Fighting, well, self defence

GiantMike

I have a bit of time on my hands and I am interested in getting some self-defence training in to that I can defend myself against street scrotes should the need ever arise. Does anybody do this and can make recommendations on what I should be looking for?

Local gyms are offering karate, tae kwon do etc. Would these do the trick or would I be better looking at boxing or just self-defence and running away?

BigJimmyB

Win Chun

Minimal (physical) effort (in the event of a fight) and some tasty moves to take the scrotes down.

morstar

Just get tooled up mate...

And then die on the end of your own blade when it all goes pear shaped.

Or then again, maybe not!

napoleond

Best thing to train at is running. I kid you not.

I've done martial arts (Kung fu) for many a moon, in my job I don't have the running option. However most scraps end up close and personal and on the floor. The techniques I use most are a distraction to the face closely followed by taking the legs out.
With this in mind I'd suggest krav magda, ju jitsu, aikido or similar...

zx6man

Done Genbukan Ninjutsu for many years (after getting my blackbelt in shotokan karate which I got bored of), and served me well when needed (and when running away resulted in me slipping over onto my drunken ar$e)

Akirasho

GiantMike wrote:

I have a bit of time on my hands and I am interested in getting some self-defence training in to that I can defend myself against street scrotes should the need ever arise. Does anybody do this and can make recommendations on what I should be looking for?

Local gyms are offering karate, tae kwon do etc. Would these do the trick or would I be better looking at boxing or just self-defence and running away?

... running away often works...

[img][/img]http://www.buildwithfred.com/wp-content ... unAway.jpg

I'm fairly well trained and tested and have a temper so best for me is to tuck tail or risk going to jail for manslaughter at least.

Cleat Eastwood

Kung Po

Yes, leg it to the chippy and have a chinese with flied lice.

bompington

Much simpler solution, as, I suspect, practised on this very forum at times...

verylonglegs

Or just move to a more respectable area.

seanoconn

morstar wrote:

Just get tooled up mate...

And then die on the end of your own blade when it all goes pear shaped.

seanoconn

NapoleonD wrote:

Best thing to train at is running. I kid you not.

I've done martial arts (Kung fu) for many a moon, in my job I don't have the running option. However most scraps end up close and personal and on the floor. The techniques I use most are a distraction to the face closely followed by taking the legs out.
With this in mind I'd suggest krav magda, ju jitsu, aikido or similar...

Yeah but what's the best way of avoiding wrestling and floor scraps? I'm rubbish at both and the ground is so cold and wet this time if year.

Hoopdriver

NapoleonD wrote:

Best thing to train at is running. I kid you not.

I've done martial arts (Kung fu) for many a moon, in my job I don't have the running option. However most scraps end up close and personal and on the floor. The techniques I use most are a distraction to the face closely followed by taking the legs out.
With this in mind I'd suggest krav magda, ju jitsu, aikido or similar...

Good lord, your office sounds like a fun place to work...

Hoopdriver

seanoconn wrote:

morstar wrote:

Just get tooled up mate...

And then die on the end of your own blade when it all goes pear shaped.

I liked that one too

bompington

Hoopdriver wrote:

NapoleonD wrote:

Best thing to train at is running. I kid you not.

I've done martial arts (Kung fu) for many a moon, in my job I don't have the running option. However most scraps end up close and personal and on the floor. The techniques I use most are a distraction to the face closely followed by taking the legs out.
With this in mind I'd suggest krav magda, ju jitsu, aikido or similar...

Good lord, your office sounds like a fun place to work...

Did no-one tell you NapD is a primary teacher?

heathy_76

+1 For Wing Chun.

Tried many martial arts over the years and IMO this seems the most practical.

crumbschief

This style might help if your short of money.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?gl=GB&hl=e ... JxGi8bizEg

finchy

All depends on the classes available to you in your area. Have you got a more specific list?

GiantMike

johnfinch wrote:

All depends on the classes available to you in your area. Have you got a more specific list?

Mainly working class, which is the problem

Tom Butcher

Wing chun is good and when you get to a reasonable level it's fun doing chi sao but the standard of instruction is very variable. Personally I liked the Wong Shun Leung lineage (not that I have massive experience of different types) and if there is a good instructor of that line of Wing Chun that would be worth doing if you were looking long term - you wont get much out of 6 months.

You might get quicker results from something a bit more all round - my brother used to do some russian style when he lived in New York - can't remember the name of it but he said it was very physical and involved quite a lot of what you might call realistic practice from early on. (googled it and it's called systema)

GiantMike

Thanks for the tips. I'll be watching Wing Chun YouTube vids on the turbo later.

