No I don’t mean having a gun. I wanted to take karate lessons, but seems karate, kung fu and all those kickboxers get their booties slammed hard in the octagon and UFC championships. It’s always the guys that throw you down that win. Like that Royce Gracie guy that beats guys much bigger than him.
I guess those leg kicks look spectacular in movies and that’s why they use’em so much, but I bet Gracie could’ve taken Bruce lee or Jackie Chang and Chuck Norris down in the first round.
So back to the original question, if I was gonna enroll in a self-defense class, to have the best chance of getting out of an assault unharmed or with the least amount of injury, which discipline would make the most sense?
Talk to the cops. They’ll give you some good tips at AVOIDING that kind of conflict. Best defense I know.
As sidearms go, however, you just cant beat the 192…I can’t do it.
There are too many variables to declare any one art the “best”. The Gracie BJJ is great, but it has some disadvantages too. A lot of real fights go to the ground, but if you’re dealing with multiple attackers you want to try to avoid that. What works in the octagon doesn’t necessarily work on the street.
A lot of different martial arts are particularly suited to different athletic abilities and body types. For example, there are a lot of short-round judo players because that body type is an advantage there. The same people wouldn’t do nearly as well in something like Tae Kwan Do or one of the long-and-low Kung Fu styles simply because of the body mechanics. That doesn’t mean a certain person couldn’t excel at any given art, but different arts take advantage of different strengths and abilities. What works for you might not be best for everyone.
In addition, it’s a truism in the martial arts that quality is based on the artist, not the art. Someone like Royce Gracie would be a formidable opponent in any art. If his grandfather had been into Karate, Aikido, or Spoon-Fu, you might be thinking that was the best art now. You can find good and bad teachers in almost every art, and even if you only choose from good teachers, you’re better off with a teacher who matches your personality and learning style even if the art they’re teaching isn’t what you’d choose as ideal.
Another factor is how much time you’re willing to commit. Some of the most effective martial arts in the world take a fairly long time to gain any sort of proficiency. Aikido and Tai Chi can both be nearly unbeatable when done well, but it takes a beginner a long time to get to a point where they could defend themselves. On the other hand, several styles like Wing Chun may turn a beginner into a fairly proficient fighter relatively quickly. That doesn’t mean Wing Chun is simple or that you can’t spend a lifetime getting better at it, but it’s likely to give you techniques you could apply in the real world much more quickly than Aikido or Tai Chi would.
Don’t go looking for the ultimate fighting art. Look for a class you’ll commit to, a teacher you like, a group of students you fit in with. If you find that, you’ll stick with it long enough to do some good.
Mixed Martial Arts, the art generally used at UFC style events nowadays, is basically a mix of kickboxing/muay thai techniques and jiu jitsu/wrestling/grappling techniques. It’s a good martial sport, well rounded and useful for self-defense, but like any martial art or martial sport has its limitations. Eye-gouging and crotch-striking are out, and the point is generally not to cripple, maim, break bones, or kill, but to knock out or force the opponent to submit. Generally more emphasis is placed on being able to take a punch to some degree than to avoid getting punched altogether, so few if any trapping skills or hand misdirection skills are used. In some competitions illegal because they have a tendency to break arms. This doesn’t appeal to guys who don’t want to get hit so much. A lot of devastating techniques that are perfectly okey-dokey in self defense arts would not be kosher in MMA, because you don’t really want to hospitalize or permanently cripple the guy.
Gracie is damn near undefeatable once he gets hold of an opponent…but that’s a heck of a caveat. A good striker will keep a good grappler from grappling; a good grappler won’t let that happen. I personally favor studying an art or art with a good combination of striking, grappling, and self defense techniques. I had the good fortune of finding an academy that teaches Jeet Kun Do, grappling, MMA, and Kali, and feel like that gave me the best options. Your answer may be different. There’s an old saying: “there is no superior martial art, there are only superior martial artists”. Look around, do a little research, and find a style that appeals to you.
Learn to run very fast.
I do want to chime in and add some stuff. First, the above posts are pretty much on-the-money. My one addition, and not to start a flame war but to give what I consider good advice, is to avoid Tae Kwon Do.
TKD is a great competition sport, perfect for the Olympics or tournaments. But as street defense, I believe it’s one of the worst systems out there. The discipline is focused on amazing, beautiful moves that are difficult to master – like soaring spinning jump kicks to the head – that you’d NEVER use in a fight. True defense techniques are to NEVER kick above the waist – the higher you go, the more vulernable you are to counter attacks, and you lose power. Plus the head is a very small target. Go for the knees and you can bring down the biggest body builder with one good kick.
Hand techniques also come into play. No punches – we’re talking devastating strikes with elbows, finger tips, the side of your hand, etc, to soft targets like the throat, jaw and eyes.
