Best martial art for survival when the brown stuff starts flying around

Originally posted by OoohLaDeDa

Originally posted by yourmaker


another interesting way to learn is to play mortal kombat/tekken/street fighter and study each characters style against each others. mortal kombat armageddon is the ultimate game for this. they have over 30+ styles and you can watch them interact with each other. it's really interesting, can take the best from each one and never really have a definable style that your opponent can defeat.

Seriously??

LOL yes!

they obviously used motion capture for it. it's perfect!

hung gar, zi ran men, kenpo, ba gua, shotokan, hapkido, tong bei

even a little knowledge of those goes a long way. each has it's advantages over the other.

you can study moves, styles, defense. obviously you have to change it over to realities practical uses but it's potential for learning is endless.

you begin to catch certain timing subconsciously, certain moves that can only happen it certain ways.

I wouldn't say it if it was useless or if it was the only way I had learned.
you can actually learn from it so my statement stands.

learning about them from the game and going to someone who actually knows will change your perspective 100x

reply to post by OoohLaDeDa


Krav Maga easily the best hand to hand combat. Not sure about weapons martial arts though...would be good to have some after having a base...and that base is Krav Maga.

Link

I'm going all in with Aikijujutsu . . . Daito Ryu being the most prominent and easiest to find; however, very few traditional schools exist anymore. Most practioners focus on one of the disciplines that have been spawned by the bedrock of Japanese Martial systems and subsequently join schools that cater to that discipline (Aikido, Judo, JiuJitsu).

Aikijujutsu is a combination of all, as mentioned they arose out of AJ, and incorporates weapons at even the beginning stages of development (if you find a traditional instructor). I've been studying Gojo Ryu Aikijujutsu (off-shoot of Sanuces Ryu) for 12 years now and Kendo sporadically.

Daito Ryu Aikijujutsu - Roppokai site

Awesome thread!
From what I've seen and heard, Krav Maga is easy, simple, and downright brutal. It can be used close-quarters against empty-handed, or weapon-wielding opponents. Krav is my second personal favorite martial art, right behind Kali. A GREAT example of Kali is to just watch the Bourne trilogy... that pretty much made up my mind for the "most awesome martial art."
Good luck!

Cross train between a hard and soft style. As for weapons, stick fighting (Escrima) and improvised weapons.

Good suggestions. Thing is, I look at a lot of clubs and they just look like cash cows to me. Many of them seem to be franchises. They all quote lineages but I just have my doubts that any of the teachers are actually qualified.
Many years back I went to a local karate club. The guy there used to regularly grade everyone and I dont think anyone ever failed. He made nice money from the gradings. A few years later I bumped into some of the guys. They had been put in tournements and all had stories of breaking their wrists etc. So obviously they were being taught crap.
How do you know if the teacher is any good?

I have been studying Wing Chun for two years now, and I am really enjoying it. If you find a good school with a solid lineage, and a live connection to that lineage, Wing Chun is a fantastic all-around martial art. It is devastatingly effective. No single martial art covers everything, but Wing Chun covers most situations. in my opinion. My lineage even includes ground recovery. (We don't ground fight, we practice dealing with ground fighters, and getting back to our feet).

Of course everyone in this thread is going to pick their favorite art and tell you it's "the one". What I am saying is that learning a martial art takes time and dedication. How good of a fighter you are has much more to do with YOU than it does your art. It's the fighter, not the style in many cases.

I would tell you to try Wing Chun because it is a very efficient street art, and since the principles of it do not rely on brute strength or size, it is an art for people of all ages, sizes and body types. It is an art you can practice proficiently well into old age just like Ip Man himself did.

Many other martial arts rely on brute strength and insane speed, which is great if you are dedicated to training and conditioning constantly. Wing Chun instead relies on superior stance/footwork, position, muscular-skeletal alignments, and sensitivity. You do not "react" to an attack in Wing Chun. Things are happening faster than the analytical mind can process, so Wing Chun teaches your principles that allow the art to flow from the artistic side of your mind, which is much faster. It flows with the given situation.

My Sifu weighs about 165 lbs. I weight about 180, have been in several fights in my past, and do not consider myself a wimp at all. He can and does walk through me like I am an insignificant cloud of nothing, and it's a very humbling experience. I've seen him do the same thing with people who weigh 50lbs more than I do.

