Can anyone give me any advice on what style to go for? I'm a complete novice and I'm looking for something in the way of japanese sword fighting with unarmed combat thrown in. I looked at Iaido but it seems to be purely kata based, where as I was looking for something a bit more hands on with something like sparring. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Something Chinese like Hung Gar might suit you and would offer you the unarmed and armed sides. It would also offer weapons sparring forms which are pre-arranged two man forms. However, you would probably have to spend 2 years or so on empty hand before being introduced to the staff. Maybe by 4 years or so you would get introduced to edged weapons. That's in my experience so could be shorter/longer. Might be too long for you to wait but give it some thought. I'm biased though!! Paul
What PaulS said. I would also anticipate that it would be a long time before you did any free sparring with weapons as you have to have very good control of said weapon to avoid hurting your partner.
