This is good source material, might i reccommend a look at Yoshinkan Aikido? as prefered by the Tomkyo MET police force and special operations training?Wyes said:
Do you know different martial arts or fighting styles? I need some ideas (UPDATED)
- Thread starter DrunkenElfMage
- Start date
Let me start by saying that this is my wheelhouse. Honestly, it really depends on what you're going for. Almost any martial art, when used by an experienced and proficient practitioner, will very quickly incapacitate an opponent. Krav Maga is getting a lot of attention because it was developed by the Israeli special forces and is very brutal. Muy Thai has seen a lot of popularity because of it's strong influence on MMA. I could literally name dozens of martial arts that are very effective, but one of the things you said was you wanted it to be distinctive, so I'll start there.DrunkenElfMage said:
For the two above, Krav Maga is known for it's high level of brutality, and it's aggressivness, while Muy Thai is well known as being one of the few martial arts that focus on elbow and knee strikes.
Penkac Silat is a very distinctive martial art that originates in indonesia, designed for fighting in thick jungle terrain, it uses many distinct guard positions and unusually low stances. Zui Quan, or drunken boxing is a type of Chinese martial art that uses a very distinctive and unpredictable method of moving to help avoid strikes, and has many techniques that involve throwing yourself to the ground. Piqua Quan is a distinctive Chinese martial art in which the practitioner uses his arms like whips in powerful long range circular strikes. You could also look up Bagua, which was the martial art that airbending in the last airbender was based around. Each bending style was based on a distinctive chinese martial art, though the only other one I remember is that water bending comes from Tai Chi.
Savate is also very distinctive. It's a french martial art that uses a very high number of kicks. Karate is a ridiculously diverse martial art, containing around 100 formal stances. Some of it's methods are very distinctive, such as meotode, a rarely practiced form which involves moving both hands together. It's translation means "married hand fist" or something very similar. Ju Jitsu is also very distinctive in that it practices almost no strikes. Designed to fight armored samurai, a strike was ineffective so the art focuses on joint locks and throws instead. Pankration is a distinctive ancient greek martial art that has many grappling techniques. The ancient styles were so brutal that the Spartans boycotted the olympics for years because biting and eye gouging were banned.
Kollipara is an indian martial art that was developed in close relation to yoga, and uses many similar positions and has an unusual focus on flexibility, and might be one of the oldest remaining martial arts on the planet. Command Sambo is a brutal martial art developed by the soviet red army in the 20s and has a heavy focus on grappling techniques.
This is really just scratching the surface, if you told me more about what you wanted from the martial art, I could probably give you a few really good suggestions.
The guy would have a mental break down if he ever ended up fighting a woman.Hero in a half shell said:The ancient European martial art of Nutsackick-fu of course.
Yes, that's a genuine picture from a book about sword fencing written in 1467
Even if the guys packing a 5 foot metal sword, the nut shot never fails. A character whose fighting style revolves exclusively around kicking people in the nuts. There's a book I'd read.
"I kick you in da nuts!"
"I don't have any nuts."
"... then I'll kick you in da... uh... gimme a second..."
Man thats a great info dump for me to dig through thanks! But I'm curious to see what you'd reccomend according to what I want for my character.spartan231490 said:
The character in question is a detective with the ability to shoot electricity from his hands. After every take down I wanted to the person to be in a position where he use hand cuffs on the "suspect". He's a skinny guy who may go after many larger opponents and its supposed to a be a joke that he is never the person you expect to be take a person down as brutal and as efficiently as he does. He may also use the martial art as a type of meditative therapy, to help him calm down and concentrate. After watching some Akkido, I figured that would suit my needs very well, but if you can think of something that fits the criteria even better, then I'm all ears.
But I also want to work on the fighitng style of his partner, someone who is the polar opposite. A short dwarven women to be exact. I was leaning toward Lucha dore style fighting moves for her, as it would involve her flying through the air at much taller opponents, but I might want to beef her move set up with something else.
Flash is more important than function for me. Always have prefered Kung Fu movies over MMA fights. Not that I don't respect the amount of discipline it takes to do either.
Read The Tao of Jeet Kun Do. Bruce Lee condoned nut shots, biting, and hairpulling.... in a street fight at least.Hero in a half shell said:The ancient European martial art of Nutsackick-fu of course.
