3/26    I want to learn a martial art for health reasons. I took Tai Chi
        once (a few month's worth) but otherwise have no experience.
        Keeping fit, ease of learning, and practicality (I'd like to be
        able to defend myself) are important - in that order. Which
        discipline should I learn? I am a little Chinese.
        \_ You might consider looking into Wing Tsun with Simon Mayer, or
           Ju Jitsu.  There are several JJ people here on motd -- perhaps
           one or more of them can be persuaded to talk about their club.
        \_ I guess it's a bit impractical for self-defense, but I did kendo
           for a while, and really enjoyed it.  I found the people to be
           generally pretty enthusiastic and friendly towards newcomers,
           and the sport to be a good balance between learning self-control
           and concentration, and screaming and jumping around a lot and
           beating on people with sticks.  Only drawback is the price of the
           equipment.  -John
        \_ Where are you located right now?  Your ethnicity has nothing to
           do with what you study, btw.  There are a lot of arts out there,
           most of which will offer you what you need.  UC Berkeley has a
           fairly decent martial arts program - Email me offlist if you
           have any questions regarding my experiences with that program.
           -chaos
           \_ I was told I could not study Brazilian or Israeli Martial Arts.
              -Chinese
              \_ Unless this is a troll, or they were kidding, that's illegal.
           \_ Some other idiot added the Chinese part. I don't care enough
              to remove it. I am in the Los Angeles area now, btw.
           \_ How could any sodan be so gullilbe as to take that as part of a
              serious question?  If that jerk added "I am a little jew/arab/*"
              instead, would it at least raise some alarm in your head?
              \_ You may not know this but a lot of sodans are little Chinese.
              \_ [stupid]
              \_ I don't give a fuck.