What Self Defence class is better?

Question

Hi,

I would like to take up self-defence classes.
I would like to know which has the most dangerous moves that can be used outside the class.

Please choose out of Karate, Boxing, Kick Boxing, Taiquando, Tai Chi, Ju Jutsu?

Please give a reason why

Thanks

Answer 1

That's like asking which food is best to eat. You need a little bit of each food to be healthy, and different people have different health needs. You want to be truly "dangerous"? Study many forms. But which one is best depends on you.

Taiquando or TaeKwonDo like Judo is a sport. Any time the name ends in Do and you are using (as most English speaking schools do) the Japanese spelling, you know it's more practice and sport with rules and restrictions placed on your moves. If it ends in 'itsu' you know it means more practical application. So Judo and Jujitsu are the same, but one is more sport, while the other is more street fighting/self defense.

Having said that, Tai Chi will teach you very little self defense. Yes, it will teach some, but it is first and foremost a chi exercise. It was designed as a way to exercises and balance your chi. It's something old people do in the park. If my grandmother does it, it's probably not my kind of martial art. Yes, they teach sword forms and defense moves, but it is still mostly about chi.

Boxing is a sport. Flat out, no questions, no one will argue this, it;s a sport. You want to learn to box? Cool, but when someone attacks you on the street boxing will help little to defend yourself.

Kickboxing and Karate can go either way, sport or self defense. It depends on the school. Search for a school that teaches true street defense styles. Things like knife avoidance, area awareness and escape plans should be taught before kempos, katas or blocks. Kick boxing is easy to spot if it's being taught as a sport, you'll see a group of people all doing the same moves together in unison and probably pretty quickly. You'll see little to no sparring and when you do it will be in a boxing style ring most of the time.

So, if you want street fighting smarts look for a school that teaches it. Ask to watch a class or two, ask for a freebie class to see if it's for you and talk to the other students to see what they think. The type of fighting doesn't matter nearly as much as the dojo does. I've taken Shaolin Kung Fu, Shaolin Kempo, Karate and Ju Jitsu and I could kick the crap out of many black belts because they've been taught the sport of fighting, not the practical applications.

Answer 2

If these are the only choices you have, you could look into the jujitstu club, although the odds of finding a really high quality club are fairly low. If you can believe it Tai Chi is extremely practical, if you're smart enough to understand what you are doing, if you are just moving the way your teachers showed you because that's the way he showed you, you may be hopeless. After those two, either kickboxing or boxing because the average quality of the clubs are higher because there is more interest in competition. Taekwon do and karate? Most people would tell you how useless they are, impractical weak and entierly worthless compared to some other martial arts, these statements are borderline true, from what i have seen, karate and taekwondo dojos tend to be extremely low quality belt factories. But if you were to learn karate in japan, or taekwon do in korea, probably a different story.
But if you are to choose to go into a martial art for defence, please remember that these are soft martial arts meant for sport mostly. Depending on what kind of jujitsu class you are looking at it could be either sport such as brazillian jujitsu, or either a hard or soft japanese jujitsu, or it could be a completely bogus club. Make sure you check out all of the clubs, perhaps with a knowledgable friend, because people here, can't tell the quality of the clubs over the internet.
Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Theres a few different sorts of those classes. The first type is okay, and shows you how to break some certain holds, throw a few punches and kicks. The other type is a few hours of you kicking a guy in a padded suit in the crotch and yelling "an empowerment phrase." I think that you would be better off finding a "real" martial art to try. There are tons of schools in any sizable town, and will teach you much more than "kick the guy and call the cops." Plus most schools that are worth anything will not cost all that much, and the payments are spread out over a longer period of time. Some martial art schools even have scholarships or "work-study" type programs available for people who really can't afford it. In short, any training you get will help, but there are better options available than a typical sort of "women's self-defense" course. I also recommend reading Jeff Cooper's (a deceased American gun author) articles about Color Conditions and Awareness. As they say, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

Answer 4

If your looking for Self Defense and not Competition, then I would recommend Ju Jitsu (Jiu Jitsu). Ju Jitsu is the forerunner to Judo, developed by the Samurai for use on the battlefield during conflicts.

