Due to back issues I'm looking at moving away from grappling and into a tma art. Was wondering if anyone here is still and active karate practitioner and if so what style and what benefits do you feel karate provides you?
Thanks 
Flexibility maybe. Might be about it. Sometimes I think about if there's anything u can get out of it when I see guys like wonderboy and machida and Raymond Daniels but then I realize that 99% o karate dojos are probably not very legit and super watered down designed for little kids so you'd have to find the 1% tat are actually legit and I don't think that's easy. Except for kyokushin, that form of karate seems very effective.
Curious to what people would have to say about it and where u can actually learn a good and effective form of karate. They teach tkd at the park by my house for free and me and my girl were thinking about popping in on Saturdays to compliment our Muay Thai training cuz we have some free time that day but would it even be worth it or a waste of time that we could use hitting pads or something else? We were hoping we could get better at different kicks but I started thinking it all depends on how legit the trainer is.. If he teaches a good tkd or just some shit for 10 year old kids to do on the weekend. Which I assume is most of it.
youre not interested in boxing? I personally think that's the most effective striking art and easy to find good places to learn for cheap wherever you are.
I got my black belt in an amercanized form of karate. Dan Magnus was my instructor. He was a late 1970s/early 80s PKA fighter. The art was very boxing oriented with legit kicks and self defense type stuff thrown in. I always thought the way Dan put the program together was pretty legit for a "Karate" style. The base boxing style he instilled in me has always stuck.
So in saying that. I would seek out an instructor that has fought in PKA style or Muay Thai style kickboxing (fought MT but still retain their KB roots) and go from there.
I still practice and teach karate, I hold belts in multiple styles but in reality one style is not better than any other, it's more about the individual and the teacher. If you walk into a school and they and they are talking about dangerous techniques that can never be used, run because they are stealing your money. In the end you have trained for MMA/BJJ so you should know if you are being scammed.
To me the big benefit is the level of respect in a karate school vs an MMA gym. You don't get many people with a thug/gang mentality.
The problem with many good karate practitioners is that they can only teach what they do, meaning if you have the same physical attributes as the instructor you will get a lot from your classes, but if you don't you will struggle because the curriculum isn't customized to your natural abilities. This isn't the case with all schools, but it is a common problem. 
Karate was developed for longevity
I'm not talking about kyokushin
I'm talking about kata based karate with limited sparring focus
Young people wanna be tough and like wearing Tapout clothes
Anyone over 30 who still cares about that kinda shit is ridiculous
I guess I should have mentioned in the opening post I'm not looking to be fighter. I can already fight and at my age it's been 20+years since I've needed to scrap.
I just want to stay in shape and learn something new that is in some way related to fighting. All the schools I've found are light or no contact so I wanted to know if karate training itself offers much benefit.
Thanks