looking to learn an hopefully compete so whats the best style to learn

if possible don't start in a specific art, try to find a mma gym( mixed martial arts) and they will teach you everything that goes into real fights. they will teach you boxing/kick boxing/ submission grappling/ wrestling / judo/ sambo ... and whatever else you may see in real competition against opponents who are resisting 100%

if you can't do that then i would say try to find a brazilian jiu jitsu place

prob. boxing or bjj

Muy Thai is good as well

Take full mma, anything else will give you bad habits and not properly prepare you for an mma match. You can't learn to golf by playing tennis.

Well don´t bash me for this but I think that it´s better to excell in one part of your game and be below avarage in the rest than be avarage at everything.

If you are avarage at every aspect of your game you will be overpowered by some particular part of your opponents game. If you have a very strong point, you can capitalize your opponent with it. Crocop is a perfect example.

yeah bjj...

vitor ribeiro stated that it's alot easier to transition to any other martial art, but do bjj first atleast a blue belt, or yellow belt, and then move on to muay thai..

Well don´t bash me for this but I think that it´s better to excell in one part of your game and be below avarage in the rest than be avarage at everything.

If you are avarage at every aspect of your game you will be overpowered by some particular part of your opponents game. If you have a very strong point, you can capitalize your opponent with it. Crocop is a perfect example.

I agree and disagree, most good mma fighters excel in one area but the most sucessful seem to excel in all areas(Fedor), athough you don't see Fedor knocking people out he does have k-1 level standup and world championship level Sambo and Judo(maybe national level in Judo).

I just don't see any logic in training one aspect and neglecting the rest. Its really like paper scissors rock in a fight so you gotta be able to do everything and do everything well.

I think your time would be best well spent training full mma because like I said bjj will give you bad habits because getting punched in the face will change your whole game. There are bjj schools though that do striking.

yeah i would go with bjj or maybe boxing lol

diffently yoga

I agree and disagree, most good mma fighters excel in one area but the most sucessful seem to excel in all areas(Fedor), athough you don't see Fedor knocking people out he does have k-1 level standup and world championship level Sambo and Judo(maybe national level in Judo).

I just don't see any logic in training one aspect and neglecting the rest. Its really like paper scissors rock in a fight so you gotta be able to do everything and do everything well.

I think your time would be best well spent training full mma because like I said bjj will give you bad habits because getting punched in the face will change your whole game. There are bjj schools though that do striking.

fedor does not have k-1 level striking although he is one of the few mma fighters that are smart enough to check a kick from cro cop. this might be due to his training in holland for the cro cop fight.
on another note i dont feel chutebox is muaythai. they are more tkd with clinch.

fedor has ok standup, not really from a technical stand point...but it's good. no doubt..

no way in hell would he be able knock out people with k-1 level striking.like lebanner. etc.

Well don´t bash me for this but I think that it´s better to excell in one part of your game and be below avarage in the rest than be avarage at everything.

If you are avarage at every aspect of your game you will be overpowered by some particular part of your opponents game. If you have a very strong point, you can capitalize your opponent with it. Crocop is a perfect example.


I agree. Don't go to a gym and learn "MMA". There is no such thing as an MMA style because what MMA is, is solid fundamentals in the main three disciplines: wrestling, standup, groundwork.

If you try to mix all three from the beginning, what you will be is: A crappy to average wrestler, crappy to average striker, crappy to average ground-player. That won't get you anywhere.

You should get really good at at least one thing and add some skills to complement it. I personally think wrestling/judo is the best base. If you want to grapple you'll need the takedown, and if you want to stay on your feet you'll have to be able to defend against it. On top of this you'll learn how to compete (which is actually something people need to learn) and gain great conditioning.

After you've got your wrestling, focus hard on ONE other thing. Like striking (Liddell/Crocop/Wanderlei/Rich are primarily wrestling and striking) or grappling (Hughes/Fedor/Arona/Filho are primarily wrestling/judo and grappling).

After you've built that solid base of two main skills (one being wrestling) you will have enought to be a very good fighter. Now work on that last one to become the best, ie: Fedor, who is now a great grappler, takedown artist, striker.

But remember, you need a solid base to build off of. Organize your skills intelligently. Don't just try to learn everything at once and have no base to rely on.

if your in high school i would definately say join the wrestling team...it has helped me tremedousuly and i think making the transition from wrestling to bjj is relatively simple, me i dont ever really get taken down butu when i do im kinda in trouuble but i got alot of work to do....

Sambo

Bruce Lee said all you need in a fight is boxing and wrestling. Although I would go for Sub. wrestling and Muay Thai. Basically pick a ground MA(sub wreslting,BJJ) and a standup(boxing, Muay Thai, Kickboxing) and go from there.

I started off with Kickboxing and couldnt be happier with my choice. A standup and a grappling combination is probably the best. Wrestling, BJJ is you have it near you. Judo is becoming a big player in the game now too. I just stated training that and its unbeliveable.

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BJJ.

Depends on what you want to do.

You better begin with MMA right away then.

I have to agree with the posters that say look for a school that teaches MMA and not a fully traditional martial art. As someone mentioned you will have lingering bad habits that will plague you.

If a vale tudo or MMA gym is not available I'd say go with wrestling. That's what i did, but also i prefer to ground and pound or sub than stand. But as Starfury said, it is good to have one major strength, you can always strive to be well rounded but its hard to be great at everything. I transfered around before i went to my MMA club. I started with wrestling( national level) then did greco roman in University. I had to move around so i did judo which sort of got me used to being on my back. Then I went to my club now. I think it depends on what style fits the person. If you like to bang Thai boxing, sub BJJ, G n P wrestling. Just my opinion.

judo is good... helps you learn balance for wrestling...

wrestle in high school. if youre out, then pick 2 arts one striking on grappling. when you pick it up enough to throw down, then get a MMA gym.

start with 1 sport master it, then move to another. don't do all together u won;t get far.

Personally, I don't think you should try to learn MMA right away. MMA is a mix of different martial arts, so I think you should try to focus on getting good at each individual component first (ie. standup, ground, etc) and actually start competing in those events before going into MMA. As for which art, I would say bjj for technique or wrestling for takedowns (also, the conditioning is excellent).