what sort of style are you looking to study? i train at the austin ki aikido center and i love it. ki aikido seems to be somewhere at the opposite end of the martial arts spectrum from what you say you've studied in the past and from what i know of the schools you've mentioned, but if you're up for something completely different, it might be worth your while. we're a small non-profit dojo -- very friendly, all volunteer instructors, really just a bunch of nerds doing it for the love.

-a

http://www.stillpointaikido.com/

I liked Still Point Aikido for their attitude. My understanding of some of the paths you've taken is that this is a much kinder, gentler way. If I had the dedication, that would be my art and school of choice.

My son goes to South Austin Karate (http://www.bakido.com/Bakido/home.htm). Looking at the website, it looks like it's mostly geared towards children, but I see adults in the evening classes all the time.

I know very little about karate, so I'm just mentioning it to be helpful. If I'm way off base on what you're looking for, disregard. They have a unique style of karate called "ba-ki-do".

Good luck! :)

I earned a black belt in Hapkido in Seattle late last year and have been out of training for a few months since moving here to Austin. Once my work schedule gels up a bit in a couple of weeks, I'll be checking out this guy's class at the Austin Recreation Center.

Hopefully I can convince my wife to come with me as well and if you're into it I'd be happy to let you know when we plan to do a drop-in and maybe join up.

I've been going to Austin Kung Fu Academy (recently became Austin Fitness Martial Arts) for the past five months or so. I went to Shaolin Do before that, both Kung Fu with Tai Chi programs as well.

AKFA has lots of classes, ranging from very formal to casual, but each is fairly diversified in how you train. They recently adopted a performance training class that the Sifu learned from an Olympic trainer, Hooten something or other. The focus there is to first get into amazing shape via stances, kickboxing and other types of training, learning more Kung Fu (Northern, Southern styles) as you go, specifically Mantis. Depending on how many classes you attend, you would learn a few short forms and some self-defense and what not each belt level, as well as overall training that incorporates everything, like the kickboxing classes. It was fairly traditional and formal until a short while ago, but it's been changing to be more inviting to those who are intimidated by that. Usually if you attend classes often, like at least 3 times a week, you go up in belt level every two months until you are about red or brown - then I believe it gets more stringent. I think the Sifu is planning to require private tests to move up, but so far belts are a measure of how long you've been there and not skill, until later. It currently only has one dojo on South 1st.

Shaolin Do is also a good school, though I felt like there was a lot of material to cover fairly quickly. I like that AKFA focuses on getting you in shape first, with a focus on maintaining a good form that you'll use later. At Shaolin Do, there is a set curriculum of a weapon form, self-defense and katas for each belt level, and testing happens as you are ready. This may be alright for you, since you have a stronger background than I did. It is not as conditioning intensive as AKFA, and sparring is a big part of that school (AKFA doesn't usually allow much free sparring until you're more skilled). It has plenty of kata forms early on and plenty of sparring. There's a north school and a south school, at about Burnet and 183, and South Lamar and Barton Skyway.

Chayon Ryu off Burnet and Allandale is supposed to be good as well. I didn't go there, but I've heard good things about Master Blankenship's abilities.

out of curiosity - what didn't you like about Krav Maga? I'm interested in it and would love to know about your experience.