Best martial art for self defense?
Muay Thai is a sport with rules not meant or self defense, although it has combat applicability. You won't learn self defense as a whole with MT. KM Protecto Defendo, and Combato are civilian self defense courses, not a martial art, as such, it borrows from existing arts. If you want to defend yourself, learn any classical martial art, also read this. All traditional martial arts were created under the basis of reality, many used in war. They were designed to end a fight before it ever really begins. If you are seeking self defense, you should avoid the following. Combat sports. They will teach you bad habits in self defense such as, 1) Trading hits with your opponent. The longer you stand there and slug it out, the more chance there is of something going wrong. 2) Wrestling with an opponent. You do not want a long drawn out struggle. Instead, the goal should be end a conflict before it escalates into a fight. 3) A play by the rules mindset. In self defense there are no rules. However combat sports will teach you the bad habit of making sure you do not hurt your opponent beyond the capacity of the sport. 4) Lack of multiple opponents awareness. Although up to the instructor, not the style, combat sports focus solely on one on one and never teach more realistic skill such as multiple attackers. So now that that is cleared up, here are a few things to remember. No one style of martial art is better or more effective than another. They are all effective because you use them effectively. What counts is finding a good teacher. The name of the style is not really important. At the highest levels, many traditional martial arts will have the same reaction to the same situation. And that is neutralize a threat. Find a good instructor in a classical style in your area, and train hard. Also ignore bias against traditional martial arts, and people's opinions. Now a lot of people might suggest that they *heard* style A is good, or style B is "ineffective." But do yourself a favor and ignore that bias. Best of luck. ***************************************... It didn't answer your question because there is no answer, and there is no best martial art. @Gr8dayne, Take all the techniques from TMA out of you "practical" martial arts, and let me know what you have left.
What is the best martial art for self defence?
actually, it doesn't really depend on the style, so much as on the teacher and your dedication. look for the school with the best teacher, who can get you motivated and who teaches mostly what you're looking for, and that will serve you best. MMA is pretty good, but like you said it is mainly for sports not self-defense. and the LAST thing you're going to want to do if there are multiple assailants is go on the ground. that doesn't, however, rule out judo entirely as it also has a standing up aspect of joint locks and throws. kungfu isnt detailed enough, if you update it to tell me what particular kind of kungfu i'll give a more accurate description tomorrow. kickboxing is definitely not what you want to do because that's ENTIRELY for sport because that's what it was made for. although the punching and kicking part is really good, still that's basically all there is to it. it has absolutely NO ground defense whatsoever and not even much self-defense because in self-defense anything goes and it doesn't teach you how to fight dirty at all. so yeah, that' my two cents. before you pick an art because of this, look at all the teachers, watch one of their classes, and also take a free class if you can just to check them out. if they don't let you take at least one free class, then they're probably not worth their salt anyway.
What is the best martial art to use for self-defense and other practical situations? Why?
I would recommend an effective style of Japanese Jiu Jitsu. For self-defence you want a martial art which is both full-contact (not necessarily including sparring but actual physical contact techniques) and holistic.For a self-defence situation you want to train in something which is full contact as this should hopefully make you know what it’s like to apply your techniques on an actual person. If you can spar then that will enable you to know what it’s like to apply it on fully resisting opponents which is good for things like muscle memory. However, if sparring is involved then there are rules which aren’t a good thing. Rules weaken any self-defence system. Sometimes the more effective full-contact martial arts such as most forms of Krav Maga actually have no sparring involved because they perform techniques which are too dangerous to be applied on a fully resisting adversary in a competition. Sport forms of martial arts are weakened because they are unable to include things such as groin strikes, eye gouges and throat strikes etc due to rules preventing these from being used. So whilst I see the merits of sport forms of martial arts such as Boxing and Judo for things such as muscle memory, fitness and being able to experience applying techniques on fully resisting opponents, I realise that rules weaken the system. The guy on the street has no rules, they’ll kick you in the groin if that’s the best option, you have to be willing to fight like that too.Also, for a self-defence situation you want to train in something which provides a wide range of unarmed combat techniques e.g. striking (kicks, punches, knees, chops and elbows) and grappling (throws, locks, chokes, strangles, escapes and pressure points). Ultimately, to be fully prepared in terms of unarmed self-defence, you need to be trained in all aspects of hand to hand combat.Japanese Jiu Jitsu (at least the style I train in called Jukoshin-Ryu) fulfils both criteria. We perform full-contact techniques on our uki (training partner) and we also cover a wide range of techniques such as punches, kicks, throws, locks, escapes, chokes, strangles and pressure points etc. Thus, to conclude I would say that an effective form of Japanese Jiu Jitsu is the best martial art to use for self defence. However, by all means do other martial arts on top of this, maybe a do sports martial art to get the conditioning and muscle memory. For this I recommend Kickboxing for striking and Judo or BJJ for grappling.
