Which Martial Art school is best suited for pure self-defense skills against real-life attacks on the street?

I am looking for an easy to learn, highly street effective, self-defense skills/techniques/ training/discipline with emphasis on the “martial” and not the “art” part. In other words, I am NOT interested in competitions, tournaments, matches, the spiritual and/or cultural aspects of a martial art, trophies, shows, etc. I am really in search of a school of martial arts that teaches “martial efficiency” and the ability to defend oneself on the street (in a reasonably quick period of time). … And yes, I realize that it is NOT the martial art, but the martial artist that makes all the difference and that if you are really good at what you do and practice it all the time you can most likely defend yourself on the street no matter what style of martial art you happen to practice. However, such a strategy would require a tremendous amount of time investment and dedication, whereas what I am really after here is the self-defense proficiency part obtained in a reasonably short period of time (say a year or two of dedicated training max). Kindly justify your answer, If possible. Thank you in advance.|||What you are describing is Krav Maga. It started out as Israeli hand to hand combat. I%26#039;ve only done a little of it, but it is designed just for fighting, nothing else. If it%26#039;s good enough for the Sayeret Matskal, it must be good1





I find it a little disturbing that this is all you want to learn. I hope that you%26#039;re not going around looking for fights just to prove how tough you are.|||So wanting to learn means you%26#039;re just looking for a fight?... Wow... Report Abuse
|||karate.(not tkd)freestyle if you can find a good one.if not karate and crosstrain if you want to add fighting skills as well as self defence do muay thai as well.krav,bjj,crappyairhead and simular ones are just crazes stick with the tried and true.|||Hmmm, I know of a good Martian Art school that specializes in unreal-life attacks on the street but I guess you are not interested. Ok, bye.|||The only other thing I can suggest to you to do is try a reality based fighting techniques class, but these are also rooted in Martial Arts.





Or try disciplines Like Krav Maga or Kapap since they place more emphasis on the realism of self defense in their techniques, but again they are MARTIAL ARTS, the combat aspect studied alongside the cultural and historical aspect.





So if you%26#039;re not willin%26#039; to learn the %26quot;Art%26quot; side of the discipline, there%26#039;s no reason to learn the %26quot;Martial%26quot; side.





because I%26#039;m not favorable of mentioning particular disciplines names in order to let you the individual make your own decision due to the fact that just because I recommend a discipline doesn%26#039;t mean that you%26#039;re going to like the discipline or that you%26#039;r going to find it interesting enough for your taste, or even the fact that it%26#039;s available to you wherever you live.





in that last part of your question, you answered it all on your own: %26quot;However, such a strategy would require a tremendous amount of time investment and dedication%26quot;.





emphasis on time investment and dedication, because there%26#039;s NO WAY that you%26#039;re going to learn ANY discipline of Martial Arts by just going to say a month%26#039;s or even **(see note at bottom after posting) two year%26#039;s worth of classes and being proficient when and if you have to use what%26#039;s been learned.





Another thing is, learning the cultural and historical parts (the ART side, because it helps you to understand why a technique is done and for what purpose or significance it has) of the discipline go hand in hand with the Martial side of the discipline. That%26#039;s why it%26#039;s called MARTIAL ARTS because it takes the combat side of the discipline with the cultural and historical side as one complete teaching.





And even then, there%26#039;s no telling how %26quot;good%26quot; you%26#039;re going to be unless you have a good training ethic.





several Kung Fu disciplines put emphasis on %26quot;economy of movement%26quot;, but not %26quot;Martial efficiency%26quot;. Martial efficiency as you put it can only be achieved by diligent training, because Martial Arts in general is a LIFELONG experience. Many Martial Artists have trained since they were very young, often as young as Four years old, and still continue training to this day.





how many Martial Artists that have Mastered a particular discipline (or mastered more than one discipline) have you heard of that NO LONGER study Martial Arts?





that would be prob%26#039;ly only a handful since many Grandmasters and Martial Artists in general continue to study, and only %26quot;quit%26quot; until their death (which is pretty obvious at this point that they can no longer study Martial Arts).





