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

reply to post by runetang


Spot on, couldn't have said it any better myself, probably slightly worse

If your lucky, you could asked to be trained in Dim Mak at the end of your training (very unlikely), but only one in a generation is suposedly chosen for this as it is deadly and requires highly skilled striking. Dim mak means 'deaths touch' and requires precision striking (right depth of strike, angle and pressure point) to immobolise and possibly kill the opponent, Although hard to do, it's harder to undo.

These range from single pressure point strikes to multiple strikes, the multiple strikes block different channels of chi (Qi) flow to immobolise the body, arms, legs etc. A famous pressure point is underneath the armpit (you can feel the cavity and the pressure point), this is linked the the heart and can kill if struck properly. A stranger pressure point is on the top of your foot (around were your meant to kick a football), i mention this as runetang mentioned stamping on opponents foot (with heel).

This is a pressure point controlling blood pressure, if stamped on properly, it tricks the brain into thinking the blood pressure has quickly rose and the brain drops blood pressure, rendering opponent unconscious. I wouldn't go doing this on your friends, very dangerous.

Thanks. EMM

I took up Jujitsu & muay thai about 6 months ago, but have given jujitsu up since with all due respect my teacher wasn't structured enough.
I LOVE Muay Thai though, really really enjoy it, i've done conventional kickboxing before but i think Muay Thai is better.

Infact i'd be going to Muay Thai tonight if i didn't have so much revision to do :[.

I'd recommened this for anyone interested in the pyschology behind street fights, has some good stuff about functional NLP (neuro-linguistic-programming).

Street Fight Secrets

Best Marital Art? The nagging routine or failing that the ol' rolling pin..


OH I'm sorry you said MARTIAL ART : get the wife upfront and let her nag the attacker to death.

Tai Chi Chaun, without a doubt, because it teaches you about movement and balance, and close in applications, as well as pressure and ways of extracating yourself from grapples and situations. Its relatively easy to learn, and providing you practice the form becomes second nature very quickly. Anything "flashy" relying on throws and kicks is no use in a packed bar at 2am.

But most of all, you need the ability - particularly in urban situations - to detach yourself from everything but your own survival and be a total and utter bastard for long enough to remove yourself from harms way.

Thanks Electro,

I'm a current practitioner of TaijiQuan, which is just a fancy way to say Taichi Chuan.. heh. I use the other spelling/pronounciation to denote the martial art from the exercise it has been turned into in the west. I have only been at it for 6 months, but as soon as I am proficient, I am going to immediately add Hsing-I or Xing Yi (same thing again) to the arsenal for good boxing/striking ability, to add to the Taiji's force control, balance, and circular movement.

A previous poster mentioned PaKua describing the Emperor's bodyguard. This is an alternate pronunciation of Bagua, and is the same thing as Bagua Zhang, which I have spoken of. These things are all said and spelled in multiple ways when you convert them into English lanaguage words, heheh. Some have no exact translation.

The funny thing is, in traditional Bagua and Taiji, there are hardly any closed fist strikes, otherwise known as punches. Once you learn to harness the power of the entire body, you can project more force into an opponent with a palm than a fist and do much more damage, believe it or not. Eye scrapes and eye gouges figure prominently in these styles as well, as do claw maneuvers where you grab then twist etc. Very few kicks, but they do exist. You really shouldn't ever be trying to kick someone above the stomach when practicing these forms of martial arts. It's mostly close up, hand-to-hand action.

Oh yeah, the grappling/locking aspect of the Chinese Arts, "Qin Na / Chin Na", is integral to all kung fu styles. Here is a video of a few maneuvers of Qin Na..

www.youtube.com...

Originally posted by neformore
Tai Chi Chaun, without a doubt, because it teaches you about movement and balance, and close in applications, as well as pressure and ways of extracating yourself from grapples and situations. Its relatively easy to learn, and providing you practice the form becomes second nature very quickly. Anything "flashy" relying on throws and kicks is no use in a packed bar at 2am.

