No Martial Art is better than the other. It all really comes down to the individual and how they use their skills.

But considering most fights tend to go to the ground, that's where Sambo or Jiu-jitsu come in handy. You really don't need to be the world's best boxer, just take your attacker down and manipulate one of their limbs until you hear snap, crackle or pop.

It is now about the martial art but the martial artist. It is up to you which one to choose. They are all great and they all depend on how good the person who uses it is. Why do you think Bruce Lee was one of the best know Kung Fu masters? Because he was very dedicated and he mastered the art. People may tell you to try them all, but I say it is better to master one trait then to become a jack of all traits.

Originally posted by dragonfire2159
Grappling's useful if it's one on one, but if you're in a street fight and the other guy's got friends, you'll just end up getting kicked in the head or groin if you take it to the ground.

Completely erroneous conclusion.

Grappling doesn't mean YOU are on the ground. It means you take the opponent to the ground.

Throw him, trip him then mount with your knee on his belly. You face any other potential opponents in essentially an upright three point stance. Very stable. The opponent is still basically between you and any other attackers.

HTH.

Originally posted by 5ealchris

Originally posted by Badge01

The following arts and styles are generally done with a majority of unrehearsed, spontaneous practice with an uncooperative opponent:

Judo, Jiujitsu, Wrestling, Boxing, modern MMA, Muay Thai kickboxing, Kyokushinkai Karate and Russian Sambo.

Dude, you forgot systema.

you can check out my previous posts if you want to know what it is all about.

Sorry, charlie, Systema as it is practiced in the West is basically the Russian version of Aikido.

Or, perhaps you could direct me to any 'Systema Tournaments'?

Its current incarnation is almost completely rehearsed moves done with subtly cooperating opponents. It may be that one or two people are able to pull it off, such as the founder, Mikhail Ryabko.

It might interest you to know that Ryabko's Systema was originally based on Russian Sambo. But current students are often unaware of this, and have not trained in Sambo. Thus their expression of Systema is usually ineffective, lacking this essential core training.

The same thing is true of Aikido. It was originally based on Daitō-ryū Jujutsu, which Morihei Ueshiba studied in his youth. However current and modern students are frequently unaware of this.

Lacking this central core of knowledge and ability, Aikido as practiced in the West is considered by many to be a watered down version, lacking the 'internal power' that Ueshiba exhibited.

HTH.

Have any of you been in a situation that you've had to fight multiple opponents? Rules go out the window, if you want to win. Ie: take less of a beating than losing. I've HAD to fight off of my knees before. Uppercuts to the nuts are quite effective. Got a choke lock on your neck and you have about 3 seconds to act? A handful of nuts twisted HARD can get you out of that. You're not going to learn any of that in ANY martial art. Experience will teach you that though. Eye gouge? Throat shot(careful, that one can be fatal)? Pulling the hair at the back of the neck will make a person move. Nothing taught there in any dojo.

Disclaimer. I'm not saying to go out and start fights, just pointing out the advantage of experience.

Mixed Martial arts is better than any other style!


hahah


well you cant really have one of the best styles out there, one person might be a master at Brazilian jujitsu, but when he goes up against a great muy tai fighter he is down with a kick to the head.

The best thing to do is just get into mma...it gives you the advantage of creating your own style of fighting once you learn the others.

Combining basically wrestling,Brazilian jujitsu, boxing, and muy tai...alos judo or anything else gives you the advantage...create your own style!

also Krav Maga rocks!!!

but man if i was a champ at sambo/wrestling/judo/bjj/boxing/muy tai/Krav Maga

that would not be a person you would want to #%&^#^ with!!!

and as for going up against a bunch of people...belive me its stupid, but if you know how to fight well then maybe there is hope...

if your going up against 5-7 guys, always keep your front twords them, foot jab the first guy coming twords you, then maybe a jab cross or a series of punches to the second guy coming at your right,but only after you took out the guy coming at you with a left kick to the balls. Thats already 3 people down, but it would have probably taken allot out of you and if you are not properlly trained then its bad...so i would run and get the %#^#^ out of there!

these days some boxing/mma gyms are doing classes on how to fight of 5 or more people if you get ganged up. I think my gym is gonna start doing that soon and i cant wait hahah!!!

but the best deffence is a good offense, if you can get the first guy out, then try 2nd and then third, but dont be stupid...get the #^#^ out of there if your alone!

