What style?

[Fresh meat]

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!

[Andrew Green]

Kendo is your best bet. Sword only though

try aikido or jujitsu to add "Japanese" unarmed.

[Smee]

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

[Darren]

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.