Martial Arts.

[CATB320]

I did Judo when I was a kid (stopped around puberty -- a little awkward if you're one of the two girls in class), then Tae Kwon Do for a few years, and now I'm doing Arnis (Filipino stick fighting). Out of all of them, I prefer the latter. We learn a lot of disarms and take downs, and the techniques down with the sticks can be applicable to knives or hands.

 

[Sacman]

Took Brazilian Jiujitsu for a while... I quit because I broke my shoulder and honestly it's really not for me...

 

[Psycho Cat Industries]

Well I did a couple months of Tae Kwon Do back in the day and really couldn't care much for it.I hold full respect for anyone who does it,but I think we should just blend all these styles into something new without televising it as a new wrestling league.

 

[AlkalineGamer]

Krav Maga (the best, in my opinion (as long as you don't mind the prospect of jail should you ever defend yourself))
Wing Chun (nice for fast punching and quick blocks against unarmed opponents, not very realistic these days)
Shotokan (awful, avoid)

train [...] Karate.

Don't. If street fighting is your aim go for Krav Maga, if tournament then Muay Thai.

Krav maga:


We basically just steal all the best moves from other martial arts and then throw in disarms.

Oh my!!

I Sooo want to learn this now.

 

[BGH122]

Oh my!!

I Sooo want to learn this now.

I've only had call to use it once. A guy lunged for my mp3 player in a rough area of London and I snapped his wrist. It's very effective.

 

[radioactive lemur]

Don't. If street fighting is your aim go for Krav Maga, if tournament then Muay Thai.

Unless you're talking about dealing with knives or guns, that's bull. If something works in the ring, it will work just as well on the street, if something DOES NOT work in the ring, it WILL NOT WORK on the street. It really is as simple as that. Muay Thai, Western Wrestling and Brazillian Jiu Jitsu have been incontestably proven in the UFC, even in the early days when there were very few rules, therefore, they are the best styles for self defense. Case closed. That's not to say a Karate or Krav Maga dude can't be really awesome at self-defense, but if there was anything in those styles that is more street effective it would be incorporated into the repretoire of UFC fighters.

 

[BGH122]

Don't. If street fighting is your aim go for Krav Maga, if tournament then Muay Thai.

Unless you're talking about dealing with knives or guns, that's bull. If something works in the ring, it will work just as well on the street, if something DOES NOT work in the ring, it WILL NOT WORK on the street. It really is as simple as that. Muay Thai, Western Wrestling and Brazillian Jiu Jitsu have been incontestably proven in the UFC, even in the early days when there were very few rules, therefore, they are the best styles for self defense. Case closed. That's not to say a Karate or Krav Maga dude can't be really awesome at self-defense, but if there was anything in those styles that is more street effective it would be incorporated into the repretoire of UFC fighters.

Actually that's bull. Unless we're talking about illegal fights, almost everything in Krav Maga would be disallowed in UFC. It consists largely of gouges, joint dislocations, breaks and groin strikes. All of those moves are illegal in UFC. UFC =/= ecological fighting conditions.

 

[Zacharious-khan]

tai chi and chai tea
thats all you need

 

[tokae]

Ju jutsu - Awarded the title of Renshi last fall by Yasumoto Akiyoshi himself after 15 years of training, Sensei of my towns extension within the Moto-Ha Yoshin Ryu Ju Jutsu.
Savate - Only been training for a couple of months.
Taido - Reached 3rd Kyu before the club had to disband.

Me and some friends also gather people for "study-circles" twice every month, where we practice Kendo, Kyudo, Iaido and Escrima (a Filipino martial art).
And I'm currently searching for Shorinjikempo education but that, it seems, is hard to find without travelling the globe.


Yes, I deeply enjoy studying and practicing martial-arts and it is something that I will keep on doing for as long as I am able to.
I hope to be able to go to Japan and study under my Sensei Yasumoto. And if I'm able to, perhaps enroll in other classes too, to study Shorinjikempo and other martial-arts.

