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9 Responses to “What is the best fighting styles for self-defense?”

1. Jeff on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   The way the world is going these days, fighting should be your very last resort.

   One person I know got attacked by a prior felon, who happened to be his neighbor, but because he knew how to fight, he beat the guy up really easily and accidentally crossed the property line in the process. Now he is getting sued for assault.

   Another guy in one of my martial arts classes got jumped by 6 guys, and he beat them all up, but ended up going to jail because one of those people happened to be someone not involved, that was just standing really close.

   In my opinion, martial arts are helpful as a last resort, but also to build confidence. If you take a good self defense class, it wont just be puching drills, belts, and ranks, it will teach you how various self defense situations occur, and how to handle yourself. I dont care how good you are at jiujitsu. If you dont know how to deal with someone with a knife or gun, and haven’t practiced extensively, you are in trouble. I also dont care how much you have played with fake guns and rubber knives in a class, if you havent experienced a realistic situation where you actually feel your life is threatened, then you are going to have problems if one actually happens.

   Take a class like Krav Maga, for that sort of situational knowledge. It will give you confidence and plenty of skill. It will also help if you start asking yourself what you would do if something happened in any given situation. Start practicing on being more aware. Look for a good teacher, do some research online, and ask around. If someone has been there done that, like military, law enforcment, fbi, etc then that is better than some guy who just does a lot of marital arts.

   On top of that, just get some self defense pepper spray. Spraying someone with pepper spray is going to be a lot more effective than hitting them, and a lot less serious legally.

   Hope that helps.

2. CTC on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   There is no "Best" theres only what works for the individual.

3. Jeanie on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   I would like to suggest that you should try kickboxing. This is an all around martial art which is best for stand up fighting. As we all notice, in the streets, most fights are made on stand ups and not on grappling as the latter is only best on one on one combat. One on one combat is only best on the ring and not on the streets as we could not expect that there is only one aggressor that might attempt to hurt us. If you want, you could purchase a self defense videos and learn the basics as it gives you the most basic self defense classes and easy to learn.

4. CM77 on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   Martial arts don’t work over night. Attend women’s self defense seminars. Get tips through articles and internet research. Pay attention to crime trends where you live. Develop your situational awareness. A lot of self defense is avoidance and common sense you don’t need a Sensei to develop those attributes. Carry pepper spray and a knife, and I do mean carry. If the weapon isn’t at hand when you need it, it’s no good. Practice, practice practice. If you are interested in firearms, buy one and take as many courses as you can find. Again, practice. Go to an instructor who will teach you some hard hitting offensive strikes (punch, palm, hammerfist, elbow, knee) and how to apply them under pressure. Good luck.

5. ameagor on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   I believe that any fighting styles that you will have the interest and heart into practicing frequent will be the suitable one for you.

   You will have to have some degree of interest in the art to study it.\

   If you lack time for martial art conditioning(physical training)

   I would suggest arts like Aikido since it doesn’t need athlete stamina to train.
   The catch is that you’ll be thrown around.

   Boxing would be the easier one as it places focus only on the fists, learning the right way to punch may be what it only takes to defend in some danger situation.

6. Integrated Self Defense Services on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   There are styles that generally train specifically for combat. These are more suited for self-defense.

   Here are the examples from my experience:

   Jeet Kune Do Concepts
   Kali
   Bak Mei
   Hsing-yi
   Bagua
   Jiu-Jitsu (Japanese Ryus)
   Kajukenbo
   Kenpo
   Choy Li Fut
   Hung Gar

   …
   I would include Ninjitsu but it is very, very hard to find a reputable school so I don’t advocate it right off as a generally good option.

   It’s about how they train. If they train for tournaments or competitions then they do not train for self-defense. The two are mutually exclusive. You train for one or the other.

7. Ryan on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   If you want to take a more formal martial art then neither kung-fu nor jiujitsu would be a good option for self defense. Jiujitsu is primarily about dominating your oponent, however in an actual street fight you would not be able to set up proper moves. On the otherhand many most disciplines of kung-fu are primarily offensive and therefore are not great if you just want to defend yourself. For mainly defense, I would recomend basic karate, most disciplines of it will do just fine.

   If you’re talking about defending yourself as in fighting back as well, then yes a form of kung-fu would probably work well. However kung-fu is not like it is in the movies, to be able to use it properly and well takes years of training, and the mental discipline can take decades. It also takes a fair bit of work to learn how to use it in a real fight, as many people who train in a martial art forget everything when their life is on the line. However if you’re willing to put the work and dedication into it I would recomend Jeet-kune-do (a form of kung-fu) as a good all around martial art for defending and fighting back. However it is also one of the harder ones to learn.

   If you want something easy and fast, do some training in boxing or muay tai. They are no were neer as good as a more formal martial art in a real fight, however they can be useful as faster and easier ways to train and fight with.

8. GreatestEver on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   This has been asked time and time again. There is no best fighting style. In a life or death situation, it’s your instinct as a fighter/survivor that will kick in. You cannot remember to do your katas or forms or stances when an attacker has lunged a knife at you. Best thing to do is arm yourself with a striking art, there are lots of them, depending on the luxury of your time learning it. Karate will take sometime to apply in the streets, I’d say go for Krav Maga if you need to learn it as short as 2 weeks, or kick boxing or Muay Thai for as short as 2 months, and BJJ if you need to ground survival, esp if your attacker has tackled you already on the ground and is about to mount you, BJJ skill is needed. If you learn anything, apply it to the attacker AND RUN AWAY AS FAST AS YOU COULD, no need to stay and try your luck to completely outpower him.

9. chris b on July 26th, 2010 3:33 am

   for more immediate results find a women’s self defense class or a martial arts dojo that offers self defense specific classes. for better and more involved results any martial art class taught by a competent sensei will be overkill for a real life street self defense situation, it just takes longer to learn the techniques and scenarios.

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