What's your goal? Asking, "What's a good martial art for me?" is like asking, "What's a good car for me?" Well, do you want a very reliable car that you never h

What's your goal? Asking, "What's a good martial art for me?" is like asking, "What's a good car for me?" Well, do you want a very reliable car that you never have to do maintenance on, do you want a really fast car you can race, do you want some sort of luxury or prestige? There's a few different goals you could have with martial arts: Fitness/athleticism, competition/camaraderie/sport, philosophy/balance, and/or practical self defense. Of the last one, there's also a few considerations. A highly trained martial artist in any art is going to fight very well, but how long do you intend to train and when if ever do you think you'd need to be proficient? For me, I don't care about the sport aspect, the fitness aspect, the competition aspect, or the philosophy aspect. I sometimes travel through dangerous places, and I needed training that would get me proficient to protect myself in a variety of common situations. I researched into this some, and if you want rapid proficiency at self defense - to the exclusion of the other elements I mentioned - then I'd recommend a martial art that's been refined and taught by a successful military. The two that I was deciding between to learn first are Krav Maga, the Israeli Army's martial art, and Systema, the Russian one. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_maga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_maga http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systema http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Systema I was in Los Angeles which has the flagship American Krav studio, so I studied there and enjoyed it a lot, and I feel capable of defending myself in a variety of situations after only a few months of training. Eventually, I'd like to round myself out by studying a variety of martial arts, but for very practical fast learning curve self defense (to the exclusion of philosophy and sport) I was looking at Krav and Systema. Regular boxing also seems to have a quick learning curve - I don't know if it's true, but I've that pure boxers will be ahead of the learning curve of most martial arts that use punches and kicks for about two years before the martial artist passes the boxer.