 

[radioactive lemur]

Don't. If street fighting is your aim go for Krav Maga, if tournament then Muay Thai.

Unless you're talking about dealing with knives or guns, that's bull. If something works in the ring, it will work just as well on the street, if something DOES NOT work in the ring, it WILL NOT WORK on the street. It really is as simple as that. Muay Thai, Western Wrestling and Brazillian Jiu Jitsu have been incontestably proven in the UFC, even in the early days when there were very few rules, therefore, they are the best styles for self defense. Case closed. That's not to say a Karate or Krav Maga dude can't be really awesome at self-defense, but if there was anything in those styles that is more street effective it would be incorporated into the repretoire of UFC fighters.

Actually that's bull. Unless we're talking about illegal fights, almost everything in Krav Maga would be disallowed in UFC. It consists largely of gouges, joint dislocations, breaks and groin strikes. All of those moves are illegal in UFC. UFC =/= ecological fighting conditions.

A) Joint locks are not illegal in the UFC
B) Kicking someone in the crotch/poking someone in the eye are not secret or special moves. You don't need to know martial arts at all to fight like that
C) Even if there ARE superior methods of ball kicking, the technique will not be useful unless you have trained with it. I'm guessing you do crotch kicking drills with compliant partners rather than spar full contact with hella strong cups. That puts you at a huge disadvantage in a real fight as using a technique against a compliant partner is VERY different than doing it with someone who is resisting.

 

[BGH122]

A) Joint locks are not illegal in the UFC

Funny, I don't remember saying joint locks. Krav Maga teaches sudden snaps, not locks. The entire point is to turn the opponent's punch into something that will break their arm. This would be illegal in UFC unless it were so heavily modified to turn it into a submission lock that it no longer remained KM.

B) Kicking someone in the crotch/poking someone in the eye are not secret or special moves. You don't need to know martial arts at all to fight like that

Good luck working gouges and groin strikes into a block follow up without any training. It's easy to say 'I reckon I could', but I know full well that before I started a full contact martial art I just froze whenever I was in a fight. It's getting to a point where you've mastered full 360 defence that makes KM good in combat, because the same basic block is the starting move for every attack chain. When I studied Shotokan (for 7 years) I just completely failed to actually react properly to live fights because Karate isn't full contact and its attack chains are far too intricate.

C) Even if there ARE superior methods of ball kicking, the technique will not be useful unless you have trained with it. I'm guessing you do crotch kicking drills with compliant partners rather than spar full contact with hella strong cups. That puts you at a huge disadvantage in a real fight as using a technique against a compliant partner is VERY different than doing it with someone who is resisting.

Nope, I'm guessing you've never heard of the redman suit.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I'm a student of Hokuto Shinken. On the upside, it's effective. Unfortunately, finding sparring partners is kind of a pain.

On a serious note, the only formal martial art I've learned is Judo, and I'm very much a beginner.

 

[Booze Zombie]

I preform what I call "the improvised style" of martial arts. Chairs to the torso, sand/dirt to the eyes, knees to the groin, bottles to the head, bins to block knives, etc, etc.

I try my best to not get into fights, but if I ever do, I try my best to hit hard and fast, with whatever I can.

 

[BGH122]

I preform what I call "the improvised style" of martial arts. Chairs to the torso, sand/dirt to the eyes, knees to the groin, bottles to the head, bins to block knives, etc, etc.

If it can be used as a weapon, if it's a technique that stops me from dying, I'll do it.

So you're Bas Rutten?

 

[Booze Zombie]

So you're Bas Rutten?

Not quite to the extreme of that exaggerated character, but if a man runs at me with a knife and there's a bin next to me I can knock him over with/get the knife stuck in, I'll try it.

I'm not any sort of strong man, I just figure if I try running I'll just get hit in the back and the chances of me ever getting into a fight are quite low, anyway.
Besides, with my consistent lack of physical talent, I figure the best thing I could do is pick up a heavy object and bash it into my aggressor.

