Question for Fighters/Martial Artists

[Coopie]

I would like my wife to take a self defense course. I'll probably take it along with her. In your opinions - what is the best "style" for pure street-type self defense? Not interested in something that would require years of training, or teaching discipline, self respect, honor, breaking wood, etc. Just need a good, practical self defense strategy.

I saw a show on Discovery Channel last year that rated the top 10 fighting styles in terms of straight ability to defend one's self of the streets. I believe that the winner was an Israeli style - maybe called Mag Krava?

Here in New York there is a Tae Kwan Do studio on every block. I really am not interested in the whole "belt" system thing - just want her to be able to handle a situation if necessary.

Thanks all!

 

[101chemistry]

get her to take up bjj. will do wonders for her conditioning and even if she won't be able to fight multiple opponents with it (will she ever with ANY style? absolutely not), in the case of one man trying to rape her it will play right into the situation.

as for the stand-up aspect of fighting, nothing beats muay thai (elbows and knees can be used by women, plus the years of training the clinch will give you incredible stability against an untrained opponent), then again, she might not want to face the harsher aspects f the sport (body conditioning, possible scard and major bruising). an easier form of thai boxing would be
touch-kickboxing or some other bastardised watered down version, but that would not help much on the street.

my advice? BJJ a few times a week, sparring with heavier opponents after a while, some ground and pound drills with her being on the receiving end (so that she knows how to avoid/survive a fist attack on the ground), and a lot of work on getting position and getting off the ground. Then? Then, running. Seriously, track running. The ideea of Bjj for a woman is her knowing how to finght in a place where she can defend herself easier (the ground --- where, in a rape scenario, she will probably be brought anyway) and where the most efficient weapons are quite equal (positioning, eye gouging, biting), while the only dissadvantages are weight and strenght, which, with bjj training, can be greatly decreased. But the ultimate purpose here isn't defeating the opponent, but rather surviving the initial attack and then getting the fuck outta there.

 

[Coopie]

What does bjj stand for?

 

[Coopie]

Okay... Just read IronLife Mag - it's Brazilian Jiu Jitsu! I am so not up on this stuff!

101 - Gracie (don't know his first name, but I recognize it from the Ultimate Fighter thing on Pay Per View) has a BJJ studio not too far from our home - in fact I pass by on my way home from work a few times a week. But, through the glass storefront it looks like he runs it as a typical martial arts studio would be - a few times a week for a long time... Can she pick up valuable skills in a relatively short period of time? Or, is it like all martial arts whereby it takes years to become proficient?

 

[huge-inc]

Martial Artsl

What you need is to find some one to give personal lessons...My brother had a bussiness called CAT (causlty avoidence training) where people would spend 2-4 days ,and we would teach them survival training...such as putting a pencil or pen through someones eye or throat ..belt technics...as for best arts Kenpo...very aggresive and destructive...my 14 year old is 3rd degree brown...worry very little about him with this training

 

[101chemistry]

bjj is quick to pick up. a few months of serious training and she'll have great confidence on the ground. that is because most of the training is hand's on, rolling (which is sparring on the ground).

kenpo, which was mentioned above, is an ok martial art, quite good when it's not compared to the best of martial arts. that is, bjj and wrestling for the ground, thai box and boxing for stand-up.

these are the best. you could add sambo and judo to it, for throws. but these arts are proven and quite easy to learn, since they involve a lot of hand-on practice in training.

anyone who says there are better martial arts out there is plain wrong. these are the proven winners. and a woman learning how to fight should choose from these. I said bjj, because the others might make your wife less feminine. And also because in a rape scenario she'll get thrown on the ground, which is the familiar territory of bjj.

 

[Nemesis79]

get her to take up bjj. will do wonders for her conditioning and even if she won't be able to fight multiple opponents with it (will she ever with ANY style? absolutely not), in the case of one man trying to rape her it will play right into the situation.

as for the stand-up aspect of fighting, nothing beats muay thai (elbows and knees can be used by women, plus the years of training the clinch will give you incredible stability against an untrained opponent), then again, she might not want to face the harsher aspects f the sport (body conditioning, possible scard and major bruising). an easier form of thai boxing would be
touch-kickboxing or some other bastardised watered down version, but that would not help much on the street.

my advice? BJJ a few times a week, sparring with heavier opponents after a while, some ground and pound drills with her being on the receiving end (so that she knows how to avoid/survive a fist attack on the ground), and a lot of work on getting position and getting off the ground. Then? Then, running. Seriously, track running. The ideea of Bjj for a woman is her knowing how to finght in a place where she can defend herself easier (the ground --- where, in a rape scenario, she will probably be brought anyway) and where the most efficient weapons are quite equal (positioning, eye gouging, biting), while the only dissadvantages are weight and strenght, which, with bjj training, can be greatly decreased. But the ultimate purpose here isn't defeating the opponent, but rather surviving the initial attack and then getting the fuck outta there.

