WHAT KIND OF MARTIAL ARTS Would BEST suit ME?....... Looking for Sumthing a little more than just karate....?

Than you would like MMA or Mixed Martial Arts. That is more than one principle taught at one time. Many schools now offer this concept and some styles are already pretty well rounded. But to be fair, MMA is the wisest choice as you learn all the bases.

I am a black belt in Taekwondo (ATA). I love it!!! If you find the right teacher you will be happy!!! Remember....the school you choose and the instrutors teaching the classes are REALLY important in your decision!!! These are people you are going to spend a lot of time with and you need to like and respect them! Good luck!!! Also..my boyfriend and I met in a Krav Maga class. It is a street fighting course. (We have been together almost 4 years now!) It is a great place to make friends with the same interests - especially at your age!!!

As a martial artist, my sincere advice is to avoid any flashy sport schools or any "mixed martial arts" It is an unpopular opinion, but this kind of thing is destroying real martial arts traditions and replacing it with fancy flashy acrobatics and exciting dance moves. A well-rounded martial art is Karate - it teaches everything that you listed and focuses on real fighting, not sport and not exhibition. Most martial arts - not only karate - are all about fighting a person who is bigger and stonger than you are. I think that Karate is most likely what you are looking for. Kung Fu and Taekwondo are excellent martial arts as well. Do some research on www.wikipedia.com about these arts, it is an excellent place to find information like this.

MMA...nuff said!

You would probably love kickboxing.

muiay tai goju ryo kendo tai chi sounds right for what u described

i would def suggest Tang Soo Do. a traditional martial art with fighting some rather unessisarry trick kicks >.> much more disiplined than Tea Kwon do (although i bet youll fall into tea kwon do anyway) if you find the right place than youll do sparring, fighting, disipline. the whole nine yards have fun oh and have you thought about kick boxing

Most styles that focus on punches and kicks are strength oriented martials art's(you have to be strong to do them effectively) so traing hard weightlifting etc. but i think the best would be jiu-jitsu because it has grappling and striking,muay thai is brutal, so if you like to compete all out do that but there are many more.

I am not sure where you live or have a wide choice of styles to choose from per say. Also most styles are not the single answer to what it sounds like you are looking for. You say you want self-defense as well as sparring and some traditional type Okinawan and Japanese style schools they fight very little or not at all. Other styles like Muay Tai they fight all the time, but the self-defense is minimal. This is where the instructor and school come in. Many realize the short comings of their styles and have added to their programs other aspects to make their students better and more able to defend themselves or more competitive. So if I were you I would check out all the schools from which I had to choose from, (including the karate schools). Based on watching a few classes at each, talking to the students and instructors you may be able to find a school that will best serve you. A good karate school that also has a strong self-defense aspect to it would probably be your best choice and not all of them restrict you from sparring and you may even find one that has a kickboxing program and a group of fighters within it for harder type sparring.