Well, what do you want to get out of martial arts? Do you have any experience with martial arts? Do you want to learn to beat people up or be a graceful ninja? (That "or" tends to be exclusionary in my experience.) How active are you currently?
I'm going on almost 20 years of various martial arts, mostly Song Moo Kwan (basically Shotokan karate with a Korean flair) and judo. I have dabbled in a few other things. I enjoy the solo workout and continual improvement you get through katas; figuring out the meaning of the various techniques is both a martial arts challenge and a historical one. Of course, that may not appeal to you in the slightest. I think some amount of full (or nearly-full) contact sparring is very important in a martial art, and unfortunately, karate seems to be going the way of Tae Kwan Do with less and less physical contact and resistance in practice.
I'm not an expert in bjj, though I do have a bit of familiarity from judo and have sparred with and grappled some bjj practitioners. Size, strength (especially grip), flexibility, and age are going to be relatively important if you want to grapple seriously. Of those, flexibility is really the only one that will improve, so you should have a separate workout plan for strength training. Something that sets grappling apart from many other martial arts is how cerebral it is in practise. Generally, and especially early on, you'll be working at a relatively slow pace, so are you able to (somewhat) calmly think through your options. This can be very attractive if you enjoy planning out lines of play. You have both gi-bjj, but a lot of schools offer no-gi bjj now as well. It would be easier to start with the gi version, and most schools do not even offer no-gi to beginners.
Most of the time, when people ask about which martial art it is, it is in the context of self-defense. Bjj is amazing for that, as long as your self-defense encounters begin and end on the ground with a sole, unarmed opponent. I say that somewhat in jest, as grappling is very important for self-defense. However, I cannot recommend a solely grappling-based art for self-defense. I believe Icy Mike of hard2hurt has a video where he discusses martial arts in the context of self-defense and concludes you should have at least a couple years of a grappling and striking art to be somewhat well rounded.
Ultimately, your goals should dictate your martial art. Importantly, you don't need to just choose one. Practise martial arts long enough, and you'll learn quite a few, whether through formal training at the schools or just by knowing people of different styles and exchanging information. If you have no idea, try a couple weeks at various schools around you. Most places have a 2-week or month-long trial that should be <50 bucks and generally includes a uniform. If you don't like the dojo/gym/mat/people/instructor you are practising in/with, then the style does not really matter.
I can provide more info on to answer specific questions if you have them. You did ask basically the broadest most common question about martial arts in general.
tl;dr: bjj good but overrated. What is offered in your local area is probably the predominate factor.
p
Well, what do you want to get out of martial arts? Do you have any experience with martial arts? Do you want to learn to beat people up or be a graceful ninja? (That "or" tends to be exclusionary in my experience.) How active are you currently?
I'm going on almost 20 years of various martial arts, mostly Song Moo Kwan (basically Shotokan karate with a Korean flair) and judo. I have dabbled in a few other things. I enjoy the solo workout and continual improvement you get through katas; figuring out the meaning of the various techniques is both a martial arts challenge and a historical one. Of course, that may not appeal to you in the slightest. I think some amount of full (or nearly-full) contact sparring is very important in a martial art, and unfortunately, karate seems to be going the way of Tae Kwan Do with less and less physical contact and resistance in practice.
I'm not an expert in bjj, though I do have a bit of familiarity from judo and have sparred with and grappled some bjj practitioners. Size, strength (especially grip), flexibility, and age are going to be relatively important if you want to grapple seriously. Of those, flexibility is really the only one that will improve, so you should have a separate workout plan for strength training. Something that sets grappling apart from many other martial arts is how cerebral it is in practise. Generally, and especially early on, you'll be working at a relatively slow pace, so are you able to (somewhat) calmly think through your options. This can be very attractive if you enjoy planning out lines of play. You have both gi-bjj, but a lot of schools offer no-gi bjj now as well. It would be easier to start with the gi version, and most schools do not even offer no-gi to beginners.
Most of the time, when people ask about which martial art it is, it is in the context of self-defense. Bjj is amazing for that, as long as your self-defense encounters begin and end on the ground with a sole, unarmed opponent. I say that somewhat in jest, as grappling is very important for self-defense. However, I cannot recommend a solely grappling-based art for self-defense. I believe Icy Mike of hard2hurt has a video where he discusses martial arts in the context of self-defense and concludes you should have at least a couple years of a grappling and striking art to be somewhat well rounded.
Ultimately, your goals should dictate your martial art. Importantly, you don't need to just choose one. Practise martial arts long enough, and you'll learn quite a few, whether through formal training at the schools or just by knowing people of different styles and exchanging information. If you have no idea, try a couple weeks at various schools around you. Most places have a 2-week or month-long trial that should be <50 bucks and generally includes a uniform. If you don't like the dojo/gym/mat/people/instructor you are practising in/with, then the style does not really matter.
I can provide more info on to answer specific questions if you have them. You did ask basically the broadest most common question about martial arts in general.
tl;dr: bjj good but overrated. What is offered in your local area is probably the predominate factor.
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