Kensei,
that takes me back to a scene in the movie Kung Pow

"and now my students you will learn long fist....prepare the long rubber glove!"

What you can do is take 2 types of MA something like kung fu where you learn the philosophy behind everything, and then sumthing like MT and you can adapt and work of each other. that is a similar cosept behind the style of jiu jitsu that i do it is a blend of drunken kung fu and Japanese jiu jitsu and i find its a realy dominant style its very flowing style of jiu jitsu as apposed to BJJ were its more static

some of the techniques in kung fu may be useful in a fight but i'm not going to do a butterfly kick or something in one.....

im not really fond of TKD or Kung fu but i believe Kung Fu would prevail even in a fight but not MMA

As a BL's JKD practioner, I would definetly recomend it as a striking martial art. You won't get much of that "Aikido" stuff though, it really is all about striking; punching mostly, alot of low-kicks (depending on the school), trapping(which is awesome), and some ground defense when you're at an advanced level, but not really any throws or joint locks.

I'd recomend taking a pure striking MA like JKD or MT, and if you have the money/time, take BJJ as well to master both aspects.

Ng Gar Tien wing chun does alot of sparring and ground work

Wing chun is a great work out and CAN be part of a good striking system, but I have never seen a WC guy do well in a fight, they fight like in a dojo and can not make the transition. Personally I have faught a Wing Chun guy and he was not hard to take out. I was bouncing and he was picking a fight seconds after coming in the door....did not even get any liquid courage in him.

I have yet to see a KF styleist or TKD fighter that can really fight.

As far as Chinese martial arts, I'd recommend Tanglang (Mantis Style Kung Fu) It teaches you a wide range on useful skills that include striking, throwing and a sub genre, Mantis Boxing. I picked this up after gaining my Blackbelt in Hapkido, and both have really helped me in my MMA training all across the board!

Hi,as people have said there are 100`s of styles but very few Kung Fu styles offer the level of sparring and effectivness that modern day Arts offer ie:-MMA,Thai ,Kickboxing ect..I now do freestyle Kung Fu which is a combo of Thai,Judo Kung Fu ,but be careful as there are many rogues out there !One of the few Kung fu styles out there that do offer great all round abilitys ie..Forms,Sparring and health is a style i used to study and thats Choy Li Fut Kung Fu which is a combo of Northeren Shoalin and Southern but you are able to learn and use this in competions ie,contact and also more traditionally forms well and stands toe to toe with Thai and Kick Boxing but don`t get me wrong you do have to practice like no one else to achieve this anyway just a thought i hope this has helped...

the problem with finding a martial art that covers the "philosofic" part of Maartials arts as i see it is that there is alot of bullshit out there. Everyone wants to find an easy way to fight like Jet Lee in his movies and alot of people take advantage of this and they say that they teach "the ultimate street fighting system". My advice to you is this: take on muay thai or something else that is known to actually works without all the philosofi and that shit and then after a while when you get a hang of the basics you will be able to determine for yourself what is true and what is not, what works and what is bullshit. That way you can find out what you want to do and not having to trust everyone else when it comes to what works and what doesn't, you have alot of time to experiment with these things since you are so young.

You picked up "tanglang"??? or did you study Tong Long Tse??? I mean Tanglang is a chinese drink that is some strange fruit and carbinated...and Tong Long Tse is Mantis boxing!

However, I think keeping hydrated is very important

first off it is philosophy! Slaughtering the queens tounge is akin to calling Bruce Lee/Chuck Norris a Homo!

Secondly Thai style boxing may not be the best street defense their is. Again and with Extreame amounts of emphasis, it is not the style, but the person. First off Thai Style fighters are great at Offence, but defence...not so much. They are good in the ring, but if you ever try to block a street punch with a guard possition like a Thai fighter/Boxer, you will suffer for it. Having said that, I have seen some great fighters while bouncing and small percent of them were Thai boxers. The larger percent of them however were Judo guys. dont know why but they just seem to be able to fight better in a bar than a boxer or kick boxer can.

First of kensei, I am swedish and skipped most of my english leassons so my english is what it is

Secondly I never said that muay thai is a good system when it comes to street defense, I basically said that alot of people says alot of bullshit when it comes to martial arts and the easiest way to get past that is simply to learn for yourself what hurts and what is complete bullshit.

For example some ninja dude was on the tv the other day and showing a type of "hammarpunch" which allegedly is supposed to stop your heart. Now, he was talking quiete much about how dangerous this was and how he could stop anyone with this punch but he would never use it since it was lethal...yeah, I don't know shit about how easy or how difficult it is for someone to stop your heart but I know this, if I get into a fight and the other guy tries to step so close to me that he will be able to start throwing hammar punches to my heart, I will either KO the guy before he has a chance to do anything or he will hammar punch me and stop my heart...but if the guy can get close enough to throw that kind of shit on me then he will probably be able to KO me aswell and if he KO's me then he can do whatever he wants to me anyway so why bother with going through all the trouble with this "hammar" shit.

my point of all this crap is that this guy can stand there and say "oh I have been training this punch for 20 years now and if you pay 100 bucks I will teach it to you" and alot of people would actully pay because they don't know what actully works and what doesn't and because of that they got scammed for 100 bucks. So, learn what works and what doesn't, what hurts and what doesn't hurt...what puts a guy down and what you can take and still stand, after you know all those basics, you can start training systems that are made for street defense and that way you can also determine for yourself what is bullshit and what is not.

Sorry Kurt, Did not mean to make fun of you, I was thinking I was making fun...with you!

I have to say, I agree with the rest of your second post 100%!

Being that you are younger than most of the other guys here, I would say that Kung Fu is a decent place to start. I have trained and still training TKD, MT, BJJ, tactical self defense,CQCT started training KFM and learned that everything is good in it's place. Find out from the instructors how long it will take you to study seriously and earn a blackbelt. A lot of instructors now find it acceptable to let you "buy" a blackbelt with a couple of years of lessons. Good instructors will impress upon you that acheiving the belt is not the critical portion, but acheiving balance between skill and concept. Anyone that I have trained with has had the approach that building skill and self are more important than what belt you had tied around your middle. Kung fu (depending on the style) will also help you to learn about body kinetics. Learning Sticky Hands can help you greatly as it teaches you how to flow with your partner and learn the feeling of your opponents movements versus just seeing them.

Maybe an important question for you is: what are you looking for from a martial art? Are you looking to hurt someone or to protect yourself? or something else?