Yes, that's a genuine picture from a book about sword fencing written in 1467
Even if the guys packing a 5 foot metal sword, the nut shot never fails. A character whose fighting style revolves exclusively around kicking people in the nuts. There's a book I'd read.
check out Monty Oum's videos for inspiration. As a black belt in teakwando and a fan of action anime, I would halve to say he is the master of realistic fanticy fighting. My personal favorite works of his are 2 fight scenes in the show red vs blue, where in one a group had a multi-level assault on a crowd of grunts via zero-g and magnet boots, and another scene where an agent used telerportation to move around in nano seconds to flicker and fight two people in close proximity at once.
Aikido would work well for getting a suspect into cuffs. The only caveat I might mention is that against multiple opponents, in my opinion, striking arts are more efficient. Aikido is also a very good choice for the meditative side, like many more traditional martial arts, it is often practiced concurrently with a focus on spirituality and peace of mind. Sambo or Ju Jitsu would also work well. Ju Jitsu was used as a primary source for both Sambo and Aikido. I think the main difference you want to look at is "do" vs "jitsu" or "jutsu". A "do" like Aikido, is more strongly linked with philosophy and spirituality, while "jutsu" is linked to the arts of war.DrunkenElfMage said:
In this context, Ju Jitsu is widely considered a little more "hard"(basically brutal, or more likely to injure the opponent in addition to stopping them) than aikido. It's also a bit more battle tested, having been used by samurai to disarm and kill another samurai if they lost their weapon. Aikido, on the other hand, has much more of a focus on using the opponent's strength against them, and is more closely associated with philosophical and spiritual aspects. It also employs techniques that are much less likely to cause lasting injury. Interestingly enough, some advanced aikido take downs don't actually cause any pain to the target, it's just that the leverage on the person is so great that they can't help but go to the ground.
I don't believe that Sambo is widely practiced outside of the Eastern Block, but if your character is from that area it might make more sense. Otherwise, I would probably recommend Aikido, since you mentioned him using it spiritually, as well as your MC likely being concerned with legal ramifications if he seriously injured someone, but ju jitsu would also work if you wanted his background to be a little more traditional.
One last note, just an interesting fact, not really relevant. There is a school of ju jitsu, the Gracie style, from Brazil, which has had a standing challenge since about 1920 to practitioners of other martial art schools to competition fights in order to show the effectiveness of the Gracie style(also known as Brazilian Ju Jitsu). The Gracie system has only been beaten a few times in all those decades, the first time being in 1951.
I go with the withnail approach, call them a fucker and then repeat these words exactly.
"I have a poor heart, if you hit me its murder" and fucking leg it.
"I have a poor heart, if you hit me its murder" and fucking leg it.
Boxing without gloves, mate.
There's a certain grim appeal in pummeling a chap's face until teeth start falling out. As a literary device, blows to the face and chest can be as lethal or non-lethal as you want them to be, so you can maintain a brawl for as long as you choose.
Not to mention the writing appeal that can come with describing a fighters' descent into bloodlust or brawling madness as the fight progresses- leading to accidental kills and the horror that brings to the killer. Always a crowd pleaser, that one.
There's a certain grim appeal in pummeling a chap's face until teeth start falling out. As a literary device, blows to the face and chest can be as lethal or non-lethal as you want them to be, so you can maintain a brawl for as long as you choose.
Not to mention the writing appeal that can come with describing a fighters' descent into bloodlust or brawling madness as the fight progresses- leading to accidental kills and the horror that brings to the killer. Always a crowd pleaser, that one.
"Sharps" by K.J. Parker is a good source for both realistic fencing and "wtf" moments. And the stuff the author describes is actually (somewhat) based in reality (see the first part of http://www.pornokitsch.com/2012/07/pk-interview-kj-parker.html for more).
- Feb 7, 2011
- 7,927
- 2,290
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
I second boxing, if it's for the dwarf girl since she'd be at the perfect height to punch people in the groin really hard. That and I can't really think of a single martial art that would work well for a dwarf. Any martial art that I can think of works better the taller you are.Silverbeard said:
As far as luchador wrestling is concerned I don't think she'd have the weight for it.
