I am sorry to say but it takes afr too long and money to master or even become adept at many mainstream martial arts. I believe in thye more practical and aplicable martial arts. First off my favorite, Sambo. Created in our good ole USSR and designed originaly to be the official fighting style of the Russian military, and it still is. Sambo is based around grapples, locks, and throws and tends to be used in wresteling by excluding its strikes. However, the strikes of Sambo are designed to damage and cripple an oppenent, allowing you to utilize a throw or lock or even kill the person. This is very useful because it teaches you how to disarm a gun wielding opponent or take out someone who is larger than you.

Next, is Krav-Maga an art created for the sheer purpose of protecting yourself from soldiers. It eventualy became the offical martial art of the Isralli military and is now the most popular martial trained in by professional high-profile bodyguards. This is another style devoted to being able to disarm and disable an opponent, the only differences is Krav-Maga works on an instinctual basis, as opposed to most other martial arts which are based on muscle memory.

So yeah, before you sign up for Tae-Kon-Do which will quickly become usless in a real life situation or Kung Fu which looks cool but takes forever to master, you might want to try out some of the more modurn arts out there. Old revelutionary tactics only worked for old revelutionaries, we need to keep freash.

I'd tend to disagree for several reasons.

Older traditional martial arts have been tried and tested, and have had time to 'evolve' to real world scenarios.

Secondly, I can't speak for other MA's but budo taijutsu which i study is an amalgamation of centuries of nin-jutsu and ju-jutsu which not only prepares you to 'get hit' but also how to avoid as much pain as possible. As it's also an effective MA it concentrates on immobilising your opponent with as little effort as possible, avoiding a streetfight which tends to happen with more punch n' kick based MA's like tae kwondo, karate or krav maga.

Ju-jitsu is useless when it comes to Multiple people and group attacks. I was a Muay thai Fighter for years as well as a Boxer and those are two marital Arts worth while. It doesnt take a long time to get good at and they're both very useful and effective. Having been attacked on the streets in numerous occasions I always came out on top and I owe it to these two.

...something else i shouldve said is it also depends on your motives.

Not everyone learns a MA because they want to know 'how to beat people up'.

Some people learn them because they are genuinely interested in the history and artistry behind the techniques.

Tai chi for example, is probably useless for self defence, nonetheless is still has a following.


Jutsu, not jitsu.
Sorry.

Im gonna have to go with pastradamus on this one and say Muay Thai and boxing as well. I take Muay Thai and noticed a significant improvement in my fighting just over a month and a bit. And Muay Thai will always put a very big signifigance on cardio and fitness which is about 80-85% of fighting the other 20-15% being knowledge (IMO). Ive been in some fights recently with boneheads and i gotta say Muay Thai has destroyed them.

I am totally with you on that accord. pretty much all kinds of boxing (the asian styles included) are effective in everyday scearios. I only advocate Krav Maga because like boxing places a huge importance on cardio and multi opponents, and in my expericance if someone is interested in attacking you they either aren't alone or are armed (both of which KM teaches you to handel)

In the event that you are taking a martial art because you like culture and find it interesting then do it. I mean i took Judo and Kendo because I love samurai. I was just speaking practicly. I know I will more than likely never get a chance of fight with a katana but I can guarentee if I did I would win. Hehheh. I love all MA don't get me wrong, I just find some impractical.

But samurais and ninjas dont just fight with weapons, they also do a lot of unarmed stuff. The way i see it you're better off learning how to fight with weapons like sticks and swords because that way you're better equipped to defend against them.

The point about swords being a redundant weapon these days isnt really valid, because the weapon type is arbitary; the principles remain the same. As i've said countless times If you understand concepts like range, then you can exploit this against attackers also including gunmen (yes i said gun).

Im sorry US but I reject many martial arts that are not effective when it comes to fighting. Tai chi - fair enough. Its good exercise and is a non-violent art. That comes with the territory. A number of years ago I thought I've have a go off tae kwon do. I found it useless in a fighting situation. The purpose of a martial art which uses striking and kicking moves agressively is to teach the student how to defend. I Did not find this with tae kwon do as the teacher would spend most of his time teaching us patterns or "kata's" as they're called in karate.

kata's are just part of the tradition and lineage though. You probably would've learnt more stuff, had you perservered and stuck with it till about 6th or 5th kyu.

Karate and tae kwondo probably arent very good MA's for beginners tbh, i perservered with karate for about 3 years and i couldnt even get my orange belt. I found it repetitive, and well rather boring.

The bujinkan has taught me not only confidence, but also the techiques and agility i need to defend myself.

... ninjas...

