The one that inspires and keeps you engaged.
Teacher>art
And the best martial art for self defense is track
Just pole vault up onto the roof of 7-eleven and those street bullies can’t get you
The school of Anything Goes Martial Arts!
Plus side is actual strong techniques.
Downside is irresponsible teachers, dangerous teaching practices and literal body dismorphia.
Swordfighting, because it looks super cool.
HEMA is fun as hell, because you get to hit people with swords/staves/axes and not hold back.
HEMA can also be rather unfun, because people get to hit you with swords, and while the armor and helmets are good, they’re also expensive and don’t last forever. They also don’t cover everything, and don’t do much against wrestling moves.
But you get to hit people with swords
^ This
I’ve been doing long sword fencing/HEMA since the late 90’s. (Back when it was unnamed, then became HACA, etc…) I friggin love a good swordfight.
In all that time, I’ve only broken one finger bone; plus three or four knuckles; …and one time I got stabbed in the eye hard enough for the shinai to hit the back of my eye socket (wear your masks, kids!).
Would still do it all over again. 10/10 for fun.
If you could only be an expert in one and average at the rest, it’s wrestling because of the ability you would have to control your opponent. If I could pick a second it would be Mauy Thai as striking is obviously important
I have a black belt in a mixed martial art focused on self defense in the real world, of which one of the primary pillars is “never be on the ground”.
Wrestling is excellent for subduing a single opponent, but is not suited for dealing with multiple attackers. You can be the world’s greatest wrestler and perfectly lock your opponent out, but it doesn’t help you when his buddy comes and kicks you in the back of your head.
We assume that in any self defense encounter you will need to defend yourself against more than one person.
What is best? Best for physical exercise? Best for real world fighting?
Depends what you want from it. Self defense? Fitness? Coordination? General health? Discipline?
For self defense, which is what most people want, probably Krav Maga. AFAIK it’s the only thing that’s been developed purely for self defense.
I don’t consider it “real” martial arts but I learned MCMAP in the Marine Corps and a lot of those skills are very relevant for self defense and quickly disabling an opponent. The tan belt stuff isn’t great but if you go up in belts you learn a lot more and it gets really fun if you’re into it.
MMA. It’s interesting to go back and watch early UFC fights. The fighters back then specialized in one style so you would see these crazy matches like Tae-Kwon-Do versus a sumo wrestler or something. I remember a boxer going up against a BJJ fighter and getting his ass handed to him. There were some really lopsided matches with BJJ fighters or wrestlers.
Back then, they didn’t wear gloves and it was billed as “no holds barred”. I think the only rules were no biting or eye gouging. The matches were bonkers. There was one where some little dude was fighting a big guy and basically punched him in the balls like 20 times until he couldn’t stand.
Over the first couple dozen events, you can see the styles start to blend into what became modern MMA. The wrestlers were taking up boxing. The strikers were learning some ground skills. It was several events in when a boxer was demonstrating an ability to evade BJJ takedowns with a sprawl move.
Early MMA fights are the only thing I can think of where you can witness the evolution of a new martial art that’s practical and combat-tested. You see weaknesses in styles and fighters who respond by adding a new move. You see what works and then other fighters start copying. Eventually, it blends together into modern MMA.
Your first mention seems to indicate the BJJ fighters won when matched with boxers.
But later you say wrestlers took up boxing, and that boxers demonstrated the about to avoid BJJ takedowns.
Am I reading that wrong? What was the typical outcome in BJJ vs boxer?
The BJJ fighters beat the shit out of boxers. The first PPV event was insanity. It was like the Street Fighter video game in real life. It was a one day tournament where they kept fighting until there was a champion. Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock were the only guys who could really do well against any other fighting style. Jim Brown was doing color commentary and was at a complete loss for words during the fight where some little karate dude repeatedly bashed his opponent’s balls. It was absolute insanity.
Gracie was basically unbeatable and Shamrock was always in contention too. I think he won once or twice in the early years. Nobody knew how to deal with them because they would take opponents down and beat them on the ground. But I remember this one boxer dude came back a couple years later with a sprawl move. That was the first time I ever saw it in UFC. He was avoiding takedowns and getting strikes in. Most fighters were doing it not long after and the fighting really started to evolve. Then it became a mix of striking, takedowns and ground game. Even the BJJ and wrestling guys were forced to evolve.
I got weinie arms and Tae Kwon Do was mostly kicking so I enjoyed it for that and just the stretching and general exercize.
What’s you definition of “best” in this context? For serious, real-world ass kicking, I’d look into Krav Maga… but most of us aren’t mercenaries. If you’re looking for something more well rounded, FunkyMonk and qyron seem to have better suggestions.
I nearly searched “FunkyMonk, martial art” after reading your comment.
20+ years of martial arts experience here and there’s some terrible advice in here. Any martial art that doesn’t have an active competition scene is garbage in terms of self defense. This includes krav maga, aikido, most types of kung fu (except sanda and shuai jiou). I spent half of those 20 years doing aikido and hapkido, and they were largely useless.
In the competitive martial arts, wrestling, judo, Brazilian Jiujitsu, Muay Thai, and boxing are the gold standards. Most MMA is a combination of those four and definitely the most effective. I don’t like getting punched in the face so I stick with jiujitsu (brown belt). Karate is hit or miss, but some styles like kyokushin are really good.
I’ve been talking about self defense effectiveness. If you just want to get in shape, then pretty much anything that makes you sweat is going to work for that. Just don’t do krav expecting to be a killer, no matter how much camo your instructor wears.
What would you say are the best martial arts for a performer to learn? I’ve been wanting to pick up one or two just to borrow for my repertoires. The ideal is something that is flashy and “ok” for self defense (even if not the best).
Tae kwon do kicks are flashy and can look cool if done well. I think wushu looks amazing even if it’s more dance than martial art. Judo throws look cool too AND it’s very effective.
Tae kwon do kicks are flashy and can look cool if done well. I think wushu looks amazing even if it’s more dance than martial art.
Tae kwon do kicks are flashy and can look cool if done well. I think wushu looks amazing even if it’s more dance than martial art.
There are no “best” martial arts. What you will find is that each martial art style has some kind of figurehead who can demonstrate how effective it is, but in reality it’s the fighter not the style that’s effective.
The best martial art is whichever martial art is the best at doing the specific thing you want to do.
I’m all sold for strengthening and balance so a mix of wing chun and tai chi chuan for me.
Also “nigerundayo smokey” if I get some good constitution back.
For non-JoJo fans - https://youtu.be/W4rG1bYJnUM?si=VXL3Bpur4D6HROMN