[edit on 17-6-2008 by ATSGUY]

[edit on 17-6-2008 by ATSGUY]

Originally posted by intrepid
You're not going to learn any of that in ANY martial art.

Actually, that's the first thing they taught me in Kung Fu. If you can't get to the Solar Plexus go for the nuts. If not that then use a hammer blow on the weak part of the knee.

A good point to remember, regardless of which hand-to-mand combat technique you prefer, is that the majority of people in the west are right-handed, so learning to fight instictively as a left-hander even though you may be a right-hander would give you an added advantage of surprise as an opponent will automatically assume that a punch will be thrown from the right in a stand-up fight

Jeet Kune Do
The formless form.
This is the greatest martial art because no style is a style...

Bruce Lee:"Empty your mind. Be formless shapeless like water. Now you put water into a cup, it becomes the cup. You put water into a bottle, it becomes the bottle. You put it into a teapot, it becomes the teapot. Now, water can either flow, or it can crash! Be like water, my friend"

My opinion:

I teach mixed martial arts. Boxing, kickboxing, Wrestling, Judo, BJJ. Back when we had the school, we had teachers specific to each, and I taught the blend. In general, I would say, what are you looking for?

If you're looking for self-defense, I wouldn't say mma. It is oriented to facing a single unarmed person you know that is coming, within your relative size and fitness level.

highly idealistic.

If you're looking for health and spiritual development, look for the internal arts of China, Japan, India, or Tibet.

If you're looking for tourament fighting, look for kickboxing, tae kwon do, etc.

If you want to do forms, look for Kung Fu or Karate

If you want to break stuff, look for Kung Fu and Karate.

If you like to grapple, look Judo, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Sambo, etc, would be good options.

For self-defense, krav maga would probably a fairly good choice. People say Jeet Kune Do. But you gotta realize that most of the JKD schools are run by some dude who read the "Tao of Jeet Kune Do" which was written after Bruce Lee died, based off of some notes he took. He only certified like 3 people to instructor level, and I doubt they guy in your town who does it trained with one of them.


Also, there are plenty of McDojo's out there. 95% of the time, the instructors stopped training long ago, and most were either given rank by people who don't know what they're doing, or bought rank from somewhere.

There is no regulation in the martial arts world. You can watch Kung Fu Hussle, and if you have the money, open a school as the 10th degree black belt instructor, and if you're fairly athletic, you could probably pull off a fairly successful scam.

Now, I don't practice mma anymore. I do traditional martial arts. I do Jinenkan Jissen Kobudo. It's 7 schools of classical Jujutsu arts, it includes weapons, stealth, fighting in water, striking, grappling, etc.

As far as what martial art is the best, I'd say, none. Because there are a lot of p**s poor people in all of them, and a hand full of decent people in each one who think they are totally awesome. But there are very evry amazing people in them as well. Sometimes, it can be hard to weed out the terrible from the fantastic, I've seen many many(thousands, literally) people thinkng the subpar mimicing of mediocre instructors to be the best martial arts in the world.

You also have to consider what each art was designed for. Karate, Judo, Kempo, Tae Kwon Do, these things aren't that old, they were created about 120 years ago to function as either idealistic forms of personal development, or sports. In many schools, Karate teaches you to be able to withstand any blow, and kill with one strike. However, Mas Oyama, who took this philosophy to the pinnacle was in a wheel chair in his 40's, because that's that a sound tactic of fighting. Needless to say, when he was fighting, he was a monster.

So, what are you looking for in a martial art? Fun, health, fitness, spiritual development, historical reconstruction, discipline, coordination, trophies, self-defense, competition? All of these are important factors.

It's not about the art, it's about the practitioner. There is no "Best."

With respect, I highly doubt that Aikido would be effective in a true self defence situation.

With respect, I highly doubt that you have found yourself in a true self-defence situation.

Seriously though... it would be very difficult for me to explain - right now, I mean, without in-depth open self-analysis :-) - why I find it so naturally effective. I suppose the most accurate short version would be the conventional one: it uses the opponent's weight and moves against him/herself.

And BTW, I like boxing myself.
Not as self-defence, though - just as an attractive and invigorating passtime...

I know this one guy use to do martial arts when he was younger in movies.Dont know what he does now.I think his name is Ernie Reyes Jr.The stuff he know is pretty sick.

[edit on 17-6-2008 by alienstar]

[edit on 17-6-2008 by alienstar]