Which Martial Art?

[tobbinator]

Hey.

I've been thinking about learning a martial art, for self defence, and I would like to ask, which one should I learn?

I want to do one that is effective, yet i'd prefer one that is not common to do (Preferably a Slavic or European one) because I just want to be different to other people :lol:

Anyway, which one should I learn?

P.S, I live in the Sydney area.

[Rooster]

Krav Maga?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga

[tobbinator]

Looks interesting, I'll look into it :D

[Rooster]

I found a whole bunch of martial arts to be mostly for show because they've become really formalised/ritualised, like karate for instance. But krav maga should be good if you can find it. If not then maybe look at doing both jiu jitsu and kickboxing. It's good to have a combination of grappling and punching/kicking but on the whole I wouldn't recommend grappling if you're having to fight against more than one person but grappling is a great way to take down one person. So it's best to have a trade off.

[tobbinator]

I've found a place just a few kilometres from where I live. Thanks.

[tir1944]

Don't forget to practice running for sitations where not even martial arts can help.:D

[ВАЛТЕР]

I box, but I do it for the sport not so much self defense reasons.

Although from personal experience, if you are even basically trained, hitting somebody tends to make them sleepy. ;)

Honestly basic boxing, and/or wrestling will do the trick for most any situation you get into.

You need a sport which encourages sparring. Sparring is how you get good, forget repetitive motions and pushups. Sparring, sparring, sparring. Once you know how to react when you get hit, and how to fight when you are tired, you will be fine.

Boxing is a really rough sport and sparring tends to be hard and brutal just as much as a match can be. So only do this if you are ready to take and give out a beating.

Six+ years of boxing experience. Many times state champion, Regional Golden gloves champion, and several other tourneys won.:)

[Sasha]

one casual word of advice, dont go into krav maga if you cant handle training with cops or cant keep you trap shut a few hours a week about the situation in palestine.
its absolutetly the most worthwhile system to train in for self defence but as such its very populair with cops (hence the you should not be botherd to share a gym/lockerroom with them) and all most all instructors are ex-IDF (hence it be most often best to keep pollitical talk about the midle east to a minimum)

[Искра]

When I was a kid I used to train karate.

Few years ago I used to train krav maga and that's really good martial art. I used to train with cops and soliders so it was rough, but this is best martial art and you can use it on streets. The only problem was that my trainer, who was ex-cop, trianed us to kill person who attacked us.... :D He also tought us how to stab and how to shoot pistol haha :)

[tir1944]

Not surprising,considering the fact that krav maga was invented by the Zionist IDF.One of the most brutal martial arts.:rolleyes:

[ВАЛТЕР]

Two words:

Systema Spetsnaz

wO0Ce8PO3_g

[Sasha]

Not surprising,considering the fact that krav maga was invented by the Zionist IDF.One of the most brutal martial arts.:rolleyes:


ehm, it was not, it maybe got perfected there but it was invented in the jewish ghetto in bratislava in the 1930's to protect the jewish population against fascist pogroms. anything more you want to imply about it? :thumbdown:

[Искра]

Not surprising,considering the fact that krav maga was invented by the Zionist IDF.One of the most brutal martial arts.:rolleyes:
So? Kar98k was invented by Nazi's - still it was standard rifle of Yugoslav partisans.

Krav maga is martial art of 21st century. It's most realistic martial art as it's "ideology" is that there's no such thing as "honour" but there's only living and dying. So, in a real life combat you would kick your opponent in the balls, because you know that this is his week spot. Krav Maga teaches you how to do that so that you opponent never stands up again. Point of Krav Maga is to defend yourself, and the best defense is to attack...

[tir1944]

ehm, it was not, it maybe got perfected there but it was invented in the jewish ghetto in bratislava in the 1930's to protect the jewish population against fascist pogroms. anything more you want to imply about it? :thumbdown:
Interesting,i didn't know about this.
Hmm,i stand corrected.

[tir1944]

Also i'm disgusted with talks like "there's no honor anymore"...
That's why today you can see kids brutally beating each other on the streets,but of course it's never "fair play"-it's 4-5-6 vs 1 gangbangs.
Despicable.

[Искра]

Also i'm disgusted with talks like "there's no honor anymore"...
That's why today you can see kids brutally beating each other on the streets,but of course it's never "fair play"-it's 4-5-6 vs 1 gangbangs.
Despicable.
Lol. Reality check.
If you wanna survive you need to realise that "honor" is just a word. So, in order to defend yourself you need to learn how to defend from more than one opponent and from bigger guys, cause no one who's weeker than you will ever attack.