Ignoring the nonsensical media creation, boxing sucks for street fighting, (all kinds of boxing, using feets and hands, excluding muay thai that is pretty damn awesome).
Krav maga is completely popular in gyms and while it can be indeed effective, I would question how deadly it is and how effective it is for the average joe. A friend of mine that practiced it for years got his ass handed to him in a fight, when asked why didnt he answer properly he said that even though he positioned himself properly he couldnt react. Another friend of mine, a Tae-Kon-Do black belt, kicked plenty of ass in fights.

Muay thai, pretty much everyone I knew that practiced it hardly got its ass kicked. They often doubled with brazilian jiu jitsu and it helped.

Basically, think fast and be fit, and any martial art you practice will be useful.

Sambo isnt really popular in my country, but I sure as hell am interested.
Whatever you have on it, feel free to share.

Im into aikido, and i just found out about systema.

Anyone else that knows anything about it, id me more than happy to hear.

yeah i took three years of okinawin karate and got a blackbelt. then I realized that it was useless and basically invented my own martial art based on knowledge from every personal trainer/fighter/sensei that i could find.

Really, you should market it and make a fortune.

Everyone else whos made their 'own martial art' has done the same thing.

anything grappling will give u the ability to kick anyone untrained and alot of trained striker's asses. alot of schools offer judo and bjj classes i say, take both and after six months u should be advanced enough that if your opponent isn't a grappler u can toss him as long as ucan ge both ur hands gripped on him and bjj will allow u to really dominate on the ground

BJJ and Muay Thai are basic martial arts for a complete fighting game IMO. BJJ gives you the ground game, gives you the ability to attack from the bottom, take people down, submit them, etc. Muay Thai gives you the ability to strike hard and effectively.

I don't have formal instruction in either yet. Right now I box and I'm working on some wrestling. Krav Maga is also good, as others have mentioned.

I mantain that the best MA's are the ones which instruct in the use of weapons.

Knowing how to use them is part and parcel in knowing how to defend yourself against them.

Really depends on what situation you are in, and how fluent you are at your art I suppose. I should imagine that all can be very effective if the person practising the said fighting technique is good at it and knows how to use it effectively.

@Organ, I have trained the systema for a while, so if you still need some information, let me know.

Otherwise, I'd agree with FreeFocus regarding the BJJ and MT as a good combination. In general MT techniques are simple and effective, so one becomes fairly effective after a short period of time (in comparison to the other martial arts). What it lacks is grappling, so for that matter BJJ comes in quite handy or even Sambo.

most people over look boxing but someone who does boxing twice a week for a month will beat someone who has done tae kwon do or something for the same amount of time. loder martial arts require an incredible level of speed and fintness.

why on earth would I want to make a fortune? I believe in the abolition of money! I teach my friends that ask me how to defend themselves and that's good enough.

Quite, but you have to survive in the interim, dont you?
Somehow i seriously doubt that youre doing the responsible thing.

haha. I teach in the most responsible way I can. and yes, we do have to survive, so why not make some money now, buy guns, and then overthrow the government? sounds like a plan to me!

That's true, but after a longer time, the tae kwon do is clearly superior. Boxing only prepares you for fist attacks.
And for all those people who say krav maga, I've heard and seen some pretty great stuff, it's just kinda hard to get a trainer (at least where I live). Some friends of mine had an offer to learn it in their gym, they just needed to give their id. They were refused, probably because of their politics.

I don't know, maybe it's different elsewhere?

what IS krav maga?

it's a system that this Jewish P.E. teacher made in 1930's Europe...he emigrated to what was then Palestine before WWII I believe...

he began teaching it to Jewish land owners in Palestine and eventually after the creation of the Israeli Defense Forces began teaching it in the army as basic hand to hand training.

it proved to be wildly effective and successful. it's a MMA and hybrid system that emphasizes getting oneself out of danger...so the main focus is ending the fight as quickly as possibly whether it be hitting, kicking, choking, eye gauging, stabbing, maiming, killing or running from your opponent.

another cool thing about krav maga is the 360 defense-- a technique for blocking and delivering counter strikes at the same time.

they borrowed a lot of punching from wing chun (short, vertical punching) boxing/kickboxing from muay thai and savate, theres also SO much judo and jiu-jitsu.

i think the some of the most groundbreaking (no pun intended) techniques are the grappling techniques and especially the weapon disarms. there has been a lot of evolution in jiu-jitsu since it left Japan in the 20's and 30's. krav maga has continued this evolution and because of its military history has combined and/or created tons of grappling techniques for weapon disarming. a lot of the grappling is an extension of what one might learn in aikido or jiu-jitsu but unique to krav maga. these have proven so effective krav maga is used to train law enforcement world wide, almost uniformly...

it's basically combat Sambo on PCP.

holy...

with regards to krava maga does it require a high level of fitness? anyone been involved in combat sambo knows how fuckin tough that is and was wondering if krava maga was similar...fitness wise?

they have classes that are less competitive/fitness oriented and more about self-defense but it varies with each gym I'm sure..