Bruce Lee used to say "I do not hit. It hits all by itself." As someone who practices Wing Chun, I now understand and experience what he meant by that. Even when Bruce Lee later created Jeet Kune Do, he kept most of the Wing Chun principles in place as part of his creation.

MMA is very popular these days, so armchair fighters think it is the end all be all. It is not. It's a sport. There are rules that are taught at these schools that do not apply on the street. A real martial art will tear and claw at flesh, it will strike the neck and the back of the head. It will teach you medical accuracy for your strikes, and what kinds of reactions and injuries they give your opponent. I'm not talking mystical magical movie Kung Fu here. I'm talking about real street-ready Wing Chun.

Even if you don't choose Wing Chun, make sure you find a good, respectable teacher, and check references. There are A LOT of charlatans out there teaching bad martial arts. Find out who taught your teacher, and check up on them too. Lineage is very important no matter what the art is.

Originally posted by Buddha1098
No one style is complete. IMO BJJ is the most effective art for one on one combat compared to singular styles. Disagree? Watch the early UFCs.

However in street fighting situations I'd take a Judo guy over a BJJ guy any day. Toss someone on their head and even if the fight isn't one on one his buddies might think twice before they step in.

Stand up arts are great but if the guy is a good grappler you better knock him out on the way in or your done.

Mixing styles is the only way to be a complete fighter, you need enough wrestling to stay off your back, enough Jits to avoid being submitted and enough standup to make the other guy respect your hands.

I agree, I think the UFC pretty much proves that you have to be well rounded in multiple styles in "real life" fighting. For instance, Chuck Norris or Bruce Lee, in their prime, would probably lose against any UFC fighter. When the fight goes to the ground, their skills do not mean much anymore. But I still hold Chuck and Bruce with total respect. They are great fighters in their particular style, and there may not even be a UFC today if it wasn't for them.


Deebo

Ninjutsu. It's a very complete form of martial art that doesn't just focus on one aspect like striking or grappling, but it also focuses on stealth, guerrilla, and survival (retreating), and various other things that would come in handy like rolls and acrobatics, and using anything as a weapon or to disable an opponent.

reply to post by Therian


AIKIDO - I agree with you ...

reply to post by OoohLaDeDa


One good way to tell is, once you figure out the style you want to study, pick out some local schools. Find out when (day/time) they hold classes that fit your desired style and experience level. Show up to the Dojo 30-15 mins before they begin (never show up late or after class has begun, as it's disrespectful) and introduce yourself to the instructor. Ask to "sit-in" or observe class . . . if they say class is only for "paying" students or some such . . . walk. They aren't worth your time. If they gladly let you observe, then sit quietly and stay the whole class. After, ask questions about class, principles, lineage, history of art (do some homework, so you have some clue as to their veracity) . . . if they sit and gladly answer your questions that's good. If they say they don't have time for you or give attitude at your questioning . . . walk, not worth your time or money.

If I were to learn another style, I would learn Mui Thai.

I am happy with my training in Butokukan though. It's paid of in a few sticky situation and I don't feel as if I were not prepared in any way. Ask general MacArthur how well Butokukan (Shinpu-Ren at the time) works

Just in case anyone is wondering, Butokukan ("training hall for the virtue of the martial arts" in Japanese) is an evolution of Shinpuren that incorporates elements of various other martial arts. The grandmaster of Butokukan met Bruce Lee in 1962 while both of them were in Seattle. Grandmaster Nakachi turned Lee onto the nunchaku because at the time he was suing a three sectioned staff which was actually hindering his potential speed. As a result of the meeting and correspondence, many aspects of Wing Chun made their way into Butokukan, as was the case for a few other martial arts.

Unfortunately, people outside Butokukan mistake Soke Yoichi Nakachi with a man named Uechi, who Lee fought in 1962. Uechi was opposed to Lee teaching white people, and his opposition resulted in a fight were he was handily beat in 11 seconds by his account, 10 by Lee's account. The unfortunate part is that Soke Nakachi would be confused with this man, as he had no problem with teaching students of any race, creed, etc. he was patently against that mindset, in fact.

Anyways, almost any martial art is a valuable skill. Well, except taekwondo, I have absolutely zero respect for taekwondo. Sorry if that offends anyone.

I would also like to add that it's a good idea to stay away from YouTube while making your decisions. YouTube is full of bad martial arts, no matter the style. The comments from the idiots there don't help either. Decide what your goals are, figure out what you have available in your area, and when you find something interesting, do the research.

