What is the best martial art to learn for self-defence, if you're a woman? My first question here..?

Question

The only martial art I have tried is Tae Kwondo, and I only did a few classes of that. I was wondering what other people thought, who have tried other arts? My main aim would be to be able to defend myself against attackers (as well as improving fitness, strength and balance etc).

Thanks.

Answer 1

Kenpo is a great and effective self-defense art.
I like Hapkido and Aikido also, great arts as well. CKD is a less known and newer art but is gaining some following.
For general self defense I do like Kenpo. My wife and my 6 year old daughter both study, was worked great for my wife as she works in an environment where she consistently has to do home visits due to not so good circumstances. Has saved her on several occasions and allowed her to diffuse several others.

Answer 2

Well, i think the best answer i saw was from "Cnote" the only problem was that he forgot to mention why. Jeet kun do was the martial art that bruce lee developed because he saw how stagnated martial arts had became. So he developed an open martial art that was applicable to any situation of fighting, with all of the techniques aimed towards speed and power, the legs were greatly favored for thier superior power, and since most females have a tendency to be naturally a bit more flexible in the hips and legs, this is a good way to capitalize on what you have, without the points oriented techiques that fill up tae kwon do. Krav maga is a military form of fighting, so completely combat orientated, it was developed in israel, there is a version of it taught to the public that has a great many less life threatening techniques and is more orientated towards self defence, it is extremely effective, for it's not sparring in any way, there is no back and forth, you neutralize your attacker as quickly as possible, in a controlled manner with any tool that is at hand, no tool, then use your own hands. But i don't know of anywhere that you would be able to practice it. San Soo i really don't know that much about though, It's a chinese art but it's more offensive than defensive, it can be used by a smaller person against a much larger opponent, but many techniques are pretty brutal. Jujitsu is another good one, but the first three are probably the most effective.

Answer 3

Tae Kwon Do is fine for self-defense, along with your other goal. But most of other martial arts would work too.

So, my advice is go the martial arts gym and see how its run, is it a good fit for you? Do they promise in XX amount of time you'll have a black belt? If so run. Ask them about self-defense, they may have a special class just for that.

OK now my opinion

The biggest mistake people make is they take a martial art for self-defense, then they'll try to stand and fight. Hit, try to disable, run if you can. In most cases, if you hit hard and fast you'll be able to get away.

Being a big male (240lbs) who works out a lot, 3 days at the gym and 2 days TKD training, I still try not to put myself in situations where I'd need to fight. Be aware of your surrounding, and if you feel uncomfortable in anyway leave.

Of course being a big male also means 99% of the time people just don't mess with me either.

Good luck have fun and stay healthy

EDIT

You're going to get a lot of this

(insert martial art here) is bad, or is now only a sport but (insert different martial art here) is the only true martial art left.

ANY martial art can be bad and ANY martial art can be good, it all depends on the school and instructor. Yes I know some TKD trainers have forgotten that it's a martial art and not an Olympic sport, same can be said about almost every martial art. Given a little time I can find a bad instructor in any martial art. I take TKD where they believe it's a martial art not a sport, they teach a LOT of self-defense, we do a lot of sparing, and not like they do in the Olympics. We do occasionally spar to Olympics rules, but not often. Like I said find a good fit and work from there.

Have fun

Answer 4

Hey Tom...are you wanting to train killers here?? Seriously, a gun is fine, but REALLY, are you prepared to KILL someone in a bar fight because he wanted (if you were a woman) to put his drunken arm around you? There are times a gun is fine, but other times you need something that can deal with ALL levels of threat.
NOW, as many have said before, Tae Kwon Do is a fine art and certainly has self defense applications. The fact that some people think it is "tap dancing kicks" or "purely a sport" means they have not been on the recieving end of one of these kicks or they think that the fancy high kicks of Tae Kwon Do are the ONLY things they teach you.
However, for a woman, I almost always suggest trying Aikido. Normally (and I hate shotgun statements like this) women are smaller and physically weaker than most male attackers would be. Aikido teaches you to use the attacker's own strength and power against him. It is a mostly defensive art, teaching circular movements to avoid attacks and offbalancing techniques to get the attacker into a VERY painful hold or lock...or just give you enough time to run (aka the fine art of Nike-Fu). Seriously, I have been absolutely tossed around by a woman who is 5'4" and weighs 130 soaking wet with rocks in her pockets. It works.
If you prefer something a little more "hands on" allow me to suggest my own art of Shotokan. It's founder was Gichin Funakoshi, was was himself about 5'4". The style teaches LOW stances to generate maximum power, leverage, and quick powerful hip movements. Frankly, it much better than most arts for smaller people.
Hope this helps...
Sensei Cox

Answer 5

If you're only interested in self-defense, why not just check out a self-defense course? You could always pick up an activity or sport you love for the fitness aspect.

For many students and many more instructors (as least the good ones in my opinion), martial arts are about more than self-defense, more than "opening up a can of whoop butt" or street fighting. There is that whole "art" aspect. In taekwondo, there's the whole "do" or "way" aspect (and no, that's not "the way" you punch or kick, it's a way/manner of living).

