Martial Arts - School Advice

Little Update -

Talked to one of my instructors, who is also a friend about my feelings on sparring and how I haven't learned anything since I've started in their system. He seemed rather surprised about the latter and will start working on it this coming week. We will see what happens. About sparring, he said if I'm willing I can move up to the red and black level (only sparring), which is mild to hard contact level.

So, I will either be happy or regret talking to him.

I recomend either Judo or Krav Maga. I liked judo.

Wow, I was actually going to PM you somete down the road Alphie about what I shouldlook out for when I start to find a martial arts school. I figured if anyone had some advice on what to look out for it would be you.

Great advice everyone, it definitely has me thinking of looking into Akido more seriously instead of picking up Karate and Tae Kwon Do again. Now if only we had a Kendo school here....

Personally Id go for a mix of Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai and Brazillian Jui Jitsu.

I train Muay Thai. We go almost 100% in sparring every class. We have amateur fights 1-2 times a month. If your class is teaching you bitch slap kicks you are in the wrong martial arts school. IMHO people should be taught functional martial arts not sport martial arts, its useless in a street fight. We have a student that is a 5 year Taekwondo guy and one that is 4 years experience. The 4 year guy does fine, he trained ard at his last place. The 5 year guy gets killed by us in sparring and was humbled quickly. He has no shin conditioning, his kicks look fast and nasty but he always hurts his foot and does no damage cause they are slappy. 1 kick to his quad seems to immobilize him. This seems to be the norm though, I find schools rarely do conditioning or spar hard, and they lose their fights.