Other/Mixed Picking the right Martial Art

[spc]

One more thing:
Back in the day Kick Boxing was the thing to do. I think it was especially big in belgium and the netherlands, right?
No one wants to fight a good kick boxer. So if you are in belgium anyway, chances are that you'll find a real good teacher..
Just a thought that came to my mind...
(I just remembered a episode when my friend Peter, who was really thin and not dangerous looking, but a practicioner of Kickboxing, once knocked out a bully while eating his yoghourt on the schoolyard. Just one kick and it was over.)

 

[Kev]

For me it was like - when I was young I was in trouble many times. I had some judo - that mostly solved my teenage brawls. (It always ended on the ground by O Goshi and Kata Gatame 'til surrender.)
When I began to train serious martial arts I had a couple of encounters and I was always able to talk me out of it.
All that training to avoid fighting. Isn't that, what it is all about?
If you can't talk, (maybe you are robbed or it's just bad luck) something that requires not too much skill but is highly effective will serve best.
Your fine motor skills will be shut off when the adrenalin is flowing and your knees start to shiver. You need easy, agressive , gross mottorik skills. Palm strike to the side of the neck, the ear, mouth or nose. Pulling hair, kick to shin or knee.. And run...
Something easy to learn, good to grind in.
Sure - years of training - thousands and thousands of repetitions will help. But if if you want to be ready soon... Military style close combat, Combatives, Krav Maga. Fast and effective. (Check out Lee Morisson from Urban Combatives. Real stress situation training is key to self defence)
If you want to evolve and learn an art form. Go for BJJ, Boxing, traditional Muay Thai, Judo or Karate. Even Capoeira or Aikido are lots of fun and put your body and soul to another level. (I've been once kicked by my Capoeira Mestre to the shin and I thought a truck hit me)
If you want it all - go for MMA. (But be prepared of encounter some wild young men who watch too much tv with severe issues who just want to ground and pound.. Make sure it's a good gym with trainers who follow some security standards)
Personally, when it comes to infight and weapon defence (knife and sticks) I'd go for JKD, Escrima/Arnis and Silat. Those mechanics are quiet universal and a perfect match. And the more confident you are, the less you appear a victim, the less conflict you will encounter.
Si vis pacem, para bellum!
All that said - I never felt better than after a two hours Capoeira session. To me it's the last real spiritual martial art. Inside the Roda you are naked and exposed. You can't hide who or what you are. It is a very transforming experience.
And you'll be never in a better shape in your life. It is an complete art. Singing, dancing, playing/building instruments, fighting without even touching and still compete. It's a kind of magic. ( If salto mortale is not your thing - check out Capoeira Angola).
Take some Luta Livre or BJJ in addition and you'll be fine.

I don’t know man. Abada capoeira is like a fight within the confines of doing capoeira and in our group this Polish wrecking machine called Gregor appeared and he was from Artes de Gerais and this dude was a total savage. Scissor take downs, sweeps and just blatantly booting folk out the roda. We all loved it but it put a lot of folk off. One of our group had a girlfriend in Brazil and he went to visit her and he managed, in his senzala uniform lol, to saunter into an Abada group in Rio. We all congratulated him on returning with the use of his legs.

 

[spc]

I always preferred Angola myself. I was grupo Senzala by their Angola was pretty guff. There was a group of us in the group who gravitated to Angola more and more. We went to seminars with other groups and watched groups like cordao de ouro approach to Angola. That group within the group are now cordao de ouro last I heard. I quit years and years ago. Was good fun but Glasgow is a cold a#@ place and missed warmups through diving into a roda inevitably led to injury.

I used to live in Rome in the end of the nineties where I learned capoeira and there were mostly grupos regional around. We trained Mon and Wed and on Friday we met other groups around town. Was a very vivid scene back than. But no angola around. But things changed and nowadays you'll find them.
But right now - there is nothing but solo training. All clubs are closed.
Parana è...

 

[spc]

I don’t know man.

What do you mean?
Like I said capoeira was not bad a#@?
For sure it is...I wouldn't argue about real life application.
Is like I said Its a real martial art. No doubt about it.

 

[Kev]

What do you mean?
Like I said capoeira was not bad a#@?
For sure it is...I wouldn't argue about real life application.
Is like I said Its a real martial art. No doubt about it.

I wasn’t arguing. I was highlighting there is an aspect of it where it’s “lutre”.

 

[spc]

I merely meant the no contact part.

Ah.. I see. Like I said - best avoid contact. The power of the trajectory is hughe. It knocks you off, easily..
That's why there is (mostly) no contact....

 

[spc]

I wasn’t arguing.

I didn't took it that way. I just didn't get it. Don't worry.
All is good!

 

[Kev]

I didn't took it that way. I just didn't get it. Don't worry.
All is good!

Cool man.

 

[Kev]

Ah.. I see. Like I said - best avoid contact. The power of the trajectory is hughe. It knocks you off, easily..
That's why there is (mostly) no contact....

I didn't took it that way. I just didn't get it. Don't worry.
All is good!

I could definitely do with going back to my slavish devotion to handstands from back when I did capoeira. Stretching too would be an idea.

 

[North Coast Miller]

One more thing:
Back in the day Kick Boxing was the thing to do. I think it was especially big in belgium and the netherlands, right?
No one wants to fight a good kick boxer. So if you are in belgium anyway, chances are that you'll find a real good teacher..
Just a thought that came to my mind...
(I just remembered a episode when my friend Peter, who was really thin and not dangerous looking, but a practicioner of Kickboxing, once knocked out a bully while eating his yoghourt on the schoolyard. Just one kick and it was over.)

