Martial Arts That Aren't Useless

[BanicRhys]

(I'm not sure if martial art is the broadest term, but basically, I'm just talking about any style of fighting.)

I want to get fit and I figured that I may as well learn a useful life skill while I do it, so naturally, I thought of learning a martial art. The only problem is, all the martial arts that I'm aware of (Karate, Tae Kwon Do, Tai Chi, Yoga, Sudoku, etc etc etc) seem to be about as useful in a real life fight as training in Baseball (or so I'm told).

So, my question to you is, do you know of any fighting styles that actually have a practical application.

In honour of the upcoming Brazil Soccer World Cup, which I'm sure we're all super excited about [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lie], have some Capoeira.

 

[DefunctTheory]

Jiu jitsu is taught by the US Army and is particularly effective. It's main focus is on grappling and ground fighting (Which is where most fights end up anyway).

I can personally attest that if you want to mess someone up, jiu jitsu is as good as any method.

Here's a video on an encounter where 'Gracie' jui jitsu was used.

 

[Boris Goodenough]

Krav Maga is tried and tested in several wars and as a self(/other) defence for almost 90 years, granted it has evolved a lot during this time to what it is today and continues to become a tad more efficient every now and then.

MMA when done purely offensively has great effeciency aswell.

But most martial arts have real world applications though, though ground fighting is something that should be avoided as much as possible, because asphalt + possibly glass shards is not a good combo for your health.

 

[NeutralDrow]

It depends entirely on who teaches you and for what purpose, really. It's not so much that karate, tae kwon do, and the like are inherently useless, so much as their sport applications have taken over any martial application (almost exclusively so, outside of Japan and Korea). Even Capoeria can be a good martial art; you just learn and practice different stuff from the people who are primarily interested in the dance or competitive aspects.

That said, <url=http://www.cracked.com/article_16595_6-great-martial-arts-killing-man-with-your-bare-hands.html>here's a few suggestions. The ones I tend to see corroborated the most are Muay Thai and Krav Maga.

 

[lucky_sharm]

Basically what NeutralDrow, however much you learn is based on who is teaching you. Some teachers waste your time with boring ceremonies and hand you colored belts just for showing up (and wringing money out of you) while other teachers actually have a history of fighting and teach you how to fight effectively.

I'd also recommend Muay Thai, but again it depends on the teacher.

 

[Chemical Alia]

The only martial art I ever took at all was a semester of tai chi in undergrad. The only thing it taught me how to do is repel monkeys.

The best martial art: the art of hiding!

 

[rbstewart7263]

Its more about finding the right style/ teacher and having the right mindset. I take aikido which has innumerable amount of different styles and stuff. for example you can go to a karate class in a small town and be learning sport tai quan do basically. If you do your research you can find "legit" versions of everything. And if you live near the coast then your in luck.

find a martial arts forum and query them on some of the schools in your area. Say " Im looking at this this and this(provide links when possible) which ones are legit? which ones can I trust to train me proper in a legitimate style?"

and then see what they say.

aikido and bujinkan are grand imo

 

[zen5887]

If fitness is a high priority any kind of modern is going to help you. Taking Boxing, Kickboxing or MMA is going to get you fit and throw a punch and take a punch. There's no pressure to compete and any good gym will understand your needs, so they'll let you progress at your own pace.

I'd definitely recommend MMA for fitness (and conditioning).

I'm pretty skeptical of dedicated self defence systems cause most of the time they are 1) only short term courses that you "graduate" and you're done 2) focus on a really narrow set of skills (and fitness is rarely a priority).

 

[Bertylicious]

My understanding is that the best martial art is to be very big and then just hauling off on a ************. Bjork teaches us that it helps to be really pissed off, too.

I guess learning an actual martial art would be the equivalent of fine tuning a car, but then I don't think a Vauxhall Nova will ever beat a Bugatti Veyron no matter how much you barry it up.

 

[Thaluikhain]

Martial arts are kinda useless when the most effective way to fight is to kick someone on the shins, then sit on their face and knee them in the dick.

Er...so? No reason why people who know martial arts can't do that.

(Sit on their face, though?)

 

[Distance_warrior]

My favorite is the ancient martial art of Legitsu(pronounce leg-it-sue). First developed in ancient times for use against woolly mammoths. It is the most versatile of martial arts completely negating your opponents strength, size, handheld weapons and skill with any other martial arts.