[tir1944]

Honor is a concept.
There's nothing wrong about defending yourself against multiple opponents,however IMO the sole fact that there's people who think a crowd attacking a single person is something that's "OK".

[Искра]

Point of "crowd attacking" is to beat up someone as fast as possible with more damadge as possible, so that you can do your job and run away so that cops don't get you. I personaly I'm also against such stuff on ethical level, but I do accept it on practical level, since when you have to kick some nazi assholes who gives shit about honor. When you get betten up by 13 peple you'll realise that in order to have your revange and to put mothefuckers in same condition as you were - you need more than 2 boots.

[tir1944]

Ok then,maybe you're right....

[ВАЛТЕР]

No such thing as honor in a street fight.

They will be willing to do the same to you if given a chance. If it has come time to fight then fuck them and their entire well being. If I feel I am in danger I will beat somebody until they stop moving.

I don't fight outside of the ring and I try my best to avoid these situations, but every time I have I have broken noses, cheek bones, teeth, and even put some guy in the hospital for 3 days.

Honor is a bullshit word. Nobody remembers who fought fairly, they only remember who won.

[Klots]

@tobbinator: I would also take your physique in consideration to look for the style that suits you best. Are you big and burly or small and nimble? What are your weakest links and in what do you excel?
I for one have a bad knee and hip, and therefor know that kicks aren't exactly my cup of tea. So I will not take up Taekwondo for instance. So take things like this in mind when you choose.

I have done judo for 12 years, and it saved my ass numerous times, and not just in fights. It might not look too spectacular since there's no kicks or punches, and it gets ridiculed a lot for being just some people in white suits rolling on the floor and not kicking the shit out of eachother.
But in judo size and strength are as good as irrelevant, I've seen 80 pound 12 year old girls bring down 200 pound twentysomething year old guys. (and the other way around of course ;) )
It can really give you an advantage over your attackers by using their movement and strength against them and bringing them off balance.

[RED DAVE]

I prefer to use an ancient Chinese method developed over 1000 years ago: gunpowder. Which is about as realistic as the post-adolescent posturing on this thread. Some people have seen those Bruce Lee movies too many times. :D

RED DAVE

[tobbinator]

@Klot
I am small and nimble :P and I would say that I tend to disable someone via the twisting of arms, not that I've even done that much or had to, I'm only 16, but i'd like to learn.

[Grigori]

Speaking of Bruce lee, is jeet kun do worth learning?

[Klots]

In that case Aikido might be your way to go.

[ellipsis]

Hey.

I've been thinking about learning a martial art, for self defence, and I would like to ask, which one should I learn?

I want to do one that is effective, yet i'd prefer one that is not common to do (Preferably a Slavic or European one) because I just want to be different to other people :lol:

Anyway, which one should I learn?

P.S, I live in the Sydney area.

I like the one where you shoot them with guns.

[Meridian]

Lol. Reality check.
If you wanna survive you need to realise that "honor" is just a word. So, in order to defend yourself you need to learn how to defend from more than one opponent and from bigger guys, cause no one who's weeker than you will ever attack.
All I see you writing is a collection of words. I suppose this means we should simply ignore it.

You can forget about "honor" all you like but then you should consider what it is that would place you in a fighting situation to begin with.

[ZeroNowhere]

In that case Aikido might be your way to go.
Yeah, I practice aikido, and it is pretty good if you're small and agile, and especially if you don't have exceptional upper body strength, since its focus is to a large extent on minimizing the necessity of that kind of strength expenditure anyway. It would be worth checking out, unless you have a strange urge to injure people badly as much as possible.

[tobbinator]

I think I might go with Aikido. It sounds perfect for my physique and sounds good from what people have said. There's also a dojo just down the road from where I live.

[Fawkes]

krav maga, sambo, boxing, wrestling, judo, and muay thai are all great. I trained in krav maga for a while and I wrestled in high school and dabbled a little in boxing (never competed). I have minimal experience in sambo, judo, and muay thai, but from what little I've done and from what I've seen, they're all great, plus a lot of them (mainly the grappling ones) are really fun.

[peter]

for me the best martial art to protect ourself is RUNNING AWAY:)

[Yazman]

for me the best martial art to protect ourself is RUNNING AWAY:)

I used to teach parkour. It is effective as hell in that regard :cool: