In Korean, the word Taekwondo is actually a combination of three words, “Tae” which means to strike with foot, “kwon” means to strike with bare fist, and “do” means the “method” or “way”. And the martial art is literally the direct translation of its meaning. The fighting method of Taekwondo is more focused on empty-handed combat with the use of the whole body to either attack or defend. This martial art is full of kicking, blocking, punching, dodging, and parrying actions with both feet and arms.

In Taekwondo rich 5000 year old history, the martial art has developed and even goes by several aliases such as “Taekkyon” and “Subak”, and was believed to be originated from the kingdom of Koguryo, known by the name of “Sunbae”. Taekwondo was initially taught to potential leaders in the country, to keep them one head above the rest of everyone else.

In time, the Korean fighting style reached practitioners all over the world and has the most number of people practicing it. The rise has resulted in further development of Taekwondo into a few separate fields that merges various combat movement and techniques, sports exercise, philosophy, other than the most important self defense and meditation.

Although Taekwondo is like any other martial arts styles, it is a very different kind of martial arts compared to the other Oriental fighting styles. It emphasizes on combining dynamic and active movements. You can see the movements in Taekwondo competitions when the exponents do not pause or stop their movements, not even for a millisecond when facing an opponent.

This traditional Korean martial art also stresses on uniting the body, life, and mind of the practitioners, whether in the face of danger or during practice. The mind should be harmonized and synchronized with the body to create swift movements. The old teachings of the traditional martial art were based on Five Codes of Human Conduct that was adapted from the Buddhist teachings:

“Be loyal to your country, be obedient to your parents, be trustworthy to your friends, never retreat in battle and never make an unjust kill.”

The modern teachings are a correlation of the five, called Eleven Commandments, injecting faithfulness to one’s spouse, siblings, teachers, spirit, elders, and be loyal to one’s school. The commandments portray how much Taekwondo has its own life and teachings to be adhered by any practitioners all over the world.

Learning martial arts for self defense helps to avoid most people from being attacked, but of course it is always better for one to not be very brave as one would not know to what extent his or her attacker will do. Nonetheless, if you could not avoid from being attacked, knowing some skill of martial arts for self defense will certainly lessen the impact the attacker might have on you. The intention of the attacker may be altered when they see that you are not one to mess with at the first place.

There are many styles of martial arts for self defense that you can learn. Martial arts are firstly a system that needs to be practiced for you to get used to. The idea of learning martial arts for self defense defeats the purpose if you only learn it in the confine of your home without proper instructions from professionals. This means that enrolling to classes and sparring with your sparring partners in the classes will help improve your confidence and skill while executing the moves.

Yet, the most important thing is to know what style compliments you. For example, your built, physical strength, gender and age. Mastering one or two styles of martial arts for self defense from the bunch will be something you have to really look in to. For women, the best style to learn martial arts for self defense is the mix martial art, aikido or kick boxing as it is suitable for defending them against multiple attackers and utilise the use of gravity and momentum to bring down their attackers.

As for men, the style of martial arts for self defense that they can learn are immense as most of them don’t have handicapped in physical strength but maybe against the use of weapon. There are many martial arts styles they can learn from Chinese Kung Fu to Brazilian Capoeira to the Philippines Kali or even mix martial arts for hand combat as long as they can defend themselves from the harmful attacks.

Learn martial arts for self defense will definitely be a good investment to have, better than not knowing any self defense at all as not only can you save yourself but you can also try to help others who are in need.

When speaking about learn martial arts online, most of the martial arts websites you can find on the internet do offer their own home study program for you to follow. While some requires you to pay a minimal fee to learn martial arts by buying their programs, there are also some website who share their online modules for free, in return of your email for registration and subscription purposes. They will let you view their programs and learn martial arts online from one level to the next.

One thing about when you look for videos to learn martial arts online, you will see that there are various types of martial arts styles that you can learn and benefit from. The videos will not only teach you how to fight, but you can also learn ways to train and improve your fitness level as well as how to properly watch your diet to optimize the build up of muscle mass.

The great thing about the World Wide Web is it also provides ways for martial arts instructors to reach out to the mass and provide video classes for their students to learn martial arts via online. All their students need to do is find a partner for sparring and supervision when they learn martial arts at home. This is one of the ways to cut their expenses by not having to rent a class for the whole year instead of to rent on a weekly basis.

The more advance site which you can learn martial arts online has many features which allows you to interact directly with the instructors and trainers in the forums, participating in live chat sessions, or even reading martial arts articles from all over the world to gain more knowledge on other types of martial arts styles. Online discussions could also be made available in martial arts forums. There, you will be able to voice opinions or share your experience with the other martial arts enthusiasts.

There are many benefits when you find good websites that offer you to learn martial arts online as the source of information might come from every corner of the world. All the videos, articles and online discussion will only improve your martial arts practice. You can also post your martial arts training or moves online and get the other practitioners to give comments on how to get better at it.

