Well I used the search function and I didn't really find anything...anyways my questions are is Karate a good art to start off with? and
Say a person wants to learn at home then goto a Dojo is that a bad Idea ?

welcome,

im guessing your question would be better off in the begineers forum as there will be more relevant posts.

but to help you along, karate will be right for you - if its right for you, simple.

my suggestion is to ask yourself why you wish to train and visit a few dojos or othe rmartial arts groups and see what they do, talk to the instructor and then make a decision.

certainly what you think you want may change with time, so its important to make a start and get training under a good instructor, as long as they are sensible and balanced you should have no real issues finding your feet.

Welcome.

You may have more joy in the beginners forum with this thread.

As for Karate being good to start off with... well, why do you want to train? What is available to you? Your question seems to infer that you want to move on to something else later down the line. If so, what do you have in mind?

As for practcing at home... well, some basic fitness work and some stretching may help, but honestly the best way to learn a martial art is to go to class. You can practice some of what they show you at home (e.g. kata)after you have been attending class a while, but the best place to learn any martial art is with a good teacher in a good school/club.

I would not recommend trying to actually study karate in and of itself at home if you have no experience with it. It can be dangerous and could actually inhibit your learning of karate (e.g. if you injury yourself while doing incorrect training, or you develop bad habits that you find hard to get rid of etc...).

As always, see what is avaiable to you, go to the classes and see what they are about, figure out exactly what you want to do with martial arts, then make a decision based on that.

It depends on what you want to gain from training.
There are many different styles of Karate - ranging from traditional to modern sport styles.

Are you looking for exercise, sport, self defense, to be part of an ancient lineage or tradition?

Tell us what you hope to gain by training and we'll try to reccomend something for you.

If you start training at home on your own, you will develop a lot of bad habits. You may be disappointed if you train at home for too long then (if you go to a good school) have to put on a white belt and start over - beginning with "unlearning" what you did at home.

Decide what you want to do, find a good school, and later on you can use video and other sources to supplement your training.

Learning at home is not impossible but it is a good deal more difficult than learning at a dojo. The immediate feedback you get from an instructor is critical to early learning of correct basic technique.

If you can not study at a dojo for either geographic or financial reasons and home is your only choice then you could train alone. As all have pointed out this is a hard road that you will travel. Early questions that might give you some idea if you can succeed studying alone might include: How athletic are you? Do you pick up new physical skills easily? Do you have mirrors, a video camera a suitable space? Do people describe you as a self-starter? Can you look at yourself with a brutally critical eye?

In this information age remote learning is possible. Possible not easy. To be successful you have to be very coachable but more important than that you have to be able to see what your doing and be able to accurately correct it to what you should be doing from available examples. You will progress much more slowly than your counterparts in a dojo and must be willing to accept that.
I am pretty sure that with this as a starting point and an idea of how you might answer the questions above, there are enough folks on this forum with enough knowledge to give you a nudge in the right direction.

There are so many styles of martial arts to train in. What you need to do is figure out what style would fit you the best based on your goals, fitness level, strengths/weaknesses, interests, etc. Just find something that fits your lifestyle and personality. Second of all, if you are serious about becoming a martial artist don't try it on your own. Not that it would be impossible, but it wouldn't be as enjoyable or beneficial. I completely agree what everyone else has said about not being able to grasp every aspect of karate on your own, because it's true. There are so many details and some of them are not easy to catch. That's why you have fifth degree black belts still perfecting the most basic kicks. But in addition one of the nice things about being a martial arts student is having that support system comprised of other students and instructors. Throughout the years of training they become like family to you. Anyways I'm done ranting now lol..but whatever you decide, I wish you the best of luck

ok thanks I see what you guys mean..honestly I'm not sure what style of karate I would like to take !! and I would like to do it as a self defense/sport type of thing(I need to get in shape) but I'm not sure if I can take Karate seeing as how there is about 6 Taekwando dojo's in my area I'll probably go for that, though one dojo says it teaches Karate and Taekwando(not sure what style of karate though kind of a Noob to this stuff )

Be careful of any martial arts school that isn't very precise about what it teaches. Karate & TKD is very vague... a lot of places use terms like this for marketing purposes... sounds a bit suspect to me.

Check it out though.

If you mention what areas you can travel to, people here may be able to suggest decent karate schools for you to look up. You don't have to be too specific, but even if you mention towns/cities you could get to, people might make some suggestions for places you should check out.

Additionally, if any of the TKD schools you mentioned have websites, put them up here or on the TKD/Korean Arts forum and people will be able to give you feed back on them e.g. if the school seems legit (or not!).