What Martial Art Is Right For You? Which Ones Are Effective? What Style TO Learn?

Originally posted by PaxVeritas
reply to post by McGinty

 

Tai Chi doesn't teach you to defend yourself. You wanna do ballet, or meditation, or sit under a tree for years and search deep into the cosmos that's all good.

But you'll get your ass kicked by tweaker boy who thinks you stole his cigarettes and isn't backing down.

Period.

Tell that to the guy with broken nose!

It's derived from the fighting form of Tai Chi which is the oldest martial (fighting) art of all.

But, as i said, to learn to fight well with Tai Chi means doing the combat form as well as the long form and it will take a long time. Forms involving muscle memory just take lots of dedicated practice and if you have an aptitude you'll fight well, and everyone else will at least fight far better than they did in a relatively short time.

However, the long form is about not only using the opponent's power and momentum against them (as in the combat), but also focusing the mind to think of 'right now', or rather what you are 'flowing into' (since it's not really a series of moves, but one long move that lasts 20 minutes.

In short you achieve clarity - this is virtually reprogramming your mind - undoing the multi focusing that day-to-day life would inflict, turning us into confused robots by the time we leave school. This obviously takes a long time and great dedication, since unlike other martial arts the benefits are subtle and slow to emerge. But when they do, they are a force to be reckoned with - not only does a skilled proponent posses the combat form, as does those of other arts, but they operate them on what seems another scale of time. They do not depend upon just muscle memory, but are thinking and adapting with their focused, quick thinking mind.

I, sadly have many years till i could ever hope to reach such a level, and it's highly unlikely given my age (early 40s), but when you've seen such a person utilise their Chi to propel a man across the room without barely a movement, then i know that's they very last opponent i'd wish to cross.

My preference would be hapkido. It's kind of a blend between aikido and tae kwon do. You get the energy redirection of aikido and the striking power of tae kwon do.

To everyone who is naming Wing Chun, Kung fu, Aikido, etc.. I think you are watching WAY too many movies, Kung fu and chinese forms of martial arts are mainly focused on self control and discipline. Besides, to be a good Kung Fu fighter would require years and years of practice, go ask any master and they will you that you can never learn all an art has to offer.

If I had to pick an art to learn I would go with Muay Thai hands down.. Why? Well its basic, no flashy moves or fancy throws, a quick elbow to the jaw is all you need. Also Muay Thai trains you tactics that are usable in a street fight, too many martial arts are guilty of looking amazing but practically useless in a real fight.

** I also would like to thank the OP for including adrenaline on the list, I swear every keyboard warrior LOVES to name a style that they feel they are masters of, but no one ever mentions the fact that when you get into a fight your blood is pumping a mile a minute, your shaking from the adrenaline and your only though is either to run or to beat this guy to a bloody pulp. Everyone thinks they know exactly what to do when a fight happens but they dont, when it happens you change, your mindset changes and you are not going to be thinking about doing any fancy Kung fu moves.

reply to post by PaxVeritas
That has and always be my mantra, walk away it takes a man to walk away from a situation.This was one of the points of one of my earlier posts in response to a question asked to me what MA would be best suited to a knife attack ,simple answer 'fast pair of heels' cut throats dont come back and collect medals,My point i raised about knuckleheads (without seeming to be unecessarily contentious)is the very people psycho's who tdont give a rats p*** about the respect sidee of MA are the very people you DONT need out on the street .The very essence of what i was driving at was this ,the loss of a spiritual dimension of respect balance and peace in MA gives way to WIN, KILL, SPARE NO QUARTER IS GOOD IN KRAV MAGA FOR ISRAELI SOLDIERS IN THE WEST BANK ,As ex forces i am AWARE of living to kill maim survival on the jagged edge its f********* awful and the best MA is a heckler and koch & walther p99.I know LA is one hell of a rough place in parts so i imagine to be Usain Bolt would be great asset.Back to what i was saying earlier what concerns me is that a violence for vilolence sake philosophy attracts the psychos anyway thats my pennysworth

Originally posted by Shagga
To everyone who is naming Wing Chun, Kung fu, Aikido, etc.. I think you are watching WAY too many movies, Kung fu and chinese forms of martial arts are mainly focused on self control and discipline. Besides, to be a good Kung Fu fighter would require years and years of practice, go ask any master and they will you that you can never learn all an art has to offer.

