what art for bodytype

[killorbe]

my question is this,,i have studied boxing and kenpo karate, im fairly short guy 5'6 and about 195 with lots of muscle mass, what arts best suits my size and weight, im currently sparring with one guy who is about 5'9 and and holds a black belt in kenpo,, and another artist who holds a black belt in tang soo doo.

[JusticeZero]

Short, pretty massive.. I'd look into a throwing art like Judo or Shuai Chiao or similar (I'm sure others can suggest other throwing arts i've missed). The shorter height will help you get under an opponent's center of mass to throw them, which turns it into an asset, wheras if your limbs are scale, your size is a slight liability in striking. The fact that you are strong and massive on top of that just lends weight to the throwing side.

[Budokan]

Body type has no correlation to MA style. The moment you start thinking that is the moment you start limiting yourself. And is that what you really want...?

[Liokault]

Body type makes a huge differance.

Go with a grappling art.


And if Budokan thinks that body type makes no differance then why is nothern and southern kung fu so differant? Ill tell....the guys in the north tend to be much taller and so kicking and longer range attacks work better for them.

[JusticeZero]

Body type does make a difference. It's not the end-all, but it can definately affect what techniques you can use effectively.

[apoweyn]

i think budokan's point (and it's a good one) is that any body type can make use of any style. and that it's a fool's errand to limit your choices of art/training method based on your body type.

yes, a shorter, more muscular individual would make a good wrestler. as would a taller, lankier person. likewise, a shorter boxer can make that style work to his advantage just as a taller one can. look at mike tyson for example. (yeah, he's a sociopath and i personally don't think he should be allowed to box anymore.) he's shorter than most of the fighters in his weight class. logic might dictate that a taller opponent with a longer reach would be at an advantage. but if the guys that tyson fought earlier in his career had an 'advantage', it certainly wasn't obvious.

likewise, i saw a young guy fight in a point fighting tournament recently. point fighting. the match goes to the first contact, virtually. so you'd think, again, that the taller guys would have the edge. but this kid had developed tactics to evade, close on, and maul his opponents. and he won his division.

size doesn't dictate style in the general sense of style. it doesn't preclude taekwondo or boxing or whatever else. it only shapes how you make use of that style to your best advantage.

as for the argument about the difference between southern and northern styles of gung fu, consider this: the relative size of these people may or MAY NOT have been a factor in the evolution of gung fu. but assuming that it did, you're talking about thousands of practitioners in each region of china. predominantly, they may have been short or tall. predominantly, they may have favoured low stances or high stances. but we're talking about an individual now. not an overall picture. and any individual can take any style and find the elements in it that will and will not work for them.

it may not be the black-and-white answer you might have been hoping for, but there you have it.


stuart b.

[guohuen]

I used to have a sparring partner your size and build that was a Wing Chun practitioner. Infighting ability and power. Nice combination.

[JusticeZero]

Oh, I agree, you can make it work for you. But typically, short stocky people do arts like judo because it's easier to use the attributes they have. And since that was really the only bit of data we were given, I couldn't easily move outside that.

[Liokault]

Ok if you want to train in a martial art to develope inner strength or disipline ok it dose not matter what you train in but if you wish to exel you need to train in the right art for your self. In your case that means no long rangr stricking arts. No boxing no taekwondo.

Try judo jujitsu bbj wrestling etc....or maybe southern kung fu....but only if you ever want to be able to use your atr.



For your body type i would advise judo.

[stoli]

I think one important point is what do YOU want from your training ?? That will influence what you want to learn and THAT should be the prime motivation behind what art you choose.

Best single point made so far on this thread is that you must never think that your body type can limit your training, whilst certain body types are more suited to certain arts anyone (and any body) can learn any art.

[apoweyn]

liokault,

i don't believe that. not for an instant. again, i submit to you that by that rationale, mike tyson should have been mauled by taller boxers. that point fighter i watched should have been mauled by his opponents.

a shorter taekwondoka will need to develop strategies for closing with an opponent. that's it. once he's inside his opponent's kicking range, he'll still be at his optimal kicking range. perhaps he's also at his opponent's optimal punching range. but his kick is stronger. so he develops tactics to evade punches and deliver kicks. or he closes further, so that he's past his opponent's optimal punching range but still in his. and so on.

in short (excuse the pun), if a shorter fighter develops tactics to close distance, they can often put themselves at an advantage in a striking game. and while i agree with justicezero that a shorter fighter could excel at a grappling art, i maintain that they could excel at absolutely any art. it's only when shorter fighters take the word of taller fighters that they are truly at a disadvantage. if they take the time to develop tactics to make their height and build work to their advantage, there shouldn't be that disadvantage. and in my experience fighting shorter people, there hasn't been.


stuart b.

[Liokault]

How tall is Tyson? I have a feeling he is not as short as you think he is.

Ok taking this thread to extreams a 5 foot 5 inch tall guy weighing 250 pounds is not going to be great at back fliping into the splits in wu shu (if you can call modern wu shu a martial art) but that same guy is going to be great at sumo.

[Merryprankster]

Liokault,

Talking out of your arse. Badly.

[Liokault]

Hows that then?

[Merryprankster]

Ap already covered it.

You suggested wrestling type styles because he's short and squat. Then you said "no long range styles."

Ridiculous assertion.

Plenty of short and stubby boxers. Plenty of long and lanky ones too. Same with kickboxers. Plenty of long and lanky wrestlers and short ones as well, same with the Judoka...

The trick is that they USE DIFFERENT TACTICS. Same techniques (barring individual preference), different tactics to apply them.

It's all about how you use what you've got. Ap covered the whole thing. Read his posts until they make sense.

Limiting yourself in your choice of MA's because you have the "wrong body type," is absurd.