Martial art style please help?

Question

I have been wanting to find a martial art discipline that when needed, swift and accurate moves that won't harm them but just simply stop attacking me. Preferably stun locks and pressure points.

PS: We can not afford real martial arts classes so i will have to learn online... so please if you can give me a link 2 the web site.

Answer 1

If your primary aim is to train a martial art that doesn’t hurt others you’re looking for Aikido. It’s swift, accurate, doesn’t usually hurt people, takes years to master and probably can’t be learned via online instruction. Many many churches have Aikido groups and sometimes teach for free.

I’d steer clear of ‘Brazilian ju jutsu’. Despite it popularity, it’s focus is a one on one sport that goes to the ground (not wise when more than one person is attacking you). It’s not really about saving your life from gang violence (assuming they don‘t just shoot you), or getting a drunk uncle to leave you alone.

Both of these styles spring from Aikijujutsu. Though often finding an instructor of this style is difficult.

Pretty much any martial art will lead eventually to being competent in self defense. But like I said above, avoid sports that pose as self-defense (like Tae Kwon Do & BJJ). If rank in a school is related to performance in a competition it’s a good bet they’re teaching sport and not self defense. It’s true that one could turn many of the things taught in these schools into self defense, but you could take the time to do the same thing with any other activity that at it’s heart isn’t martial. I’d go ahead, save yourself the time and start with something that is intended for self-defense.

If you absolutely HAVE to learn online, go find the style you’re actually interested in first. All gyms I’ve been to offer a week or two free so you can get a feel for it. Let them know you’re trying to decide what school to attend. Once you find a style you really like you can be certain there are instructional videos on you-tube.

Good Luck

Answer 2

Pressure points are effective, like hitting the solar plex properly will stop someone long enough for you to get away. I have said it many times, you cant learn a martial art off the internet. you might be able to leant some moves but you lack the 1-1 or 1-many combat. even if you have a m8 you can do it with, you arestill just learning some moves and potentially learning them wrong plus neither of you know what you are really doing. I suggest you go to local matial arts schools and try out and see which ones you like. for example most schools dont mind you watching a lesson so you can see what happens there, and lots have a free lesson when you start, in which you can decided if that style is for you.

a style that has alot of locks usually has alot of ground work, willingly putting your self on the floor isnt a good idea if you are fighting more than 1 person. Also be careful about choosing sport martial arts as they sometimes tend to only look at competitions and not comps and street fighting. Dont expect to be bruce lee in a few weeks, it takes a while to learn it properly and be good at it.

If you just want to stop fights you are having, buy a book on kungfu basics that have fighing stances in, and practice them, there will be a few things you get wrong but not that non matial artists will notice. if people think you know a martial art they will usually back down

Answer 3

You should probably lean towards Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu because joint locks and stuff like that is effective even against people larger than you. It's basically joint manipulation. I don't know about websites, but you might want to check out some tutorial websites from any black belt practitioners. Learning them online is nothing compared to learning from a real life instructor because they can tell you what you are doing right or wrong and you can have people to spar against plus you have people to practice moves against. You always learn a lot from your peers as they have different insights. Bookwise, I would recommend Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu Self-Defense Techniques by Royce Gracie and Charles Gracie. This book has techniques you might find useful in real life situations such as what to do if someone has a gun or knife. Great book but it is not the best substitute for a real teacher.

Answer 4

Can you teach yourself martial arts from books and videos? Yes.

Can you teach yourself correct and effective martial arts that will actually work for self defense? No way in h***. That should be commen sense. I mean can you learn to do open heart surgery succesfully by watching a video? Get real people.

You may be able to imitate the moves, but without feedback and correction from a good qualified instructor, who will teach you right and ground you in good fundimentals and basics, all you will be doing is a dance, and if you ever have to use it to defend yourself, you will be in deep s***. I hope anyone who tells you that you can never has to find that out, because punching or kicking the air is much different then punching and kicking, while defending against a attacker bent on hurting or maiming you.

