Martial art without chokes and full contact strikes for middle aged with some self defense application?

Too many issues, so I will just pick a few off.

Beginners are not expected to spar in any style so it is not likely you will be required to participate for at least a couple of years. A good instructor will note your lack of confidence and work on that. If you were my student, I would have you mainly doing drills and working on your core strength for a couple of years until you get to green belt. We don't allow anyone under purple belt (usually 2 to 2.5 years) attempt free sparring. By then it would be my goal that you have developed a good deal of strength and confidence.

You are wrong about chokes. They are very effective if you know how to use them. It is also very important to learn anti-grappling as part of your self defense. But that won't all happen until later on when you are ready for it. As far as the legislation goes, the issue is the use of reasonable force. In a life or death situation, it is often wise to do what you have to do to save your and (your loved ones)lives and worry about the courts later.

An example of my own. We have 3 green belts regularly coming along. Good to get some new blood in! 1 guy is very quick and has extraordinary balance. He kicks head high round kicks (off the front and back foot) faster than most can punch and then come immediately back to balance and gently place his kicking foot back on the floor. One of the other guys has little co-ordination, falls over when kicking above waist height, moves with his shoulders and is r...e...a...l...l...y s.....l.....o.....w

Tell me, who do you think we are going to be teaching the more advanced stuff to at the moment? The first guy. The second guy isn't ready.....yet. But we will work with him and help him get there. It's not a crime in our dojo to not be able to do something. We all understand that people have limits. It's our job as team mates to help our training partners push through their limitations.

A good instructor will not teach you what you are not ready to learn. He (or she) will know where you are at and teach you accordingly.

Your concern about stances is a fair point. I have dicky knees and arthritis in my hands from my younger days of abuse. It means that I have to modify my karate to suit what I can physically do. I can still kick head high - but not as fast as I used to, but my punches have 1000 times as much kime (focus) than when they did when I was a kid of 30 years of age. I reckon I would kick my 30 year old *** any day of the week. You will also have to modify your stances to what you can physically achieve. Use the stances to develop strength and conditioning. make them work for you - not the other way around.

Finally. You will not master any art in 10 years. In my style, you might be a second dan black belt by then.

First and Second dans (the first 2 levels of black belt) in our dojo are pretty much considered advanced beginners. They know better than to give opinions unless asked since none of the rest of us give a damn what they think.

Anyway, enought for now.

Good luck with your search.

Edit:

Bushido....awesome answer

I totally agree with CM77's answer.

You cannot dictate what you want from the art. It does to you what it does - put you in all those weird positions you feel are going to damage you.

No martial art posture will put lateral torque on your knees unless the instructor is one of those unknowledgeable morons going around claiming to be a "master", who really doesn't know a damned thing.

Now, if you want to lessen the strain on your knees, you have chosen the wrong arts " Xing Yi, Bagua and Chen Tai Chi". These arts are very demanding on your legs. I studied Sun Style Hsing I and worked out with a Chen Practitioner who showed me the first segment of Lao Jia. But even these won't put lateral stress on your knees.

Martial arts stance training has been known to strengthen the knees, contrary to what you has been mislead to believe. Again, some teachers out there are teaching a BS art. Those are the "arts" that will be detrimental to you, in more ways than one.

Most importantly, the Internal Arts are taught in levels. At the beginner level, the stances are not too deep. They build you up slowly - the right way. After you've been there a while, you're expected to sink deeper into your posture. Eventually, you will be able to sit in your posture because your knees, sinews, etc - are stronger.

Now - all diseases are the result of bad nutrition coupled with environmental toxicity, negative mindset, etc. Hypertension is an easy fix - no matter what any doctor tells you. They don't train in healing, prevention and wellness, they train in matching pharmaceutical products to symptoms. They don't address the underlying causes of disease.

Find a couple of schools you had in mind and post them on this thread. The senior practitioners here can give you an opinion based on the info given

You seem to know all about martial arts, yet you know very little. If you eliminate all of the thing you say you want to eliminate you have very little you can do to train or to defend yourself. You do not need a martial arts class. No martial arts will fit you.

What makes you think that a choke is going to bother your cardiovascular system?

What makes you believe you can't use a choke because of legislature?

What stances will torque your knees?

What do you expect to master in 10 years when many have trained for 20 years and realize they are just scratching the surface?

You don't belong in any martial arts class.

Since you can run for an hour, just learn how to run faster. You could live in a bubble, you are already asking for your training to be so bland that only your attacks could happen your ideal bubble world.

You only other option is to buy a gun. Learn some gun safety. Learn how to shoot the gun or take some marksmanship classes. Get your CCW.

I pray you are never in situation that you need to defend yourself. In your current state of mind you wil not posses the skills or attitude to defend yourself.

Remember you are paying for it, so you can dictate what you want and what you don't want.

Also, you don't have to participate in anything you don't want to do. You are paying for it. Remember.

I for one like Karate, for too, many reasons to list.

But since you mentioned you prefer armbars over other things then Aikido is right up your alley.

Tai Chi, is also a good form, and what is nice about this is that the Kata, the training is performed very slowly emphasizing on breathing techniques. But is applicable in real life self defense situations.

Just pick any martial art that is convenient for you.

The only ones to avoid are martial arts such as muay thai and any form of submission boxing.

Most training centers won't make you fight anyone unless you want to. All training is done with mats unless you and your opponent both chose not to.

Martial arts training centers are huge on safety, their insurance is huge and only a few companies are willing to insure them, if they have a lot of injuries they will usually be forced to close down due to insurance prices.

Martial arts are mostly about your stance though, seeing as there is such little combat you need to focus on maximizing your kicking and punching power since you have little opportunity to practice mitigating hits, and stances are designed to allow anyone to land powerful hits and maintain balance.

Good luck and just move onto the next training center if the one you walk into doesn't have policies that suit you.

judo or bjj, both have no striking you might be able to ask the not to choke you out, i am tying to do one of these two but in bjj there are leg locks and i dislocated my knee a couple of months ago so until it was fully healed if i joined a place i was gonna see if they would not put me in a kneebar or anything else that puts pressure on the knee

Tai Chi

It appears a nice relaxing, cleansing, slow exercise.. which it is.

But, speed up those slow moves and it is a very effective Martial Art

I would suggest you try Muay Thai

check the video link below to see easy to learn basic moves

http://mmamuaytahi101.blogspot.com/

you can master muay thai in just 2 years , due to simple techniques and easy to learn self defense combination

You have basically ruled out any type of martial arts instruction. Handgun or pepper spray seems to be a good way to go for you.

take Aikido class. Aikido has no tournaments, competitions, contests, or “sparring” but be prepare for its strict Dojo Etiquette. but no way you could master this art within 10 years.