If I’m one of the aliens, I’m laughing my ass off. LOL
Let me put it this way. Daniel Larusso beat Johnny Lawrence in point sparring with a lucky shot using an illegal kick in a controlled tournament setting. He was also exhausted, with a disabled leg, fighting a bigger and stronger and more experienced opponent. Had the fight continued Daniel would have likely got his ass beat.
In spite of what you see in the movies, that is physically impossible (unless the instructor just meant you should visualize punching their nose into their brain so you hit harder).
I mean why not just simply break their neck by screwing their head like a pickle jar?
How effective are “martial arts”? They’re very effective, depending on your ability, training, physical capabilities, natural aggressiveness, and so on.
But IMHO it’s something you have to practice a lot. With actual sparring, conditioning, etc.
The thing about actual fights is you don’t really have time to think “gee should I should I not smash this guy’s head into the pavement”. You want your reaction to be automatic, and that comes from practice.
For someone who has had their nose broken in a few fights, “ram{ming] your opponent’s nose back into his head,” isn’t really going to phase them. Getting punched in the nose is surprising but not actually all that painful. A poke into the eye is going to mess up anyone’s day, but most people tend to reflexively protect their eyes. A hard punch or strike to the throat is really effective, and probably won’t collapse the trachea unless you have a really strong punch but that is a small target to hit. One thing people often ignore is how sensitive people are to getting bits pulled off. If you can get a good grip on an ear and pull hard you’ll get a quick negative response, and an old bouncier trick for compliance is to grab the lower lip and pull down. Elbow and wrist “compliance” locks are one if the things that, if done correctly, can actually be as effective as you see on movies and television but it takes training to do them effective with someone actively trying to not get locked up, and of course you don’t want to be tied up with restraining one opponent if they have friends coming at you.
Your best defense is your mobility, and in ground fighting in particular size and strength give the advantage. In a real defensive situation I would never voluntarily go to ground because I want the option to retreat or gain a tactically better position, and again don’t want to get tied up with one guy if other assailants are standing around looking for an opportunity to kick me in the head. You always want to option to run away if at all possible, or at least move into a better position.
Stranger
Well, golly, bless your heart for setting me straight! I don’t think I ever would have figured that out on my own!
Palm heel (rather than fist) to the nose is a great technique. Just don’t expect 1 technique to be THE technique for all occasions. Also, a lot of people, especially women, don’t have a very effective strike without a little training. Often, they just thrust with their arm and not their whole body, or worse, flail from the elbow instead of thrust.
If follow up the palm strike with a kick to the knee. The knee is only built to fold one way, and a braced leg (i.e. standing on it instead of raising it as a block) gives the kicker a fulcrum at the ground. It doesn’t matter what they are on, they can be feeling no pain, it’s hard to chase you when the leg keeps collapsing.
This is a ground fight. Grab them and take them down. Look, if you get grabbed to be taken down, try to roll to land on top, and if bashing their head on the pavement is available, go for it.
Just remember any use of self-defense will be scrutinized after the fact - by police, prosecutors, lawyers, family members looking for a payout. You may be 100% in the right, but so have to deal with lawyers and lawsuits.
If you are going to study self defense techniques, the best training will provide options of different levels of response. There’s the “drunk uncle” at a party who wants you to prove yourself, you can’t go breaking their nose and knees, etc. Then there’s the mugger who jumps you for a beat down to get your stuff. If you can give up your stuff and get away, do so, but if they start with violence, use whatever you need to do to get away.
Nothing about that technique was illegal. As opposed to the knee shot used on Daniel.
I just Googled to settle this for myself, and the first site said it was clearly illegal, and the second that it was indisputably legal. Sheesh. I think it’s time for a rematch.
In the tournament montage, we see other kicks to the face/head, none of which are flagged as violations. At time 1:44 in this video, we see whiny baby Johnny himself doing one such kick. Fuck that guy!
Yep. As a rape survivor, you make a calculation on “how am I most likely to survive this with the best possible outcome” - its a weird out of body thing. And in the case of date rape - in my case, it was “lie there and be a cold fish - don’t escalate.” And I’d taken self defense classes. (Acquaintance rape is far more common than stranger rape).
Now, attacked in an alley would lead to a different calculation - more risk of not getting out alive from the get go. Then the self defense training and a year of martial arts training MIGHT come out. Along with scream, run, what have you. But I’m wise enough to know that calculation would be made AT THE TIME, and might not be what I think it would be.
The action happens about 45 seconds in (trained boxer versus 5 angry average guys) and only lasts about 15 seconds:
That’s good enough for me!
