Which martial arts should you take first? offense or defense?

Question

me and my friend are deciding to take martial arts,

what should we learn first?

were planning to take

mixed martial arts (kickboxing, wrestling and jiu jitsu) for offense and aikido for defense

Answer 1

try tai chi

you could compare and learn martial arts here:

http://www.ebookslife.com/martial

Answer 2

Pankration.

The MMA sounds good because it is complete.

You son't really need Aikido if you learn MMA.

You will learn moves in MMA that will also do minimal damage to your opponent, like Aikido.

Answer 3

why do only 1? why not find something that does offensive and defensive.

Answer 4

I would take Aikido first.

Answer 5

If you are planning to take MMA and aikido, I would start with aikido.  

It is easier to learn one art at a time and give it all of your attention that it is to learn multiple arts.  MMA is by its' very nature multiple arts with multiple principles and concepts.

I prefer aikijujutsu to aikido for defense, aikido is primarily non-agressive and non-confrontive.  Self-defense is not just about avoiding trouble it is also about responding to it.  As a side benefit, a lot of BJJ and MMA comes from Japanese jujutsu / aikijujutsu which gives you a leg up on your other interest.

Answer 6

skip aikido. in my experience, it takes way too long to get good at. and they tend to practice against unrealistic attacks. im not saying it simply doesnt work. but...i think if you go to mma, you wont feel a need to do aikido. and...any martial art worth its salt will teach you both offense and defense. ..in jujutsu for example, you learn armbars and chokes...but you also learn how to sprawl/avoid the takedown.

i dont mean that as an aikido bash necessarily. but if you want to learn to defend yourself, there are alot better and faster ways to get there than aikido. just my opinion so don't take it too offensively

Answer 7

An art such as ju-jitsu will teach you both offence and defence. I don't know much about aikido, but I do know that it takes a very long time to master and be able to use it to it's full potential.

Answer 8

The best defense is a good offense.  The reverse is not true.

Answer 9

offense is the best defence. Takes years to be able to defense yourself, or learn to counter attack effectively. Fight against someone who is fast and throw a or two fakes punches or fake kicks, and your counter attack goes out the window. And also, if they throw fast combinations, you block or evade the first attack and before you can counter, 2nd attack lands on your face. Defensive, requires timing, correct use of techniques under pressure and in a short period, ability to recognize your opponent's body movement, fast reflex, fast and effective counter techniques. You need all these element before you can defend yourself effective, and these take years to train. Defend against all styles takes even longer.

That is why in the first few years, when you are in trouble, go on offensive mode is the most effective strategy. Aikido works well when in class environment, with this art you really have to get perfect technique and perfect timing and early recognition of your opponent's movement to be able to execute it effectively. Fight against a fast fighter who mixes fakes and real punches, and kicks combinations and change their speed and rhythm without telegraphing himself and you are in deep trouble.

Best to learn kickboxing first, be good with your stand up game, learn about mobility and evasions, and timing. If you get taken to the ground, play dirty eye gouge your opponent, grab their groin, rib their ears and bite any parts of their body, and you should be able to survive the ground game if you do it fast, otherwise once you can be in trouble against a ground fighter.

Once you have done, kickboxing (3 years), you should do some bjj (3  years), and finally do MMA to put them together.

Useful to know kung fu, because they go straight for your weak points.

Kick-boxing and mma, are great with versatilities, but you will always have trouble with the size and strength advantage. That is why smaller guys have a lot of trouble beating bigger guys unless they are very skillful. But if the big guys are also skillful as well, you will lose once again.

That is why sometimes, it is better to do a style like wing chun and southern praying mantis where the smaller and more agile guys actually have the advantages over the bigger guys.

Smaller and weaker players will always have to be much more skillful than the bigger and stronger opponents. And it will takes 5 - 10 years before that can happens. I am talking about going against the bigger and stronger opponents who also train martial arts seriously.

That is why it is quite common for first few years where kickboxing will beat most other styles, because it is simple and effective and only takes you months to learn all the techniques and then, you work on other aspect of fighting.

But after about 5 years on ward, wing chun and southern praying mantis will take over kickboxing. wing chun with the sticky hand,  hand trapping, weak point strikes,. Southern Praying mantis with the sticky hand, hand trapping, weak points strikes plus iron jacket and internal chi. both also have one inch punches. These skills level just way to high for kickboxing to deal with.

Having said that, learn from the best master available to you is better than learning the styles avaible to you.  Even a simple system like kickboxing or boxing, if you learn from a really top fighters/instructors, you can be and will be really dangerous if you train seriously.

Answer 10

Aikido is not defensive.  The very idea of a defensive martial art is an oxymoron.  

Don't believe me?  This was the opinion of the founder of Aikido.