Best Martial Arts for Self Defense Ranked
Icy Mike of @hard2hurt a self defense, combat sports expert and former police officer and me, a former Aikido instructor now on a …
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"Harmony in Every Heartbeat
December 28, 2024
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For those who are wondering where the discussion about Pencak Silat disappeared you can find me and Ramsey Dewey discuss Pencak Silat here: https://youtu.be/YdUxZ826KcY?t=8578
If someone in judo slams a bjj dude on his back and starts beating on your face, you wanna hope youre very composed being winded and flooded by damage to pull off a sub before he arm bars you or nocks you out, it doesnt take a rocket scientist to ground and pound.
Edit: Alot of judo guys practice in bjj gyms and also practice freestyle wrestling. Its notmally the focus of grappling gyms over all.
I don't like tier list, and yet I like this one !
This being said, I would bump up Wing Chun / Aikido / Philippino Martial arts quite a bit, as well as Judo.
For the first three, the reason is that they focus quite heavily on defense against weapons, and those are much more likely to show up in a self-defense scenario than in a UFC fight. You're right that some of the more efficient techniques are quite intuitive, but I would bet good money that my untrained ass would have much more trouble pulling it somewhat robustly than someone who did it 10000 times.
For Judo, I agree on your assessment on striking v. grappling, but also I have trouble imaging any serious self-defense scenario where IÂ fell seriously threatened and my first priority would be to tie myself up to the guy. For all scenarios I've lived, and almost all scenarios I can imagine, my first priority would be to bail out ASAP. And Judo has probably the best arsenal out there to throw someone to the ground without following them.
S-Tier: A gun
How is judo any less watered down by its sporting aspect then BJJ? Being able to throw someone on their head at will is better for self defence then sagging onto the floor and pulling guard in a street fight. BJJ featuring leg grabs isn't any use when they barely ever practice takedowns. Your stance on judo pisses me off. There's over 100 years of evidence as to the effectiveness of judo, judoka have fought and proved this. You wouldn't even have your beloved BJJ without it.
Guys:
Be prepared that only 1% of Earth population is practising some kind of MA and even if you are in the Low Tier, you are better than 99% of the rest. Also in my oppinion it depends in which country you learn which style. I am a Krav Maga Guy from Germany, my trainer is an EX – Israeli military guy and i can tell you, we are not playing around and its much more realistic as Judo or Mixed MMA. There are no Turnements because than its not Krav Maga. We learn the real shit and go into Beast Mode if a situation needs it. So you are hardly invite to Germany to proof if i am wrong.
Bro give muay thai rank B 💀💀 Muay thai so fuxking underrate
Agreed on TKD, and I got my 2nd Dan in Korea (WTF) back in the late 80s. Great exercise, but unless you happen to kick someone at the beginning of the fight, you've used up all you have. WTF doesn't teach punching at all. So, when I returned to Korea a couple years later, after training in Maryland, where we did punch, my opponents didn't know what to do…it was funny when I sparred for my 2nd degree and did an uppercut (which I pulled w/o nailing him).
Sry but, Muay thai and judo are S-Tier
S distance
S close combat
Very nicely said about Aikido. On the other hand aikido is the art of avoiding the fight. The atitude I lernd from this martial art saved my neck several times during a bar hustle.(Grew up in 90s in eastern europe) It wouldnt stand in a hard fist fight, but it is about calmig your potential oponents before the real fist fight begins, Physically and more importantly mentally. In this realm it works perfectly. Best self defense is the one you dont need, right🙂
Silat is test proven it works Mr Mike . And a young girl is not gonna choke out any instructor that was over the top . I crushed a blue belt that was a female she had nothing and right from the start . Never say size and strength does not matter . Well it does in sports Mr Mike . What does sport based art knows what you dont ? Silat is not a sport it was designed to hurt people . Its a killing art Mike . Strong weapons bssed arts . If you dont know what it is and you cant even pronounced it it shouldn't made this list .
Crazy to put bjj over traditional ju-jitsu
what about jailhouse rock {52 blocks on YT……there was a very inked up short stocky white guy who died recently that made YT videos). The Russians very effectively utilized real streetfighting tactics vs the Germans during WW2. much of this came from muggers, criminals, and bouncers.
Having capoeira or however you spell it in C is crazy. Shits an F-
Wing Chun Kung Fu is technical demanding. A Master of Wing Chun can compete a street fight very good, but only if the techniques are used correctly. It's Martial Art, including Body and Mind. Traditional Wing Chun is less effective, but included in modern fighting techniques and used open minded, it can be very effective to even stronger opponents.