For a min i thought you said blowjobs...just my dirty prop induced mind workign ...but for real i would love to take brazillian jiu..ther's no place close by that has it...I myself have done arnis and tkd..in simplicity any of the disciplines which teach grappling and breaking would help..don't even waste your money on tkd and karate etc..i did tkd for the sport (olympic style not traditional) so i loved it...but for just pure self defence your iron bros are right..kray maga is also great..israeli special forces use it.

 

[101chemistry]

krav maga is a bad ideea.


I don't have the time to explain why right now.

Basically, taking krav maga for self defence is like taking nin-jutsu in the hopes that you'll become a ninja. Unless you can take it with the best of schools in israel, it won;t do shit for you. Why? Because everyone has heard about it, which means it's profitable to run a krav maga school. Which means that the chances of finding a good krav maga school (even if it's legit and affiliated) are slim to none.

 

[Maelstrom]

Personally I'd take her to Krav Maga. It's one of the few martial arts that is purely self-defence (as opposed to including an element of sport/competition). It also has the advantage of emphasis on defence against weapons. Lots of places have special classes for females looking to learn self-defence as well. Failing that, combining BJJ with a stand-up fighting class would be damn good.

 

[cryptasm]

I train exactly what yiou want...

I would like my wife to take a self defense course. I'll probably take it along with her. In your opinions - what is the best "style" for pure street-type self defense? Not interested in something that would require years of training, or teaching discipline, self respect, honor, breaking wood, etc. Just need a good, practical self defense strategy.

I saw a show on Discovery Channel last year that rated the top 10 fighting styles in terms of straight ability to defend one's self of the streets. I believe that the winner was an Israeli style - maybe called Mag Krava?

Here in New York there is a Tae Kwan Do studio on every block. I really am not interested in the whole "belt" system thing - just want her to be able to handle a situation if necessary.

Thanks all!

I dont mean I teach, I train that way.. BJJ is good but the last place you want to be in a street fight is on the ground rolling around on the pavement, or in a bar so your opponents freind can kick you you in the face..soo.. Here is what I suggest.. You first need a stand up game..Kick Boxing or Muay Tai..preferbly Mui Tai (sp) your best place to end a fight is u on your feet and your opponent on the groung from there you ahve the choice of incapcitating them, or if its a life or death situation you can kill them.. Kav Maga or hawever its spelled is good to do for close quarters combat.. its made to get inside at ur opponent and annialiate them in seconds with a constant series of blows.. then a take down but not to wrestle..once down you finish them there...break ribs, kick in head break ankles,knees arms or if needed snap the kneck (if kife or death situation) ..this is not wrestling, this is you standing and your opponent on the ground...then i would say Bjj would be good if you do end up on the ground its important to have those skills..but.. if you have no stand up game and only a ground game you will lose against a striker... plus you can be stabbed rolling around on the ground...thats my 2 cents... if you want to let em know where you are located I can have my Sifu help locate a Mixed Martial Arts School for you..Jeet Kun DO is also good it a mixture of alot of styles...

 

[BigBoyJ]

I would have her spend time on something that focuses on "attack and run". Really man, BJJ is an awesome martial art, but if a strong, large guy were to get your woman on the ground, most likely she wouldn't have a chance to use a BJJ style. In the case of rape, many men enjoy a good struggle, it adds to the excitement. I always prefer women go for a quick stun attack and then HAUL ASS, SCREAMING like she's psycho. This is a much better defense for a woman than getting on the ground and trying to fight a much larger, stronger man. It's all about the stun and run.

For a man looking to learn a true fighting skill, yes BJJ is up there with the best. But, for a woman just wanting to be safe, I wouldn't recommend BJJ.

 

[cryptasm]

Coopie PM Me with town you live...

My Sifu is from NYC and Had a school in Hoboken, NJ...Has lots of contacts I'm sure he can get ya hooked up...

 

[101chemistry]

ok, it's time to call bullshit on krav maga and jeet kune do and whatever else. As I was saying, if you can train with the israeli commandos, you might learn good krav maga. outside of that exclusive circe, you won't.

jeet kune do is simply outdated. all the footwork theory and theory about distances...well, watch some k-1, or even better a good muay thai fight from thailand or holland and you'll see the same ideeas and others that are better applied in a proven fghting environement.

as far as a woman hitting and running, that's why I was saying she should do track running. I was not kidding.

As it has been pointed out, a woman will have a hard time on the ground with a really strong man. then again, she'll have a much harder time fighting stand-up with the same man.

When giving the advice I gave earlier I was assuming that the rapist was already in close range. If someone wants to take you by surprise, they probably will. In a clinch with a man, a woman stands little chance, so she will be going down, and probably not out of her own will. What she does there, and how she gets up, in order to run and run fast, is what bjj will be all about.

A few points: rapists aren't usually large men. although in a fantasy environement struggle is nice, in real life screaming and struggling actually immediately detters the large majority of rapists. when polled, convicted rapists stated that they look for women with long hair that they can grab, they look for women who are fumbling with something (phone...etc), so they can move in quickly and subdue and then MOVE the woman someplace else. Something as simple as a woman looking at them and saying "hello" will stop the majority of rapists, as they do not want to be recognised afterwards.