I started off in a Wing Chun with a school that I thought was good. I worked out there for over a year before I start to realize there was a problem, and that I was not learning to flow with the art and I didn't not feel confident applying it on the street should the need arise. I ended up leaving the school, and luckily another instructor had moved to my area His brand new six month students were taking me apart as if I didn't already spend a year and a half at another school. Since then my my new Sifu took the good parts of what I had learned from my previous teacher and threw out the garbage. I quickly learned the difference between a good teacher, and a bad one.

reply to post by GringoViejo


I'm with you on the TKD garnering no respect . . .

My sensei used to say, in Japan, Kendo and Aikijujutsu drink wiskey, Karate and Judo drink beer, Aikido are tea sippers, and in Korea those that practice Tae Kwon Do wear panties!

I think he has influenced my disrespect of that sport . . .

my vote is gun keet do

yeah i made that name up cause a gun wins more fights than it ever lost one.

practice what christian bale did in equilibrium.

gives kung pow new meaning.

when you dont have a gun and if its a dude which of course it most likely will be

one hard kick to the groin brings any man down.

your fighting to win not to be a good sport.

Let's make a distinction here. MMA as seen on TV, is not a martial art. It's a sport. Do you know who you are in a fight? You are what you have been trained for years. You will do what you have trained, because you won't have time to think about it. MMA, unless you find the rare "street MMA" school, is as much about what they don't teach you as they are about what they DO teach you.

I'll ask you this. As a grappler, do you want to be rolling around on the ground with a person who has a knife? Do you want to roll around with someone who is trained to strike/gouge eyeballs, tear at ears, strike the throat, etc? What you see in the octagon is not a street fight. You have to train like a street fighter, and ingrain that training so it can take over when your adrenaline is pumping and you are fighting to save your life.

I'm not saying ground fighting sucks, I am saying you better train it for the street with a kill or be killed mentality, without rules, if you want it for use on the street. Otherwise, you are learning a sport and some punk who doesn't play by your rules is going to end you.

Also know that pro MMA fighters do *nothing* but train and condition for stamina. What they do takes a ton of work and dedication and what you see on TV isn't the same as someone who just plays around with it at the local MMA gym.

reply to post by solomons path


I admit i have a bit of a bias too But it's based on the results of many an open tournament

Also, two words:

Group testing.

Originally posted by neo96
my vote is gun keet do

yeah i made that name up cause a gun wins more fights than it ever lost one.

practice what christian bale did in equilibrium.

gives kung pow new meaning.

when you dont have a gun and if its a dude which of course it most likely will be

one hard kick to the groin brings any man down.

your fighting to win not to be a good sport.

I always get a kick out of people who start talking about "the gun always wins the fight", as if everyone is walking around with a concealed carry at all times. You might, but it's not realistic for everyone, especially if you live in a state where it is not an option.

Also, using a handgun accurately, under stress, takes a lot of training. If you don't know what your are doing, including how to fight with your hands, and someone gets your gun away from you, you may be eating your own bullets.

reply to post by yourmaker


Agreed, Jeet Kune Do. There are no stances / styles per say they don't show you how to do something and say do that 100x everyday but rather teach you the mechanics and WHY. It's basically using above common sense and it incorporates a lot of 'styles' such as grappling (you could call it Brazilian jujitsu) fighting with knives and also stick fighting (forgot the traditional name they call the sticks).

In my honest opinion I would pick this above all because it's not set in stone there isn't a right way to 'do Jeet Kune Do' (Art of the intercepting fist) it's about taking and using what works for you, if you've trained in all sorts of different things you probably are already practicing Jeet Kune by using what works and adjusting tid bits that Mr Sensei said YOU MUST DO IT THIS WAY but you see that there is another practical way that doesn't require the fancy footwork or whatever and of course Bruce Lee said it him self, it's like being as water, fluid and ever-changing.

Goodluck, it's hard work especially to keep to it (wow I just described a lot of things in that sentence).

reply to post by JeepOrDie


well in this thread it is a shtf which means the rule of law is non existent.

and most people will be carrying around a gun

and it takes years of mastering any martial art to begin with.

if it takes a person years to be ablie to pick up a gun and aim center mass within 10 to 20 feet and miss

then i feel sorry for them.

most people fail to realize just how up close and personal most gun exhanges are.