What is the best, striking, martial art for self-defense?
None, you have to understand martial arts and self defense are two completely different things. Most striking arts are bad for self defense for the following:Self defense is focused on attacks, not fights - Alot of arts are geared towards mutual or consensual combat. A fight is when you agree to face someone. Real attacks happen without warning and without your consent. You won’t have time or much distance to respond properly as you would in a fight.Martial arts are often unrealistic - In most arts, you often see people doing these fancy techniques. For example, someone throws a perfect punch and you parry then follow up with eye jabs. Such a scenario is unlikely to happen on the streets. The reality is violence is unpredictable, chaotic, brutal, bloody, etc. Any sort of memorized movements is what’s going to get you killed in the streets.No defenses against multiple attackers - Things go against your favor when multiple attackers are involved. Most arts don’t know how to properly deal with multiple attackers. If you do see them train for it, it’s mostly scripted. I’ve seen youtube video of one martial artist who fought several attackers. He hit a couple before some sneaked up from behind and clobbered him to the ground. One of my Wing Chun friends was jumped by 4 guys in an ambush.Check out my video to see why most arts will get you killed in self defense. If you want to learn proper self defense, you need the proper mindset. I have an ebook out now. It teaches you how to create your own self defense from scratch! If you want a FREE sample chapter, subscribe. Want the full-version? You can buy it from my website.Home
Best martial art or fighting style for self defense?
@Jordan: Thanks for mentioning Kajukenbo, we need all the publicity that we can get. But as someone who has survived training in a hardcore Kajukenbo school for many years, there are two points that I must respectfully disagree with. You mentioned that Kajukenbo is a good defensive art. I guess that would depend on what your definition of defense is. I find that the definition of defense and offense in Kajukenbo is blurred. Yes, the you defend against the first attacker who tries to sucker punch you, but you attack all the remaining attackers before they can pull weapons on you. What is done to an attacker to render him incapable of using a weapon against you does not look too defensive. And Kajukenbo is not exactly easy to find. Since very few students actually make it to Black Belt, there are not enough qualified instructors to open up schools in every single location. And the ones who do get Black Belts often do not bother to open up a school because they saw how many people drop out and how few actually do stay and they realize that they cannot never break even opening up a Kajukenbo school. But some Kajukenbo Black Belts do teach in their garage or basement, so it will not be easy to find them. Thanks again for mentioning Kajukenbo, we appreciate it.
Best martial arts for real life self-defense?
The first thing to recognize is that martial arts and self defense are two very different things. Related, but different. Asking which martial art is best for self defense is like asking which style of classical portrait painting is best for painting your house. Martial arts emphasize self discipline, cultural observances, demonstration, sport, and even dueling. Self defense focuses on how to protect yourself from sudden violence. These are two different processes that require different methods of training to achieve. For example, self defense training will NOT prepare you to win tournaments. That being said, some martial arts are more adaptable to self defense than others. And a few were designed specifically to teach self defense; Krav Maga is well known for this, as is my own style, Via Potentia. Consider that most attacks are going to take you by surprise, and you will be violently assaulted by someone who is larger, stronger, more aggressive than you, who probably has a weapon or accomplices, and who couldn't care less about your sparring rules. Then visit martial arts schools in your area, watch their techniques and drills over several classes, and see which of them is focusing on defending from actual violence, or are they more into personal discipline, sparring, etc. Some bad signs: Are they doing punches, high kicks, complex moves or joint locks? Do they teach gun and knife defenses to beginners? Are they emphasizing precise technique over effectiveness? Are the partners compliant and the moves over-scripted? Such systems aren't going to be much help for self defense. Pay no attention to certificates, trophies, and the like. These mean nothing in self defense. Visit my web site. I have several articles on practical self defense, and offer our beginning student handbook (250 pages) for free.