If I had to pick an art to learn I would go with Muay Thai hands down.. Why? Well its basic, no flashy moves or fancy throws, a quick elbow to the jaw is all you need. Also Muay Thai trains you tactics that are usable in a street fight, too many martial arts are guilty of looking amazing but practically useless in a real fight.

** I also would like to thank the OP for including adrenaline on the list, I swear every keyboard warrior LOVES to name a style that they feel they are masters of, but no one ever mentions the fact that when you get into a fight your blood is pumping a mile a minute, your shaking from the adrenaline and your only though is either to run or to beat this guy to a bloody pulp. Everyone thinks they know exactly what to do when a fight happens but they dont, when it happens you change, your mindset changes and you are not going to be thinking about doing any fancy Kung fu moves.

What most people don't know is that Kung Fu, and yes even the famous Shaolin Kung Fu includes a sport fighting style called Sanda or Sanshou.

By rule sets and training it is almost like muay thai + take downs. In fact, the Chinese and the Thai have quite a rivalry going on with their Sanda vs Muay Thai fights.

Heres an example:

reply to post by fedeykin
looooooool eh mate you must have picked the worst muay thai fighter video,ive seen that vid its hand picked for you tube because it shows the sanda fighter in a great light.Ive see this a few times in you tube,i saw a muay thai v taekwondo vid and you would think muay thai wins hands down but lo and behold in this vid the taekwondo dude kicks ten cans of s*** out of the muay thai fighter, the worst practitioner of muay thai ive ever seen.ive seen some embarressing MARTIAL ART V MARTIAL ART VIDS

It depends on your goals, but in general BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu) is most versatile for any goal, including "self defense", MMA, flexibility, core strength, combatives... etc.


Although I'm biased because I train/teach it. It's no coincidence it's the fastest growing martial art in existence.

Originally posted by PaxVeritas

Originally posted by Quickfix
I would love to learn Aikido.

It uses the attacking force of your enemy against themselves.

I find it to be one of the most effective forms of martial arts around.

And the famous Steven Seagal used this art in most of his movies.

Some throws from it can be good. But most "forms' fighting methods are ineffective unless completely mastered through life.

It's not effective to the common fight or even in a ring. Name one MMA fighter who's main discipline is AIKIDO in the last 10 years. It lacks a lot of real world application.

Very true, it's a discipline, an art form. In the real world these martial arts can be applied for self defense, in some instances, but anyone that has ever watched mma or ufc, all the fights go right to the ground, so if you do not have any kind of grappling skills, your toast.

reply to post by fedeykin


Ahh Sanda I completely forgot about that. Although i was referring to traditional Chinese martial arts, Sanda is China's version of Boxing/Muay Thai and is very effective in its own right however I have never gotten the chance to really witness/feel the power of the style. Thank you though for pointing that out.

I agree completely, BJJ is extremely useful in an actual fight. Not only is it effective, most people have no ground game at all so once they get locked up by an actually bjj practitioner its over..

Check this video out if you havent seen it, MMA fighter Krazy Horse got into an argument with this BJJ guy and they went into a little scuffle and it looks like Krazy Horse is winning until the BJJ guy gets him in a choke and puts him to sleep.

www.youtube.com... // Thats the link to the fight video, i tried to embed it but it wasnt working.. Dont be discourage by the music at the beginning once the video actually starts it goes away.

Ninjutsu is good,its been around for over 1000 years,it flows with the times,adapt it to any situation...standing,on the ground,small confined spaces,in the open,all weather,in the dark etc learn the 5 elements,water,fire,wind,earth,void...

