Hi all,
I'm new here and have had a life long interest in MA's but never pursued it. I really want to start now. I just moved to an area that has Kenpo about 3 miles from my house, and a Krav Maga school about 50 mins. away.

My main goals are these:
self defense
conditioning
discipline

I have been researching KM for a while and it seems great, but a buddy of mine says Kenpo is almost as good for self defense and it teaches more traditional discipline. It's a tough choice, given the distances to the schools.
Can you guys share your thoughts? Any advice would be helpful.

I'm new as well, so I don't have advice to share. I just wanted to say Welcome!

Thanks! Reading your post has definitely scored points for KM. It sounds like fun. I am in really bad shape though. It would probably kill me.

I've taken Karate and TKD in the past, just to orange belt or so, and I've been doing Krav for the past 11 months and I can say with all confidence that Krav is much more conditioning oriented and much more practical concerning real life fighting and self defense situations. Krav is what I wished I could find when I was doing traditional martial arts but I just hadn't heard of it. For me, Krav has it all over Karate and TKD.

I don't know much about Kenpo but I believe it's a form of Karate or developed from Karate.

Most schools will let you take a free lesson, why don't you try out both schools?

Clammy Joe hit it right on the button. The best way is to check out both schools, and see which one suits you better.

kempo (or kenpo) is karate, but it is a much more american version IMO. there is more emphasis on self defense and the learning curve is a bit more "progressive". i took a little bit of it a few years ago and thought it was fun but questioned the effectiveness - mainly because i don't think kata is the best thing to concentrate on if you're in for SD. with krav, there is no kata and in a few months you will have all the tools you need to save your a$$ in a bar fight. krav's weak point is that it isn't very effective against others who practice MA and the weapon defenses, even though incredibly comprehensive, are very risky in reality. many students i have met seem to develop false senses of confidence and it worries me that if they are ever jacked, they will get themselves killed trying to fight off an attack that could be averted by giving up the wallet.
krav is much more martial than art, so maybe the best thing to do would be to cross train. after all, like JKD or MMA krav was originally intended to be personalized and expanded upon.
good luck!

ShikataGaNai,

Why do you claim Krav isn't effective against traditional MAs? My instructor is a 4th degree BB in TKD and even he says Krav is easily superior to traditional martial arts when it comes to street fighting and self defense.

Personally I know I'd have a hard time if someone used Kung-Fu or some such thing against me because I'm not used to seeing those techniques and would be very confused but that is due to a lack of experience, not a flaw in Krav.

when i think "street fighting", i think self defense, i.e. protecting yourself from attackers who have not trained in MA. yes, krav is way more effective for SD than TKD or any other TMA's that put more emphasis on form than function (not that theres' ANYTHING wrong with that), but if you were attacked by someone trained in judo, jj, kick/boxing or as you mentioned kung fu - you might not have what you need. i've used krav techniques in my kali class and learned this the hard way. krav is about getting the job done and i love it for that and find it incredibly effective. but if someone who's got some technique comes at me, i'm not going to rely on it - i would be more likely to utilize feints(boxing), trapping (KF, kali) and everything i've learned from MMA. in a standup fight, mind tricks are essential and the directness of krav doesn't always cut the mustard.

In my opinion I think krav serves the short term purpose and karate serves the long term purpose. In other words a person(generally) who studies krav will be better quicker than a karateka,but the karateka will in time surpass this. Just my opinion folks.

that makes a lot of sense. that's why i study many arts with many learning curves and mix it up as much as possible. the drawback is that i'll never be too good at anything!