Is martial arts a good self defense for a 19 yr old?

TKD sucks........I am a huge critic of TKD, and I do dislike it; I find it only to be good for getting people interested in Martial Arts. Here are my reasons to validate my point because I am not a troll :P 1) Punching, Knees, Elbows, and various other forms of its striking is in-effective compared to other MA's; it has no clinch, and has a weak rip off blocking system of Karate, it doesn't even block against rear chokes, takedowns, knees, and elbows only punches and kicks. 2) Its strongest abilities, its kicks, take way too long and are very impractical for 3 reasons- A) It is self defense kicks, but in narrow hallways, kitchens etc you CANNOT jump up and spin in the air without injuring yourself greatly.

B) They take too long, by the time you jump and start to spin I could just front kick you right out of the air.....and in less then half the time..... C) You cannot kick like that in your normal attire....try that tornado in jeans....... 3) It is the biggest McDojo; probably half the TKD's are McDojo's, and hand out belts to anyone, or is more of a baby sitter then a training environment. I know thats not fair, but not my fault. 4) It claims to be an effective form of self defense....yet a lot of its defense moves are based on your opponent being in front of you; I have been attacked, jumped, and mugged only ONCE was it from in front of me, most of the time there is just a gun to the back of your head, or you get tackled/grappled from behind.....which it does not cover...... 5) This is the most important because it is not as effective as the teachers make it seem you have mostly 2 types of people running around- A) The 14-36 yr old who think they are all that and tougher then nails because they have a colored belt, so they act like arrogant pricks because their belt is so far up their ***.

B) You have14-36 yr old people walking around at night with false confidence thinking they are safe because they have a belt, so their observation skills decrease and they are more likely to be in a situation of which they need to defend themselves....but as I said previously TKD doesn't cover real defense.... Now it was once a brilliant martial art, and very good for self defense....but not anymore times have changed, and it can't deal with the new times....

Garret, thanks for mentioning our art, but we are not Krav Maga with traditional martial arts roots. We are a traditional martial art, with titles, uniforms, salutations, belts, forms, and respect and discipline is taught. We are just the "Hawaiian street fighting art" and we just have crazy training methods.

And because of those crazy training methods, not too many people stay in Kajukenbo and that's why nobody's ever heard of Kajukenbo. And when Kajukenbo people compete, they follow the rules of the competition. Benny Urquidez follows the rules of kickboxing, and Chuck Lidell follows the rules of the UFC.

Or else they would be disqualified. What was shown on Fight Quest was just a few Kajukenbo schools getting together and having a bit of fun. The basic rule is don't deliberately do anything to hurt your sparring partner because you want him to come back to train next week.

But sometimes things get a bit out of hand. But it's never intentional. Kajukenbo is good for self-defense.

But the training is vigorous, brutal, violent and painful. And most people cannot handle it. It takes immense dedication to go back week after week.

If there's a hardcore Kajukenbo school in your area, check it out. If not, check out the Karate, Kung Fu and Tae Kwon Do schools. Best of luck in finding the martial art that suits you.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.