What are the benefits and disadvantages of learning a martial art? (These may range from physical protection to spirituality/character development.)
I have never learnt one but might be interested, and am wondering what practitioners believe benefits and disadvantages are.
WRS
Foremost for me, martial arts resulted in better health, which resulted in better sleep, which resulted in more energy, which resulted in a better quality of life. It’s good to feel healthy, and can benefit a person both mentally and physically.
Disadvantages:
There are never enough of either.
Advantages:
It’s a great workout. I sit in front of a computer all day, so it’s nice to do something physical from time to time 
It’s improved my poise, balance, etc. These might not be terribly important, but I feel better
It’s something fun I can share with my kids.
Martial Arts are cool; and by cool, I mean totally sweet. 
Be careful how much you share with the kids, as it is the path to TOTAL ULTIMATE POWER!
1st Dan Black Belt here.
Benefits (In no particular order):
Disadvantages
Depending on where you go it will cost you some money. The cost will vary from instructor to instructor. Then there is the cost of equipment which includes safety pads and protective gear, uniform (if required), weapons (if the style you choose uses them), and testing fees. Testing fees will vary by instructor and some charge huge testing fees, so be sure and ask what those are up front.
You will get hit. It is a fact that when learning martial arts, you will get hit and it will hurt. It’s happened to me and happens to everyone. Though most martial arts schools and instructors take every precaution to keep that from happening, it does happen. If you plan on training, it is best to just accept that fact and get on with it.
Martial arts schools vary in quality from one place to the next. There is unfortunately no way of standardizing all of the thousands of MA schools and instructors out there for comparison. So you will have to look around and research for yourself and find out which school or instructor is best for you. My recomendation is to be wary of schools where the instructor won’t show you much as a spectator. Also, be wary of places that make the claim that you can get to a “Black Belt” level within a year. These are usually the places with unusually high testing fees and the instructors are just passing people up to the next rank just to get their money. The end result is a bunch of so-called black belts that don’t really have proper skills.
Hope this helps.
I’m a 5th Degree Black Belt, and I totally echo what Dragwyr said. Good points made there.
If you are going to start, the best place is by recommendation from someone you know that is an m.a. student/instructor and that you trust. If you don’t have someone like that, do some comparison shopping. Go to schools nearby and watch a class. Any worthwhile instructor will let you try-before-you-buy; I personally give 30 days free instruction to anyone at the drop of a hat. Talk to the instructor about their personal teaching philosophy. And they should give you pricing right up front with no hemming and hawing. I have a new prospect handout that I give them with all the program costs laid out.
Once you make your decision, then dive in. Put forth 100% effort and enjoy it, because it will be one of the best things you will ever do in your life!
Yes, I am slightly biased in favor of martial arts. Does it show?
I’ve been doing kung fu (in a few different styles) for about 10 years now.
Pros:
Self confidence
Improved balance and footwork
General all-around good physical health
Intellectual happiness (many technical things to learn and think about)
Met some life-long friends
An ability to talk endlessly about the virtues of martial arts cinema
Oh yeah, and self-defense skills…funny that’s the last thing that came to mind for me, must have been doing this too long 
Cons:
Time and money, but no more so than would be had with any other sports club or typical hobby.
I quit doing kung fu last year.
One of the reasons was that I found myself thinking about fighting and forms too much, to the detriment of other things.
I prefer hamster-wheel style exercises where my mind can wander without worrying about my bell being rung because I put down my guard.
I did an old-timey kung-fu style for three years, and it had plenty of positives for me:
Excellent body conditioning and strength training. You know how you might describe someone who is very tough as being “hard” ? That sums up serious kung-fu stylists for me, when you spar with them their forearms and legs have the texture of stone. The training you’ll get from a decent martial arts class will take you way way beyond anything you’ve encountered in a gym.
Most martial arts teach you to use your body in ways that you’ve probably never really thought about, the control you need to perform a kung-fu pattern correctly is incredibly challenging. I’d never experienced such a range of movement and motion before in other sports, its a beautiful thing being able to **completely **control your movement, even for a brief moment.
The mental training I got from the classes was powerful. I now realise that the physical techniques we learned would be so completely useless in a real fight as to be counter-productive (I can probably still do a flapping lower crane block ). However, mentally you’ll learn a lot. Things like decision making, commitment and keeping a clear head are vital fighting skills. Sometimes I’d leave a class absolutely exhausted, without having done much physical work.
Despite the positives, I’m glad I stopped in retrospect. The main problem was that I looked at the experts in the class and I didn’t like what I saw: very nice, achingly polite and crushingly boring young men (just my class, not trying to generalise ). The style was just so difficult that to master it demanded a staggering time commitment (two times a week doesn’t begin to cut it for a serious kung fu stlyle), very few people have what it takes to bring that off. If you can do it and bring your personality along for the ride then my hats off to you.
You should try it, the intensity, agression and physical challenge are worth experiencing. Once you’re over that then the challenge is whether you want to work it into your life, long term. I didn’t, so I bailed. However, plenty of folk in this thread sound like they have made martial arts work for them.
Another factor for me (a long with all the others that have been mentioned) is that I feel a connection to history when practicing martial arts.
I practice Historical European Martial Arts currently (medieval and renaissance forms of combat), and it’s one more way for me to connect to a time period that holds a lot of interest for me.
I already came from a background in Eastern Martial Arts, so I felt this was a natural step where I could connect with the history and wouldn’t have to do any role-playing and re-enacting that is usually associated with the scene.
I’m sure most eastern martial artists feel the same way in their conneciton to the rich history of their own martial arts practice.
