Which martial art for self defence?
Which martial art for self defence?
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NDT

Original Poster:

1,766 posts

286 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
I'm not particularly interested in the sports side of martial arts and I run and do weights for fitness - I just want to be able to seriously incapacitate anyone who tries to mug me.

Any suggestions?

MaxAndRuby

6,792 posts

255 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
They'll knife you.

HTH.

rb5230

11,657 posts

195 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
best bet is to take up running, sprint and long distance.

I Love Lamp

2,664 posts

198 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
I've been training in Wado Ryu (a form of Karate) for 6 months and can recommend it.

If you're currently doing weights for gains, there's a good possibility this will be counter productive for gaining muscle due to overworking the muscles.

I substituted cardio to do this

As per above though, runnning is always the first option.

Edited by I Love Lamp on Monday 8th November 17:38

ShadownINja

79,297 posts

305 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
There have been a couple of self-defence threads in the past on PH. Well-worth reading through them.

sinizter

3,348 posts

209 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Krav Maga

Don1

16,432 posts

231 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Honestly? Run, or don't put yourself in a bad position.

If you really want to fight, go and find yourself an MMA gym (see the MMA thread for more details).

Muzzlehatch

4,764 posts

265 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Real-world, for those of us without masses of time on our hands: Try Aikido or Wing Chun.

Other than that, learn to run fast!

deevlash

10,442 posts

260 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Muzzlehatch said:
Try Aikido or Wing Chun.

Other than that, learn to run fast!
Id stick with running fast if ou chose either of those two!

For my 2 cents (21 years of Judo, a few years of BJJ) I'd say if its more than one on one youre fked regardless of what you know unless your handy with your fists and lucky that one of them doesnt tt you first or tts you while youre ttting his pal. For punching you want boxing or Muay Thai.

BJJ for self defence is crap, they have great intricate submissions on the floor which is where most fights end up but they dont train takedowns so they are just as likely to end up on the floor in bad position and get smacked in the chops. Judo will train you in takedowns and allow you to rag doll idiots onto the floor where you can then do what you want to them, assuming youve not broken them already by throwing them.

Aikido can be good but half the time its just stty wrist locks and things which, if youre steven segal, might work, but if youre getting mugged you wont be calm, you'll be stting yourself and all those cool wrists locks you tried with your very accomodating partner will go out of the window.

I know a guy who is supposedly a Wing Chun master. He got the piss knocked out of him by a wee junkie mugger.

Dont do TKD its useless.

Karate can be good if you find a proper club, theres hardly any though, theyre all McDojos that give black belts to 6 year olds for learning some dance moves. They throw stupid punches too.

Krav is supposedly great, I dont know much about it, seems to just be adding eye gouging and nasty stuff to traditional MA's though. Plus they dont compete so the standard wont be as high as in a competitive martial art. Fact.

Top thing though, you say youre not interested in the sporting side of martial arts. I will guarantee you that if you train any martial art for 10 years and another guy trains it for 3 but competes, when you both get mugged the guy who competes will be the one who will know what to do under the pressure of a fight. Sure, a Judo competition or whatever isnt like a mugging but you get the same adrenaline rush when youre facing someone who wants to throw you on your back and break your arms, or in Muay thai, want to break your orbital bones and Jaw.

deevlash

10,442 posts

260 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Thats a lot of swears! Oops.

mybrainhurts

90,809 posts

278 months

Monday 8th November 2010
quotequote all
Some pointers here...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjLAPFzlq7Y

NOT SAFE FOR WORK....

Martial Arts Man

6,703 posts

209 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
deevlash said:
Krav is supposedly great, I dont know much about it, seems to just be adding eye gouging and nasty stuff to traditional MA's though. Plus they dont compete so the standard wont be as high as in a competitive martial art. Fact.
I recently added KM to my portfolio (funnily enough I'm teaching a two part course over the next two weekends in firearms and knife defence).

I would only really suggest its learning after some grounding in another martial art. The reason being that range/timing etc are of paramount importance in Krav. Unfortunately, most KM students, imho, are looking for a quick route to bad-ass-ness and don't want to spend hours getting their range and timing right for their strikes (which are fundamental in Krav, more so than the fancy disarms).

Learning Krav is easy...really easy. It's the implementation that is difficult.

Like all martial arts, how you practice is often more important than what you know when it comes to its use out in the big bad world. On my instructors course, quite rightly, we helmetted up and properly went at it, no holds barred. I very much doubt that a competitive M/A-ist from virtually any other discipline trains like that. I've never seen it, outside of some super trad clubs where being a little insane is a pre-requisite for entry (Old school karate and kung-fu predom.).

The problem for everyone starting out in martial arts is that no sane instructor will allow new students to train like this for some time, if ever.

My instinct tells me that a striking art is a good precursor to KM. Disarms are lovely and showy but the strikes that often make them successful are more important'cos often we put ourselves in the situation where we might get punched/have to punch in order to remove that weapon. Securing the weapon at all costs, type of thing. If you can't give/take a few effective blows, the disarms become irrelevant.


y2blade

56,264 posts

238 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief

ZesPak

26,006 posts

219 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
sinizter said:
Krav Maga
Another vote for KM here, I did some others (JJ) but KM goes to the basics of fighting, over and over again.

You don't want to know eleventy holds when somebody comes at you with a baseball bat.

Anyway, I've never put myself in a position where I need to use it.

Martial Arts Man

6,703 posts

209 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
y2blade said:
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief
How did you get on with Lau?

Who was your instructor?

Was there anything about it you disliked?

y2blade

56,264 posts

238 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief
How did you get on with Lau?

Who was your instructor?

Was there anything about it you disliked?
I loved it, did it for about 7 years

Gordon Mitchell and Steve (I cant for the life of me recall his surname)

nope

Martial Arts Man

6,703 posts

209 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
y2blade said:
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief
How did you get on with Lau?

Who was your instructor?

Was there anything about it you disliked?
I loved it, did it for about 7 years

Gordon Mitchell and Steve (I cant for the life of me recall his surname)

nope
Steve Newby?

y2blade

56,264 posts

238 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief
How did you get on with Lau?

Who was your instructor?

Was there anything about it you disliked?
I loved it, did it for about 7 years

Gordon Mitchell and Steve (I cant for the life of me recall his surname)

nope
Steve Newby?
it might have been, I really can't remember...it was early/mid 90s last time I did it

both were nice guys and very good instructors

Martial Arts Man

6,703 posts

209 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
y2blade said:
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
Martial Arts Man said:
y2blade said:
as Bruce Lee said

"the art of fighting without fighting"


failing that I did Lau Gar Kung Fu http://www.laugar-kungfu.com/index.asp all through secondary school and into collage years too

I never got any grief
How did you get on with Lau?

Who was your instructor?

Was there anything about it you disliked?
I loved it, did it for about 7 years

Gordon Mitchell and Steve (I cant for the life of me recall his surname)

nope
Steve Newby?
it might have been, I really can't remember...it was early/mid 90s last time I did it

both were nice guys and very good instructors
Cool.

Was only asking as Yau is a close family friend and I know most of the LG guys pretty well. Just being nosey biggrin

Devilstreak

8,088 posts

204 months

Tuesday 9th November 2010
quotequote all
Shotokan is a very defensive sort of Karate.