Self defense training?

Just curious what other people are doing...

My plan involves not needing to go hand to hand, but if a situation remains bad for any real length of time eventually you will end up in a close combat situation... or you might just be walking down town and someone comes at you with bad intentions.

So whats you training of choice?

I recently started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, its tough going but a lot of fun... its also forcing me to look at what I consider good physical conditioning, most my previous conditioning was endurance... where BJJ seems (to this point) primarily short intense bursts of energy.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Be as familiar with your surroundings as you can possibly be.

Know where certain things are, like woodpiles and other places you can arm yourself.

Always be on the lookout just in case, and wear dark glasses because all it takes to get into a situation is eye contact sometimes.

Try not to act like a victim, look around and watch who the panhandlers and rednecks harass and try not to act and look like that.

The world is a dangerous place regardless of how safe you may be led to think it is by your fake authority figures.

Trust your gut, if you feel uncomfortable there is probably a reason for it.

a reply to: Irishhaf

Before I became crippled (I can walk, but not very well any more), I was sort of fascinated by Krav Maga. I could probably still use some of the principles - disarming an attacker hand-to-hand, etc.

Krav Maga

a reply to: Irishhaf

I myself do Muay Thai and K-1 twice a week, mostly to keep fit.. but if a situation came up id feel confident to be able to resolve it..

Any training in martial arts is going to put you at a advantage, considering the small percentage of people who practice.

Always carry at least 20 weapons in you, throwing knifes, arbalets etc. For safety purposes wear a sword. If you wear a sword , no one will care. Its better than a gun anyway.

Preferably carrry 2 swords, daggers, throwing knifes, hand arbalets, smoke bombs, metal plating on your clothes, 2 handguns, at least 1 granade, 2-3 more weapons of your own choice.

ALSO AWAYS LOOK FOR TROUBLE.

I mean, why would you care so many weapons and not use them? Just try to ammas and fight at least 10 people at the same time. Aim for the ones with guns first.

a reply to: Irishhaf
I have been kick boxing for 10 years and have been taken Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Gracie style and still have my blue belt.

We have learned it's never good to fight and to try to walk away. Two weeks ago my girlfriends ex was acting crazy toward me. I warned him to not try anything and let's walk away. Nope he did not listen lol. As he went for my neck I had him on the ground chocked out.

I let him up and I said I warned you. So he took a swing at my head. I back kicked his knee and down he went.

Your choice is excellent!

a reply to: ZeroFurrbone

Carry...

Lie # 9 Knowing kali makes you a knife fighter
Lurid stories about guerrilla actions against Japanese invaders, duels and death matches that the founder of the style was involved in abound. ... just because the founder of the system or lineage was a walking piece of bad-assed real-estate doesn't make you one.

They weren't knife fighters, those people were survivors. It's what comes from living a hellishly hard life. While they had physical skill that helped them, what kept them alive, what allowed them to strike fast enough, hard enough and brutally enough wasn't their art -- it was the commitment not to die. It was that grim savagery to do whatever is necessary and to do it faster and harder than the other person that kept them alive. In the lexicon, they had "heart." Source

If that's not you ... buy a gun. Train. Shoot a lot.

BJJ is the best martial art for one on one fighting but traditional arts like kung fu, aikido, and aiki jujutsu teach how to deal with multiple attackers at the higher levels.

Aikido

peace

ETA: Bonus; you learn to use and defend with Jo(staff) and Boken(sword) techniques. Iwama style Aikido is preferable. And if you follow the principles correctly, most of the art is practiced before any contact has been made, if at all.

originally posted by: Irishhaf
Just curious what other people are doing...

My plan involves not needing to go hand to hand, but if a situation remains bad for any real length of time eventually you will end up in a close combat situation... or you might just be walking down town and someone comes at you with bad intentions.

So whats you training of choice?

I recently started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, its tough going but a lot of fun... its also forcing me to look at what I consider good physical conditioning, most my previous conditioning was endurance... where BJJ seems (to this point) primarily short intense bursts of energy.

It is best if it does not go hand to hand of course. We were taught basic combatives in basic training but not really enough. My opinion, and only opinion, would be a primary long gun, then a sidearm, then a backup sidearm, and if those 3 go down, a knife, then a backup knife.

If I can't stop an attack with those 5 weapons, then I am not sure if hand to hand would work either, obviously though it is still useful to have. You can never learn too much. I am talking purely from a survival shtf scenario. But of course, hand-to-hand it is definitely a skill than can benefit you in everyday life, but one that really needs a lot of training and physical conditioning. Firearms do too, but maybe not to such an extent.

