Which are more effective in your opinion- "Hard" (external) martial arts or "Soft" (internal)?

Question

External includes: Karate, Taekwondo, Most types of Kung Fu (Praying Mantis etc), Capoeira, Tang Soo Do, Krav Maga, Kickboxing etc. (Fastmovements)

Internal includes: Judo, Jujutsu, Aikido, Tai Chi Chu'an, Hapkido (Slow movements)

I personally favour external arts as I feel they are more realistic in a fight, but what do you think?

While I think that external martial arts are more realistic, I never meant that internal arts were ineffective. I'm actually considering taking up an internal art to complement the Taekwondo I'm currently studying.

Answer 1

i also favour the external i have been Thai boxing for six years and find it much more realistic and would be much more effective in a street situation to defend your self

Answer 2

As you can see from all those who have answered this question there is no simple explanation of one being more "effective" than another. All true martial arts have hard and soft aspects to them and the effectiveness is determined by the practitioner, not the system or style.

However, I know that you and many others are actually wondering about the "effectiveness" of what are considered the "internal" martial arts such as Taijiquan, Pakua, and Hsing-I.

Also, I know that many doubt the power that this "internal" energy can generate and its ability to actually manifest in a crisis situation.

All I can say is from what I have experienced and observed.

Can "internal energies" manifest as a practically applied technique in a crisis situation? Yes. Anyone who has been touched by a Master such as Grand Master Chen Xiaowang or Master Ren know this from experience. There is no such thing as moving someone without touching them, as some charlatans have tried to teach, but there are internal energies that through discipline, focus and proper practice can be developed; it just takes time.

As many have stated, an authentic path in the martial arts requires exploration and curiousity. Try it all. Will it be effective? Only you will be able to determine that.

Answer 3

I think your confusing the slow movements of your "internal" martial arts with loss of affectivness. Just because Tai Chi and the others are practiced slowly does not affect their ability to be used in a combat situation. Yes most tai chi that you see is for meditation purposes and is something seen more as relaxtion than a true martial art. Once you actually delve into Tai Chi and begin to learn the true aspects of the forms you learn that these have every bit as much use in real life situations as the external forms.

Its how affective the form is, it's how well you can apply your knowledge to protect yourself in the situation. I have heard before if you only master one form(kata) you can still be dangerous as long as you know how to apply that form.

Hard and soft are misnomers as well, as most forms have hard and soft aspects about them. Kung Fu forms in particular use many aspects of hardness in strikes and blocks, but then the softness of the form is seen in grapples and joint locks. It's all there you just have to know where to look.

Answer 4

All martial arts, whether predominately "hard" or "soft" actually use aspects that are hard and soft, so these classifications are not absolute. Yin and Yang must cooperate in any martial art.

Karate, like Goju (meaning literally "hard-soft") uses "soft" techniques keeping the muscles loose to punch with speed, but then incorporate the "hard" portion when the muscles tense at point-of-impact to deliver maximum power.

Aikido works in the same fashion keeping loose to move quickly, but applying "hard" power when required to complete a throw or break bones and dislocate joints.

The real difference is seen as how often the "hard" is applied versus the "soft" to give these arts their classification. Even in karate or aikido there are harder and softer styles. Where one aikidoka may lock your elbow and wrist and take you to the ground in a control until you submit, another may instead break your elbow and wrist and throw you down on your face then leave you lying there.

You talk about these arts being "realistic" as if you have only seen them in movies. If you could see someone performing Tai Chi or aikido at speed and see their real effects, you would change your mind. One friend of mine, while taking tai chi, demonstrated at speed one technique that picked me up off the ground and onto the hood of his car. I have seen video of Gozo Shioda Sensei, a revered akido master and student of O-sensei Ueshiba, knock people twice his size (he was only about 110 lbs.) flying thru the air 4-5 feet off the ground. You have a lot to learn about internal styles.

Answer 5

I like how you include Jujutsu into the "soft" category......I'm assuming you've never actually studied a brutal style of jujutsu like Yoshin Ryu for example....

Anyhow, what's more effective? Neither by themselves.

You have to know how to both a- be hard, and b - be soft.

People that are too tense and too hard, I throw around like ragdolls because they give me all the info in the world through their body language.

People that are too soft.....you can plow right over.

It's good to know how to strike through someone, but also be relaxed and "soft" enough to feel what they're doing through body contact so you can easily create a lock, throw, or pin to trap or trip their timing up so you can finish them off.....now, you can also simply just finish them off standing up if you know how to do that too.