I’ve seen too many TKD students – usually black belts doing demonstrations – sparring with amazing kicks, where the two combatants land next to each other with their hands down by their sides, then they have to take a step back to get back into kicking range, because as an defense form it simply doesn’t focus on the hands nearly enough. Want to fight a TKD student? I don’t care how good your kicks are, fight toe to toe and they won’t be able to hit you 90% of the time.
Want to enter tournaments? It’s one of the best styles out there. So again, I’m not slamming it as a great sport… it’s just not a realistic defense program.
And I really want to reiterate how amazing something like Aikido is… but you can’t use the techniques til you’ve had many years of experience under your belt. A basic karate school, or jeet kun do style art (mixed techniques from every system under the sun) will get you some basic techniques the fastest. From there, it’s up to you how far you can go.
See if you can find an academy that teaches street fighting-type tactics. It won’t be pretty, but it may work.
Well there is no one best system, and any system can excell or fail dependent on the person using it… that last factor is the most important. Looking at MMA competitions gives you a better idea of how functional a given system is in fairly realistic fights, but again the reality is scewed a bit even in those competitions:
These events definately have rules and loopholes that fighters use despite their “wild” appearance. For example the UFC rules favor wrestlers, whereas strikers can do better in Pride; both big-time MMA events. The UFC in particular has changed it’s rules around a bit, which has forced some of the big names (like Gracie) out - by their own admission. And above all, these are sporting events.
Also realize that the guys you see in these events are professional fighters, and often do little else in their lives. There will be a big difference in your ability depending if you train 4 hours/day 5 days per week, have access to high-quality trainers, modify your diet and lifestyle, and prepare specifically for a given event/opponent at a known time and place with a solid knowledge of specific rules weeks to months in advance.
If one works out a few hours a week for 8 months and pushes their luck with an unknown bar fly and his buddies in a strange town one drunken night, well, don’t expect a professional performance.
Check out what the pro-fighters use; you can go to sites like sherdog to see this info. The big three most often quoted are wrestling, Brazillian Jui-jitsu, and muay thai. Not to say that these are the only good ones, but most fighters have trained in at least 2 of these and/or similar styles. Any high-caliber fighter cross-trains as well, so it’s very rare for a guy to come in knowing only one style.
Better yet, you can check out other MMA message boards - believe me your question has been asked and discussed more often on those boards than “does god exist?”… “are blacks better athletes than whites?”… and “is file-sharing illegal?” combined here. Try Sherdog, Bullshido, Mixedmartialarts.com, Ironlife, or just use Google.
Having been a student and teacher in TKD, I agree in part with filmyak. TKD as it is taught is not the best street fighting art around, but nothing you can learn in ANY classroom is. Sadly if you really want to be physically capbable of defending yourself you need to fight…and get your butt kicked alot. Practice is truly the only way to learn something like that.
Aside from that, your best self deffense is to just be in good shape, period. Being a fit, and most importanly, confident person is the best self defense you can ever have. I cannot stress the confident part enough…confidence is core!!
I wrestled in high school and college, have black belts in Karate and Judo, and have competed quite successfully in all those sports… unfortunately, way long ago. I have no experience in boxing. FWIW, I think any competition designed to last a few minutes and where maiming or killing your opponent is frowned upon will not yield a close approximation to real self-defense. Flinging someone to the ground and pinning them may win a match, but how the heck do you let the “mugger” up? What if there are two of them? Also, you both know when to start, and have exactly one opponent, who uses no weapons… not realistic for self defense.
The style of fighting that is best for you will vary with your personal abilities relative to your opponent. (How quick / strong?) Your level of skill in any style obviously makes a big difference, but less obviously some techniques may become effective at lower levels of skill when combined with certain physical attributes.
For instance (and this is ONLY hypothetical) someone who is large, has quick hands and excellent upper body strength, but less than wonderfully flexible and so-so balance might become effective in boxing faster than tai-kwon-do.
If that sounds really vague, it is. It’s sort of like asking “What color should I paint the trim on my house for best effect?” The answer depends on the house and also the surroundings. If I were absolutely forced to give an answer to your question given the limits stated, I’d say some serious (IE: not for show) form of Karate. (Shotokan meets this goal, but there are others also.)
Gary’s Rules of Self Defense:
- Don’t go where it’s dangerous. If you find yourself in such a place, leave.
- If you can walk away or avoid violence by submitting, do so. (“Can’t” means that it’s more dangerous to attempt to leave or submit. Let a robber take your wallet. Assuming the family is safe upstairs, let the burglar downstairs take what he wants (if he can escape before the police arrive),
- Never get mad. It interferes with your ability to plan and execute. Leave if you find yourself getting mad or frightened, because your judgment is impaired.
- If you determine that there is NO WAY to avoid violence, hit first, with absolutely no warning. Your first combination should be planned to totally incapacitate your opponent. In any case, don’t stop until they are disabled. The element of surprise lasts until that first pause.
