Hi everyone. I am looking for a martial arts school around my area so I have a place to train and sparr without braking anything of money value or getting in trouble. I would like to know of any martial art school in the michiana IN area that is not tae kwan do or karate. In my area you can find these by the tons. I would hope that in these places i wouldn't have to memorize any big drill thing like I did in tae kwan do. It really did not help me in a fight at all. But if I do thats ok since I can adapt. Please resond to me of what you know either here on the message board or my e-mail address and thanks for your time.

Hey JR,

I don't know the town you're from, but is it a college or university town?

I find that colleges are great places to meet with other martial artists. Many colleges have martial art clubs (including taekwondo and karate) but you might find something more suited to you.

Also, colleges and universities tend to draw people from a wide area, so you never know what some of the individual students are into. Try hanging around university gyms.

I hooked up with my first tang soo do instructor by pretending to be a student at Southern Connecticut State University. Hey, $25 a semester was a lot cheaper than the $40 a month dues the commercial schools were charging, and I got quality instruction.

One caveat - I could have been arrested doing what I did if one of the instructors, a campus cop, found out I wasn't a student at the college.

Also, it sounds to me like you don't like kata/forms/hyungs, whatever. You might want to try Muay Thai or look into some Filipino Martial Arts. Muay Thai and many of the FMA emphasize more conditioning and actual practice with a partner over forms.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for the help man. It took me a while to go back and see if I got any replies so this thanks is a little over due. What you told me is some big help in those martial arts you mentioned. These are good since I am focusing on Jeet Kun Do and what I need is someone to train my skills on and just plain old strength and felxebility training to help me out. I am in a collage town though since the michiana area in basically Notre Dame area. But I don't think I can convince them that I go to the collage since I am a junior in high school and all of that. Well thanks for your help and time in writing this. Seeya later.