How can you think that you will be able to learn how to fight from watching DVD's and books, that cannot include many of the littlle things that are needed, and must be done correctly, in order to work? In order to learn a martial art correctly you need the following:

1) A good instructor who has knowledge of the techniques, and can give you feedback on what you are doing wrong.

2) Resisting opponents to train with that can help you learn to perform the moves correctly under pressure.

3) A school that will train realisticly, making you perform under some type of stress, so that when it really is needed on teh street you will not freeze.

So long story short, yes you can learn to imitate the moves on your own, and look cool to somebody who knows nothing, but do not in any way expect them to get you anything but hurt if you ever have to do them for self defense.

Hey I have an idea, lets train our soldiers via video and books. That would save a ton of money on housing and feeding. We could send them like DVD's. One for each week of basic training, including a rifle, ammo, and uniform. Then once they complete that, we can send them DVD's on there MOS(Military Occupational Specialty) such as "How to fly an Apache Helicoptor made easy". D*** we been doing things the wrong way all this time.

Now would you feel confident relying on soldiers who were trained this way?

Answer 5

Well, before I answer I have a question for you. If someone attacks you, why are you so concerned with not harming them? They're certainly intending to harm you!

Now I don't mean to pick on you. I'm sure you have the best intentions. But there are some problems with being as cautious as you intend.

Let's say you're attacked. Your attacker comes at you from behind and tackles you to the ground. You're in trouble and you need to act. Luckily, you've studied Brazilian jiu-jitsu. So you apply an arm bar on your attacker. Your attacker is immediately in immense pain, yet he's still above you, still intent on hurting you, raping you, robbing you, and now he's pissed off that you've caused him that much pain.

What now? Unless you are committed to do what it takes to stop your attacker you will become a victim. In the case of Brazilian jiu-jitsu, that means following through with any joint lock, and applying breaking pressure.

For your scenario, all you're doing is causing your attacker physical discomfort. You have your opponent subdued, but only temporarily. At this point you have three choices. One, continue applying just enough pressure, hoping someone finds you and rescues you. Two, release the lock and hope that pain taught your attacker a lesson and took all the fight out of him. Three, apply breaking pressure and snap that b*****d's arm in two.

I don't care who they are, with a broken arm, the attack will cease, and if it doesn't you'll be at a complete advantage. Besides, breaking someones arm will take the fight out of just about anybody.

So first off, my advice is be prepared to do whatever it takes to protect yourself. Even if you're a complete pacifist, understand that violence has a place, and is acceptable if used as a means of protecting yourself from physical harm.

With all that said, you have plenty of options. Whenever someone asks about pure self defense, I recommend that they look into Krav Maga. Krav Maga is the national martial art of Israel and taught to all members of the Israeli military. It is an extremely efficient art for self defense designed for high pressure, real world combat situations. It is, however, extremely violent. If that puts you off, I'll agree with who posted before me, and recommend Brazilian jiu-jitsu. It's techniques are at the core relatively simple, and they give you plenty of options. With it's wide variety of choke holds, strangle holds, and joint locks, it might just be the perfect choice for you. The book recommended was also an excellent choice. All of the books put out by the Gracie family are extremely helpful and detailed. You can certainly learn a lot. Also check out www.gracieacademy.com. They have an excellent series of dvds that will help you learn the basics, and even intermediate techniques of the art. (A quick note, learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu ABSOLUTELY requires a training partner. They can be an absolute beginner, or someone with experience, but you'll definitely need someone to train with in order to learn anything you can apply. Learn together, practice together.)

Hope that helps.

Answer 6

I don't advise learning from a book or the internet your more than likely to do it wrong and cause yourself injury you need some one who knows what their doing so they can tell you where your going wrong and avoid injury and you'll be limited on what you can learn because their not going to show to much to just anyone you have to prove your responsible before they teach you to much and how can you safely practice your technique on another person find the money some how or don't bother if the techniques is wrong its not going to work anyway you'll just look stupid and so will martial arts find the money it'll be worth it

Answer 7

Your best bet is to join a Dojo, to get real experience.