Poll: Which is better in self defense?

[The_Prophet]

NINJA ARTS.

Just kidding. Well Karate is good. I have been training for atleast 9 years now and whenever someone in school bothers (offends, hits and all the other stuff) me, he instantly gets his arse kicked

 

[Dubiousduke]

In my years of life on this earth I have learned that no one wins a fight.

*zap*

sorry, I was channeling Patrick Swayze there.

"A strange game. the only winning move is not to play."
What was this from?

 

[irrelevantnugget]

Neither, go go capoeira \o/

 

[Caliostro]

Neither, go go capoeira \o/

Capoeira is western, and honestly, it's pretty poor for self defense in comparison.

 

[rabidrabbit]

Krav Maga is by far the best for self defense (it has gun defense, knife defense, deals with fighting multiple people, fighting on the ground, defense against getting choked, all sorts of good fun stuff) and it's incredibly easy to learn.

 

[TheEndGame]

It is most wise to learn all that is available to you. Take from everything what is applicable to you and your physical stregnths, and, your weakness's. The greatest enemy you will face in training is yourself.

 

[ZhouYu671]

A friend recently told me about KFM (Keysi Fighting Method.) It was invented by two guys and focuses a lot on keeping a tight defensive position and keeping in extreme close quarters (rather than a lot of martial arts which focus on putting distance in between you and said attacker.) From what I've seen of it it looks pretty effective, as it encompasses a lot of real world situations; multiple attackers, attacks from behind, the side, being attacked which lying down etc.

It was also used as Batman's fighting style in "Batman Begins" and "The Dark Knight" which makes it more win XD.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

That's why I chose Eastern, because their grace and speed combined with power usually dominates fights.

Actually, the dominant fighters have usually been the biggest. Any real martial artist will tell you that fights still often boil down to who is bigger, regardless of technique. In contact tournaments exclusively Western boxers and grapplers regularly beat exclusively Eastern martial arts practitioners, and it's usually because they bigger, stronger and physically more resilient. Of course, that's nothing to do with self defence, though, so the comparison is meaningless for the people that aren't professional fighters built like a Kampfpanzer.

Exactly. The people who win in tournaments are the ones who train for tournaments. Being smaller doesn't matter one iota if you jam a pencil into your opponents ear canal. It's the whole "good against the living" argument. Even in so-called "full contact" MMA tourneys, I don't think it's allowed for contestants to snap bones, gouge out eyes or strike muscles with the intent of causing severe nerve damage. But these are the sort of things I know I'D prefer to do if my life was in danger.

Besides, any REAL real martial artist will tell you that fights boil down to who has the most endurance. The biggest guy doesn't always last the longest.