I am wondering what form of martial arts is considered the best for actual self defense. For example, Ive heard that Tae Kwan Do would be useless once the rules of competition have been removed, ie in a street fight. It is hard to get unbiased info, cuz every school that Ive been to thinks that their form is the best. Note: I am not interested in getting in shape or learning spiritual awareness, etc - I can do that on my own time. Just fightin’. Thanks.
Definitely look into a “hybrid” style or something like MMA (Mixed Martial Arts). Do you have a Straight Blast gym nearby? I’d go there. What I had done in the beginning of my MA training (Ryobu-kai karate), was supplement with boxing. THEN I began training with someone with extensive kickboxing experience.
That's all I'll say: Ko is the more experienced dude on this topic :-)
BTW: Thought I’d clarify: There’s no such thing as “best martial arts”. It’s "best"only according to how it fills YOUR needs.
Most martial art schools are fairly worthless when it comes down to a real fight. Doing forms and practicing BS senerios doesn’t work well at all in real life. Take a good Muy Thai class if you want to learn to fight on your feet. Getting in the ring is the only way to become a good fighters, alot of black belts think they are the shit till they get in the ring and get thier asses handed to them and find out they know nothing about fighting. For grappling take Ju-jitsue (Sp?), also Aikido is a decent addtion but most of the schools for it suck.
The best style is one that fits your needs. In your case, you want one that covers all ranges of combat. Check into some of the hybrid styles, one that has good standup and ground game. One that incorporates Western boxing, Muy Thai, Wrestling, and Jiu Jitsu, bound together by Jeet Kun Do concepts is the way to go.
no such thing as best martial art form, but some are better than others
one that avoids to much “dry land swimming” and actualy has you realy fight
My favorite includes
inteligence to avoid dangerous situations in the first place
Good running shoes
Good lawyer
Glock G29
All of the above is true. I have a 3rd degree black belt in taekwondo, and frankly, it’s pretty useless as a self-defense art. (But it is great conditioning.)
The more contact, the better, as far as I’m concerned – look at boxing, muay thai, wrestling, jiujutsu, jeet kune do . . .
But you have to think, as well, about what you really mean by self-defense. The “most effective” technique is not always the “best” technique. For example, in most civilian situations, the kind of “hand-to-hand” combat techniques taught in the military will probably be viewed as overkill in the nearly inevitable review in the justice system. So be careful in choosing instructors – that big, tough, ex-miltary special operations guy may teach you excellent techniques that work so well that you will have the opportunity to practice them over and over in a small cell shared with a really friendly guy named Butch.
I agree with Patricia and Ko, MMA is by far they way to go. But if you felt you had to go with only one martial art I’d choose Kali or Silat.
Peace,
Tmofa
My thoughts about people who say their is no best style, “Most of what is known about the early history of Thai Boxers comes from Burmese accounts of warfare between Myanmar (formerly known as Burma) and Thailand during the 15th and 16th centuries. The earliest reference (1411 AD) mentions a ferocious style of unarmed combat that decided the fate of the Thai kings. A later description tells how Nai Khanom Tom, Thailand’s first famous boxer and a prisoner of war in Myanmar, gained his freedom by roundly defeating a dozen Burmese warriors before a Burmese court. To this day, many martial art aficionados consider the Thai style the ultimate in hand to hand fighting. Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, USA, Germany and France have all sent their best and none of the challengers have been able to defeat top-ranked Thai Boxers. On one famous occasion, Hong Kong’s top five Kung Fu masters were dispatched in less than 6 and a half minutes cumulative total, all knockouts. (note: the previous statement can be disputed at present. A check of recent history would show many USA fighters have beaten Thai fighters in title fights at Bangkok’s Lumpinee Stadium. At the recent annual King’s Cup 2000 in Thailand, several USA fighters from San Francisco’s Fairtex Muay Thai gym beat Thai fighters.)” The history in condensed version.
Its not how good the martial arts is but how GOOD the user of the martial arts. If your not good enough or experienced enough it doesn’t matter what style you fight your dead in a fight.
But speaking.
Wrestling (real college level) - one on one very few people know how to fight on the ground.
Akido
Juditshu (?)
Thai Kick Boxing ( I heard one tuff style, I wish I could do it around where I live)
Boxing (Hey got to admit few can get a kick off the ground to do damage but a fast punch can lay some on out easy)
But I think the best one and they should have studios for is the hand to hand training that they teach to Navy seals and special forces. Its just simple and effective. No high flying kicks or jumps just pure fighting. Take the man down and kill him.
I have to agree with KO. The arts that have pretty much proven themselves in MMA competitions are boxing, Muay Thai, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and wrestling. Granted, NHB competition isn’t a street fight, but it’s generally as close as you can sensibly train, e.g., no, there are no eye pokes in competition, but, dammit, you can’t practice eye pokes anyway!!! Sorry for that little rant. By the way, KO, you have any fights coming up? I’m fighting George Allen in Atlanta on Oct. 19th.