If you are going to train in a fighting style, I'd say you would be pretty well off with BJJ or anything similar to what people use in MMA. It is pretty bad that things are getting to the point where such training in any skill, armed or unarmed is almost necessary.

a reply to: Dr X

Gracie JJ we really learn ground fighting. It amazing what leverage can do. A girl in my class who weighs 120 has her brown belt and I am 175lbs she can take me out.

My kick boxing teacher also reaction fighting where a person punches and you pull his arm away from you and it messes up heir balance.

Brazilian jujitsu is a martial art but it takes years to master,MMA would get you there quicker in terms of groundwork,chokes,strangles,locks etc there is one problem rule number one is self defense is dont go to ground without knowing where you are I cant be too specific in my recommendation but would suggest Krav Maga as it is pretty much universally available these days as a commonly available martial art it will get you up to speed the quickest and it does also cover realistic knife,bat and gun defenses and combat at all ranges.

As old as I am I dont expect to ever get really good at it... but if I am passable at it, it should help against untrained people.

I also mainly chose it because my over all physical condition is poor when looking at a close combat situation... I can ruck a 60lbs pack 15 km with little trouble... but 2 minutes into tap out tag out I am gassed, (for those that dont know it is simply 1 guy in full guard trying to get me in a submit position, while I try to pass his guard) So obviously I needed to add a new dynamic to my physical conditioning.

The fact we have 2 purple belts on base to help people get through the basics is a bonus... and it fits right into my budget... free.

add into it... well I am having fun.. despite the jammed toes... raw knees, and various bruises.

a reply to: Irishhaf

I'm a student of Krav Maga, as I see it as being one of the best real-world fighting (or self-defense) systems out there. The philosophy behind it really is to be able to use gross motor skills in quick, brutal ways in order to subdue your opponent(s) and disarm them, if necessary.

I'm relatively lucky, though, because my instructor is also an instructor of Okinawan Kempo and Jeet Kun Do, training under Richard Bustillo, one of Bruce Lee's students. He also teaches Eskrima/Kali, Combative Jiu Jitsu, and Silat. I take advantage of the Eskrima training at the moment, and plan to jump into the Combative JJ here pretty soon, as it's a big part of level-4 Krav (which I'll be in shortly). He also teaches both straight-blade and karambit classes, as well.

While that sounds like an advertisement for his school (it's not), my point is that you cannot always rely on one fighting system, and to corner yourself into that mentality would be a bad idea (I'm not saying that you have, I'm just making a general statement). Krav is my main focus, but what's great about my instructor (and the assistant instructors) is that he always throws in little morsels of knowledge or techniques from other martial arts that he teaches, making us a more well-rounded fighter, and that's a great thing.

Just understand that every martial art or fighting system (as Krav isn't really a martial art, per se) has its strengths and weaknesses, as does every instructor and every school. But as long as you're training for real life situations and not tournaments, and the focus is on self defense and not the school just trying to get as many trophies and students and as much money in through the door as possible, you should be okay. BJJ is a very good choice, as well.

The main thing that I like about Krav is that it really does teach you defenses against real-world attack scenarios and weapons (we have multiple gun, knife, and stick defenses). I'm uncertain if many other systems teach that--I'm sure that some do.

I'm sticking with Krav for a while, though. My goal is to make it through level six to where, if I ever wanted to, I could be my own instructor and even possibly open my own school, although I don't think that I'd want to do the latter.

The following is just my opinion.

Situational awareness is what keeps you safe most of the time. A person looking to jack you is looking to catch you at a disadvantage to ambush or engage you. Look for pre incident indicators. If you walk like prey....you are prey.

Bring armed with a weapon from either pepper spray to a stun gun to a knife is great and all but most of the time completely useless unless you already have the weapon deployed, in your hand, safety off and ready to use as you walk down the street. Which would be brandishing a weapon and intimidation and thus illegal.

Dont get me wrong always carry if you can. You never know you may have paid enough attention to notice a pre incident indicator and get your weapon out, online and ready for any impending assault. Odds are you wont have that opportunity if you get jumped because the attacker has probably already determined he can get the drop on you to reach a position of tactical superiority.

So all the above was to point out a good martial arts instructor and getting a few hand to hand moves down is your best first line of realistic defense. Not a go to weapon.

