Best martial art to learn?

[zboy1]

I'm interested in taking a self-defense course and I want to know, what is the best martial art to take? Since I live in an area where many different types of martial arts facilities exist, I have the opportunity to decide which is the best martial art is for me. I did take Tae Kwon Do and Hap Ki Do as a kid, but I stopped learning it after I entered High School. Overall, I found the Tae Kwon Do to be limited except for the kicks and some of the grappling and throws I learned in Hap Ki Do.

Personally, I'm also not a fan of either Kung Fu or Ninjitsu as I consider both martial arts to be a joke--and I will not bother taking those disciplines. My choices are between Judo, Krav Maga, Karate, Boxing, Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, or Sambo. What is your opinion of the topic of discussion?

[odbo]

I'd go with boxing and a few months of anything involving grappling/wrestling (like jiu-jitsu) to get the basics down. Anything else is a bonus. Martial Arts requires years of commitment. It's great if you can throw spinning round-house kicks, but self-defense isn't about taking down highly trained fighters or being aesthetically pleasing.

[samurai_panda]

Muay thai is the most effective of all of them - using knees and elbows.

BJJ is pretty awesome submission techniques that can disable an opponent without throwing a single punch.

Boxing is solid for knocking out idiots.

Or you can just get a gun. AK47 baby!

[All_That_Is_Man]

I'd go with boxing and a few months of anything involving grappling/wrestling (like jiu-jitsu) to get the basics down. Anything else is a bonus. Martial Arts requires years of commitment. It's great if you can throw spinning round-house kicks, but self-defense isn't about taking down highly trained fighters or being aesthetically pleasing.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I would go with boxing and Japanese jiu-jitsu. Also hapkido would be a great bonus.

[kai1275]

Japanese Ju Jitsu, Aikido (if you are very patient), or Silat, Vo vit Nam, Krav Maga, Filipino knife fighting. In that order.

My credentials: Black Belt in each:

Brazilian Jiujitsu, Japanese JuJitsu, Kenpo, and Judo
10 years of Muay Thai

I have trained Marines and Army Rangers on hand to hand combat and I am a former MMA cagefighter and trained many fighters.

[Moretorque]

The 2nd amendment.

[Cornfed]

Probably Western military CQB is the most efficient in terms of becoming an effective fighter in a short time.

[Bane]

Depends on what you are using it for. If you want to compete in an organized sport setting, Boxing, Thai boxing, and any grappling based arts (BJJ, Sambo) are essential. If you are just looking to defend yourself and get out of a situation quickly, Krav Maga and some other CQC type arts are probably best. Of course, if your attacker(s) have a gun, it makes little difference!

For me, I have little interest in using martial arts in an organized sport setting, I'm more concerned with self defense in the everyday world. I have trained in Sambo and Krav Maga. It all depends on your situation, the type of person you are, and how you anticipate using Martial Arts in your life. No one size fits all approach applies.

[Contrarian Expatriate]

Boxing and judo, period.

Unless you are trying to be a MMA fighter, you learn striking by boxing and that means more than simply learning to punch. You have to learn timing, and counterpunching which take time or you will get hurt.

Judo is good if you want to learn how to leverage your weight in a grappling scenario. Throwing, adjusting, and body movement are key to winning a street brawl with a bigger opponent.

[ClearView]

I've done judo, catch wrestling, BJJ and thai boxing and enjoy them all. I'd actually like to do western boxing for a while but it's hard to find in Thailand. MMA is pretty good but coaches tend to specialize in a particular area.

My recommendation is to do any martial art that has a competitive focus. BJJ, judo and wrestling are good because I do randori/roll every class at about 80% intensity against opponents that are trying their best to prevent me from doing my techniques. This is what you need because it's a lot harder to do technique on someone who is trying to avoid yours and put it on you then on someone who is just standing there holding out their arm.

While I'm not an advocate for fighting on the ground in real situations my training in BJJ means I'm confident in fighting there if I absolutely have to but not only that I can get off the ground very quickly now. Judo is great for stand up but try and adapt what you do for no-gi because some judo stuff can't be done without a gi or without some significant changes ie. underhooks instead of gripping. Catch wrestling is always good. Check out anything by Billy Robinson.

Muay Thai is great and the Thais destroy at stand up and clinch but are behind groundwork (getting better though). At my gym I do randori with Muay Thai guys with 150+ fights who toy with me in stand up (and I'm talking 60kg guys) but I dominate them on the ground. It's good to be well rounded though and I'm working on my boxing skills. I still think that boxing is one of the best skills for the street though it's good to know grappling because guys tend to always go in from the grab, charge, tackle, it seems to be a primal instinct particularly if they are losing.

[Cornfed]

Boxing and judo, period.

You would want to learn things like weapons disarms and more lethal techniques that can be used against much larger opponents. Boxing and judo are great but may not be much use against an armed opponent or a much larger man who knows how to fight.

