What's the best form of fighting/self defense I can learn?

Question

I've been thinking about learning some sort form of defending myself lately. I just don't know what it best for me. I'm 20, 5'3, 118 pounds & a girl. =]

I don't want to learn how to fight to attack people. I just want to know that if the situation should arise where I need to defend myself, I won't get hurt. I've considered kickboxing because my mother used to do it but I'm not sure if it's right for me? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Answer 1

Take a womens self defense class, it will serve you better if all you are interested in is self defense.

To truly learn "self defense", you will need to know how to analyze your environment and identify possible threats, you will need to know how to verbally de-escalate confrontations, and finally basic self defense common sense like parking in well-lit areas.

Learning how to "fight" to defend yourself is the last thing you need to learn. If you have to use force in a self defense situation, you already did something wrong, i.e. you were caught off guard in a highly volunerable environment.

Of course there are situations in which you may not be able to avoid like random attacks, and for these, a handfull of techniques for distraction and the ability to RUN FAST is all you will need to study.

Remember, you want to protect your life BEFORE having to protect your life.

Answer 2

go try out krav maga it's the official martial art for the israeli armed forces

if work's against terrorist it sure can help you

Answer 3

If you want to learn self defense quickly I wouldn't go with Karate or tae kwon do unless the teacher is focused soley on self defense. They take years to learn and are more sport oriented in the U.S.   Krav maga is good. So is muay thai and kick boxing.  If anything they will give you more confidence which makes you less likely to be attacked.  Your small but Krav teaches dirty tricks (in a good way) that could help.  You could carry mace or a stun gun if all you are worried about is defending yourself,  they can be really effective.  At your size you might have a hard time grappling with or knocking out  a 200 lb man no matter how good your technique is.  Keep that in consideration and chose something that puts the maximum amount  force on the weakest areas of the body.

Answer 4

The first thing to remember is that there is no 'best' martial art. All of them are good in different ways.

Learn a good foundation - the perfect style for this is Brazilian Jujitsu. It will boost your fitness tremendously and will teach you the basic ideas of taking down a hostile person and to finish them off. You learn submission holds which can be fatal if held for too long.

After your foundation is solid, begin to learn a stand up striking style. WIng Chun and Muay Thai Kickboxing work perfectly with Brazillian jujitsu.

Finally, after practice and time you will be able to defend yourself. You can finish the person with a few blows or you could follow through with takedowns and throws and really stop them with a submission.

Good luck!!

Answer 5

Brazilian ju-jitsu is great for submissions and all sorts of defensive grapples also mui tai is and amazing fighting technique i often use

Answer 6

Japanese Jiu-jitsu.

Best wishes :)***

Answer 7

chinese monkey ninja snake gung fu ryo gujo jujitsu death style

Answer 8

Choosing which style is "the best" always depends on what you want to get out of it

if you want to learn self defense, learn "self defense"; there's a whole pysychological and emotional component to self defense situations which aren't generally addressed in most martial arts classes, but are vital to your ability to successful defend yourself in dangerous situations

check with your local police depeartment or nearby schools/colleges for women's self defense courses

a karate or kickboxing class may teach you "how" to kick someone, but they probably won't teach you "when" or "why" to kick someone

and they also probably won't tell you all the steps you can take to avoid having to resort to that

Once you understand the self defense piece, then almost any martial art will enhance your skills (by definition, that's what "martial arts" are) it's just that they do it in different ways, and almost always require a number of years to develop the amount of skill someone your size would need to fend off a much larger and stronger attacker

a grappling style like bjj or judo would help you to avoid being held down on the ground, so you could run away; a striking style would help you fend off someone long enough to run away; the advantage of "sport" styles, is that it gives you the experience of physically struggling against someone, which you can't get from "going through the motions" the disadvantage is you don't get to practice your most useful self defense techniques which neutralize the size difference (eye gouges, biting, hair pulling, groin strikes, etc.); the opposite is true for more "street/reality" oriented styles: you get to learn all the most dangerous techniques, but can never really try them out because they're so dangerous

in short, take a self defense course, then take whatever style you enjoy training