What do you consider as the best martial art in the world?

None of them are the best, in fact all of them are largely useless. In a real combat situation, you cannot effectively recall complex manoeuvres and techniques and not only that but those complex manoevres and techniques are rarely useful at all. Any hand-to-hand combat system must consist of extremely simple movements, the bulk of the teaching being biological and psychological information and the rest being strength and fitness training.

If you are learning a martial art that does not sound similar to this, give it up immediately:

Strike the guy in the head, aiming for the jaw. If you can do this, don’t do anything else. The secondary target would be the neck but this tends to be difficult to contact during and is best used as part of a pre-emptive attack.
If someone is too close for you to strike them with a decent amount of force then the chances are that their eyes are available, use either your left thumb on their left eye or vice versa. This not only gives you decent grip on their head but blocks their vision. Push HARD, your intention is to push past their eye, through the thin layer of muscle behind it and into their brain. The chances are that they will move away extremely quickly so that is why you use one hand only, as soon as they move into a decent range strike with the elbow or hand of the other arm into their head or jaw or neck if possible.

Without a doubt the most important thing, more so than strength, speed and fitness is intent. You should fight with a cold, systematic aggression, much like an insect. A defensive mindset is useless, you can not block or counter an attack more quickly than someone can throw it and throw another one whilst you are trying to counter the first. You need to be on the offense at all times and not stop until your enemy is completely harmless, or “neutralised”. Do not waste any time, your mind should be saying “attack, attack, attack, attack...” and increasing in volume at any time that you are not actively attacking them.

Out of all of the martial arts mentioned, Krav Maga is the one I would recommend most. This is not because of any specific techniques but for their emphasis on aggression, "realism", correct body mechanics and fitness. Of course there are martial arts utilising weapons that I would recommend but I am assuming that the question was regarding hand-to-hand combat. I would consider myself quite experienced and knowledgable in the reality of hand-to-hand combat and I would be happy to answer any questions in a U2U or on this thread.

i suggest every one learns the yellow chicken form of kung fu you build up all your qi magic energy into your legs so you can run away veryfast and if that doesn't work shoot them in head from fifty feet

SOSHH: Any combat art is good, how good it is depends on the person utilizing it. Also, after many years of martial arts experience some of the techniques and blocking and striking reflexes come as second nature, you will do them in the time of need without even thinking.

reply to post by kimish


There is no denying the best martial art.....

GUN-FU

This martial art is all about hand-eye coordination and can be executed with the movement of a single finger (finger of death.. hehe). Quickly point gun at the opponent and pull the trigger.

Fight Over... I win.

Systema, russian martial arts they teach that to their Spetsnaz troops and it seems very effective

2ndline

Muy thai, boxing, jui jitsu. Just to cover those bases. Then Krav magaw as suggested above. Train your fast twitch muscle and train your reaction time. You will also want to train specific situation so your brain is designed to handle them with ease. There is this thing about people freezing up.

Originally posted by Jazzyguy
Or.. what martial art do you most prefer (for yourself I mean)?

I personally have no idea or any experience about martial arts, but those shaolin monks sure look pretty darn strong and fast.

SKS and 7.62. I think I win the count, thanks have a good day.

hand to hand combat is only required if you let them close enough

reply to post by Eavel


Urban combat, unforseen circumstances. There are many many scenarios where hand to hand is useful. Incarceration for example(or internment camp if it exist).

Debates on the best martial arts are about as productive as debates on the best special forces, most will think their own is the best and those who have not done martial arts will often say that none are effective. As someone has said, it depends on the practitioner. Practise makes perfect as they say.

IMO, its handy to have a few tools in the toolbox. I used to box, i used to do Aikido for a while, a fair bit of unarmed combat in my time too. On their own, maybe none of them are the be all and end all, but combined, with a lot of controlled aggression and common sense, and they are very handy.

I mention common sense. I have got myself out of potential trouble many times by knowing when is the right time to leave a situation. Knowing that walking away, or that an apology can de-escalate a situation, can be as good a weapon as any sometimes.

CX.

Originally posted by kimish

SOSHH: Any combat art is good, how good it is depends on the person utilizing it. Also, after many years of martial arts experience some of the techniques and blocking and striking reflexes come as second nature, you will do them in the time of need without even thinking.

edit on 7-11-2010 by kimish because: (no reason given)

You don't need years of "martial arts experience" to do that and no not every "combat art" is good. It is a myth that those so-called experts have lightning fast reactions and can block any attack at any speed. I remember a knife-defence drill where you would wear a neck-brace and a motorcycle helmet and attack someone with a plastic training knife. On the course were people with no fighting or "martial arts" experience, people who had years of experience of actual fighting and a few people with one black belt or more.