CiB

I'll vote for the running option - it's always nice to win a pointless argument by 110 yards.

markos1963

When I was doing serious Judo we used to have people coming in to the club asking about self defence and to be honest it was a waste of time. You need to do a martial art for at least two years to get it into your system so you can overcome the flight aspect of your temperament. I had to use my skills a couple of times and I would have rather had the option to run rather than fight. It can get very messy with the lines between self defence and outright brawl blurred. I had even had to save the attacker from swallowing his own tongue once. Practice your sprints if I were you.

finchy

Martial arts are definitely better for self-defence than running as you can improve your skills your whole life. I've seen some very small 80 year olds doing some very good karate. I've never seen an 80 year old run fast.

Frank the tank

Tae-kwon-do is a good one. Best if you can actually avoid violence in the first place though, as in a fight there are no real winners.

redjeepǃ

I've no real experience (so feel free to ignore everything I'm about to say ), but I was in the same boat recently and wanted to do some form of self defence class. After a bit of looking around I chose Krav Maga as it seemed effective and reasonably easy to learn in comparison to some of the alternatives.

I've been doing it for around 6 months now and feel it's doing me some good. One of the recurring themes is that it's generally better to avoid the fight than get involved, but if you have to fight they teach you techniques that should help get it finished quickly and in your favour.

I know that there's a lot of contention about which is the best of the martial arts, but KM does seem to be well used by law enforcement agencies etc. (I know that KM doesn't claim to be a martial art, as there's not really any artistic side to it).

Another benefit to any course will be that it should help improve your general fitness as they focus on flexibility and kicking 7 shades of sh!te out of something is actually quite tiring.

Garry H

choose one whrre the object of it's sporting aspect is either a knockout or submission, eg boxing,kickboxing, judo,bjj etcanything else is pretend fighting and takes to long to get good at for practical purposes.

steve6690

Ignore anything that's flashy and technical. It takes far too long to be useful. Spinning kicks etc are all bollocks. All the competitions I've seen have been won with simple techniques like front kicks and straight punches.
To that end I'd recommend boxing, wrestling, krav maga. Find the one that suits you the best...
The winner of any street fight is usually determined in the first 10 seconds..

Cleat Eastwood

Top 6

MichaelW

Well young Grasshopper, if you have 10 years to devote to learning your art before they let you out of the temple, then many of the oriental martial arts are effective. Thai boxing is probably the most effective street style.
If you want to be effective against untrained but nasty scumbags within a short timescale, them a simpler system such as Krav Maga is the solution. This should get you into fighting shape within 3-6 months BUT even with good quality fight training, you are barely ready for a real fight. In a real fight, people hit you. They HIT YOU. My first fight experience was shocking. None of my extensive fight training emerged after being hit.
If you can experience taking some real hits in sparring that will help.
Read and practice the work of Geoff Thompson. One advantage of KM, being a system, is that they incorporate new ideas (such as Geoff Thompson's) as they prove themselves in practical use.
Once you have tried fighting, you begin to see the advantage of Running Away.

lakesluddite

markos1963 wrote:

When I was doing serious Judo we used to have people coming in to the club asking about self defence and to be honest it was a waste of time. You need to do a martial art for at least two years to get it into your system so you can overcome the flight aspect of your temperament. I had to use my skills a couple of times and I would have rather had the option to run rather than fight. It can get very messy with the lines between self defence and outright brawl blurred. I had even had to save the attacker from swallowing his own tongue once. Practice your sprints if I were you.

I agree. The biggest obstacle to effective self defence is the brain, and it's inability to cope with sudden acts of violence. It will tell you to huddle up, protect yourself, when in fact the best option is to start lashing out with whatever weapons you have to hand, be they fists, feet, elbows or knees - but to train your brain to do this takes longer than to train your limbs to perform certain techniques. Also, if you've never really been hit with real speed and power, it comes as a real shock at first, and takes months, perhaps years, to be able to deal with it properly.

I'm a 2nd Dan in Karate, but I've never had a 'real' fight in my life (thankfully), so all the myriad of techniques I have are only good enough if I use them properly under stress and an adrenaline rush, which I won't know about until it happens, if at all.

If you want straight up Self Defence, choose a system that uses only a few techniques, but uses them very effectively, but most of all teaches the right attitude. As said by others, Thai Boxing/Muay Thai/Kick Boxing is good as it features lots of sparring (ie getting hit a lot), as does traditional boxing. Don't know much about Krav Magna, and I suspect lessons in this are difficult to find in some areas.

lochindaal

I have a black belt in Tae Kwon Do and even at black belt self defence seminars the first advice you always got was to run away if you can.

For any martial art you have to repeat moves over and over for them to become natural and instinctive. You would be surprised how long it takes people to learn how to punch. Don't think within 6 months you will be confidently able to defend yourself.

I would never put anyone off doing a martial art as it is a great thing to learn and to keep fit but do it with the right mentality.

I haven't been able to train for about a year now due to work and I do wonder if I had to use it how much would still come naturally.