Which martial art is more practical in real life situaions, Karate or Hapkido?

I have a choice between these 2 arts in my area and am at a standstill in my choice. I have done all of the research and know the difference between hard and soft tecniques and where these arts originate from.





Question is this...Which art is more practical in real life situations? Such as being attacked or lets say (just for kicks) someone fighting me who knows some other form of art.





I am also interested in tournament fighting as well but my main focus is self defense and being able to properly defend myself against another skilled fighter.





Thanks ahead of time for any input.

Which martial art is more practical in real life situaions, Karate or Hapkido?
I will go with Hapkido. Not only do you learn strikes, but grapple moves as well as submission. Its good stuff if you ask me.... which you are!
Reply:karate guys are mostly useless when grabeed..hapkido will help you in close.


hapkido is better BY FAR!
Reply:are you kidding?karate of cause,but you should cross train in ground/grappling whether it be hapkido or any other one.


A good well rounded style would be freestyle Karate.You will learn stand up,ground,grappling and weapons.What a lot of people don't understand is that freestyle Karate is about practical street defence not who can kick the highest or punch a pad the hardest.It's definitely not a sport martial art like TKD or BJJ.The motto of my style is the best of everything in progression.Basically that means we don't care where the technique comes from we improve it and integrate it into our style while still maintaining tradition as do most freestyle Karate's.


The hardest thing is finding a good experienced instructor.I would recommend Bushi Kai or Zen Do Kai, but if your not in Australia or New Zealand you may have some difficulty finding some one who teaches these styles.These styles also usually have separate classes available to everyone in Muay Thai and BJJ/Submission/Shoot wrestling.If you can't find one of these i would suggest Kempo or Enshin or another freestyle Karate.
Reply:Karate is a generic term for martial arts that come from Japan or Okinawa. There are many different styles and some focus more on the competition side while others focus on the more practical side.





I would say that Hapkido would be the more practical, but I don't believe there are any Hapkido competitions.





If you have done all the research then the real question is which instructor is more reputable? Learning Hapkido from a poor instructor would be worse than learning Karate from a good one. If the Hapkido instructor does nothing but beat up the junior students to 'demonstrate the power of Hapkido' then what have you learned other than your instructor is a bully? You need to find out which school has the instructor and curriculum that works for you.
Reply:I think it's Karate.
Reply:It is depends on how you use it. If you want to find something practical Aikido and Hapkido are good choices. Karate, taekwondo, and others are used in combat fighting. If you and your opponent know martial arts then these are good choice. Sometimes all these martial arts techniques can be combine to suit the situation. In real life situation you are not bound to regulations. Forget about the rules the most important thing is to win the battle and look cool.





Soft/defence martial arts:


aikido


hapkido


judo





Combat/hard martial arts:


karate


taekwondo


Jit kuen do


kick boxing


Muay thai
Reply:For a better survival chance in a streetfight, I'd go with Hapkido. I've practised both and was more confident with hapkido.
Reply:The answer to this question depends entirely on the individual school.
Reply:That all depends on your personal lifestyle and what sort of situations you get yourself into!
Reply:Hapkido, it has more variety, including grappling striking and more karate in general is only striking.
Reply:Isn't hapkido just a form of karate?
Reply:i would say karate but it depends wich art of karate you are learning,i would suggest aikido shodokan though
Reply:It just depends on who teaches you and depends on your situation analysis. If the karate sensei is a fool and the hapkido teacher is a clever fighter who undertsands the situation or vice-versa then you know the result