In the first drill you would attack someone with the training knife for 10 seconds and they were only allowed to defend themselves from the knife. No-one could do this effectively, everyone got "stabbed" several times and the difference between people who knew nothing and those who were "experts" was negligible. After that you were only allowed to strike the head of the attacker and not defend, the purpose of the drill is to demonstrate the uselessness of a defensive mindset.

Richard Dimitri, founder of Senshido and Combative Science Technologies and an alleged "martial arts expert with many years experience" famously made an open challenge to the audience in one seminar of his for anyone to stab him, expecting his mad expert reactions to make him look like Jason Bourne and he got stabbed 12 times or so with a permanent marker.

A master in any form of Text Purple would be key in order to be fully graduated in most likely most martial arts...

reply to post by Vesica


MEDITATION is the missing word

reply to post by Soshh

I have had the privilege of meeting and learning from masters of different styles from all over the U.S., Canada and even Japan. I grew up in a martial arts household and I can assure you that some people out there are the real deal. I have seen with my own eyes masters getting attacked and winning in under 10 seconds. As for with the knife, a true "master" would have the knife wielder down and neutralized in under 10 seconds, it only takes one or two properly executed strikes (time training will aid in this) to totally take a person out with or without a knife or gun to your head, if you know what you're doing. That 10 seconds is actually a long time in a real time fight or self defense scenario.

Like I stated before, It's not about the style, it's who's using it. I've seen plenty of black belts get whooped by people off the streets, that doesn't mean that their "art" isn't effective, it just means that the person trying to use the art is ineffective. Take note that there are more phonies than true masters out there in the real world.

Meditation can be important for some individuals because it can help keep a person calm in a life threatening scenario. In a real life situation your "flight or fight" mechanism kicks in and only experience and/or meditation can help keep your body from locking up or making mistakes. Keeping calm is the key, you are much more easily knocked out or hurt when tensed up. That's one reason you never see a fighter go into the ring "cold". And if you do the odds are in that persons favor to get KO'd.

Here is an example of what being calm and a perfectly executed strike can do. www.youtube.com...

reply to post by Jazzyguy


9mm semi-automatic.

Just to throw out something fun...
the Japanese have long thought the unique American ,martial art is the old western wheel gun quick draw...
those old gun fighters of yesteryear are akin to the samurai to those folks and when it comes to more modern wheel-gunners no one is as flashy as a this guy...Howard Darby... Laugh if you will but you gotta respect anyone who can shoot like him

Dan Inosanto's Kali. "Use only what is useful."

I follow more along the lines with JKD teaching really. Learn the most useful and economical basics of as many differents styles as you can. Take what works well, practice it from as many different angles you can to get muscle recall. That is all I really have to say about it. Also just making sure you have core strength, ballance, speed, accuracy and good cardio will give you the advantage over the normal sheeple type attacker.

Argh doubleposted. Sorry

reply to post by kimish


You don't have to be a "master" to win a fight in under 10 seconds, the first section was limited to 10 seconds only because you weren't allowed to do anything else, the second section didn't have a time limit but many ended before 10 seconds. There isn't some secret way of repeatedly hitting someone in the head and you don't need a lifetime of dedication to martial arts to do it either.

If a black belt does not appear any different from an average person when placed in a realistic setting then I would be blaming the art rather than the person.

Originally posted by Soshh
reply to post by kimish

 

If a black belt does not appear any different from an average person when placed in a realistic setting then I would be blaming the art rather than the person.

edit on 8/11/10 by Soshh because: (no reason given)

This is where you are mistaken. Most if not all earn their black belts on knowledge, not skills alone, the key word being skills. That is why, like I stated earlier, some black belts are beaten by people with no martial arts experience, they may have the knowledge but lack the skills. It has nothing to do with the arts but the artist. Example: If you knew nothing about fighting but fought out of natural instinct as opposed to taking boxing lessons for years and getting into a fight wouldn't you have a better chance at winning the fight with the boxing knowledge? Of course you would, and guess what, you have learned an art that made you better at defending yourself and neutralizing your opponent.

But you do need some type of dedication to acquire better or quicker reflexes. I can personally attest to this through experience. Are you, per se, able to block and counter a punch being unknowingly thrown at your face by countering with a throw? I have done this, due to martial arts experience. If I had never had the experience that I do I may have only partially blocked the punch instead of fully blocking it and countering with a throw simultaneously. Please, be open minded.Go out and take a few lessons from a respectable sensei.