Plus if you don%26#039;t continue training, you%26#039;ll slowly lose what you%26#039;ve learned. the muscle memory and reflex action will still be there, but you%26#039;ll find yourself wondering what you could%26#039;ve done later on should you need to use what you%26#039;ve learned, or accidentally use what you%26#039;ve learned after you%26#039;ve quit your regular training.





So if you can%26#039;t devote at least 3 maybe 4 days to train for at least 1hr minimum, then I%26#039;d suggest that you don%26#039;t waste your time and money trying to learn Martial Arts, because you%26#039;re not doing yourself any favors by just studying MartialArts for 2yrs and then quitting.





Any Martial Art is going to be able to help you in a real situation no matter what discipline you stud because there is Not one that is %26quot;better%26quot; than another.





So, unless we can devise the technology to %26quot;download%26quot; the techniques of Any or ALL the disciplines into our brains like they did in THe Matrix, then I%26#039;m afraid you%26#039;re out of luck, because it takes several years of training to become a decent Martial Artist.





**max no less as you suggested, unless you%26#039;re really adept at picking up on the techniques like Joe Louis, the world reknowned Kickboxer who REPORTEDLY recieved his 1st degree blackbelt in a year or less.|||Karate. Train at least twice a week, spar as often as you can. Defending yourself will become second nature after a year or so, you will be able to respond accordingly to any threat. Karate is very good if you ever find yourself dealing with multiple assailants too.|||ju jitsu all the way. It%26#039;s fun and plus you dont need to be strong it%26#039;s all about using other people%26#039;s strength against them





p.s you also get to chuck people|||I am going to tell you a short story so you%26#039;ll understand my answer. My Martial Arts training first started back in the early 1970s at my friends house by his Father, a WWII Vet. Then I went over to another friends house in the mid %26#039;70s were his Father (a 3rd dan Black Belt) was teaching Tang Soo Do. Later in %26#039;76 I went to a place called House of the Dragon..Chan Shou Do Kung fu. In 1978 it was off to John C. Kim%26#039;s School of Chung Moo Kwan (8 Martial Arts styles in 1) and from there, back to Jacksons Tang Soo Do from 1980-84. I took a M/A break for a few years then got back into it in 1986, I became a mamber of the U.S. Tang Soo Do Assoc. but in the summer of 1988 I was going too two different Schools to learn two different Korean Arts, Tang Soo Do and Tae Kwon Do. Man! I had my work cut out for me. It took that summer in TKD and I past my Brown Belt test. By 1991 I quit TSD a short time after I bought my first home and went into Professional Wedding Photography.





My son was born in 1992 and in %26#039;97 I was lookin for a School to get my boy signed up. We ended up at a Kenpo School some 30 miles one way from home. Because of the class schedule and the late nights my son did not enjoy his lessons much, but I stayed on. Ten years later I can%26#039;t say enough positive things too say about KENPO KARATE a true self-defense system. Like nothing I have ever learned in the past.





Kenpo is designed for multiple attacters from different angles, its like Chess, 3, 4, and even 5 moves ahead of the game. It%26#039;s been proven as a evry effective Art on the street and it%26#039;s based on concepts %26amp; princibles...the what if theory.





If there is a Kenpo School in your area please by all means check it out, watch some of the classes, ask questions, etc. Go online and view some of those Kenpo technique video demo clips.|||of course not taekwondo, thats olympic type sports, u need things like Kung Fu, which has nice style or Things like Aikido which has u learn to take away guns or grapple or joint lock but kung fu also teachers that, the difference is the forms, and style, which is really nice and the weapons if u like those spears and swords and nunchuku.|||i am soorrry i didnt read that big paragraph but i suggest any martial art school becasue martial arts = self defense.i wanna learn kung fu tho =)|||any martial art that you choose will aid you in defending yourself.


there is no guarentee you will be good however there is a way to find out.


if it feels comfortable in the beginning then continue till your two year goal. after two years im sure youl be mixing it up enough to know your way around a fight.|||savate , if you just want to crush someone, but all arts are good if you are dedicated.|||take Japanese ju jitsu or kung fu excellent in the street.





