Good self defense class?

skyman · 13-Oct-04, 10:41 AM

Seeing that I almost got in my first bar fight last night. I did walk away but their might be a situation where I may not get to walk away. Does anyone have any recomendations for self defense classes? Anything with a focus on flexability would be good.

Lift2Live · 13-Oct-04, 11:17 AM

Most of the martial arts are good but some are better than others for "street fights" that you may or may not get into. Hapkido is a really good one. It centers more on pressure points and body manipulation as it's style. You want something functional like that. Any kind of grappling art is great. Judo would be fantastic. I personally rely on being "big" to never get into a fight. Usually, people won't mess with me if I stand up and stare them down. Confidence is a HUGE determining factor. Either way, look into functional classes. Karate and the like are nice and all but it takes years to get to a point that it's second nature when someone throws a fist in your face.

skyman · 13-Oct-04, 12:10 PM

I'm a short guy 5' 7" so I am mostly staring people 'up'.

**Gooseneck** · 13-Oct-04, 02:35 PM

Hapkido is an awesome MA for self-defense and personal protection. It's also a little more modernized and there is no competitions or tournaments for it. I've been taking a a form of it called Combat Hapkido which is a little different from traditional Hapkido where all your kicks are directed below the waist and there is a complete ground/grappling program. The only downside to this one is its hard to find a school that teaches it exclusively.

Good luck.

ghoniba · 14-Oct-04, 12:48 PM

Skyman;

You may want to check out these guys. They teach you basic street fighting and defending yourself against multiple attackers. A friend at work loved it.

http://fight-club.ca/

Glenn

Lift2Live · 14-Oct-04, 01:36 PM

A really good style also is Israeli hand to hand combat. There are places that teach it more these days and it's considered fairly elite as far as military goes.

**InkZ** · 15-Oct-04, 06:12 AM

I do muay thai boxing. Great cardio, and self defence all in one. Since I started doing muay thai I cut my time on the treadmills to a bare minimum

It's also a really good art to pick up in a short amount of time. Put someone who's done thai boxing for 6 months up against someone who's done karate for 6 months the boxer would come out on top. That's what my instructor tells me anyway, not tried it myself

rrouleau · 15-Oct-04, 08:20 AM

Just plain ol boxing is good too. But if you want more then just punching then do what the above peeps have said.

**mcgee** · 19-Oct-04, 04:39 AM

Skyman - It all depends on what you want to get out of it. I did Karate for quite a number of years, and although it taught me good skills with stand up fighting, it taught me nothing of ground fighting (which unfortunately is where the majority of street/bar fights end up), but the biggest thing that it did teach me was the confidence to know that I could defend my self long enough to take to my heels and get myself out of the situation. As Karate is (well traditionally it is anyway) a pure defensive art the best thing I learnt is to walk away, oh yeah and that a guy with a broken knee won't run after you ;-)

As for clinch/grapling and stand up arts look at Judo, Hapkido, Vale-Tudo, Ju-Jitsu (especially Gracie style), Aikido as the main ones then there are hundreds of variations. Also look at the modern military styles of unarmed combat (you may be able to find clubs teaching a diluted version of these)

For all out stand up fighting (the idea here is that you stop it before it goes to ground) look at Karate (basic punches and kicks are taught early on and that all you really need - the average guy kicking off in a bar probably doesn't do MA), TKD, Muay Tai kickboxing, western kick boxing, Tai Chi Chuan (martial Tai Chi - not the "dance" style that you think of when someone says Tai Chi), boxing and again many many other variations.

You then need to think about if you want to grade. Many traditional clubs won't teach new techniques until you have proved by grading that you can do what you have already been taught. Modern clubs may allow you to come and train but not be required to grade, or infact have no grading system.

But ... still the best form of self defence is - be somewhere else.

**Gooseneck** · 19-Oct-04, 03:39 PM

Well put Mcgee.

:

lukesky69 · 06-Nov-04, 07:42 PM

if it comes down to it and you are swung at first punch the guy as hard as you can in the throat ill bet he thinks twice about fighting when he starts breathing again

nate · 07-Nov-04, 03:21 AM

although, you might of just killed him.

IONOR · 07-Nov-04, 06:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by InkZ

I do muay thai boxing. Great cardio, and self defence all in one. Since I started doing muay thai I cut my time on the treadmills to a bare minimum

It's also a really good art to pick up in a short amount of time. Put someone who's done thai boxing for 6 months up against someone who's done karate for 6 months the boxer would come out on top. That's what my instructor tells me anyway, not tried it myself

I used to do Thai Boxing for 2 years and I would say it's easy enough to pick up and you learn a lot of everything including how to block against knife and bottle attacks. It's also great for cardio and conditioning. It would/does stand up well in a street fight as it's more focused around boxing and knees esspecially clinch (grappling) Knees however you get to learn a few great elbow techniques and Round House as well as spining and a few other fancy kicks.
I would also say your instructors right. Krate (IMO) is more for show than it is for defence.

alucard · 09-Nov-04, 12:06 PM

I know a lot about fighting and infact I want to become a Mixed Martial artist in the future in which i cross-train in various martial arts that are actually EFFECTIVE in real combat situations.

here are some of THE BEST combat martial arts to take :

brazilian jiu jitsu(learn to break limbs and choke people out)
Muay thai kickboxing(aka Thai boxing)
Kickboxing
Boxing

combining boxing and/or Thai boxing wit Brazilian(not japanese) jiu jitsu and you will tear **** up man......you'll have your standup game and ground game laid out.

now a lot may argue with me on this but traditional styles such as kung fu, Tae kwon Doe, akido and most traditional karate's - are really NOT that effective in the streets and the martial arts i named above are the ones that are proven to be most effective.

**mcgee** · 12-Nov-04, 10:11 AM

Alucard - I couldn't agree with what you said about the traditional MA's more. I have recently started at a MMA gym and in only 3 hours of (very tough - hmm may drop my cardio workouts I think) learning Crazy Monkey stand up technique (yet to get onto the clincg/ground work) I have realised how ineffectual Karate was as a basic defence system. And thats coming from someone who studied Shotokan Karate for 10 years, and had had it instilled in him that it was the be all and end all of MA. Not so at all, there are so many holes in it that its making me wonder how i ever managed to not get completely mullered whilst using it in (admittedly only a couple) of self defense situations.

One thing I did learn (and I think that this is where the point of this thread is) is that it could keep me out of trouble long enough to leave the scene. The specific style that you learn is unimportant so long as it works for you to the capacity that you want it to work to. Karate at a somewhat basic level would usually be sufficient to defend your self from a punch or 2. But ... if the fight lasts longer, and you get grabbed then Karate or other traditional arts may not help. Thats where the BJJ comes in handy, as karate (for instance) has no defense against clinches.