Now, my mother was almost raped in an elevator. She was coming home, I was in the same building, only many stories higher. She fought and mainly yelled, and in a matter of seconds the man started appologising, and started the elevator towards the bottom level so he could get out fast.

The sister of a friend was mugged. She fought back, got punched in the face, and then kicked several time after she fell.


Now...the best krav maga classes teach you how to FLEE out of bad situations. This is done, for example, with people holding body shields and pounding on you while you try to escape the room. I am strong and trained, and I could make it out of such a situation, but it depends on several factors, the most important of which is: determination. Is your attacker, or one of your attackers determined to really get it on?

The main problem I have with krav maga is that it pretends to teach how to handle multiple attackers. There is actually only one way in which you can...and that is to use either speed, power, the way you move in space, or a combination of the three in order to inflict more damage than they do. Much more damage. In order to defeat three people equal to you, you basically have to inflict 9 times more damage then any one of them has. Wanderlei Silva is gonna do it, but nobody's wife is.

Btw...krav maga and defence against knife attacks? Pleeease. Are you talking about people coming towards you with the knife in their leading hand --- attacks? Stabbing is very much a concealed art. The movements are short, repetitive, and have to come out of nowhere. And nowhere usually is a knife you don't see in the back hand of someone you probably didn't see before you felt the knife.

 

[cryptasm]

I agree with most of that...

What a woman should learn is how to do fast damage and run like hell.. Its not about beating up a guy its about what she can do fast to hurt someone even if it just stops them long enough for her to get teh hell out of there and find a safe place to go... If she's walking down a bad street in Harlem at 3am she shouldnt be there in the 1st place. so first keep ing out of the situation...is best not to do things that would be considered dangerous.
But for a guy its differnt...you can box a wrestler, you can wrestle a boxer..you can knee and elbow a boxer and wrestler, and lear the points on the body that inflict the most damage with a hit...Floating Rib, Side of Kneck under ear will knock someone out faster than shit through a goose... For a guy you have to decide the danger involved...does the opponent just need a beating?, does he need restrained, does he need to be incapacitated , or is your life at stake...if you life is at stake, its you or him... who do you want to win?? But it's not about beating the shit otta people just cause ya can, you should use the lest force you need to do the job, but enough to get it,done..

Now as far as jeet kun do is concerned it is a mixture of many differnt martial arts incorporated into you own style...it is not outdated but has changed over the years because Bruce Lee died while he was developing it, I took a seminar with Richrd Bustillo who was one of Bruce's students.. and it is a very good art to know but I woulnt say its best, its just something good to have in your arsenal.....strongside forward and fast strikes...

 

[101chemistry]

you can box a wrestler and wrestle a boxer, but it's obvious that you must be good at boxing AND wrestling to do well in both situations. MMA has shown the right way, and people should just follow it. Be well-rounded, and you'll do well anywhere. Only bad part is, the small guy almost always gets his ass handed to him by the big guy.

As for JKD...it's probably an ok thing to know. But why waste your time with ok things?

Bruce Lee developed it without coming into contact with thais, and when he did...oh my.

It's enough to look at the annual Thailand vs China contests. The chinese used to lose everything. Now they don't. Why? Main reason is the thais only give them their B-level fighters to fight now. Other reasons: the chinese fighters actually use more and more muay thai training, and less and less chinese martial arts.

Muay Thai is something that has been used for centuries by the thais to fight invaders. Chinese martial arts have been developes by little yellow men fighting each other. Thai reigns supreme as the stand-up art today. Chinese martial arts reign supreme as the arts for which the most people have made excuses.

Krav maga is a fashion and TKD is like fucking jogging.

 

[BigBoyJ]

Well, that's one thing we agree on. Tkd is crap.

 

[Juice Freak]

Totally agree with the hit and run self defense for women. No form of self defense or martial arts is going to help a 120lbs woman against a 200 plus pound man, none. This is speaking from experience since I've competed in boxing and still compete in Muay thai and mixed martial arts. It's not the size of the dog in the fight, but the size of the fight in the dog may ring true when opponents are closer in weight eg. 30lbs difference but nothing is going to help against an opponent that outweighs you by more then 80 lbs and has been around a while. My advice would be to get her to carry a stun gun, mace is another option although unfortunately most time both the victim and the attacker wind up suffering from the mace, I'd stay stun and run, cheap and most effective.

 

[Juice Freak]

Oh and TKD, Karate, Kung-Fu = shit, shit, shit.

 

[101chemistry]

Oh and TKD, Karate, Kung-Fu = shit, shit, shit.

amen

 

[dragonfire101]

kun tao

The original style of JKD is out dated, but JKD was formed to be developed and added onto to. There have been different shoot offs of it that have been redeveloped and added on to. Alot of places use the basics techniques for self denfense and then add onto it.

kun tao is good for self defense straight up dirty type fighting martial art. Alot of open palm strikes and finger jabs to the eyes etc.

You best bet is to find an instructor that specalizes in self defense and uses the best techniques from various martial arts.