BJJ is very effective in the real world. I’ve seen cops who are experts take down a violent suspect quickly and without injury to either. One on one it is probably the most effective technique. It’s very hard to defend if you don’t have training yourself. In a real world situation it’s a lot trickier when there is the possibility of others joining in. Then you better know some striking techniques to maintain space.
As others have said overall health and stamina are extremely important as well. I played soccer my entire youth. I also did martial arts. A three minute tournament round would tire me out more than an entire soccer game. It’s exhausting.
I took karate lessons as a kid on Long Island at a legitimate dojo for about 2-3 years. We did all kinds of conditioning and some sparring. I eventually earned a brown belt (just under black). I was in the best shape of my life and loved it. Then came my first “real world” fight. My opponent was a couple of years older, about a foot taller and a foot wider. He was on the football and wrestling team, flabby but with plenty of muscle underneath. He also grew up on the streets in Brooklyn, fighting for his lunch money on a regular basis.
I got into my fighting stance, and he looked at me and laughed. The moment I got too close, he grabbed my hair and forcibly pulled my head towards his waiting fist, breaking my nose and covering me in blood. As soon as I went down on the ground, he was on top, pummeling me. The only thing that saved me was that a police car happened to drive by.
I never returned to the karate school, feeling that they had in no way prepared me for the real world. All the stuff I had learned vanished in an instant. Like Mike Tyson once said, “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.” I lived that quote.
I was once on the other side of that interaction. My son had recently gotten a black belt at a kid’s karate school. And i forget what happened, but i picked him up and forcibly moved him, as he squirmed and tried to break my grip. I was nearly twice his height, and much stronger.
I think the karate training has been helpful for him, however. I think it was good for his coordination, body awareness, and his ability to assess threats. He says he’s used it when he’s worked crowd control at big events.
Maybe, but if you are being attacked by several people, I don’t think you want to end up on the ground?
Run like Hell still seems to be the best bet, assuming you can’t avoid the situation in the first place?
As observed above - less effective against multiple opponents. Tie up one guy on the ground while his buddy tries to kick you in the head? An instructor once told an amusing story about when he was training some SEALs, and 3 of them went out to a bar - somewhat looking for a fight. They found one with 5-6 guys. The 2 SEALs each took 1 guy to the ground - leaving my instructor to only face off against 3 or 4. 
You gotta think whether you want to drop to the ground and roll in a glass-filled gravel lot. Some techniques work well against someone with a gi, but not so well against someone not wearing a shirt. And once you get him to the ground - what are you gonna do? Ask nicely if he promises to give up? Or proceed to choke him out, hyperextend his arm, or dislocate his shoulder.
We generally trained with the idea that you wanted to create enough space and time that you could run away. Tieing up with someone on the ground is not a great way to accomplish that. IMO, BJJ is not the best art for that. But to each his/her own.
Yeah - there are some exceptions - most notably when there is a vast difference in level of training and fitness between large and small opponents. But generally, size does matter.
The reason why (IMO) effective self defense training has to involve a certain amount of full contact. Of course, there’s a relatively short list of folk who can stand getting punched in the face by Iron Mike.
In a fight for your life you don’t wait for a tap out. You immediately sink in the hold and break a limb or choke them out and disengage. There are some assholes but for the most part those that I know who are the best trained are the least likely to get into a fight. But if you are in a fight they know how to end it.
Two untrained people can wail away at each other until someone gets lucky. It will usually go to the ground. Running isn’t always an option. If someone does grapple you the one who knows BJJ will win no matter how big the other guy is. The early Wild West years of the UFC showed that pretty clearly.
The U.S. Marine Corps has a program called the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. The U.S. Army has a program called Modern Army Combatives. Although both programs borrow from multiple different martial arts disciplines both rely heavily on BJJ as its base.
Old school - the 3 n’s. Knees, nads and neck. Get least one, and a real Kenpo person would get at least 2 out of 3 if not the trifecta.
Ed Parker’s American Kenpo was born out of the Honolulu mix of styles, and trained in multiple attackers at once. There were some ground techniques, but you wanted to avoid going to ground, and mainly it is keeping your head as you’re going down to get the throat, eyes or knees.
To the OP, I prefer my chances after having had 4 years of training vs none. Will it help, dunno. It’s certainly kept me out of fights and a much better ability to de-escalate. And I’m 60+, so have had a bit of experience.
And it sure helped the time some shit did the running jump screaming bruce lee wannabe overhand punch to my face with a raised arm and exposed rib cage. “Bury your fist to the elbow” was the phrase used in the dojo.
I’m surprised no one has mentioned Ameri-do-te the most effective and street lethal system around. And as always, remember to re-stomp the groin.