North Dallas Area Martial Arts Dojos

[roo_ster]

Howdy:

My wife is interested in martial arts for self-defense exercise purposes.  Start would be in the JUN2009 time frame.  She is 5' ~100 lbs.

I expect to check out a few dojos.  Watch some classes, speak with the instructors & students.  I would like to narrow the field down with some local knowledge.

The ideal dojo would have the following characteristics:
1. Competent, stable, and quality instructor(s)
2. Positive atmosphere
3. Emphasis on SD, not tournament competition
4. Not a belt mill
5. Prefer a mixture of hard & soft styles (See Taiho-Ryu below)
6. Traditional oriental styles preferred
7. Near Richardson

Brazilian JJ or MMA is definitely NOT on the table.  I am also not interested in the newer disciplines such as Krav Maga.  IMO, she needs a firm grounding in the traditional martial arts before going off on a tangent.

Most likely I will do it with her and if they have a kids program, that would be nice, too, but the primary customer is my wife.


My Experience:

* Taiho-Ryu (Taiho-Jitsu) 3 years Little Rock, Arkansas
Okinawan & Japanese Karate and also Japanese Jui-Jitsu (among other influences).

Traditional atmosphere with emphasis on self-defense.  Name changed from -Jitsu to -Ryu so as not to scare the straights at tournaments.

Beginners start with hard Okinawan karate and learn more jui-jitsu a bit later.  There were good reasons for this, especially with folks new to martial arts.

I had a wonderful experience with T-R.

* Kickboxing 2 years Little Rock, Arkansas
Very casual on my part and I did not do much full-contact sparring in deference to my limited skill and remaining brain cells.

* Brazilian Jui-Jitsu 3 years Ft Benning, Georgia
Standard for combatives at the 75th Ranger Regiment when I was there.

* HS Wrestling 1 year Tarpon Springs, Florida
Provided a decent foundation for the BJJ later on.

[MrRezister]

If you are looking to get her into a striking art, you might try with the most basic and practical one available, which would be good old fashioned Boxing, imo.  I have nothing against the eastern arts, and I practice some Hapkido myself, but being a person of smaller-stature, I would find it much more useful from a self-defense standpoint to train a lot of grappling.  Judo would be my first pick.  Most judo schools I've been in require you to train against an opponent who is resisting, which is what you want if you are looking to pick up useful skills.  And even if it's a sporting style, you/she will still gain a lot of good useful sd-type of skills including ways to keep someone pinned down and off-balancing or jointlocks that can be used against someone larger/stronger.  A lot of the same arguments can be made for BJJ.  In my estimation it's as good a starting point as any "traditional" martial art, and can teach just as many practical skills.

I'm not in Dallas, so I'll leave specific school recommendations to those who know.

Good Luck!

[zahc]

There's a martial arts place of some sort on custer just north of 15th street in plano.

[seeker_two]

Contact DFW Gun Range....they offer martial arts training....and don't knock Krav Maga...she may want to learn something practical over being "grounded"....