But most of all, you need the ability - particularly in urban situations - to detach yourself from everything but your own survival and be a total and utter bastard for long enough to remove yourself from harms way.

Exactly... which is why I personally like Tai Chi Chaun. Although finding someone to "instruct me" is pretty hard in the area I live in. I'm currently reading a book about exercises("Handbook of T'ai Chi Ch'uan exercises") for it. It's writing by Zhang Fuxing.

I'm also surprised no one else mentioned the 7 Star Praying Mantis (or Northern Praying Mantis). I self taught myself some moves from another book I have... which at the moment I can't seem to find.
I learned how to successfully counter punches and kicks with it, but thats about it.

Another book some people might be interested in is called "Shaolin Chin Na, the seizing art of kung-fu" writing by Yang Jwing-Ming. Both books are very good. Although finding the older edition that I have might prove to be dificult, I'm almost certian they have newer editions.

reply to post by Jazzyguy


I would have to say Ninjitsu, which is a combination of many many techniques from all other disciplines, but the interesting and not so well published fact of the art is.

Ninjas hired to assasinate someone, often approached their target with the news of their mission, who hired them and struck a deal for a higher price and this would continue until such time as BOTH realized that WAR was soo incredibly expensive, that they must learn to get along with their rival.

Unlike the hollywood version of the black clad warrior sneaking around and just killing people.

Honestly, we could use a few ninjas in governments, because apparently these nut jobs still believe that they can wage nuclear war and actually WIN!

The top 4 martial arts taught for self defense and tactical combat;

Brazilian Jujitsu (to defend and subdue)

Muay Thai (to break or kill)

Philipino Cali and Arnis (to protect or kill )(as seen in the Borne Identity movies)

Krav Maga (to kill)

Personally, I think that muy thai is a great discipline....you can become a proficient striker and learn many of the basics fairly quickly compared to alot of other martial arts! Any kind of full-contact training is good though, even if it's just you and a few buddies going at it in a boxing or mma capacity. muscle memory/striking without thinking are invaluable, as well as the ability to take some damage and keep dishing it out. When i doubt though, fight dirty! If it's me or you, i'm going to tear an eye out lol.

After studying a number of martial arts (I'm not some sort of expert or anything even close to that but I do at least understand the philosophy and principles of a variety of them, and have some experience in fighting), I have grown up enough to understand that the greatest martial art is the ability to bring peace by one's words and actions. Unlike my youth when I was always ready to "defend myself," as I have gotten older, I have realized that this attitude itself moved me towards confrontations.

I have started to understand that the best and highest of all fighting styles is the art of removing the need to fight from those that seek to draw you into conflict. It is simple, but very hard to do, but we do have great teachers who show us how this can be done from Jesus, Gandhi, the Dali Llama and the great Jain teachers.

My failure at this in the past was that I treated non-violence as another weapon ("disarm him with your words") and didn't address the root cause of the conflict -- the duality between myself and my opponent, even to the level of thinking of him as an opponent. We cannot fight if we are both on the same side.

After achieving my minuscule understanding of this, the instructions and lessons of my sifus and gurus started to become clear to me. I still enjoy the martial arts, especially the Chinese internal arts, but instead of thinking of them as systems of self defense, they are becoming for me systems of self awareness. One of the things that puzzled me for decades was a statement made by one of my Kung Fu sifus to me as a young man. Exasperated with me, a common occurrence, he said "You can never be a true warrior until you abandon violence." Decades later, I now start to understand what he meant. I also realize how much there is to learn and how true the sayings of some of the martial masters are "To learn the physical skills takes a lifetime, to learn the inner arts takes a life time, then you need a third lifetime to combine them. In the fourth lifetime, you can become a master."

reply to post by The Soldier Of Darkness


SOD.

