if youre tall taekwondo

>>37255664
Depends on if your area of interest

If you just want to be able to defend yourself well in a scuffle, boxing and MT are always very good choices. Boxing teaches you very good defense (to the point where basically you're untouchable to someone untrained) and MT teaches you how to hit/trip people from all ranges including clinching

best style for what? if you want to learn real fighting then forget martial arts. if you want to have fun then martial arts are great, but honestly the "best" depends much more on the specific schools in your area than the style itself. every school is unique in some way. some are filled with assholes, some are filled with poor martial arts masters and some are just plain awesome.

Aikido

>>37255686
This is gonna catch a lot of criticism but I want something thats practical and looks a bit cooler than most. Obviously im aware that the coolest looking ones are absolute garbage in a real fight but there has to be one that looks semi badass thats also efficient

>>37255691
What should I look for at a school to know if theyre good instructors and not assholes?

>>37255709
just ask if you can train with them before you make the decision to join. it's not just about the instructors, it's also about the other students. I went to a kung-fu school that had the most awesome group of people. I had a shit ton of fun until I eventually had to move away.

>>37255728
Yeah good idea, im trying to avoid a school full of frat bros looking to improve their bar fight skills

chances are your and everyone's best bet would be boxing.

If you want self defense get pepper spray or a gun. If you choose gun practice every week for at least an hour and get a concealed carry permit.

>>37255664
The general consensus in these threads ends up being:

1. In street fights, you do not want to go down so striking arts are best first line. Muay Thai or boxing is the general recommendation.
2. IF you go down, you want to be able to control the situation before you max your health insurance deductible. Brazilian Jujitsu is the general consensus here.

As others have said though, it depends on where you are, because skipping a top tier Judo dojo for a BJJ McDojo is a bad choice.

>>37255753
Ok lets say I go muay thai, are there good schools for it in the chicago area?

>>37255702
Look into an animal style king fu. People will tell you kung fu is shit, but its definitly bettter than no training

>>37255694
...is gay as fuck