My punches would bounce off of someone who regularly gets into fights, from what I know about myself.

 

[BGH122]

So you're Bas Rutten?

Not quite to the extreme of that exaggerated character, but if a man runs at me with a knife and there's a bin next to me I can knock him over with/get the knife stuck in, I'll try it.

I'm not any sort of strong man, I just figure if I try running I'll just get hit in the back and the chances of me ever getting into a fight are quite low, anyway.
Besides, with my consistent lack of physical talent, I figure the best thing I could do is pick up a heavy object and bash it into my aggressor.

My punches would bounce off of someone who regularly gets into fights, from what I know about myself.

Heck, I've been practising three martial arts for fourteen years and my best strategy to date is "Hit them really fucking hard and then run away", so your plan isn't too shabby.

 

[Booze Zombie]

Heck, I've been practising three martial arts for fourteen years and my best strategy to date is "Hit them really fucking hard and then run away", so your plan isn't too shabby.

Thank you kindly, that's a welcome little ego boost. As someone who practices martial arts, what do you do in the case of a knife/sword/medieval weapon? Are you stuck in the same room as me, trying to fend the thing off with a chair or a bin or perhaps you've got a wrist-breaking move that comes in pretty handy?

 

[BGH122]

Heck, I've been practising three martial arts for fourteen years and my best strategy to date is "Hit them really fucking hard and then run away", so your plan isn't too shabby.

Thank you kindly, that's a welcome little ego boost. As someone who practices martial arts, what do you do in the case of a knife/sword/medieval weapon? Are you stuck in the same room as me, trying to fend the thing off with a chair or a bin or perhaps you've got a wrist-breaking move that comes in pretty handy?

As my instructor always says, "If they've got a knife you give them your stuff and then run away". It's only if they decide that they also want your life that you're left to disarm them. I'd strongly suggest training in Krav Maga if you fear knife attacks since that's its speciality. It takes about three months of two sessions a week to become very proficient at KM if you're athletically inclined. Then you do stuff like this with knives:


It's none too complex stuff and uses the same basic block used for everything else in KM. That's why it's so quick to learn.

 

[radioactive lemur]

A) Joint locks are not illegal in the UFC

Funny, I don't remember saying joint locks. Krav Maga teaches sudden snaps, not locks. The entire point is to turn the opponent's punch into something that will break their arm. This would be illegal in UFC unless it were so heavily modified to turn it into a submission lock that it no longer remained KM.

B) Kicking someone in the crotch/poking someone in the eye are not secret or special moves. You don't need to know martial arts at all to fight like that

Good luck working gouges and groin strikes into a block follow up without any training. It's easy to say 'I reckon I could', but I know full well that before I started a full contact martial art I just froze whenever I was in a fight. It's getting to a point where you've mastered full 360 defence that makes KM good in combat, because the same basic block is the starting move for every attack chain. When I studied Shotokan (for 7 years) I just completely failed to actually react properly to live fights because Karate isn't full contact and its attack chains are far too intricate.

C) Even if there ARE superior methods of ball kicking, the technique will not be useful unless you have trained with it. I'm guessing you do crotch kicking drills with compliant partners rather than spar full contact with hella strong cups. That puts you at a huge disadvantage in a real fight as using a technique against a compliant partner is VERY different than doing it with someone who is resisting.

Nope, I'm guessing you've never heard of the redman suit.

Yeah, unless you're talking about finger or toe pulling, THERE IS NO RULE AGAINST THAT IN THE UFC. Yet it is not used, I wonder why...
http://www.ufc.com/about/Rules

Also, the redman suit is cool and everything, but while effective in protecting your partner is not tremendously realistic with regards to distance and target size.

 

[Cheesus333]

I did Shotokan karate for five years, got my black belt, and left. Black belt was my goal anyway, and I'm proud that I achieved it.

That was a few years ago, I guess I've forgotten most of my training now though. Ah well, it's something for the CV.