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i’m bummed you guys skipped catch wrestling. that’s gotta be s tier. it’s not common anymore unfortunately, but i can’t think of a martial art more practical and savage.
Self defense open handed? Are these guys serious? You always get a weapon. Tsk. Ask those in prison what they do. What people will say for clicks???
I am the average dude that you mention. 40ish years old, never done any martial arts or self defence until about a year ago. After taking my son to Japanese Jiu-jitsu classes I thought it looked fun so started going to the adult classes. I've really enjoyed it and do 2 classes a week. Maybe I'm lucky with this dojo, but I feel it's a good combination of strikes, locks and grappling and we do a fair bit of "real world" practice. I don't have a lot else to go on but I feel marginally more confident to deal with a self defence situation. Hopeful that increases as I get more experience.
Amazing Muay Thai better for saving your life, amazing wrestling better to prevent getting your ass beat in an unarmed street fight. I think self-defence should class as defending your life.
Tae kwon do as selfdefense per say NO. But one of your skills in MMA yes and i know TKD is 98% kicking and its recorded to have the most powerful kicks in martial arts, if you want to improve
you kicking skills train TKD 🙂
best selfdefense!
1. pick you style
2. think out side the box
3. cut the bullshit.
Judo/wrestling+boxing is the best combo if you ask me. Someone who knows HOW TO TAKE and throw punches if needed. And who knows how to smash people hard on concrete and to keep them there.
But 1st things first. In self defense if you are not mentally prepared to injure someone, like really injure them, you will always be at disadvantage. Guy I know was training Judo in Russia for one year. There is lots of guys there who are training Judo for self defense. Their mentality is something like if I'm attacked by multiple people I want to be able to literally break bones.
there is a usefull aikido – real aikido
pelao hueco no sabi nada. Kali es el mejor estilo de autodefensa. Todos lo saben.
MMa is s their same with bjjj
Good to point out, however, that Krava Maga is split into civilian self defense, which is that soccer mom aspect, and training for actual soldiers. If you happen to have gone through militaristic training and had real life combat, your skills are going to be much higher than the base line a la women's self defense training of the Krav Maga we typically see in America.
In BJJ I don't know anybody who would willingly go to the guard because the only people you shouldn't be able to easily put down are going to be high-level wrestlers in Toca also a lot of high-level wrestlers and took the practitioner I had it 12 years of wrestler befour BJJ and I realized that although I couldn't always win the battle on the feet, I was off and getting submitted by guys in the closed guard which it never happens when there are punches involved. When I started training BJJ as it's supposed to be trained put pressure on people , take people down, and develop a badass guard and badass scramble, then in a one-on-one situation you're pretty much going to beat the shit out of anybody you're going to meet on the street is a purple belt or higher. If you are also a pretty solid high School level wrestler on the varsity with a good record you're pretty much going to be unstoppable and when you add some boxing skills that are legitimate and/or muay Thai then you are going to be pretty much dominant against anybody who is going to start a fight with you. I trained with Carlson Gracie Sr and his son's school Chicago for many years. His approach if you get to is much different than the Helio apprach Intex far more to do with playing the top game and passing the guard and squashing your opponent. The guard is developed pretty well in this style because the upper level guys put so much pressure on you today if you're going to have a good guard to survived the training until you're a purple. Also need to learn some sports application, Carlson senior,, before he died, focus on physically dominating your opponent. He has the best vale tudo team in Brazil. His style has evolved quite a bit by his protege's one of the greatest of whom I'm training with now. Well-known all over the Jiu Jitsu world having trained for over 30 years several of which were in Brazil and a lot of which women other parts of the world he is trained in corner of world champions and is capable of still putting the hurt on a lot of young guys who are winning major tournaments. Other than a guys like Gordon Ryan, i dont know many at his level. He's a beast among great black belts and it's also are you very experienced boxer training with great coaches in Mexico, but he'll be moving to Thailand soon to train seriously in something he has already trained.
Wrestling, Judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai and Boxing work. Full contact or sport karate assuming you are lightning fast and capable of hitting targets under pressure works. Most other stuff is a waste of time. If you aren't used to executing moves against a resisting opponent you have wasted all of your time against a resisting opponent you have wasted all of your time.
I’ve trained Goju-Ryu Karate for 8 years and started more recently in Kickboxing. Karate really gives you a good preparation and base to more effective martial arts, and the point of kata and all of the techniques developed in that kind of training are meant to build strength and power in your strikes. Karate isn’t really a martial art for sparring and combat properly but for self-defense instead. The point is to end up a fight with the minimum of techniques. Although in Kickboxing we don’t apply much strength in sparring in order not to hurt our colleagues, it’s meant to improve your fighting/sparring technique. So, I would say that for self defense Karate is a better option but if you want to do sparring, you should go for something more focused on combat.
