I wanna learn how to fight

[Rev. Good Will]

muay thai kickboxing, easy

its the type that most mixed martial arts fighters use for their standing game.

I'm kinda into MMA, but my friend is much more obsessed, he's a regular poster on sherdog.com, I would recommend checking them out.

[Felix_Nietsche]

I agree with what he says on Jui Jitsu.

1. Boxing teaches you how to throw a correct punch. A good jab can take a boxing novice a part. A proper hook and overhand right can be devestating. Also boxing teaches courage when fists start flying at your face.
2. Brazilian Jui Jitsu (BJJ) teaches ground fighting which many fights turn into. After three months of BJJ training you can take on someone who weighs 50% more than you (on the ground and assuming they don't know BJJ).
3. Mu Tai (Thai Boxing) the kicks that are taught in Muy Tai are awesome. A properly placed shin kick to your opponents thigh will take the fight out of 95% of your average opponents.

Fighting is like rock-paper-scissor.
A wrestler can destroy a boxer by taking him to the ground.
A BJJ guy can destroy a wrestler.
A boxer with good BJJ knowledge will destroy a pure BJJ.

Learn a combo of fighting styles for optimum results.

PS
Kung Fu = Useless
Karate/Tae Kwon Do = OK, but the fancy kicks are too slow and your timing with kicks has to be perfect or you'll get your ass kicked. Your average wrestler will destroy a Karate guy unless the Karate gut gets lucky.
Judo = Pretty Good but BJJ is better.

[heavybody]

Get in a few. That 'll help if you survive.

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is going to depend heavily on where you live, since you're looking for a good instructor (and training partners), not a good style. On the DVD front, there are some very, very good videos on knife fighting if you can get a few training partners. Somebody good with a knife will end fights very quickly.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't want to kill anybody, just be able to defend myself.

[/ QUOTE ]

After you're 23 you'll never have to worry about bar fights ever again.

[Rev. Good Will]

BJJ

assuming of course, you could take him down to the ground (via grappling/"shooting in on him")

I mean, if the <150lb gracie dudes did it to win against all those big dudes in the early days of no weight class UFC mathces...



then armbar/kneebar/kimora/anclelock/choke your little heart out on the bastard.

[MrMoo]

I agree in principal with what you said but I'm going to pick some things apart.

First off, it's Muay Thai.

Boxing is great. You need to learn how to hit. You need to learn how to cover up. But, boxing alone won't make you a great fighter. Boxers don't expect to get kicked. They also don't expect to taken down. And if they are, they expect to be stood back up.

Brazillian Jiu Jitsu is great. Early UFC's proved this is a very dominant form of martial arts. But, it takes a LONG time before someone can "take on someone who weighs 50% more than you". Strength and weight have A LOT to do with it. I'm pretty good on the ground yet I have a very difficult time ground rolling with one of the guys at my school because he is so big. I can't even wrap my legs around him to control him. Most armlocks I put him in he is able to power out of with shear strength. Plus, it sucks real bad having someone weighing 100lbs.+ laying on you. Unless you have good conditioning, you will get very tired very quickly.

There are a couple of other downsides to training in BJJ for a streetfight. First, BJJ is traditionally taught using a gi. While there are plenty of mixed martial arts schools that train without one, if you train using a gi you'll have some problems adopting a lot of moves to street fighting. Most importantly, BJJ is typically a ground game. Rolling around on the ground in a bar fight isn't a good idea. Usually people at bars are with friends. When you take some guy down at a bar, move to mount and pull off that sweet ass armbar you just learned, it's gonna suck when his buddy starts stomping on your face.

You're partially right about Muay Thai kicks. To the casual person training in Muay Thai, it will take years before they develop the kicking power to stop someone with one kick. I've been training almost 2 years and I doubt I could do it. Granted a kick will hurt like a bitch and they'll have trouble walking for awhile but most people will be able to take a kick or two in a fight because their addrenalin is going.

To Gamblore, I didn't respond to this earlier because I thought you were joking. If you really wanted to learn to defend yourself you're best off finding a local school which teached Mixed Martial Arts or Vale Tudo. Instead of focusing on one discipline you'll become a well rounded fighter and capable of defending yourself in most situations. However if you want to learn quick like you said or you can't tolerate a little pain, I wouldn't waste your time. We have tons of people who come into my school and train for a month or two. They leave shortly thereafter because they realize A) it's very hard work, B) it takes a long time to get "good" and C) it hurts a lot.

Holy crap, why did I write all that?

[A_C_Slater]

Forget all that crap.

I just want to know how to beat people up in bars.

Everyone knows this is an essential skill to have.

Women dig guy's with bar-fighting skillz. [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[bholdr]

the secret to winning bar fights against big drunk k-holes?


throw the first punch. seriously.

[tbach24]

[ QUOTE ]
k-holes

[/ QUOTE ]

[img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[raisins]

The acknowledged master in teaching people how to fight in a very short period of time is W.E. Fairbairn. His book is _Get Tough_. I think you can find scans of it for free on the Internet. Another book by a student of his that has similar instruction is _Kill or Be Killed_ by Rex Applegate. There is nothing magical about the approach; they advocate a strong forward drive pushing the opponent back, open hand chops to the side of the neck, palm strikes to the chin, fingers to the eyes, knees to the groin and stomps to the foot and knee. It's more a paring away of everything that is less effective. These books came out of WWII and the systems were developed primarily for the military. Their approach to fighting is what to do when you are without weapons.

In my opinion, these are not the best response to use with some drunk at a bar or a pissed off friend. A woman confronted with a rapist is the type of threat where these techniques are appropriate. From what I can tell this is along the lines of what they teach in those Model Mugging classes, except that the chops to the neck don't work so hot against that huge helmet.

regards,

raisins