The modern master of the art is Usain Bolt a man so practiced that attacking him is considered impossible as any attempt to waylay him will just result in him being 100m away in 9.58 seconds. it is only the only martial arts practiced by people with no arms. The best part about it is that training requires no master just make your way to the nearest athletic track and run.

 

[HardkorSB]

Martial arts are kinda useless when the most effective way to fight is to kick someone on the shins, then sit on their face and knee them in the dick.

Oh yeah?

 

[mindfaQ]

Krav Maga seems very practical oriented.

 

[Gorrath]

The physical fitness aspect of martial arts depends far more on the teacher than on the style. Your pre-practice workouts/warmups might be managed by him/her or else done on your own. There are lots and lots of strengthening exercises that one should do even if they are taking martial arts.

As for combat utility, this is an argument that tends to waste the time of people from beginner to master. For my money, learning good hand defense is critical, and the most effective hand defense I've seen in practice is that used in western style boxing. Mix that with a take-down art (preferably one that puts your opponent on the ground while leaving you standing) and you'll be fine.

The actual utility of any martial art depends on what you're actually trying to accomplish. Too many people are convinced that the proper measurement of a style is based on how well it fares in MMA, which is sport fighting. The fact of the matter is that the situation, and what you want the outcome of a fight to be, really determine a style's value to you. In short, compare martial arts based on what YOU want to get out of them and do physical training beyond just whatever they have you doing in class and you'll be fine.

 

[Not Lord Atkin]

every martial artist is going to tell you that the martial art they're doing is the most useful. I'm not really going to be an exception.

The thing about martial arts is that their relative usefulness is to a large degree dependent on the setting in which they were created. Karate, for example, is great for defending yourself against an armored opponent with a sword. It would probably translate fairly well to knocking out a drunk with a broken bottle or a mugger with a knife but it's not exactly up to date. Jujitsu, again, was developed to fight against armoured oponents but instead of punching through the armour, it focuses on getting around it. It's pretty useful if you're into that sort of thing but you don't want to restrict yourself to throws and joint locks, just like you don't want to restrict yourself to kicking in WTF taekwondo.

So here are two recommendations: Krav Maga, which was developed for Israeli troops and is probably the most efficient and brutal martial art I've seen. I don't like it personally, it lacks a certain something that I find appealing in martial arts. It's really as straightforward and on point as martial arts get. If you want to go for raw usefulness, go for that

The other one is ITF taekwondo. That's the one I do. It was developed for the south Korean military after world war 2 and is in essence heavily modified and updated karate. Taekwondo split into two different organisations that hate each other with a passion for petty political reasons - the whole affair is kind of embarrassing and sad - and while one of them (WTF) kept on changing and over time became more of a sport, the other (ITF) attempted to keep the original military style intact and is, as a result, arguably more useful in the street. ITF taekwondo is essentially a modern spin on karate. You've got your punches and your kicks, a handful of joint locks and quite a few defensive techniques. It's also fun to learn. Definitely worth trying.

In the end though, the usefulness of a martial art depends on the martial artist. Anything is useless if you're rubbish at it, just as anything can be made useful by someone who knows what they're doing. The quality of the teacher will also make a world of difference. I am lucky enough to practice under an 8th dan senior master who is one of the most respected taekwondo practitioners in the UK. Not everyone will have the same privilege.

 

[AngloDoom]

For purely practical reasons, I'd choose straight-up boxing.
You can always find a boxing club, you need relatively little equipment, there is a lot of emphasis on fitness and you learn to fight in a very uncomplicated way that directly pits you against your peers often for that lovely competitive thrill.

From a personal standpoint, though - try them all and then choose the one that makes you smile the most. Hopefully, you'll never have to actually use your martial art and you're not going to stick to something (and repeatedly pay for something) which you'll get bored of. I personally don't bother much with martial arts any more because I wasn't enjoying them, so I switched to climbing and I'm fitter than ever and enjoying myself immensely for the same reason I'm so much fitter - I go every single time I can physically manage it.

 

[Ieyke]

The Bujinkan doesn't fuck around. They generally aren't allowed to have/take part in martial arts tournaments because almost everything they do is geared toward killing and maiming as efficiently as possible.