- (Generally) don’t use your bare hand unless you have nothing better to hit them with. A foot is safer than a hand; you can do horrible things with a pencil or key.
- Take no chances; effective is better than flashy. A kneecap is easier to kick than a head, and works just as well.
- Step 1 still applies. If the opportunity presents itself, run away.
By the way, though you said no gun, a pistol is WAY more effective for self-defense. For in-home defense a pistol is only for while you get your shotgun.
The Israeli martial “art” Krav Maga is hailed to be effective in real life situations (I’m putting art in “” because it isn’t really like the more traditional asian martial arts). Krav maga was developed for the Israeli military and the goal was simple, to create a hand-to-hand combat technique that worked. Since it is a such, there are no competitions in krav maga (unless you count those schooled in krav maga who compete in the UCF), not ancient rituals, not belts and no funny suits (This is not to slag ancient rituals, belts and suits, I got a green belt in jiu-jitsu and think it’s a fun and worthwhile martial art to practice).
As for how efficient it is, I can’t say as I’ve never tried it.
This last one should be good but does have a number of imitators and more/less effective variations not to mention quality of instruction; it’s not all the same nor did it all come from the same place. If you want to do this then check the background of the instructor/s - for real. I’ve read many accounts of only needing a few months training in order to start teaching others yourself in some areas; the system in the States anyways seems to be getting a little out of control as far as keeping tabs on who’s teaching what. Not surprising - it’s new to these parts and everyone wants a piece of the action. Should have some useful stuff though…
Geeee, so many responses so fast, I was overwhelmed fer a min. 
Thanks so much!
The reason I was asking is cause I have a fairly large family (3 daughters), and have no real idea of how to defend myself (and them obviously) if approached by a mugger or something. I hardly think of muggers as professional athletes or very skilled martial arts people, but rather just desperate ppl trying to make a quick buck. I am very non-confrontational and always avoid trouble at all costs, but there may be a day in this desperate times when you just can’t help but to defend yourself. I have been into sports all my life and at almost 6 ft, 200 lbs I am not a regular whimp, but just as someone mention, confidence is core, and i have…well…NONE!.
I was looking into some type of martial arts that allow me to quickly strike and maybe not cripple but inflict enough damage to allow me (and maybe family) to safely RUN the hell outa trouble.
I was thinking that Gracie’s style is great, but after reading the replies I understand that chocking someone into submission helps you win matches, but in real life, instead of running away from trouble which is the goal, I’d be left there choking someone, what is next? I’d have to kill him I guess or hold him there until he falls sleep of boredom
I guess that is why most ppl I know that take martial arts take Karate or Judo, it probably is “fairly easy” to learn a few good moves and allows you to then run out of trouble.
My aikido sensei talks about this question sometimes in a dismissive way - he’s definitely in the ‘whatever works’ camp, with a lot of judo/karate/boxing/wrestliong/stick fighting in his background. He does definitely pepper his teaching with what works on the street and what doesn’t, so you might want to look for that kind of instructor.
He lives in a bad part of town and has been atypically attacked a few times in the last few months - seems like every class lately he has a new minor scrape/knife slash of some kind - but he’s standing and they’re in jail or the hospital. Make of that what you will.
If you really want that, pepper spray/mace (if it’s legal in your jurisdiction) will probably serve you much better than any attempt at a beatdown. Someone mugging you is probably going to have a weapon, which puts you at a disadvantage anyway. And disarms are very hard to do, I’m told.
Agree. If they’re not teaching you how to fight dirty, they’re not teaching you the best way to defend yourself. The most effective self defense moves include kicks to the knees and groin; foot stomps; eye gouges etc.
And note that many (most?) martial arts schools claim that their techniques are great for self-defense. So be skeptical.
I echo the earlier statement about Krav Maga. I have trained in KM and found it to be a very strong MA. I have also studied Karate, BJJ, and have a black belt in TKD. Krav Maga was by far my favorite and, IMO, the most effective.
Just look at how many law enforcement agencies they have trained:
http://kravmaga.com/Home/Programs/Law_Enforcement_-_TOC/AgenciesTrainedJuly2002.html
Notice they train the DEA, Federal Air Marshals, US Marshals and the Secret Service. This is the real deal.
I was interested in Krav Maga myself, unfortunately, my city has no schools.
The one thing about learning only one martial art is that it’s a rock-paper-scissors deal, enlessly turning around.
IE:
A boxer will beat a karate guy.
An Akido guy will beat a boxer (if he gets him off balance)
A Shaolin Monkey Stylist will eat an Akido guy for lunch
But a boxer might have a chance against monkey boy.
Most muggers/streetfighters are heavily into boxing and illegal moves. I wouldn’t do a “pure” karate move.
PS: What gcarroll said about running away. Life is precious.
How is Muay Thai Kickboxing as a defense art?