1st dan TKD, currently training in shotokan.
I train because it’s fun. I started when I was ten because it looked like fun. It is. It’s a great workout, most schools have excellent senses of camraderie, and…that’s pretty much it. For me, it was pretty much the one constant throughout my teen years, therefore became a definite part of me. So I keep training even when sometimes, it’s not fun, because it’s what I do.
The vast majority of MAs are NOT self-defense. Yes, learning to take a punch will help you, and learning some grappling and throws could help (aikido, BJJ, judo). Most instructors worth their salt will supplement the traditional curriculum with some practical self defense techniques. The most valuable two self-defense techniques are: 1) Don’t get in a situation where you’d get into a fight, and 2) Run like hell. For more on this, I highly, highly, highly recommend taking a look here - this guy really knows what he’s talking about.
The cons are, IMO, mostly that sometimes it’s not fun: it hurts and you get beat around and exhausted. I’ve been in a perpetual stated of bruised since I started training, and sore muscles happen just as often. It can be expensive. It can (if you want it to be) be time consuming.
It’s so worth it. Check out what schools are in your area, call, see if you can watch a class, and do so. Choosing a martial art and a school is sort of like storybook love: You just know it’s for you.
Brown belt in TKD (not the Olympic kind - the more traditional one) with some Hapkido thrown in.
Right now I have chronic fatigue syndrome, and can’t train. I miss it desperately. In my class, at least, many white belts come, and few stay, but those who do tend to be completely sucked in - we love it for itself, not for the exercise or the coolness factor or whatever. (It’s three hour and a half classes a week until brown, when it becomes four classes. It requires a certain work ethic and level of commitment.)
Aside from the (amazing) physical conditioning, the most important thing I’ve gotten out of it is the knowledge that I can push myself incredibly hard. I can do way more than I think I can.
The people are amazing. There are a couple of guys in my class that I’d trust with my life.
I love the focus. I love the fact that for an hour and a half, I can put aside the rest of the crap going on in my life and pay attention only to perfecting my forms or my kicks or just pushing myself through some punishing workout.
I get a warm, happy feeling knowing I can kick someone six feet tall in the head (I’m a petite woman), although I know this isn’t the world’s most practical skill.
Also, I love the way it totally screws with people’s heads when they find out that I do this, because it’s not a Nice Orthodox Jewish Girl thing to do. (I don’t think that’d be a major consideration for most people, though )
Cons: You’re going to be perpetually banged up. The first couple of months your muscles will be very sore, after every class. My sister is a bit freaked out by the weirdly masochistic pride I take in my bruising, but I tend to think of them as badges of pride. (I wear a face shield when sparring, and have managed to avoid serious banging up there. I like my teeth where they are, thank you very much.)
It hasn’t made me into a good fighter - I’m sure that varies among the different martial arts, but in my own classes, I’ve seen a range of natural fighting ability, and I’ve never been able to overcome my total lack of fighting talent.
You need to train a lot to actually get good at it. Once a week isn’t going to be enough.
My own class is mostly free up until brown belt, but most places are expensive.
I don’t know whether this is a pro or a con, but TKD took over my life to a scary degree fairly quickly. It dictated how much water I drank all day (lots) when I ate (not for a couple of hours before class, which makes dinner very late most days), what few nights I was available for the rest of my social life, how often I did laundry, how I structured my work day (so that I could be out in time for class), even what color underwear I wore on what days. (I think dark underwear under a gi looks a bit skanky. YMMV.) I talked about it all the time until I figured out that my non-TKD friends weren’t very interested.
The above is very true, I used to practice karate, I gave up largely because of moving house and having kids, which limited my available time. In order to learn properly you must be able to dedicate a fair amount of time to whichever art you choose to learn.
Like Dragwyr said above, beware those with little knowledge, I joined one after we moved and have developed a semi permanent injury to my hip joint due to damage caused by improper stretching exercises. Which due to my limited knowledge I was not aware were doing more harm than good.
I personally liked the mental discipline and fitness aspects rather than learnig how to fight, but that it a useful side effect. Learning a martial art is much more enjoyable than going to the gym.
Another agreement on Dragwyr’s summary. However, I’d like to point out one very important “pro” that NinjaChick has sort of touched on: it will make you a less violent person.
This seems very contradictory, but was very true for me (and remains true although it’s been years since I’ve studied). Starting out as a teenager, looking to become this badass stud, after a number of years you start to realize that the need to “prove your manhood” kind of goes away, and as you get better, you realize if you ever were in a confrontation, you could really mess somebody up ! I don’t know if this is how it goes for everyone, and maybe it’s more a matter of “maturing” than from the training itself. But life doesn’t become like the old west with “gun fighters” challenging you the better you become. And what does happen is that your “threshold” for what it would take for you to actually take some action gets higher and higher - the consequences simply aren’t worth it. Most of the martial artists I’ve spoken with have come to the same conclusion. If they’re into tournaments and competing, then they focus on being better for the competition. But it would take quite a bit to provoke them into a fight on the street.
Yep. I’ve had people apologize for losing their temper and hitting me and I was thinking, “What, that? That’s not hitting…”
I used to train a lot with some ex-military friends of mine, fairly high-contact stuff with no specific purpose other than to learn how to fight better. I had to stop last summer due to financial concerns and a few months ago I thought to myself, “Hey, I haven’t gotten kicked or punched or thrown to the ground in, like, six months…” and I hadn’t missed it at all. I’m thinking of getting back into Shotokan, but that’s going to cost some money…