potential woman vs man fight? no amount of proficiency in unarmed fighting will guarantee an advantageous outcome for the person who is lighter, weaker, and with a less combative character. armed fighting beats unarmed any day of the week. learn filipino martial arts.
She was lucky enough to find a vampire who knows TKD and Krav, now she’s got to find a vampire who knows Kali too? 
they’re there. krav is much rarer.
That’s true enough. A vampire should be able to outdraw even this guy (video of man amazingly fast with his gun.)
That video left me confused. It really did just sound like one gunshot at the end. I’m trying to wrap my brain around how it’s possible that he could fire twice that quickly. If that video is real and he can really fire that quickly (while retaining accuracy like he did!) he’s one scary son of a bitch.
AWWW, Man! And here Dio’s brother already posted here, too. I gotta stop PWI, man!!!:smack:
Another vote for the well-known super-secret vampire martial arts. Involving weapons.
Or weaponized every day objects - like how to kill some one 101 different ways with the items in your desk draw.
Now I am envisioning her whipping paper clips into him. Or annoying him to death with yellow post-its.
Isn’t that a little…comic bookish?
The problem is that fighting is not like dancing. You can’t learn the steps, because you don’t know what the other guy is going to do. A lot of fighting is instinct, and that’s not something that can be taught quickly. Another big part of fighting is getting hit. That happens a lot, and it hurts. A lot of people lose interest in fisticuffs real quick when the other guy hits back.
If I were the trainer, I’d be more interested in giving her experience in at least simulated fighting, and less interested in any particular style. Her advantages are surprising strength and speed. She can learn how to throw a punch in an afternoon. Same with some basic kicks, even the takedowns mentioned above. Learning to land them effectively on a non-cooperative opponent takes a lot longer.
I’m decades out of practice, but I think you want the instructor to teach a maximum of three really nasty moves. Eg, how to really rip an eyeball out, a glasgow kiss and I’ll take decapcitating windpipe crushers for $50 Alex.
There’s a scene in Pattern Recognition by William Gibson on how a friend of her father taught the protagonist how to defend herself with a headbutt aka Glasgow Kiss and then used it in a scene. Is this the type of feel you want to write about?
Which brings to mind the questions…if the attacker is a vampire, are blood strangles and windpipe chokes going to work? Do the undead even need blood flow to the brain and oxygen to the lungs?
Wait, vampire Kali instructors are there, but vampire Krav Maga instructors are much rarer? I think one of us is messing with the other one, but I genuinely don’t know which. 
A vampire skilled in fighting with wooden stakes…I mean, “sticks”. Yep, that ought to make any fellow bloodsuckers give her some space. Alternatively, with even a minor vampiric strength boost, she ought to be able to wield canes made of rebar as if they were light as rattan. That would be brutal.
Of the two options Opal is actually considering, however, I would recommend Krav Maga. I have never found TKD to be a very practical style. As my old teacher told me, “There’s no reason in the world why you should have to kick a man above the waist.”
After several years of TKD, I’d have to go with Krav Maga for effect. As others have said, TKD is more of a show style rather than something you’d take to a bar room brawl.
This isn’t to say that a skilled black belt isn’t going to put some serious hurt on average Joe Bully, but that black belt isn’t something you pick up in a few months.
Unless you’re locked into TKD -v- Krav Maga, you might consider Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. Lot’s of nasty joint techniques that can be picked up fairly quickly. And with vampire strength thrown in, size difference is pretty much irrelevent.
I believe Krav is way over-rated. TKD teaches punches and kicks without having to get in close with a stronger opponent.
Also, for reference:
Have you sent anything else out? I only have the first four chapters.
A Krav student also learns about ranged defence, its more ideal than close fighting.
I admit I am biased having trained for a number of years, Krav is a practical skill that builds on your natural reaction to an attack into a defence and counter move.
Let’s not also forget about defence against weapons, not sure if tkd covers this ?
Huh, I thought I’d assembled all the email addresses into one list, but maybe I missed yours. PM it to me and I’ll add it to my list and send you what I’ve sent out. I’ve written through chapter 18.
An instructor who knows both TKD and Krav Maga, or both Brazilian Jui-Jutsu and T’ai Chi, or any two martial arts systems, who is asked to teach someone practical self defense, is going to teach some blend of the two systems that makes sense to him/her, rather than a pure form of one or the other.
Also, after a certain level, there is no real difference between two different systems–all systems that I have encountered (that are interested in combat/self defense) do include all the elements of fighting–throws, locks, chokes, punches, kicks, and so on. Differences are emphasis and what is taught first.
The instructor’s personal style is much more important than the name of the school.
In terms of the story, use Krav Maga because it is in the zeitgeist right now, or say that the instructor is an initiate of a super-secret system that you make up–Sinanju, for instance.
Make up? Make up? I will have you know that Sinanju is the Sun Source of all martial arts! hmmmmph! Make up indeed!
You could always go with sumito.
I’m not going to comment on the vampire aspect of this hypothesis. Most vampires have some sort of supernatural essence that precludes orthodox combat, so choice of martial arts system isn’t that relevant.
Between the two, I would choose Krav Maga. TKD is more a fitness-based exercise, while Krav Maga is more oriented to “real” combat. Were the choice open ended, I’d say the putative protagonist would be wise to train MMA, specifically Muay Thai, Brazillian Jiujitsu, and Wrestling. There are many schools/training camps nowadays that offer this background on site–one needn’t be Batman and seek out many masters. Krav does include a dimension on dealing with weapons that the other named styles lack for the most part, though. YMMV.