[Winston]

Rock has been looking to study some martial arts from Israel that he told me about. I don't know the name of it. He said it's simple and effective and taught to Israeli soldiers in the army. Rock, what is it called and where can you learn it? Any videos of it on YouTube? Any links about it?

[Shemp]

Martial arts are for guys who like touching other guys bodies. Real self-defense is mostly mental and mostly preventive. WALK AWAY FROM FIGHTS. The police ALWAYS look unkindly on guys who get into fights, no matter who started it. If you must fight, because you can't walk away and you are in danger of severe injury or death, you want the simple and effective techniques, which means attempting to maim or kill your opponent. Poke out their eyes, break their neck, use any available objects to stab or bludgeon them. Self-defense courses for women tend to emphasize these truly effective techniques, plus the far more important issues of prevention and mental preparation.

[Rock]

Rock has been looking to study some martial arts from Israel that he told me about. I don't know the name of it. He said it's simple and effective and taught to Israeli soldiers in the army. Rock, what is it called and where can you learn it? Any videos of it on YouTube? Any links about it?

Krav Maga. By coincidence I met a French guy staying in the Fort (BCG) who teaches students in that. He's very advanced, trains many people, and works as security in companies. He told me 80% of his students here are Filipina women.

I tried out an hour with him and it became apparent very fast that this guy could have easily killed me in at least a dozen ways. Sure it helps that he's 6'1", big but very in shape, quick, and youthful. But the real magic was in his techniques and understanding all the physical and psychological vulnerabilities of a typical human.

It seems the basic strategy when under threat is to feign compliance, surprise distract (fingers up nose and eyes, palm to throat), then either run away or execute secondary moves to seriously harm or gain control.

These things need to be practiced a lot so your learn the nuances and gain unconscious muscle memory. The biggest problem is that you can only spar half ass or to a degree cus the moves are meant to seriously harm.

Krav Maga seems to look for all the possible hacks to seriously hurting someone if it comes down to that. The instructor told me there is not absolute right answer but rather what is right for me. If possible, the best defense is to de-escalate, cool, and/or run. Goal is to avoid harm as much as possible. This is purely a self defense but if forced into hand to hand type of deal, you learn techniques to give you a major edge, especially against unprepared attackers.

If someone threatens you and you put your fists up, he's ready for a fight. But if you talk and act as if you are submitting, his guard just may go down. Every element of the situation needs to be exploited. Surprise can be so powerful. Even a well placed sucker punch or hard chop to back of neck can sometimes lay someone out cold. If you have sprinting skills and are far enough from the threat, use them and bolt.

There is also a gym near where I stay in Makati that is listed on the Internet to offer Krav Maga classes three times a week. I may check that out too.

[OutWest]

Rock has been looking to study some martial arts from Israel that he told me about. I don't know the name of it. He said it's simple and effective and taught to Israeli soldiers in the army. Rock, what is it called and where can you learn it? Any videos of it on YouTube? Any links about it?

Krav Maga. By coincidence I met a French guy staying in the Fort (BCG) who teaches students in that. He's very advanced, trains many people, and works as security in companies. He told me 80% of his students here are Filipina women.

I tried out an hour with him and it became apparent very fast that this guy could have easily killed me in at least a dozen ways. Sure it helps that he's 6'1", big but very in shape, quick, and youthful. But the real magic was in his techniques and understanding all the physical and psychological vulnerabilities of a typical human.

It seems the basic strategy when under threat is to feign compliance, surprise distract (fingers up nose and eyes, palm to throat), then either run away or execute secondary moves to seriously harm or gain control.

These things need to be practiced a lot so your learn the nuances and gain unconscious muscle memory. The biggest problem is that you can only spar half ass or to a degree cus the moves are meant to seriously harm.

Krav Maga seems to look for all the possible hacks to seriously hurting someone if it comes down to that. The instructor told me there is not absolute right answer but rather what is right for me. If possible, the best defense is to de-escalate, cool, and/or run. Goal is to avoid harm as much as possible. This is purely a self defense but if forced into hand to hand type of deal, you learn techniques to give you a major edge, especially against unprepared attackers.

If someone threatens you and you put your fists up, he's ready for a fight. But if you talk and act as if you are submitting, his guard just may go down. Every element of the situation needs to be exploited. Surprise can be so powerful. Even a well placed sucker punch or hard chop to back of neck can sometimes lay someone out cold. If you have sprinting skills and are far enough from the threat, use them and bolt.

There is also a gym near where I stay in Makati that is listed on the Internet to offer Krav Maga classes three times a week. I may check that out too.

Rock,

A lot of people use some martial arts form for working out
That is a different thing than focus on what is effective.
When I was in the business, our training focused almost entirely on QK. It's hardly a competitive sport.