I personally quite enjoyed studying Aikido. It's style/teachings really hit home with my personality. Nonaggressive, flowing...And can really bring the pain in the most subtle ways.
I studied Yoshinkai Aikido, what is supposed to be the most physical/combat oriented form short of Aikijutsu. Aikido, like Judo, is really a sporting form and not a proper combat form, like Ju Jitsu. Striking is very minimal, kicks are nonexistant. It forcuses on blocking or redirecting attacks, leading into throws and/or pins.
It worked for me, because I'm not a confrontational person...I've been in all of one fight in high school. I found the technicality of the hand and foot work fascinating, and quite enjoyable. Hand work, I'm good at hand work. And I may not be into S&M, but the fact you could inflict so much pain on a person with such little effort was incredible. (Grab, twist, bend, and they're on the ground thumping the mat to be let up) But it also taught me how to ignore pain and relax..So alot of the pin/submission techniques wouldn't work on me.
