Official Martial Arts Thread

[nicky g]

Thought I'd break this off from Men's Pride gambling thread into a separate thread. Anyone do martial arts here? I've been doing a sort of self-defence-oriented mixed martial arts class for the last couple of months; not a proper MMA class cos we don;t fight competetively and it's nothing like as hardcore, but it's basically a mix of styles including some boxing, grappling, karate and others plus a lot of self-defence drills taught as self-defence, rather than ring fighting. I do it mainly because it's fun and good exercise. I'm not really interested in learning how to fight and I think the only way you can really do that is to fight a lot, which I think is -EV. At college I did a year of Japanese JuJitsu, which was basically self-defence applications of Judo. Anyone else do one?

Any more opinions on the best martial art? Bruiser has said Kung Fu and CCass Tae Kwon Do. I think that a half-decent boxer could beat the crap out of most high ranking KungFuers and TKDer, because they're practice what they preach hard and can take hits, as could a relatively inexperienced grappler/Brasilian JuJitsu player (for the simple reason that it's relatively easy to take someone to the ground, and once you're there the Kung Fu and TKD guys are screwed). Any other thoughts?

I did a poll for this earlier but my PC crashed and I can't be arsed to do it again.

[turnipmonster]

I studied kung fu for a little while and tae kwon do for a long time. wing chun is IMO an extremely practical style and where I studied it was heavily geared towards street fighting and real world application. TKD (at least where I studied) was more of a sport, where most of the sparring we did was tournament rules only.

if I wanted to study again, I would definitely study wing chun kung fu.

--turnipmonster

[Men the Master]

A pro-wrestler like the Undertaker can probably take down and then beat down a boxer like Mike Tyson and Lennox Lewis. He would be too big for these guys. Even though they are fake, the pro-wrestlers are in great shape. Just check out the physiques of Triple H and Chris Benoit. Plus, these guys probably know how to fight for real (Tazz, for example, is a black belt in judo and Kurt Angle is an Olympic gold medalist, Booker T was a pro-boxer).

Pro-wrestling wins. [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

[astroglide]

events like ufc and pride are the best COMPETITION martial arts. in the real world if you're laying on the ground for 10 minutes heeling somebody in the kidneys his friend is going to crack a barstool over your head. i would still want lots of grappling/jujitsu but i think you'd have to throw something in there that is skilled at evasion/blocking/striking instead of just taking a hit on the top of your head while you tackle somebody before choking them or breaking their arm.

[nicky g]

Yeah there is clearly a big difference.

"i think you'd have to throw something in there that is skilled at evasion/blocking/striking "

Well boxers do this. I think most MMA fighters train in striking etc as well as grappling.

Also even though a lot of martial arts claim to be able to teach you to fight multiple opponents, if they are remotely competent fighters you are in bad shape no matter how great you are. Same goes for unarmed against a guy with a knife or other weapon.

I agree in a real life bar or street fight you don't want to go the ground if you can avoid it.

[Topflight]

It seems to me that striking martial arts like karate and tae kwon do are effectively useless. Boxing too maybe. Has there ever been a real fight that didn't come down grappling and wrestling.

Even boxing matches have to have a referee just to keep them from wrestling.

My vote is Jui Jitsu. Royce Gracie style.

[Edge34]

I happen to hold a 2nd Degree Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do. In my experience, although I've never had to use it in a street fight, the actual techniques themselves wouldn't be as effective, but combined with self-defense training (which I also have), using grappling, pressure points, AND the strikes can work wonderfully well.

So in essence, you're right...street fighting isn't based on style, its based on kicking the other person's ass so you don't get yours kicked. Its all in how you use what you know.

-Edge

[astroglide]

[ QUOTE ]
My vote is Jui Jitsu. Royce Gracie style.

[/ QUOTE ]

...which will get you killed by their friends in a real-life situation if you used it alone.

[nicky g]

Yah but what won't? I agree deliberately taking it to the ground is pretty stupid but it's quite likely to happen regardless.

[The once and future king]

You are kidding?

A "Pro" wrestler wouldnt even lay a finger on tyson or lewis.

A feather weight boxer would take down a "pro" wrestler easy. He could evade all of his attacks and land blows on him at will.

Boxing is the best fighting skill to learn if you want to win fights in the real world. Remeber boxing is about getting in a ring and fighting. If you box for long enough you will get much better at absorbing the intiall shock of a direct hit (by a fist at least) this will give you a massive edge over opponents.

I have trained upto brown belt in Karrate, when I started boxing (age 24) I was put in a ring with a 13 year old who had been boxing since he was 6. He could hit me at will with amazing power due to technique(harder than I could hit him eventhough I weighed a lot more) and evade every blow I threw at him again due to technique.