if your tall muay tai is for you, if your athletic choose karate or take won do , if your not strong and have very little striking skill choose aikido,wing Chung and jiu jitsu is for every one.





choosing the best type of martial art is like choose your dream car some might choose fast one ,some big ,on looks it depends on the person just like martial arts that why there is so much argument which one is the best a short person might argue that bjj is better than muay tai because he cant kick as good as the tall people in muay tai and a tall person will get grappled easy in bjj because hes got alot of limbs and bones sticking out . no one can tell you the best martial art they would just tell what there good at.





what im trying to say %26quot;its the martial artist not the martial art%26quot;|||learn at home with this guide http://sratim.kmacnaugh.hop.clickbank.ne...|||Boxing isn%26#039;t too bad. Brutal as it can be, is still a sport. It%26#039;ll help you hit harder and faster, but if you run into a good wrestler or someone who wants to fight on the ground you%26#039;re screwed.





So now you%26#039;re left looking for something that is very no-frills and was designed specifically for self defense as they will certainly have taken grappling into account.





Krav Maga is an isreali system that has gotten very good reviews, so has Brazillian Jui-Juitsu(BJJ). I suggest BJJ because it%26#039;s almost specifically designed to help smaller people take on larger opponents on the ground. It%26#039;s also the base that many UFC/MMA fighters use when in competition, and you KNOW those guys have to stick with what%26#039;s most effective.





The only downside? There%26#039;s barely any striking taught in the classes.





I suggest taking a combination of the arts I listed above.|||Uh.. Okay, I%26#039;m not sure I read that whole paragraph, but I would recomment Aikido, cause it%26#039;s a lot easier and you learn how do unbalance your opponent... Of course, I%26#039;m not one to tell you, considering that I%26#039;m a white belt....|||I would recommend either Aikido or Tae Kwon-do. Both are mainly defensive arts.|||It%26#039;s called pepper spray. I can almost guarantee that no %26quot;martial art%26quot; will give you what you want. However, an hour or two course on the correct use of pepper spray will definitely give you what you want. So will the correct use of the Taser (the ones the police use that shoot the little darts into a person....not the handheld ones) and the use of a handgun will all give you what you are seeking. However, there are real problems with the use the pistol or even the Taser that will result in you being gang raped every night for years on end by psychopaths while a guest of the state....depending on where in the US you live. This reason alone makes pepper spray the superior choice.





Here is a good website on the salient facts you need to know vis a vis the martial arts:





http://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com/|||Bunjin Kan Taijutsu is absolutely the best. In fact, the techniques are so deadly, they will not allow it into tournaments.|||There are no best arts, only best artists.


there are no short paths.


Try to find the best school in your area and train there.





You feel that self-defense is something that can be bought I believe. Even if someone sells you a %26quot;self-defense course%26quot; as you are looking for it will not work. If you don%26#039;t constantly practice this stuff (preferably against other people) it will fail you in a critical moment.





Attacks done in the street are committed by criminals. They always have an advantage be surprise, strength, numbers, weapons, etc.


These criminals practice this behavior time and again. Not in dojo%26#039;s or gyms, but for real on victims. Victims never get real practice, only simulated training.





Walk wisely my friend, most situations can be avoided with self and environmental awareness.|||LIsten, tkd is crap


pepper spray wont help if there is wind, or if the attackers take it from you.


guns, or tazers wont work against to many attackes at once and can also be taken from you also.


judo, krav maga, san shou, or muay thai.


i do judo and lung shou pai, lung shou pai is graet but takes a long time.|||American Kenpo, Ed Parker style. Out of the first 10 techniques, half of them have strikes to the throat or groin. This is not a sport, art or a game. In Kenpo eyes, groin, temple, breaking joints and basically the all around %26quot;dirty%26quot; fighting techniques are the emphasis. It is not who is right, it is who is left.|||A basic, traditional school in Karate or Aikido are best. Fancy spinning kicks and leaping about like a figure skater only lead to slip-ups and errors that could cost you your life.