The subject of martial arts and self defence is one where there is still a helluva lot of ignorance that needs to be fought. This is serious “pet-peeve” territory for me.
My background: I started training in taekwondo at the age of 16, and really enjoyed myself. My intstructor at the time was not satisfied with what we were learning and eventually became associated with the “British Combat Association”, run by the near-legendary Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine.
Several training sessions with these guys later, and we were no longer doing Taekwondo. Nowadays, I am a registered instructor with the BCA, run a school locally and teach/train for 8 hours every week.
If you are looking for self defence - the ability to deal with a violent confrontation in the real world - then you need to ensure that your instructor has either been there themselves and dealt with it enough times to know that what they do, works (and you also need to be aware that martial arts instructors usually have no problem lying or being deliberately vague on the subject) or that they have learned directly from someone who has.
For the record, the guys who have been there and done that (Geoff Thompson: over 300 street fights during his career as a doorman in Coventry) tend to recommend the following for a well rounded self defence education:
Boxing - because you learn how to hit hard and after getting through the initial stages, you get experience in an environment in which someone is actually trying to knock you out. Punching is infinitely more useful in the real world than kicking, if only because it takes less time to develop competence with punches but especially because violent confrontation takes place at punching range more often than not.
Put that together with Judo. Judo is more of a sport nowadays, but its still great training. You learn how to throw people who are trying to throw you and are pretty good at not being thrown themselves. It’s very hard work, you’re trying to control a person who is trying to control you. It’s top-notch stuff.
The combination of Boxing and Judo for self defence is similar to the concept of mixed martial arts/UFC fighting. These guys have to deal with some factors which aren’t necessarily relevant to self defence though; a highly trained opponent who knows most of th same stuff you do; a ring and a canvas mat; a referee. MMA tends to place a lot of focus on groundfighting/submissions - especially in the amateur competitions, where strikes to the head are not allowed, so it’s difficult to finish the fight any other way. You really, really don’t want to focus on groundfighting for self defence.
Whether or not you choose to take the advice on the specifics I’ve laid out in this post, I do implore you to do the following: observe as many martial arts classes as you can and look for the following:
Are they working hard?
Are they working against an opponent who is actively resisting them?
Are they sparring?
and most importantly…who would you least like to face in a fight?
My money says the boxers scare you the most. That’s who you should be training with.
If that’s “too brutal” or “doesn’t fit in with your lifestyle”, that’s ok - but you need to be aware that anything else is a poor second to whatever you turn away from for these reasons. Doing martial arts for it’s own sake is great, but often a little bit of knowledge is worse than ignorance when it comes to self defence.
There’s no such thing as a “bad style” per say…if the instructor is good, anything can work. However, there are styles which have a reputation for being crappy when it comes to self defence, and they include Aikido, Jui Jitsu, Taekwondo, all Kung Fu (including Wing Chun, in all it’s spellings), Ninjitsu and a lot of Karate styles. Even the current fad of Krav Maga is more wishful thinking than anything else. Despite the inherent flaws in any given style, there will always be someone who CAN make it work - but then, that person could probably turn ballet into an offensive art. What you are looking for is a style where the vast majority of the class are fighting effectively.
Nowadays, I run a school with my father in law. When we first started training together, we had a great system; loads of sparring, fitness training and work on bags and pads. Since then, he’s been indoctrinated into this weird system of “joint locks and pressure points” and spends most of his time teaching what is - quite obviously - impractical nonsense. What’s worse is that he is the older voice of experience, and so the students are more inclined to listen to him. This is a source of immense frustration for me, as my classes still centre around the same old formula - loads of hard work, applying simple techniques to pressured situations, get the job done.
It just goes to show that even someone with decades of experience in martial arts can be lead down the garden path. So, keep your head screwed on straight when making your decision. Look for practicality, not fairy tales. Keep your bullshit detector on high alert. Good luck!