Doesnt matter what art you are learning just so long as you have a good teacher who can present the art to you from a combative mindset (cause not all training is created equal and spirituality is great -the art part- but it wont save your life the combative aspect of it will)

Western boxing as your stand up/striking is a great base to have. It offers simplicity, power efficiency and great footwork. Learn the ropes of jujitsu so you arent completly helpless horizontal on the ground. Unless your into that thing (hey i dont judge! )

I disagree with the mentality that you only need to use only stand up striking or ground grappling and not cross train in the other. Its stupid to think that you can rely on just striking to survive the guy might be better than you and get you on the ground from there you are largely helpless. Its also stupid to think that only grappling is what you need. The other guy might be better than you use counteroffensive footwork and knock you out faster than you can blink.

So if i were to give unsolicited advise id say learn both for good self defense. Figure out how your body likes to move. Not every martial art is good for your psychology and physicality.

If youre a stocky heavy set guy capoeira is probably not a good striking art for you. Boxing or kenpo might work better. If your a skinny light guy kenpo techniques requiring kinetic impact due to body mass might not be as effective for you. If youre a high energy guy who likes to move around a lot then maybe harimau is a valid art for you. If youre more of a wait for the opponent to screw up then go in for the kill kinda guy maybe arts that look for openings first are your best choice. Maybe your more of an overwhelm your opponent kinda guy so they dont have time to think. Hakka, kuntau and some pukulan silat varieties should be considered.

Same thing with your grappling. Although personally brazilian jujitsu is the preeminent art for horizontal laying on the ground grappling. Good old fashioned wrestling. Or shoot fighting. Or mongolian wrestling. heck judo even may be a better choice.

Some arts offer great blends like some jeet kun do schools. Kajukenpo is really well blended. Some kali and silat offers dirty boxing (panantukan) and grappling (dumog) and now they are infusing jujitsu like in Modern Arnis.

So figure out what arts work for you physically and psychologically and then find a school that teaches it with a focus on combatives.

For me ive spent most of my life doing an assortment of martial arts. But it wasnt until some kaju guy decided to teach me some serah and kali that i found the art that works best for me in a combative sense. I went that direction. Another direction might be better for others. My personal blend is pekiti tirsia as a base (both psychologically, tactics and footwork wise-including all my weapon work) inosanto/lacost blend panantukan for my long range and mid range striking cimande and serak for my in close game and upright body poistioning for takedowns. On the ground again inosanto curriculum for ground game (mostly jujitsu mixed with philippino dumog) kali's outside,split and inside entries for all my bridging or entry work. Also use some serak sambuts for that too. What i train works for me. Its my best formula. But it wont be the same for anyone else hence people need to explore exactly what combination of empty hand arts you should study for self defense.

a reply to: SlapMonkey

Doesn't sound like an advertisement to me, just stating facts...

Your a lucky person to have that level of knowledge at hand, I am jealous.

The entire purpose behind taking martial arts is self defense, the physical fitness side of things is just a very big bonus.

When we rotate to the states in a couple years I will look at other styles that work well with BJJ, another piece of my problems in europe is finding a place to learn that I can actually communicate with the people that are teaching.

Having zero previous training, I finally got off my butt and said I have to start somewhere, and was lucky enough to have the opportunity to start learning.

My instructor has been good about walking me through the basics step by step, it takes a bit for all my limbs to catch up to what my brain is telling me (concussions suck), but having long arms and legs seem to lend itself well to this style.

Ill have to research pretty good to find another where my leverage advantage can be used to greatest effect.

a reply to: Quantum12

I agree. Positioning, timing, leverage, base, experience. They all are more powerful than just speed or power alone. Im teriffied of an ex instructor of mibe. Hes 6'2" and 145lbs. Rail thin. I out muscle and weigh him significantly yet im wouldnt mess with that guy for any reason without a sniper rifle from 400 yards away. Im still recovering from injuries that guy gave me 4 years ago his idea of traini g was so brutal. But really his proficiency is whats teriffying about the guy. Hell get you everysingle time no matter what you try.

Slapmonkey, bustillo is an excellent instructor. What silat does he offer malay, indonesian, maphilindo? Just curious they guys learned from so many good instructors.

Also keep up with the escrima. Your footwork timing and range gets developed real fast when youre dealing with sticks and knives coming at you. Plus if you really begin to understand the blade youll see its connections to movements made in other martial arts that seemingly have no relation to weapon work.

a reply to: Irishhaf

My 2 cents:

BJJ is a good choice to have in your arsenal. Superiour grappling.
Everything that has intensive full contact sparring works.
Krav Maga/ATK-styles and some Ninpo-Taijutsu are very good, provided they are learned in addition to a strong core.
It is not by accident that various SF and SEK around the world practise those styles, because they work.

All the 'arts' that limit themselves to katas look pretty - but don't work with a crushed cheekbone. Might aswell take ballett-dancing lessons.

JMHO