Okay, doing Taekwondo since 24 years and competed back in the day before Taekwondo became "modern Taekwondo" Won many fights, became the German Champion, defeated the russian champ, dutch champ, former german champ and fought many other top tier athletes.
I think you are right to some degree about what you´re saying and wrong to some degree too. Yes, I would not recommend choosing Taekwondo on purpose for self defence. Our punching is weak, bordering on non-existent, and we literally have no ground game or throws. Let´s be honest, Taekwondo is at least 95% footwork and kicks.
You need to split Taekwondo into 2 camps. Traditional Taekwondo, which was all about power kicks & combinations and modern Taekwondo, which has nothing to do with fighting at all.
Modern Taekwondo is not a martial art. Fights are literally called matches, and it´s in the exact same category as fencing. You are no longer allowed to purposely hurt your opponent, which takes away all credibility from the sport.
Traditional Taekwondo easily has the best kicks of all martial arts. Muy Thai also has some powerful kicks, but the variety of different angles and distances we cover as well as the speed of Taekwondo kicks overshadows Muy Thai. Is kicking the best for self defense situations? No, but it is very useful against non-martial artists and people that won´t see a kick coming too. We have the range advantage in every fight, which comes with benefits and weaknesses.
If the fight already starts in punching/grapple distance, only the best athletes can create distance with a jumping spinning back kick for example, but for over 95% of Taekwondo guys, this already puts them borderline at the same level to people that never practiced any martial arts at all.
If the fight starts in distance, where we can use our kicks, we have the initial advantage, but it crumbles if we do a single mistake and let the opponent come too close.
So in total, modern Taekwondo at the bottom of F-Tier.
Traditional Taekwondo is high risk, mediocre reward and thus also not ideal compared to many other martial arts regarding self defence, but not useless. I would 100% put it above Aikido and Capoeira, but (very) slightly below Karate in either C-Tier or D-Tier.
Also: Trying to recreate traditional Taekwondo over here by hosting fights with new rules, that will leave no room for modern Taekwondo. Wish me luck!
Great video on martial arts for self defense
I was interested in the comment of knowing where people are. I’ve not had any training, but I know where people are in a crowd, or, at least, enough to avoid movements that would get in someone’s way, and my wife, similar to his comment about his fiancée, is terrible at it. Similarly with driving, I have a good idea where people are, especially bad drivers. Once I see one, I feel uncomfortable if I don’t know where they are. I wonder how common this is. It seems like common sense that you’d want to know where people in a crowd are, but apparently a lot of people don’t care.
No one is an expert on all these arts. I really only know Taekwon do. And so many say it does not work and there are no hand techniques. I've only used it two times to defend myself. Once I used a back fist to the opponent's nose. And the other is a front kick to the lower stomach. I walked home without a scratch on me.
Bujinkan has a massive quality control issue, but there are good schools, and those schools are better than the best Aikido school. So going on averages I agree with your decision, but overall I think Bujinkan would reach a c/c-
The greatest martial art of all time?
SELF RELIANCE
Wrestling? What a crock.
Man… I watch all these videos, and in every single one of them, I pretty much agree with everything… However, in every one of these videos, Wing Chun is always heavily downplayed. I've written essays in the comment section of other videos, and I don't have the energy to do it again here, but Wing Chun is definitely at least A tier if you've practiced it for at least 5 years, and S-tier if you've practiced it for at least 10 years (with pressure testing).
(I'm slightly biased because I'm a Wing Chun practitioner, but I also do Aikido (which is underrated as well), Karate, Hapkido, and Muay Thai)
I think you need a minium of 2 styles one for standing the other for ground work & in my opinion wrestling & boxing with a basic knowledge of being able to also kick while standing & submissions on the ground is what I would pick but to me a decent boxing & wrestling training with a very general knowledge of also using kicks, elbows, knees and submissions will be the most effective of combining, so I am going with a mainly combination of boxing & wrestling with the added bonus of learning basic techniques from other styles for a complete package of confidently defending yourself in most situations, as granted Royce Gracie did beat Dan Severn with the triangle choke but if it had been a street fight Severn would've knocked Royce out by bashing his head against the pavement or walls ling before Royce was able to try a triangle choke in my opinion so I definitely think a wrestler woth submission skills is far better than a BJJ practioner but you don't want to take any fight to the ground with multiple attackers is why hou need a good stand up game because most streetfights don't stay a 1 on 1 match
What did you say about sports? You can't complain at Krav Maga as not beeing a sport in this case, insted you should think WHY it's not a sport. If you ask me; cause it's too much of the real thing.