Hi atypical,
Thanks! As far as what martial art to recommend, that is a hard thing to do. I guess it depends on what your goals are and what you want to accomplish in it. I didn't get into the martial arts until I was 19 years old. I was picked on quite a bit when I was in school, so I took Kuk Sool Won in the military because that was being offered at the base I was on. My original intention was to be tough and learn how to fight. I developed this false sense of confidence that I could handle myself in any situation and I always tried to instigate a fight to see if my techniques would work. I was humbled when I sparred a wrestler and learned that it would take more than a few weeks of learning to become proficient. I was also very immature then too but i did some growing up along the way.
After the military, I moved to Vermont to be with my parents and go to college. I found a Chinese Kempo school and enrolled there. I found Kempo by the movie "The Perfect Weapon" with Jeff Speakman. His demonstarion of Kempo techniques on film was very impressive and I was drawn to that. During my Kempo training, I started to read the "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" by Bruce Lee. Bruce was against structured systems or orginizations. He believed that the belt did not signify a persons level of mastery in the martial arts. He encouraged an abandonment of systems and encouraged freedom and creativity. My instructor also felt that way and encouraged us to pick up other martial arts to further our training. From there I picked up Modern Arnis (a filipino stick fighting system) and Brazilian Jiu Jtsu. This helped me to really open my mind and learn from all 3 arts instead of being bound and inhibiting myself in just one art. My base was in punching and kicking, but I also had skills in grappling and weapon manipulation. It is much like the way I feel about the WTS, you may think you learn the truth, but you may feel that you can't grow as a person and feel trapped inside by the contraints of the org.
What you may consider doing is investigating schools around your area. Finding a good instructor is key, you should be able to figure out which ones are in it for the money and which ones are sincere in their teaching. Once you find a good school, stay in for at least 1-2 years to develop a good foundation. From there you can start looking at other arts because you should know the basic punches, kicks, blocks and breakfalls. Your goal in looking at the other arts is to "fill in the gaps" that you think are there that would make you a complete martial artist. But most of all, the martial arts has given me a sense of peace and a sense of personal accomplishment. That is what I miss the most and I can't wait to have that back in my life!
