What would be the best martial arts discipline for a female with a very small frame?

i'm pretty small (5'5", 100 lbs) and i wanted to try out some martial arts training, focusing on defense. however, i don't want some pansy method that turns out to be essentially sitting on a mat and thinking (or thinking of nothing). i break pretty easily, i've broken six bones. help!

What would be the best martial arts discipline for a female with a very small frame?
Quicksilver's right about researching the martial arts that are actually available to you, but he's dead wrong about the relationship between arts and your physical type. In any given art, you can find people of all body types, true enough -- if you want to, you can adapt whatever art to your body. But it's easier to start with an art that is already designed to capitalize on your particular traits. Some arts are designed for a particular physical type. Others have a full range of drills and skills to help individual practitioners adapt the art to their bodies -- but a lot don't.


Since you break easily, you'll want to find (or start) a training group that caters to your particular needs. One of the keys to this is partners that are willing to do asymmetrical practice. For example, you can deliver harsh throws -- and at your size, it's a really good idea. But you can't take them, because you stand a good chance of breaking something. You need training partners who don't have a "if you can dish it, you can take it" mentality. Most commercial schools won't help you here -- their business and instructional models depend on treating students uniformly. So you're looking for more 'family' or 'village' style arts, arts with a full range -- something for the young buck, something for the old woman, something for the girl who lost a leg, something for the sickly man who isn't strong and never will be.


In terms of styles, in my experience, this means (some) Indonesian and Filipino styles, perhaps Capoeira de Angola, some of the central asian martial arts (russian martial art). And if the style comes with a pretty well-developed health system bundled in, very much the better. But far more than a particular style, you're looking for an accommodating instructor and practice group.


We're talking stuff that's hard to find. You'll be amazingly lucky to have an existing group in your area. But if there isn't one, don't let that stop you -- get a friend or two together and start something. There are several organizations that have good video curricula and distance education programs. You won't "learn martial art" as such from a video, but you can get some useful preparation and begin to acquire some useful skills, so that when you do have access to quality instruction, you're prepared to make the most of it. (Knock around the Kuntaosilat.com site below for more advice on learning from video -- they've been doing it a while, and have produced some competent students.)
Reply:find a good teacher is the most important.





by good I mean one that teaches you with RESISTANCE. many schools teach and they teach while the students are always totally compliant. This is not good. At first it is ok, but after the first few tries you should be picking up resisting and then doing full or at least hard resistance when drilling. You should be learning in a realistic setting where your school recognizes its own style's specialties and weaknesses. You do need to spar, but throwing you to the dogs on the first day does nothing but get you bruised.





Also ask yourself why do you want to learn something for "defence"?





If you mean Self-Defence, then the best style is not to learn a hand-to hand fighting style but to learn to use a weapon.





Even the greatest unarmed martial artist is in deadly trouble against even an unskilled person with a weapon. Unless of course that weapon is nunchucks where the user is more likely to hurt themselves than thier enemy.





If this is what you are looking for you should consider a CCW (concealed weapons) permit to carry a handgun and learn to shoot. or knife or a small baton type of weapon like a jutte that you can carry with you.





You should supplement weapon training with hand to hand if you have time but at 5'5' 100 lbs you will ALWAYS be at a disadvantage as most people are bigger than you, most women will be, not only most men (except pee-wee herman or nancy boys like tom cruise) weapons make people equal.
Reply:Ma'am,





What many people fail to realize about Martial Arts is that there isn't a particular "brand" that is a "best fit".





There IS NOT a Martial Art that works for people with SPECIFIC body characteristics (height, weight, body type, gender, etc.)





Because the fact is that when people ask "what's a good Martial Art for me to learn?" or “what’s the “best” Martial Art to learn” has 2 major problems:





1st: these questions just beg for the majority of people here to start blurting out names of disciplines that are probably not even available in your area.





2nd: Just because they recommend a Martial Art that they may (or worse MAY NOT) have studied and it just happened to become THEIR favorite Martial Art because they’re interested in studying it or it worked for them** doesn't mean that it's going to work for you or that you’ll find it interesting.





(**this is due to the pride they have in their discipline, which is a good thing; but should be looked at more realistically about what YOU need to get out of the discipline and not what THEY want to tell you about what they've studied)








First of all, what YOU need to do is research local schools by looking in the phone book or internet search engine to find out if there ARE any Martial Arts schools in your area.





Second, if you can find at least 3 schools that interest you, watch a few classes at each one and decide which one out of those 3 schools that interested you the most.





Third, the next thing you should do is find out if they have some trial classes (up to a weeks worth to help you make a decision, hopefully without being hassled to join or sign a contract to join the class), and if you find that you like the school, then enroll in the class.





You just need to find a Martial Arts School that will provide a safe, "family like" environment for you and that the instructor(s) are going to help you become the best Martial Artist that you can become.





The discipline you may wind up studying DOESN'T MATTER because there is NO discipline that is better than another, because they ALL have their strengths AND weaknesses





What matters is that you feel comfortable in the classes (and like the classes) and feel comfortable that the instructor (and the instructor's TEACHING style and not the discipline itself) can properly teach you self defense without the "smoke and mirrors" .





