming a MMA fighter, I like the concept and idea behind it, that you can mix different martial arts together to make your own fighting style. I currently take boxing, and I wish to open up to other martial arts. I would like to know which martial arts are good, and which ones work together in well when combined. Here is a small list of Martial Arts I would like to try, please rank them from best to worst:





Kung Fu:


Wing Chun


Dragon Kung Fu


Five Animals


Fujian White Crane





Karate:


Goju-Ryu


Kyokushinkai


Seidō juku


Keichu Do or Keichu Ryu





Judo, Taekwondo, and Jujitsu.





Also, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to add any martial arts to the list.

Chosing the right Martial Arts?
You can't really rank these best to worst, because:


A. You've got striking arts along side grappling arts.


B. You've got hybrid arts along side the arts in A.


There's no objective way to go about with this (And there's no objective reason why we take martial arts), so you should check wikipedia/wikimartialarts, or just google search each of these styles to figure out what they emphasize. Videos sites like youtube can offer some insight too, but don't trust them as objective truths at all times. Not all the videos involving curriculum or style vs style are accurate.





Style really doesn't matter as much as a good school, proficient training methods, and the fighting ranges. If you don't have that to at least some degree, then it doesn't matter what style you're doing: It's probably not going to help.





Having said that, you can really pick from any of these, as they'll all add to your game.


For example:


Wing Chun is a very fast striking art. If you were to go about it, then you could combine the hand strikes (There's some basic kicks, and "Counter-grappling" [Albeit weak usually because they don't test the grappling on a grappler normally]) from this art with your boxing. Some of the Wing Chun moves might flow well with boxing.





-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_...


That will help with that section.





What you need to look for is what fighting ranges you want to cover. Boxing has you covered for hand distance strikes, so you can take full contact/knockdown kickboxing/karate/tkd for your legs/knees/elbows, take judo for throws/basic groundwork, take jujutsu for groundwork, and keep going to make your own art from there.





I'm actually in the same boat as you. I'm in MMA now (I've always wanted to learn many styles to make my own concept, per being influenced by my brother), but before I took many traditional arts. Each one has added something to my game whether it's a joint lock here, or a side kick there.





Good luck.
Reply:before you get a style in your head you should check out what styles are taught in your area. And go watch the instructure, A good teacher is better than a good style if you dont like the teacher in a style you really want.
Reply:There are paradigms according to which various martial arts can be categorized. Some of the more important ones off the top of my head would be:





grappling vs. striking





spiritual discipline vs. athleticism/competitiveness





various national traditions (TKD is Korean, animal kung fus tend to be Chinese, karate Japanese [or Okinawan]), if you feel more comfortable with a certain cultural style





also certain styles tend to be better for certain people with certain body types (very tall, short, fat, thin, etc.), so you might do well by adding that perspective to it





also do you really have access to all these styles in your local area? you may be limited by what's available in any case





Since you say you already "take" boxing I would suggest a grappling style (judo, jujitsu) and/or something which involves your legs (i.e. kicking) (TKD comes to mind).





Finally there's also the question of the dojo itself, if you're undecided between styles why not visit both and see if you like the vibe? Different schools can be run very differently, according to the personality of the sensei (or whatever he calls himself).





(I have no idea which styles go together better, since they're all inherently different it may be difficult to find ones that match up. In any case have you tried going to Wikipedia and seeing if there were valuable descriptions of the various styles you're interested--also, have you tried talking to martial arts instructors themselves [of course they will all recommend their style, but they may also recommend another art which meshes together with their own, if you ask them directly]).





P.S. I *believe* Hapkido is a relatively recent (30 years old?) style which combines striking and grappling in equal proportions, in an effort to create a single martial art which is comprehensive. If you check it out and have access to it it may be what you are looking for all in one, and you won't need to learn multiple different styles.
Reply:I do a mixed martial arts class that coves boxing,kickboxing,taichi karate and some others


i would suggest this x
Reply:Take a look at Systema


http://youtube.com/watch?v=O7_dzu4TQDs