Of course, many people start training in a martial art for physical fitness or self-defense or weight loss or whatever and only later embrace more aspects of it, so perhaps stick with taekwondo (or whatever) a bit longer before quitting...

I'm just trying to offer another viewpoint: really, if you're only interested in self-defense rather than a martial ART, sign up for a self-defense class.

If you are truly interested in learning a martial art, then the BEST one is the one you enjoy and will stick with. Beware of anyone who claims that their style or art is the BEST with no drawbacks. I would steer very, very clear of anyone who is so short-sighted they can't see the drawbacks of their style.

It may behoove you to visit several different studios to see what strikes your interest. I started with taekwondo because I needed to fulfill a PE requirement in college (it was listed as karate) and loved it. Who knows, had I done karate, I may be living in Japan instead of South Korea right now.

(And as for specifying being a woman, that makes sense to me. A lot of women feel more comfortable in women-only classes and despite what people will tell you, being female, you will generally not have the same strength as a man who's actually attacking you. Does that mean you couldn't earn a black belt, win competitions, etc? Of course not. Does it mean there are, indeed, physiological differences between men and women? Yes. It's not rocket science...)

Answer 6

Like everyone else says, there's no such thing as a best self-defense martial arts. But it may intrigue you to know that the martial art Wing Chun was created by a woman to be used against larger and stronger men. However, this art requires a fair amount of patience. Alternatively, I would say train in a weapons based art, such as Kali - the greatest equalizer of all is a weapon.

Answer 7

There is NO "best" type of Martial Art, they all have their own strengths and weaknesses. only the individual can determine how good he or she will become through training. how you fight is reflected upon how you train.

It comes down to only ONE thing: personal choice.

It is a personal choice that only YOU can make as to what discipline you wanna study then decide which discipline you found that will possibly fit you as an individual and then decide what YOU want out of it.

As far as technique (and defending yourself) is concerned, you have to TRAIN to perfect your techniques and skills you learn in what ever discipline you may study, the instructor(s) can only show you the basics of the art or discipline, you have to be able to continue things on your own and refine or hone your skills to meet your needs as a Martial Artist, and that's why Martial Arts is a life long study, to grow and improve yourself.

By studying Tae Kwon Do, you have only begun one leg of a process that only you can decide how Martial Arts can benefit you best, but if you feel that it isn't helping you in the way you feel it should, then it may be time to reassess yourself and find another school that may be able to help you better.

good luck and good training.

Answer 8

There are many arts out there. I've trained in quite a few (Judo, TaeKwonDo, TongSooDo, Shotokan, KungFu, Aikido).

Most are now taught as sports, certainly most karates as well as Judo. Most would do well as a self-defense.

That said, only Aikido is actually created with only self-defense in mind. It's very similar to JuJitsu, but without some of it's more dangerous aspects. Don't get me wrong, much of Aikido can be used to maim an opponent, if the situation warrants it, but most of the techniques allow a continuum of force to be used. More important is the mindset you start to get in training in the art. It also handles multiple attackers well. Size and strength are rarely important. It would be extremely hard to attack someone using Aikido, but is extremely effective at self-defense. Both reasons why the Tokyo police and the Secret Service require training in it. It's disadvantage is that it takes longer to become proficient compared to many other of the martial arts I've trained in.

One thing you will get from any martial arts training is the attitude you can handle yourself in an emergency. Many would be attackers subconsciously pick a victim on their behavior - things that tip off the attacker that you couldn't or wouldn't put up a good fight. They go for the weakest victim in the 'herd', so to speak.

The other thing to remember is you aren't going into any martial arts school, work out for several months and think you can handle yourself in any situation. Training to proficiency takes years. Preferably you should train for the rest of your life.

Answer 9

All martial arts should have components of self defense in them, not just forms and fighting. Instructors take liberties and some teach more self defense than others. I would recommend talking to some of the instructors in your area and telling them what you want to do and see if they can help you out.
People might flame me but the martial art matters less than the teacher when it comes to self defense. If your instructor is good he will incorporate different techniques from different arts into your self defense training.

Many schools offer regular classes and for an extra fee, private lessons. Private lessons are great because you can spend an entire hour working on just self defense.

There are also lots of instructors that will give private or semi private lessons, without joining the regular classes. They aren’t really that expensive and you get personalized attention. If you have some friends that you want to take lessons with it will help defer some of the costs.

Answer 10

Well in truth there is no one magic martial art that trumps all others. Any style if you work hard will greatly help you to defend yourself no matter what your gender. I have taken a few styles and have now found a home style for lack of better words. I am a student of American Kenpo; this style is very effective for self-defense and does not require a huge degree of flexibility or strength to be proficient.

A very good place to ask questions, and read posts from men and women in Kenpo at all levels from White belt to black belt. www.kenpotalk.com I would recommend if you have a few minutes at least check it out