The instructor should also like to do it more for the teaching aspect rather than the "making money" which it is a business to make money after all; but it should not be the only reason for teaching the discipline.





The biggest problem you should worry about in finding a school is being aware of schools that're a "McDojo's" or "belt factory" type of school.





These schools usually do a lot of boasting; particularly about how soon their students make their 1st degree black belts. A prime example of this: having several "young black belts" that're usually 9 or 10 yr old kids, which should be a rare thing to see unless the child started learning the discipline when they were 4 yrs old, or promising that as a student you’ll be making your black belt in about a year’s time (the average should be between 4 to 5 years or better) which often means that they have a high student turnout rate. This is a Red Flag





They may also try to get you to commit to (by signing) a contract, usually one that's 6 months long or more or try to get you to pay down a large sum of money for that kind of time period. This is a BIG red flag





And don’t be fooled by these schools telling you about how many tournaments or competitions their students have entered and placed in or won a trophy, which is NOT a necessity in Martial Arts. Tournaments/competitions can be good to test your own skills at point sparring but again, it’s not necessary because they are the LEAST important aspect to concern yourself with in Martial Arts.





Long story short, these schools will basically "give" you your belt ranks every few months as long as you are paying the outrageous fees per month, and you won't really learn self defense.
Reply:It sounds like you are somewhat sickly are you getting enough fiber in your diet.
Reply:Assuming that you find a "REAL" school and not Jo Blo's Do Jo, I would try and find an Art that deals with Physics and the geometrical structure of the human body.





It should teach you to break down the human structure while at the same time, teaching you the most optimum posture related to the technique being executed.
Reply:Quicksilver is right. But keep in mind that if you break easy, you are more likely to get seriously damaged learning martial arts than you would defending yourself.
Reply:Just learn the dirty tricks to run away
Reply:Kajukenbo - no mystical crap , pure self defense . It was designed to work for anyone especially smaller people . It is a little rough though . Explain your situation to the instructor before you sign up for any type of training , that way they can help you to become stronger and not so delicate . Some other good styles are - CHA 3 kenpo , jujitsu , wing chun , and tang soo do .
Reply:Wing Chun kung fu is pretty effective, and it is said to be developed by a woman. Since it's nearly all striking (elbows, knees, straight blows, low kicks, ...), it should be complemented by, let's say Aikido: deflecting and joint manipulation. Wing Chun can be learned in a pretty short time, unlike many other eastern martial arts.





I wouldn't recommend Judo or any form of wrestling. I suppose you have noticed that Judo, wrestling, Jui Jitsu, ....-competitors are devided by weight class? it has a reason: leverage.





Krav Maga (Israelian) and Systema (or any other similar Russian MA) have great reputations. Only, I wouldn't know weither weight, strength,... are decisive in these combat systems.
Reply:I would suggest Aikido, JuJitsu (one of the asian styles, not Brazilian which involves more punches and kicks) or Shaolin Kempo since it's a "soft" style in that they don't do iron palm striking, they emphasise working with your body and build. USSD offers Shaolin Kempo across the USA. Aikido is a little tricky to find a dojo for. JuJitsu is fairly common, but Brazilian style is going to get you hurt if you break easily.
Reply:Pretty bad answer here but if you are looking for defense, I would suggest mase.
Reply:quiksilver covered about everything that I would say, I am also a small person (5' - 123 lbs.) . Finding a school (dojo) and a teacher (sensei) that will work with your strengths and weaknesses is of the utmost importance. You don't say how you broke bones, that may be important to take into account. You will build muscle and flexibilty as you train, so perhaps you would be less prone to injuries. Talk to the instructor that you choose about this. Good luck.
Reply:Try track.
Reply:You could try Aikido or perhaps Judo. Both of which use the opponents strength and momentum against them. Both styles focus on defense over attack, though either could be used for such a purpose if it was needed. With Aikido you'll be focusing more on deflecting the attack from being successful and with Judo you'll be studying various pressure points and joint locks that will disable the opponent to the point that they can no longer attack.





Both disciplines rely more heavily on keeping a solid footing and balance while keeping your opponent off balance so you wouldn't need to be very large or strong to be able to defend yourself against someone much larger than yourself.





Check out the links below for more info.





EDIT: Just thought of another you may want to look into called Krav Maga. It's taught to special forces military units around the world and is highly effective. Many police forces are also trained with it. The civilian version you would learn would be watered down in that it would not include various holds and pressure points taught to police and it would certainly not include the lethal attacks taught to the military. Krav Maga, unlike Aikido and Judo, is purely for self defense. There are no fancy moves, no competitions and it's not considered a sport. What you'll learn with it is exactly what works rather than what "should work" or what looks impressive to judges in a competition.
Reply:Ryukya Kempo advance pressure point technology is the best i know. Check out www.dillman.com for more info. I trained there through seminars and it is very effective.