Which striking art to study?

[Samurai Jack]

Hi guys. I practice Aikido and previously attained the black belt level in Kung Fu San Soo. I'd like to study a striking martial art that will complement, rather than oppose my Aikido. There is a Wing Chun school, a Shotokan dojo, Kajukenbo, and several Tae Kwon do and Kempo karate schools in my town. Any thoughts on what might be most suitable?

[TzuChan]

Go do some sanda/sanshou ?

[Former castleva]

While you indicate that you need an art that does not oppose your aikido,you fail to point out what skills/attributes you are looking for from an art.
Things being,I´ll add my part subjective idea and say AKK/kempo kara.
It is a downright practical art which does not oppose your aikido since it is based on simple rules of physics and motion,can be shaped to adapt your needs and while being tough is not a "stiff arm" art that taekwondo or maybe shoto COULD turn out to be.
However,make sure the school is legitimate.

et:Actually I´ve heard of kk adapting aikido techniques like iriminage.Do not except to run into them at first sight though.

[SanSoo Student]

Try Muay Thai, that consists of mostly striking

[pseudoswitch]

Studying Aikido with Wing Chun seems to be very popular. Apparently they compliment each other very nicely, in principles and technique.

[Mr Chips]

Aikido and Wing Chun would probably go together pretty well. If what i've heard of Aikido is correct they seem to have a similar philosophy and many Wing Chun moves can flow nicely into locks (and probably throws too). Can't comment on the others as i've never done them. Also, have you considered plain old western boxing?

[Chen Zen]

Happily violent

[Cheese Dog]

Well of course that's a matter of opinion, so here's my 2 cents worth.

I studied both TKD and Shotokan in the past, they both tend to be much harder and "stiffer" than aikido, plus, at least until a high level, are very linear in footwork.
Don't know much about kajukenbo so can't comment.
Wing Chun is very popular, from what I know about it sounds like a good match.
Kempo: depends on the school. Alot of McDojos stick the name kenpo/kempo in their name when all they are really teaching is point tournement karate with a few "kung-fuish" moves thrown in. If you can find an American Kenpo (Ed Parkers) or traditional Okinawan Kempo school it should fit nicely, alot of the footwork is very similiar.

[Asia]

BAJIQUAN!!!!

to a lesser degree also look into:

Good ole Western Boxing
Savate
Kyokushin Karate (or any of its offshots)

[TzuChan]

yeah, i asked my teacher, what he feared the most when he fought his tournaments in the old days. He said he feared the bad ass Western Boxers the most, mean *******s But I would only start doing Western boxing if you can make something out of it, cause one of the reasons he mentioned western boxing, was because these guys were fast, and didn't mind taking mean punches to the head, on a daily basis, so I don't think it's all that healthy =)

[Ultimatewingchun]

TRADITIONAL WING CHUN... as it is taught by Grandmaster William Cheung and the instuctors in his WORLD WING CHUN KUNG FU ASSOCIATION....

www.cheungswingchun.com


P.S.- It goes real well with Catch wrestling.

[UltimateFighter]

I would recommend training Wing Chun- although beware of the political minefield you are entering with all the various lineages. I personally would recommend Wing Tsun (WT). But be warned that after doing it for a length of time, you may find yourself abandoning the Aikido in favour of a the more practical orientated techniques of WT.

[Vapour]

Originally posted by Ultimatewingchun
TRADITIONAL WING CHUN... as it is taught by Grandmaster William Cheung and the instuctors in his WORLD WING CHUN KUNG FU ASSOCIATION....

www.cheungswingchun.com


P.S.- It goes real well with Catch wrestling.

WTF is this?

http://www.cheungswingchun.com/WingC...p.special.html

[Vapour]

If you do any striking arts, aikido will complement these style well in the sence that lot of striking arts technique naturally lead to throw or/and joint locks.

However this may not work in other way. Aikido's combat tactic is to counter the offence by, first avoiding attack then enter into position either by irimi or tenkan where your opponent is valunearable to aikido techniques. For this reason main focus of aikido training including knife and sword attacks, are geared toward giving aikidoka the right feel for distancing (maai).

Therefore, if you pursue any striking arts which train you to aggressively attack opponent, you are throwing away aikido strategy which comes extremely handy in SD against weapons.

So as previous people stated, if you do Xingyi, for example, you may have to discard everything about aikido except techniques (joint lock and throws) because Xingyi encourage you to aggresively entere into close quater striking distance which is least preferable strategy if you do aikido. If you do TKD, because of its emphasis on kick, you might throw away aikido footwork. So if you want to improve your aikido by doing any striking arts, my advice is to find karate/kungfu style which emphasise circular mostion and foot work. For example, I find taijiquan has great overlap (bit too much in my opinion) with aikido.

On the other hand, if "complementing aikido" means complementing your combat/SD application, you might want to do striking arts which is completely opposit from aikido such as MT.

[KAJUKENBO_MAN]

As a Kajukenbo black belt myself, I would recommend that you check out the Kajukenbo school near you. Kajukenbo, being based on a combination of Tang Soo Do, Judo/JuJitsu, Kenpo, and Kung Fu will blend with what you have in Aikido. Our Kajukenbo school incorporates a lot of Aikido and JuJitsu ground work, along with the stand up kenpo, Tang Soo Do, and Kung Fu.