Other than learning martial arts styles for protection, martial arts can keep them mentally and physically fit, increase their self-discipline and self-confidence. The fun and safe martial arts styles classes can teach them self-respect as well as instilling patience. Besides that, learning martial arts styles in a controlled environment will create healthy interactions among children and improve the child’s communication skill.

There are so many martial arts schools in the neighbourhood including classes that teaches martial arts styles for children. The martial arts instructors are usually adapted to teaching children as well as adults. For children to master the martial arts styles that are taught to them, the styles need to be interesting and fun to do, rather than the boring punch-kick and roll routine that lasts for two hours a session. Children should be taught a variety of simple martial arts styles and teach them to be a fast and smart at thinking. So, which are the best martial arts styles that could teach children to do both?

Actually, there are no best martial arts styles if you compare each style to the others as most of the martial arts styles have modules for teaching children. There are martial arts styles like the Karate, Judo, Taekwondo as well as the Capoeira that uses a lot of high kicks, fast movements as well as balance and coordination. Teaching the children martial arts styles also builds the upper and lower body strength and improves their body posture.

I like to highlight again that martial arts styles does not matter much to the child but more of the child adapting to the martial arts styles that are taught to them. As every child is different, one of the various martial arts styles could be best suited for your child to learn and parents need to know which martial arts styles that their child most interested in learning. Most importantly, your child should be instilled with the right mind to learn martial arts styles for self defence, not so that he or she can pick fights with the other kids, but to protect themselves and build their confidence as well as to protect their siblings and friends from harm.

The shocking and scary experience such as being held at knife point by snatch thieves or getting harassed on a bus by perverts may trigger the idea for them to learn the various martial arts styles for protection. The lists of martial arts styles that are popular among women are endless. Nevertheless, it is important for them to know at least a hint of martial arts styles movements to bail them out of danger. At the same time, learning martial arts styles can keep their fitness and strength in top condition. It’s like killing two birds with one stone!

Here are the martial arts styles along with the description that could help women choose which one they prefer. The list contains the most popular martial arts styles that suit every woman’s personality. The first one is kick boxing or Muay Thai. The martial arts styles of kick boxing allow women to defend and attack in one movement without the need to use weapons. The martial arts styles used in kick boxing include fists, knees, elbows, feet and also the head.

The other famous martial arts styles among women are Karate and Taekwondo. Karate is believed to be the oldest type of martial arts styles in the world and has unique martial arts styles for attack and defence. It doesn’t use weapons but kicks and blows on the opponent’s pressure points or weak spots. The martial arts styles are almost similar to Taekwondo’s fighting styles although Taekwondo uses a lot of kicks, hence, the martial arts styles are also very useful for women.

Nonetheless there are many martial arts styles that women can learn that suits petite women against big burly men. The martial arts styles are Aikido that teaches women not to depend on their physical strength; and Wing Chun, a Chinese fighting styles in close range fight movements. Both martial arts styles are designed for women to get opportunity to attack and defend from the assailant.

Learning martial arts styles do bring a lot of benefit to women other than making them stronger and fitter. Martial arts also act as stress and tension reliever after a whole day in the office. Furthermore, women will gain more confidence when they go out in the public rather than always fearing for their safety. However, women should get know which martial arts styles suits them the best. Consulting the martial arts instructors and watching one or two sessions before registering for classes will help them make their decision.

If you are new to martial arts styles and are looking for the best to learn, there are actually no specific martial arts styles that can be considered as the best among all styles in the world. What you have to look at is which martial arts styles suit you best in terms of what you are interested in or what style of fighting you want to learn.

Learning martial arts is quite daunting. Nonetheless, before you try your hands on any martial arts styles of fighting, you have to consider building your physical condition or, you can build your fitness during your training or exercise that will be conducted by professional instructors.

Other than making you fit to try many martial arts styles, being fit also help avoid both light and serious injuries. It is important to have a firm core and good cardio conditions before you get involved in any martial arts styles training as most training workouts are of high intensity.

Here are the lists of the most popular martial arts styles that are still practised around the world. For the striking or stand-up martial arts styles, the trainees will learn how to defend themselves by blocking blows while they are standing. The examples of striking or stand-up martial arts styles are boxing, kung fu, taekwondo and kickboxing.

Another example of martial arts styles is the ground fighting style that teaches trainees to take their opponents to the ground to end the fight. This fighting style is famously used in wrestling, jiu jitsu and the Russian sambo.

One of the many martial arts styles that you can learn is the throwing styles. Since fights are always initiated from a standing position, throwing martial arts styles integrate ground fights in order to break the opponent’s attack. You can learn this style in judo, shuai jiao and aikido.

Then, there is the weapon based martial arts styles that uses weapons like the Bokken or wooden sword for kendo, or kali sticks used when learning Kali. There are also the meditative martial arts styles such as the relaxing tai chi and chi gong styles. The MMA or mixed martial arts styles are a combination of striking, throwing, ground and many more. These martial arts styles are becoming more popular with competitions among age groups are being organized by schools as one of their sports activities.

Even though there are many martial arts styles for you to choose, you have to know what your interest lies in and study or join basic these martial arts styles classes before making the decision, or you can learn them all.