There's Keysi a.k.a. the martial art Batman uses in Nolans Dark Knight Trilogy
Don't know how "realistic" any of the stuff they show is but it does have a cool and badass cinematic look to it...
Don't know how "realistic" any of the stuff they show is but it does have a cool and badass cinematic look to it...
Oh you get that and much, much, more with Steven Seagal. You get:DrunkenElfMage said:
-No acting talent
-Claims he's clairvoyant
-Sports a ponytail.
-Was in a movie where he goes on a peyote-fueled spiritual journey with a bunch of Eskimoes before he goes and murders about 900 guys on an oil rig.
-Has a band, even though I'm not sure if he understands that singing doesn't just mean "read the lyric sheet".
-Claims he used to train CIA agents.
-Claims he fought the Yakuza
- Feb 7, 2011
- 7,927
- 2,290
- 118
- Country
- 'Merica
- Gender
- 3 children in a trench coat
You forgot:Ihateregistering1 said:
-Has a reality TV show where he gets deputized by the Louisiana Sheriff's department and fights crime in post Hurricane Katrina Jefferson Parish.
-Directed the movie where he goes on a peyote-fueled spiritual journey with a bunch of Eskimoes before he goes and murders about 900 guys on an oil rig.
-Was accused of illegally trafficking women for sex and having a harem of Russian girls.
I don't know how I actually forgot about any of the HEMA stuff, I guess because I was thinking about hand-to-hand arts. Nice to see somebody referencing a Guy Windsor seminar though.Jasper van Heycop said:
There are strikes in jujutsu, but they're not the focus of the art (because of the aforementioned armour). They're incidental to getting into positions to lock, or throw, mostly.spartan231490 said:
This is interesting because it's almost the opposite of my opinion. My logic revolves around the fact that, at least in the grappling art I practice (jujutsu), it's all about killing somebody quickly to move on to the next guy, which throws are very good for (not only can you break a neck easily with a throw, regardless of them wearing armour, you can throw people at people). The problem with most strikes I find is that even somebody without training can spoil most lethal strikes you can throw at them, and that lethal strikes themselves are hard to come by (of course, I may be wrong about this on both points). So long as you don't go to the other extreme like Brazilian jujutsu, which is extremely good one on one, but going to the ground when there are multiple opponents around is a bad idea...spartan231490 said:
I did know that jujutsu has strikes, but as you said, they're more set up moves and so they stick out less. I was also trying to keep it simple and brief.Wyes said:
Throws can certainly be effective, but I consider them inefficient against multiple opponents because they typically use both hands and your center of gravity. I imagine there are advanced throws in the throwing arts that address that problem, but I just feel that at an average level of proficiency, a throw leaves you vulnerable for longer, and takes longer than a strike. I feel like I was a bit unclear, I'm making an assertion about time and effort involved more than the effectiveness. I don't have enough practical experience with throws to be confident making an assertion about their effectiveness.
As for the effectiveness of lethal strikes, I don't really care if the guy dies, just so long as he's out of the fight. I don't know a more efficient way of doing that than a good hard kick to the lower leg/knee. It's fast and brutally effective. Also, there's really no shortage of quick incapacitation strikes, and I don't think they'd be any easier to defend against than a throwing technique, though as I mentioned earlier I have little experience with throws.
I've got a 2[sup]nd[/sup] degree black belt in Karate, learned a lot of Tae-Kwon-Do from friends that I demoed with, dabbled in Muay Thai, Kickboxing and Krav Maga. If you're planning to actually learn, which would help character building, start with Karate or Tae-Kwon-Do. For simply writing a badass character, Muay Thai is the way to go. I mean, look at this!
EDIT: I've been corrected, it's Pencak Silat, not Muay Thai. I was told that it was Muay Thai but always kind of doubted it due to the lack of elbows and knees in the major fights. In the first scene though, he's training on a bag and doing an incredibly fast jab-elbow combo that looks like Muay Thai. Anyways, this is Muay Thai!
EDIT: I've been corrected, it's Pencak Silat, not Muay Thai. I was told that it was Muay Thai but always kind of doubted it due to the lack of elbows and knees in the major fights. In the first scene though, he's training on a bag and doing an incredibly fast jab-elbow combo that looks like Muay Thai. Anyways, this is Muay Thai!