A martial art for a programmer
BjornW: I've started with searching for a martial art fitting for me 2,5 years ago. I hadn't been training for a quite some time and I really needed to do something about it. I had practiced Judo during my child and early teen years and practiced Tae Kwon Do during college.I quit both because, in my personal opinion they are too focused on doing one thing fairly well while more or less ignoring other aspects of fighting. For example: I found it very annoying that Judo did not allow any punches or kicks. While Tae Kwon Do didn't allow throws or ground fighting. 
Basically I was looking for a different look at fighting, be it kicking, punching, locks, throws or fighting with weapons. In my view everything should be possible depending on the context. At that time I found two possible matches (in my neighborhood) for what I was looking for in a martial art: Takeda Ryu and Krav Maga. After having followed three lessons of Takeda Ryu I didn't bother of looking at Krav Maga anymore since Takeda Ryu and the people training at the dojo matched what I was looking for.So now I have been training Takeda Ryu Kobilza Ha for 2,5 years. I'm still just a beginner and need to learn a lot, but I enjoy training very much and that's what I consider to be the most important. Whatever martial art you like to start make sure you enjoy it and feel safe in the dojo.I have the impression that it does have an effect on me outside the dojo, although I find it hard to describe what the effect exactly is.Currently I'm practicing five budo disciplines in Takeda Ryu Kobilza Ha:- Aikido (throws, locks )
 - Iaido (swiftly drawing the sword and cutting correctly)
 - Jodo (fighting with a stick)
 - Jukempo (kicking, punching combined with throws and locks) 
 - Kendo (fighting with a drawn sword)If you would like to know more about Takeda Ryu, have a look at http://istb.info/index.php/home.html or look at some footage of demonstrations: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INx_CSA_I78 and our main event in Vienna Austria: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4sxtTNjKSsk&ps: This is my own very personal and limited look at martial arts and I do not want to disrespect any Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Krav Maga or any other martial art practitioners.