I use to practice hung fut old school hard wood floor no mats and toughning up hands and arms with hit bags with marbles in them and steel post. Then I sparred and got hit so hard from doing a kungfu block so I went straight to boxing. I also practiced hapkido. I thought I knew how to punch until I met my hakido teacher. I held a yellow pages book over my stomach and with just a few inches he punched the book. The energy went through the book down my spine and out my ass and made my leg wobble. I said thats it I am learning from him. I spent 3 years with him.His teacher was hwang sik who did a movie with Jackie Chan and Bruce lee who still has a club in Toronto. My teacher couldnt do a move on me it didnt give me any pain. So I know you have to be careful of the size of your hands and wrist and also your attackers size of hands and wrist to make move work and that is to much to take in when stuff is going down. MMA is good but you train with rules and alot of MMA guys dont know how to punch, case in point Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonner fight with only 5oz gloves one of them should have been knocked out. Boxers use 12oz gloves and knock people out . In a street you never want to go to the ground if you can help it and I have been in a few street fights not by choice and the main thing you do is punch. You forget all your katas and what have you things happen too quick to pull off a Chuck Norris move because you dont what to take a chance off messing up. Plus too many variables to look out for, you are not in the dojo with soft mats.Also what shoes you are wearing dress shoes instead of sneakers when it happens.Have a couple of moves down cold and keep it simple.I like krav maga or spetsnaz.
just a funny video

I am a little offended that you didn't put wrestling as the top styles to learn and if you want to pick a style of wrestling lets go with folkstyle wrestling. From what I understand most fights if not all of them end up on the ground and taking away from none of the styles cause all styles are better than eachother at certain points but if you look at the best mixed martial arts fighters in the world 135 lbs, 155 lbs, 170lbs, 205 lbs champions all have deep backgrounds in wrestling and didn't pick up striking and jiu jitsu till easily there 20's and 2-3 years later for some guys their already champions. The reason for this is because wrestling teaches endless amount of body movements and control. Not to mention if you want to fight a wrestler years upon years of hard training toughness has been built up not to mention you're going to get hit, punched, elbowed, kneed, gouged, etc. I can go on and on about this let me know what you all think.

Did I mention you have to make weight and cut and starve so you truly are living in a survival atmosphere.

When I was a kid I took karate ,....I stopped when I was about 19 or so While I think it
helped me a lot with discipline & understanding technical aspects of movement ,...I have since realized
that for me Krav Maga with mixed aikdo techniques makes most sense for me ,...I am older now
& cannot train like I used to therefore the technique that seems to come natural , use momentum
while being simple & effective is what l look at
It depends on what you want , if you want to compete that's one thing ,...I only wish to be as best prepared
as I can to prevent an assault on my family or myself ,...i do not need to do flying roundhouse kicks
or anything flashy , only end a attack as quickly & effectively as possible I think Krav Maga
meets this pretty well

reply to post by PaxVeritas


Jiu Jitsu is the most prevelant form of martial arts for a woman, since it teaches them how to defend themselves after they've been taken to the ground I.E. to defend against Rape. Other then that I believe a Muay Thai style of Martial arts combined with Jiu Jitsu and a little Judo is probably the best well rounded fighting styles because it's the most pracitcal to confrontations on the street. You could get more in depth if your commited enough and get into pressure point techniques and many other practical uses, I have a friend that is extremely skilled at these and could end a fight with a finger, Also it is always best to remember that the best Defense is a great offense. My Thoughts thanks.

Originally posted by Shagga
To everyone who is naming Wing Chun, Kung fu, Aikido, etc.. I think you are watching WAY too many movies, Kung fu and chinese forms of martial arts are mainly focused on self control and discipline. Besides, to be a good Kung Fu fighter would require years and years of practice, go ask any master and they will you that you can never learn all an art has to offer.

Not that it is ever going to happen, so it's largely a moot point anyway; but for me, the point of Aikido would be that I would want to defend myself if I have to, but I don't want to learn how to beat the crap out of other people. Given what my temper at least used to be like, if I had learned how to beat the crap out of other people, I would have been doing it on close to a daily basis...at least assuming that I didn't end up in jail first, which I probably would have.

Also in reference to the many other martial arts uses, many are best only for a closed combat system. For instance Karate, Akido, and Tae Kwon Do are based more on point systems and limit a fighters ability to reason in real life situations. Not saying these arts and others don't offer guidance and discipline but the purpose of any person should be real world use and in my opinion this renders many of these techniques useless. Especially if your well versed in the techniques I stated above.

reply to post by jimboy141



Wrestling, Pancrase, Jiu Jitsu, Judo, Sambo, Dumog...they're all 'grappling' styles. I've just found that BJJ is the most advanced and adaptive so far in 2012. It's taken the best from the very beginning of grappling history and put it into one and is the most 'successful'.

My OP was about my TOP list. I don't have time to go through every style. But yes, wrestling is good to know.