Another reason for recommending Ju Jitsu is that approximately 90 to 95 percent of your street fights end up in a wrestling match, unless your opponent is a Martial Artist (which most are trained to use their art as a last resort) you'll end up really close and on the ground.

One of the main ideals (or just what I was taught) was to end the conflict as quickly as possible, make sure they stay down, then walk away. You don't want to get involved in a long drawn out fight.

I'm not saying that the other arts are not as good as Ju Jitsu but for true self defense and for use in the streets, Ju Jitsu would be the better choice.

Answer 5

If you're looking for pure self-defense I'd go with Karate or Jiu Jitsu. Boxing and Kick Boxing are ring sports and are more focused on the attack. They do teach parries and counters, but the other arts are more defense oriented. TKD is good, but its become more of an Olympic style sport, focused on flair. Tai Chi is more of a spiritual kind of thing.

Karate has skill sets from Boxing, Kickboxing, and TKD, making a more well rounded self-defense program. Jiu Jitsu focuses on throws and locks, which take advantage of pain and leverage, allowing you to take use the power of your oppenent against him or her. Jiu Jitsu lacks a focus on standup and striking, though, which may put you at a disadvantage in certain situations.

I'd say try each of them out and see what you like, though. I tried traditional Shotakan Karate and grew tired of it. Now I do Thai Boxing and Jun Fan, which I prefer greatly. Do whatever works for you.

Answer 6

None of those are the best for self-defence outside of class on the "street".

In reality, where there are life-threatening situations where you would actually require self-defence as opposed to "ego-defence" (where you just want to kick someone's *** rather than walk away or avoid the conflict), there is likely to be a number of people against you, or weapons involved or both. Unarmed martial arts are not equipped to handle this with any degree of consistency.

However as far as fighting arts goes, It depends on the teacher, and the intensity of the class and if they train realistically against resisting opponents.

Karate, ju jitsu, tkd and tai chi all are higher risk for bieng a crap gym and teaching than boxing or one of the kickboxing arts (san da or san shou, muai thai or just plain kickboxing) because as a general rule they have to teach realistically because people who are training in those arts usually are going into some sportative combat or tournament and a bad school is exposed easily.

If you know a good school for one of the others they can be just as good or better than a boxing or kickboxing school but it all depends on the training and the school, but it is more likely than not that the better ones that train realistically are more likely to be boxing or one of the kickboxing styles.

Answer 7

There is no "best" striking & grappling each have strengths & weaknesses:

Striking: Tae Kwon Do. Karate, Shaolin boxing
Good: Can handle multiple attackers, can engage at long range, enables you to be pro active when necessary.
Not so good: Ground, hard to control an attacker without inflicting serious injury.

Grappling: Hapkido, Judo, etc.
Good: effective in close, good on the ground, can control an attacker without inflicting serious injury.
Not so Good: Not good at long range, you must wait for the attacker to make the 1st move. Not effective against multiple attackers.

Answer 8

Tai Chi

Answer 9

Out of the disciplines you listed, none of them have any particularly "dangerous" techniques, because it comes down to how well you train your techniques to use them.

and using dangerous techniques (especially depending on where you live can land you on the bad side of a legal issue) to purposely injure someone is not what Martial arts is about to begin with.

and theres no "best" Martial Art, only you as the individual can decide how proficient you'll become by your training ethics.

All have their own strengths and weaknesses, you just need to pick three that seem interesting to you, go to watch a couple of their classes and pick a final one you want to take some trial classes to determine if the discipline you found will work for you.

Answer 10

jui jitsu is all bout body throws n ground fightin... taekwondo and karate r punches n kicks... they dont enjoy a good reputation tho.... boxing and kickboxing are sports... and tai chi... idk alot of soft styles teach thier style to the equivelant of dance inna fight... but it means supreme ultimate fist... so that shows that it atleast has been used like that in the past... but this goes 4 any style if they train right it will be of the use ur lookin for if they train wrong its just a sport or dace or w/e term u wanna use... i guess its not what you do so much as how you do it..... i would do karate(or taichi) and juijitsu.. that way after u ger ur feet wet in the arts youll be well balanced......and all can be dangerours.... heack just plain ol streetfightin can be dangerous enough... but if you just wanna do ma 2 fight cas u wanna become sum mma champ or sumthin....nm...it already sounds like u just wanna kick azz tho