The two most common martial arts practiced in North America are karate and tae kwon do. Many wonder what the difference between these two martial arts is. This is especially the case for those who are just starting to look around for a martial arts studio. After all, most practitioners in both karate and tae kwon do seem to wear the same type of white gi uniforms with various colored belts.

Modern traditional karate was developed in the islands of Okinawa in Japan after some influences from Chinese martial arts. There are actually different styles of karate but they are all commonly considered as Japanese martial arts today. The colored belt system was developed to show the various ranks of karate practitioners with white depicting novices and black belts (with various degrees) representing instructor levels and higher.

One of the questions I get asked most frequently, in several different variations is about which martial art an individual should study. Generally which martial art, and more importantly which school to choose are fundamental decisions someone should make. My answer is usually something along the lines of, “choose the school and the system that you are going to stick with and stay with it for the rest of your life.”

The reality is that the answer is going to be different for every person. What I will attempt to do in this article is give you a set of general guidelines. I will talk in very broad terms about different martial arts, and what to look for in a school. Ultimately every teacher, at every school, in every system is going to be completely different.

Muay Thai Kickboxing is often referred to as the science of 8 limbs. The reason for this title is the fact that you use nearly every body part as a weapon. You can strike with your forehead, elbows, fists, Knees, Shins and feet. Muay Thai Kickboxing was invented over 2000 years ago and is recognized as one of the oldest martial arts known to man. Although records of Muay Thai fights only date back to 700 years ago, there is a general consensus that Muay Thai originated over 2000 years ago in the part of Asia that is now inhabited by China. Muay Thai is known as the martial art of "kings" because in 1411 when a king by the name of Sen Muajng Ma died, his sons literally fought to the death for his throne, using the techniques of muay thai.