Martial art with most sparring?
I'm interested in starting a martial art that is extremely practical in real world fights and involves lots of full contact sparring. I tried Krav Maga a while back and enjoyed it. My only complaint with Krav Maga is instructors don't have people spar with each other in low level classes. Subsequently you don't do any real fighting until you've reached higher classes, which take 6 months to a year to reach. What students mostly ended up doing in low level classes was practicing strikes and kicks by hitting thin air or simulating strikes by hitting cushioned bags that partners held. While the actual fighting style seems practical and "no nonsense", I felt the training in lower classes fails to prepare you psychologically for a real world fight where a real opponent is moving around and fighting unpredictably. I therefore feel the only practical martial arts are ones that involve full contact sparring on a regular basis and also condition you "psychologically" to take hits, strike people ect. My question is what would be the best martial art to pickup? Again, I'm interested in raw bare bones practicality, so my interests would be more along the lines of MMA, Krav Maga, Boxing, Mui Thai Kick Boxing ect. As opposed to Karate, Tai Kwon Doe ect where you use a long drawn out belt system that takes years and practice "form" over real world strikes and hits (Note: I respect all martial arts and I'm not criticizing Karate or more traditional marital arts they're just not what I want). I also don't care about competition events. I'm only interested using this as a last resort for self defense in the real world. I'd be willing to go back to Krav Maga if higher classes have more sparring. But I'm wondering if this is the best route, or if something like MMA would be better because it seems to have more sparring. I would appreciate answers from people with real experience doing the above martial arts in one form or another. Thanks in advance.
What is the best martial art for self defence? Is Krav Maga any good?
Its a tough question. I'd like to tackle it by first saying if you are looking for self-defense you really should be taking a martial art which trains you with some form of full contact sparring. Getting hit with a strong blow and being able to recover and still defend yourself is important to self-defense. Many forms like TKD and Kung Fu don't do full contact sparring. Krav Maga is tricky because some places teach it like this and many do not. The Israeli military uses Krav Maga as their primary hand to hand combat style. However the way it is taught to them is very different than is taught to students at schools in America. If I just wanted to learn self defense I would first try to find an MMA school. They will hopefully cover all aspects of fighting (striking, dirty boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu, etc...) If that isn't possible than Muy Thai or Kick Boxing. If none of those are possible I'd say boxing or wrestling. Do your research to, go to the school try out a few classes and see if it seems like something that would help you stay safe in a real life situation.
I need a martial art or self defense that doesnt require alot of strength?
Question Is sparring necessary for a martial art to be good for self-defense? Using the keyword necessary, I would say NO. 1. Sparring is used to help refine techniques and principles taught by the art, just like kata. 2. Sparring rarely involves the choas, variety and unpredictability that can be found in real life encounters 3. Non-Martial Artists are capable of defending themselves without even studying an art, much less sparring 4. Also there is such a wide range of training simulations that are called sparring, what is sparring in one dojo is not allowed in another, it is hard to draw the line on what is considered "practical sparring" look at WTF vs ITF Taekwondo 5. Sparring can help you, but it can also let you slip into a comfort zone. As in you become to comfortable fighting and expecting to be fought in a preconcieved manner. A good example of this, now hold on Im not trying to ruffle feathers here, the first few UFCs. Many of these Martial Artists had trained and fought in a certain manner, they were caught off guard by being rushed and wrestled to the ground. They had gotten too comfortable. Expierance can also do the same thing though. A bully who is getting into 1on1 schoolyard scraps, may become comfartable with that scenario and expect things to just work that way. Then he is in for a suprise when his target has four friends coming out of the woodwork. I however do think sparring and kata are both great training tools.