You can be a hard style, and still have flow of movement....I'll use Choy Li Fut for example...it's a very externalized striking art with minimal chin-na......but their guys can flow their strikes into a blur and put you out with the quickness....same with Wing Chun or Pai Lum.

Tae Kwon Do....eeeeh, I eat those guys alive....it's such a crappy style.....no flow, unstable balance, and their head is sooo vulnerable if you get past their knee.

Anyways....I could talk about this forever, but it's sillyto do so over the internet.

Feel free to contact me if you want to talk further.

peace,

Ryan

Answer 6

This may be hard to believe, but....

There is no external or internal. They are the same. There are no hard or soft techniques. They are the same.

The fact that there is kata in karate indicates it is an internal martial art. (I've never met Kenji Ushiro, but judging from the video I've seen of his karate, he is the rare karateka who understands this.) The presence of "ju" in the words "judo" and "jujutsu" indicates that these too originated as internal arts, even if it is extremely rare nowadays to encounter people who practise them as such.

The flip side is that, with all due respect, 99 per cent of aikidoists only grasp the external aspect of their martial art, even if they themselves believe otherwise. I would say more tai chi practioners are aware of the internal aspect of their art, but most cannot experience it even if they understand the theories. Thus, their art also wind up being more external in most cases than internal.

External, internal, hard. soft: these words refer to states rather than specific martial arts or techniques. Both states exist all the time in everything -- you, me, a rock, a tree. The question is: are the ying and yang balanced? When they are balanced, they become one.

We stand upright by being balanced within ourselves. We fight by creating balance between ourselves and our opponents. But there are varying degrees of balance.

As quite often said in martial arts, energy is like water. It will find itself to its target as long as we allow it. The problem is that we hold it back by being unbalanced. So we meditate and practise forms and push hands; in order to better understand our balance and let the energy go do what it is supposed to do.

There is no energy ball to gather and throw at our opponent. Why do we need to gather it when energy is already everywhere? All of you use it every time you punch, kick, throw. But the more balanced things are, the more efficiently the energy will transfer from you to the target. All of you who practice any martial art know this already. You are only hindered by your preconceived notion of how far you can travel down this path.

Answer 7

The best answer I have found for this question is: when do you want your answer?

If you give someone 30 days to train in a hard style they are most often (in my experience) much better able to defend themselves than a similar student with 30 days of a soft style.

On the other hand I have seen 50 year Tai Chi masters litterally throw similar hard style masters around like baby dolls.

Answer 8

Both have strengths and weaknesses. I practice Karate (hard) and I think the perfect second art for Karake-ka would be Aikido (soft). I feel that these two put together would be very effective.
I prefer to have a base in a hard art before attempting a soft art. I've seen people go the other way and have problems learning.

Answer 9

Hard and soft styles are not the same as internal and external styles.
I study an external style that has hard and soft philosophies.
The softer techniques are more deflective than a head on hard technique. But there is no "internal energy" of a mystical nature. Only mental and physical focus, which is no different than a hard technique. Another style that comes to mind is traditional Goju karate. You have karate labeled as a hard style however, Goju means hard /soft. It is a mix of the two and defies a category.

Anyone that relies on "internal energy" to manifest whilst in the middle of defending themselves is going to get hurt. I fear for your lives.

Answer 10

very good question..

i struggle with this all the time, doing mma style training and then doing my taijiquan as well.. my sifu calls my hubby and i the perfect example of yin and yang because we practice two very distinctive styles..

but i've found that for me anyway, the internal styles that i practice benefit me more than the external..

i think it might have something to do with the fact that i'm a little woman, which means i have neither the height nor the strength to be totally dominate in my external forms which concentrate substancially on power and strength (kickboxing, boxing, trapping, ground n pound)

but in my internal martial arts, (taijiquan, submissions, splashing hands, push hands) i tend to actually take the advantage over my taller bigger training partners, because i have a lower center of gravity and in having that my leverage comes quicker than a longer person who has a lot of limb to work with, the shorter the lever the less time to gain leverage..

but that's just me personally.. it may be different with others.. of course i do believe it to be a matter of body mechanics and personal preference..

~*smilez*~

Answer 11

I'd say both
I practice Kickboxing for strengh, power and speed, and I practice aikido,some tai chi,ba gua and xingyquan
which help alot with the breathing and how to control ur breath and relaxation and help compliment the kickboxing with the endurance,making u last more, along with flexiblity
thats the way i see to it