Choosing what style to study can be one of the biggest, and hardest, decisions you have to make as a martial artist, particularly when you've never studied martial arts before.  Of course, there's no rule saying you can only study one art in a lifetime and you can always change arts later, but finding the right first art can shape your experiences and attitudes for the rest of your martial arts career so it's important to find the right one for you.

Arts/Styles vs. Schools

A few things should be noted before we start.  First, this article will focus entirely on choosing an art/style and not on finding a good school.  Some people use the terms 'school' and 'art' interchangeably.  For instance, Shotokan-Ryu Karate is a particular type or style of Karate.  Literally, the 'Ryu' part (流) can mean 'school,' 'method,' 'style' or 'manner of'. Because of this, you occaisonally hear people refer to the 'Shotokan school' of Karate, meaning the Shotokan style. For the purposes of this article I'm using the words 'style' and 'art' to refer only to the system or the art itself, regardless of who or where is teaching it.  When I use the word 'school' I mean a specific location/establishment that teaches one or many arts.