Come back in twenty years after you have survived a war or two and read your post. You will roll on the floor laughing. Grow up already. in the real world and in a survival situation you do whatever you can to live. If you follow the rules and try to be a stand up fighter you will die. Plain and simple. Only after war can you recognize peace through strength. Good luck to you.

reluctantpawn

reply to post by Jazzyguy


Here is what I have done in my own experience after studying everything from Kung-Fu to kick boxing

Combine the style called "Kaju Kenbo"(the art of dirty street fighting) and "Gracie Ju Jitsu" (and some muay thai boxing techniques as well)

I have studied Martial Arts since I was 7 years old and by combining these 2 disciplines you will become a fine tuned fighting machine.

Just always know that any street fighters is as good as any Black Belt. Go into with that mindset and you won't underestimate the enemy.

Some people mentioned Qi Gong and yea thats good for harnessing energy and balancing your energies, staying healthy that sort of thing. I would stick with the Kaju kenbo and Ju Jitsu and if you have to choose between the two in this day and age go for the Ju Jitsu but keep in mind being able to punch and kick would be extremely beneficial to the style.
Later!

reply to post by TroyB


Hi

I didn't know this fact either but it just confirms my choice of Martial Arts.

I practise Ninjutsu for about 1 year now. I chose Ninjutsu because i didn't want to combine my training with too many different styles. It deals with all aspects of combat, may it be ground- or weapon-fighting or unarmed upright techniques. There are no tournaments because most techniques are only justified by self defence(dirty fighting). Also it teaches how to fall right (ukemi) which comes in handy, even when not fighting. Similar to Judo and Aikido.

I very much agree with almost evrything i've read about the philosophy of ninjutsu so far. Especially the Ninjas spiritual understanding of the universe.

It's best to avoid a fight by all means but if TSHTF land explosive and devastating blows and get the F*** away. (Yes this may involve shrurikens and blinding powder, or normal everday items like the coins some1 mentioned, everything goes)



[edit on 18-6-2008 by nirbid]

reply to post by metamagic


a very profound and philosophical insight. a star for you my friend.

Well after reading this and reflecting on my own experince I decided that there are 3 main skills that will make you a good fighter.

1. being able to take a punch (if you cant take a punch your not going to win)

2. experince(you know what they say experince is the best teahcer)

3. envioremental awarness(being able to use the surrondings as a weapon will serve you greatly)

IF you learn those 3 skills you should be a good fighter no matter what martial art you learn.

Hi.

I find the little known Scottish martial art of Phukyu to be easy to learn,and fairly effective.
It mainly involves head butting,and repeated kicks to the groin and it has helped me out of a tight spot on more than one occasion!

Jeet Kun Do... Beause Bruce Lee OWNS! If he was still alive today he would have achieved Grang Master Level and whoop everybody.

Originally posted by scobro
Hi.

I find the little known Scottish martial art of Phukyu to be easy to learn,and fairly effective.
It mainly involves head butting,and repeated kicks to the groin and it has helped me out of a tight spot on more than one occasion!

since all scottish martial arts seem to involve extensive headbutting i'd like to point out that most headbutts can simply be countered with looking at your feet in the moment of impact. that will leave the scotsman bleeding from his now broken nose unable to perform a follow-up groin attack.

Originally posted by Straight Razor
The best martial arts in the world is Smith & Wesson.

lol I second that.

Or a Glock .22

Originally posted by The Soldier Of Darkness
reply to post by runetang

 

Interesting that you should mention the Muay Thai combined with jujitsu, as thats what i recently started doing..

Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, and some grappling/wrestling is the most realistic combination. This is why MMA events like Pride and UFC are so popular - because they're realistic situations. The two combatants are in the octagon/ ring to do whatever they can to kill each other, trusting the referee to make sure that they don't.

I practice primarily jiu-jitsu but supplement with the other sports mentioned and I have to say that it's one of the most difficult sports to learn.
There are so many moves and counter-moves, to watch two brown or black belts fight is like watching snakes writhing around - it's awesome.

Also, on conditioning, you'll find that the common consensus is that MMA practitioners are among the best conditioned athletes in the world in every aspect - core, aerobic, cardio, flexibility, etc...

My two cents.