I would agree with Neal as far as a stand up art is concerned, however a good bjj practitioner would make quick work of a muay tai fighter who has no ground skills. With the exception of a lucky strike, the muay tai fighter would get taken down pretty quickly. You gotta be well versed in strikes, takedowns and grappling if being a well rounded fighter is your goal. As Patricia and Ko said though “it all depends on what fits your needs” and what your goals are. For actual street purposes, Coyote gave the best advice, with the exception of the hand gun suggestion. Simply don’t put yourself in potentially dangerous situations.I recently saw a video by Dan Inosanto. He demonstrated how within 26ft., if you have a holstered gun and your opponent has a knife, you are toast 100% of the time. Even at 40ft. the odds are only about 50-50. It’s a video for cops to view, to show the importance of having a drawn gun when entering a dangerous situation. It’s also to show that within 26ft forget the gun and run or defend yourself by some other means.(ie, baton)
It all depends on the teacher. With a great teacher even tae kwan do can be an effectife tool. Also some of the most powerful and potent
systems, such as ninjutsu, aikido, soft styles require the most proficient teachers and very long time to master. If you are looking for a quick fix, do what Patricia said. If you want to achieve real mastery in one of the serious arts, find yourself a good teacher first. Consult works of Glenn Morris, he lists most of the best martial arts teachers in this country.
Thanks everyone,
I don’t think that there is a Muay Thai school in my area, but I just might give Brazilian jujitsu a try this winter. A followup question: how many days/week do y’all train in your martial arts discipline? thanks.
I have to respectfully disagree. There’s some sense in the admonition to find whatever style works for you the best, and there’s some truth to the assertion that what matters is the fighter and not the style. That can only be taken so far, though, as some styles are just worthless, plain and simple. Counted amongst these are ninjitsu, aikido, hapkido, etc. There’s no way you’ll ever get one of those aikido punch-intercepting wristlocks on anybody with a halfway decent punch…no way.
Ko and Jason Braswell hit it right on the head; a combination of Muy Thai and Jiu-jitsu is absolutely the ultimate in being a complete fighter (that’s what I do). I also agree that supplementing these two with wrestling and boxing would be helpful if you have the time and means. Currently, I spend about 40% of time doing jiu-jitsu (gi and no gi), 40% muy thai, 10% Judo, and 10% wresting. No disrespect intended, but anyone who tells you that a single discipline like karate or tae kwan doe (not sure of spelling) is enough is full of shit, has never been in a REAL fight, and I openly challenge any of them to a NHB cage match.
Ahhh, how many times a week to train? How many days are there? Seven? Well, when I first began Karate, I trained three nights a week - 2-3 hours per session. Then I added in boxing two nights a week. After a few months, I trained (Karate) three mornings a week, boxed once a week, and had added kickboxing training two nights a week. Whew. Oh and was still weight training at least twice a week.
Now, I'm more than likely will just focus on boxing. I've grown to like boxing. But will probably throw in formal training (MA) again. I like the discipline.
I didn't want to sound all preachy in my first post, but I'll add what I wanted to say here: I have a enormous amount of respect for ANY style of MA. And I believe it to be important for anyone who has never trained in MA to begin in a "traditional" style. Why? Oh, to learn the basics, the history - you know them "little" things. However, I do admit - it's taken a LOT of training to rid me of that "hard" style developed via karate when boxing or throwing a punch. That's really the only throw back.
Jason: Ko begins his MMA training next week! Very excited for him! It's a great training environment (Randy Couture's gym), and the guy running it, Robert, is actually pretty cool! No fights in the very future, at this point. But Ko's been kinda "itchin" to get back in the ring........
If you just want to be able to defend yourself you should check out a FAST defense class. All the martial arts training in the world will do you almost no good at all if you aren’t prepared to deal with the adrenaline rush. I have 13 years in the martial arts and I am a 2nd degree black belt in Isshin Ryu, yet prior to my FAST training I had a couple altercations for which I was grossly unprepared. Check out www.fastdefense.com
It’s sad that most of the MA nowadays are so commercialized. You don’t learn any real fighting skills and the instructor “stretches” out the lessons making you do a bunch of fancy moves over and over again so he can make more money.
I’m trying to find a good MA instructor who would just teach me real fighting skills instead of a bunch of useless fancy moves that impress the general population but won’t do jack for you in a fight. The most commercialized are Tae Kwon Do and Karate. They are all over the place.
Even the Jeet Kune Do class I took for a year when I first started MA. In retrospect, I could have learnt everything in a month with a good instructor. Most of them are shams with a piece of paper/degree trying to make a buck.
I’ve checked out several “studios” since. They are all the same fucking story. Some instructors I spoke to don’t even know the basic differences, using kung-fu names for a karate style and vice-versa. It’s disgusting!
Well BS sounds like maybe you would like a FAST class also. If all you are interested in is learning to protect yourself that is no question FAST Defense is the quickest way to get there. However learning martial arts takes a hell of alot longer than one month, I know some extraordinary instructors and there is no way on earth you could learn diddly squat about martial arts in that amount of time. I own a dojo and teach martial arts and what I tell the adults is it’s just that, an art. Not everyone is interested in martial arts and that’s fine, and there certainly are alot of hammerheads out there running schools that shouldn’t be. But please don’t group us all together. Adding FAST Defense to my existing training has certainly made me MUCH more capable of protecting myself and loved ones.