I had a buddy KO a much larger man with a spinning side kick to the midsection, bounced the guy off the wall behind him. Amazing what can work in a brawl if your skill level or appropriateness of technique is spot on.

I managed to stop/stall one assailant in a 3or4 on 1 encounter (the guy directly in front of me ATM) with a crescent kick - believe me I would never have done that deliberately due to the risk factor, it just came out. Be careful what you condition yourself to do, a few bonks in the head you react without thought.

 

[JW513]

I'd say BJJ or Judo.. I'm starting BJJ once I get my strength back. I don't want to hurt anyone or every punch any one. I've come close and if you push me I will. But i'd rather slam someone on the ground and hold them there. Actually i'd rather deescalate and walk away.

 

[Steve Freides]

Whichever has the best instructor in your area.

+1.

-S-

 

[Kev]

I'd say BJJ or Judo.. I'm starting BJJ once I get my strength back. I don't want to hurt anyone or every punch any one. I've come close and if you push me I will. But i'd rather slam someone on the ground and hold them there. Actually i'd rather deescalate and walk away.

Judo, the gentle way of hitting someone with planet earth. If Jigoro Kano invented Judo because the jujitsu of his day was too violent I hate to think what exactly was going down in those dojos back in his day.

 

[JW513]

Judo, the gentle way of hitting someone with planet earth. If Jigoro Kano invented Judo because the jujitsu of his day was too violent I hate to think what exactly was going down in those dojos back in his day.

Yup. The place i'm starting , the instructors where both olympic judo champions.. But he also teaches BJJ.. I'd love to learn some throws, but Judo is too physical for me. I'm in construction and need my body.

 

[Kev]

Yup. The place i'm starting , the instructors where both olympic judo champions.. But he also teaches BJJ.. I'd love to learn some throws, but Judo is too physical for me. I'm in construction and need my body.

Learn whatever works for you man. My instructor is 57 and he said an old boy once told him to never stop break falling. He reckons it keeps the body strong and helps the skeleton stay strong. At the rate I get bounced I expect to have the Wolverines skeletal mass by Easter. Lol

 

[JW513]

Learn whatever works for you man. My instructor is 57 and he said an old boy once told him to never stop break falling. He reckons it keeps the body strong and helps the skeleton stay strong. At the rate I get bounced I expect to have the Wolverines skeletal mass by Easter. Lol

I believe that 110%...

 

[spc]

IMHO it is more about the instructor than it is about the martial art.

So true. I was member in two different Krav Maga Institutes over time in two different cities. And even though they belonged to the same institution, it was like two different planets.

Whichever has the best instructor in your area.

This also can lead to nowhere sometimes. If a school has good reputation and starts to grow it can happen that you never see the headcoach. That's ok if he established standards for his trainers. But if it's a franchise and some advanced students or paid trainers doing the classes - all the time - you won't benefit from the "best" instructor that much.
(I'm not talking about "old school" master/student relation, that grows over years in a monastry, when you are trained over years exclusively by older students - until you get eventually a master class...)
A good trainer is priceless. And therefore, yes!!! it depends so much more on the trainer than on the art itself.
If you ever find one - stick with him!

 

[Mike Torres]

@cwheeler33 I have heard good things about Senshido but don’t have personal experience with it. And yes, we mostly agree Training methods and context matter a lot, so while I’d say the odds of a jiujitsu black belt go up significantly when faced with a knife, if they have never trained with one, it may not matter. I’ve enjoyed following Burton Richardson’s BJJ for the Street approach here.

@3letterslong Agree, train it all. The problem is when people train the hair pulling, fish hooking, and biting and expect it to work without good fundamentals. An average BJJ blue belt gets hit in the nuts several times/week and can maintain mount with their eyes closed on most untrained people. Learning to escape this mount properly with patience & timing (while staying safe) takes time to learn, but replacing a collar tie with a hair grab can be taught in 10 minutes. So in terms of training time, I personally don’t focus too much on the “extras” (except knife defense, which is it’s own thing - but what I trained in JKD/Kali wouldn’t actually work, I needed to look elsewhere).

@Period Yes, the individual matters a lot. It’s just about increasing your odds, but in a real fight anything can happen. (And while MMA may have been created to advantage BJJ, the rules now do the exact opposite!)

 

[John K]

All: There is a preception I have that I need you to confirm or correct me. Probably MMA is the best option for me because it looks like more of a pragmatic MA, taking most of the useful techniques from different traditional arts. But how about the coaching approach itself? I was looking around for some clubs and I found many, one of them (which is also the most respected) is founded and coached by Belgian and European multiple champrion. When I look at the curriculum, I can only see his successful career as an MMA fighter, contrary to other traditional martial artists where you can see grades, belts, years in activity .. etc which gives confidence on the pedagogic side. Training with a great chamption doesn’t come at the cost of getting structured learning? Does it have a risk of having chaotic (hence dangerous) journey?

A great athlete is not always the best coach. You want the best coach, not the best fighter. Looking at a pedigree only tells you so much.

 

[North Coast Miller]

I don't want to hurt anyone or every punch any one...Actually i'd rather deescalate and walk away.

That was something I really appreciated about adopting FMA mechanics, the ability to substitute a push or press for a strike without having to learn new technique. Increases the options/ability to disengage and get outta there.