One thing if you've done martial arts for any amount of time is realizing how entirely helpless you are against someone who knows what they're doing.
And by helpless, I mean, you might not even touch, let alone hurt them.
I'm interested in learning a more functional martial art mostly for the fun and fitness aspects, but I'd be lying to say I'm not curious what it feels like to know you can really handle yourself.
@collin I trained Kyokushin Karate for a few years. What I learned is that being athletic, and not too light is very, very important to being a successful fighter. Raw power often trumps pure skill. Of course, you seldom have skill without athleticism, but Karate is IMO not effective as a self defense system for women, because almost no amount of skill can overcome a large deficit in weight and strength.
@davepolaschek I don't want to insult anyones art, but Systema from what I've seen seemed to fall into the category of not proven to be very functional in real life. Not a reason not to study it, that's just the vibe I got from a little research.
@heygarrett Wing Chun looks fun as well, but I thought it didn't really do much pressure testing? I'm kind of interested in an art where it's kind of proven to "work."
I know there's a lot of ways a martial art can work other than functionality for fighting, but I'd like to know 100% if someone came at me fists first that I'm going to know exactly how to respond.
@heygarrett For sure. Aikido is like that too. It's all joint locks, throws and pinning. My main thing is what happens when someone punches you in the face and you've never been hit like that before because all your training is specific scenarios against someone who is sort of playing along?
I really don't know the answer because it never happened. I just know that aikido did not make me feel confident I would have an answer.
@heygarrett It did make me somewhat confident if I got thrown on my head I wouldn't break my neck, which I'm told is maybe the most important self defense skill you can learn.
I'm less sure about arts like aikido where they aren't pressure tested at all. I trained a lot for a couple of years and knew a bunch of techniques, but was never really sure how I'd react to getting punched or if I'd be able to pull them off.
My feeling is that someone who is really good at aikido is probably going to beat the average untrained person on the street, but I'm certainly not confident it couldn't easily go either way.
I don't think I could ever be fully confident without some kind of pressure testing. I also think it's pretty silly when people say these other arts are not meant as practical defense techniques.
I learned aikido under an extremely well regarded teacher in a very non-macho environment, and it was definitely taught as being practical for self defense.
This guy is a black belt, and I have serious doubts he could pull this off on any non-compliant opponent.
@collin Did you ever watch any jiujitsu after training in aikido? It was striking to me how it sure as heck looked like aikido with much tighter circles and changes of direction.
@collin I'm not disagreeing on the “being-tested" thing though.
I don't know if it's transferrable, but from my limited junior high brawling experience it's usually 2-3 clumsy punches, it goes to the ground, then whoever is the strongest grappler wins. I suppose the extra self-defense/grownup part of that would be avoiding getting stabbed on the way down.
Fanciness seems suspect to me. A little like British soldiers standing in a big line getting shot at from a forest.
@collin there are no “rules” to break. Improvised weapons and shields are encouraged. There’s no “sportsmanship” or “honour”. It’s dirty, bloody, bone-shattering violence.
But that also means you can’t really practice it. You can go through the motions to learn the procedures and patterns, and strike shields and boxes to learn to direct power and balance.
Attackers would often use fake weapons like rubber knives and baseball bats, which was incredibly valuable.
@joeldrapper I've done some of the fake weapons stuff although I bet it's a lot more aggressive in Krav Maga. What I worry about with a lot of self defense is that if I've never been punched in the face really hard how do I know I won't freeze when it happens?
Things like BJJ or boxing seem to answer that pretty well, even if someone showing up with a knife probably means I'm dead.
@joeldrapper I don't think you can fully condition yourself, but I think you can be prepared in that you've been here before. Like you've seen a fist come at you and at least might not freeze.
From what I've seen, even amateur boxers pick apart untrained people and often get barely touched because untrained people just don't know anything. BJJ too. Honestly if you do anything for years that has real sparring, you're probably gonna be in good shape.
@collin the adrenaline will stop you from feeling it in the moment, so I wouldn’t worry about trying to get used to it. If you’re punched, you’ll either pass out or you won’t.
@joeldrapper Yeah, I just don't want to literally panic when it happens. I think right now there's about a 70% chance I would just freeze up. Regardless, I'm mostly just trying things based on what has good looking gyms near my house and what looks fun. Fitness is the number one thing with self-defense as a side benefit.
@joeldrapper I think that's supposed to be the weakness of Krav Maga. Even if you find a good gym to fully practice it you'd have to murder each other. I am also interested in something where there is a sport aspect to it as well as a defense side, since I think that will keep me going longer.
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