What is a good defensive martial art?

Question

I am 18 and looking to learn some martial arts. I was wondering which martial arts fall into the category of defensive. My goals are to be able to defeat multiple opponents and disarm weapons such as guns and knives.

I am 18 and looking to learn some martial arts. I was wondering which martial arts fall into the category of defensive. My goals are to be able to defeat multiple opponents and disarm weapons such as guns and knives. I am wanting something that works in streetfights and such, so I would like to be able to defeat an opponent quickly.

Answer 1

You're about to get flooded with advice where people say "this or that art (meaning the one they take) is the best for what you want.

Here's a nasty truth: If your goal is to take weapons away from people and fight more then one person at a time, you're going to need a lot of dedication to a practical martial art.

You need to understand that when weapons and extra people come into play, the martial arts you know don't do anything but change the percentages - if the normal person on the street would have say, a 5% chance of dealing with three attackers armed with knives, with a lot of GOOD martial arts training, you might be five times that good - meaning 1 time in four, you'd walk away.

Do you like those odds?

Moving on, there is no real line between "defensive" and "offensive" martial arts. It's an artificial distinction to say "Oh, my style is defensive."

Defensive is in how you USE the martial arts you know. Most people would consider boxing "offensive," but a good boxer can fight an untrained person until they wear out just by focusing on defense - blocking and evading.

Most people would consider the submission art of Brazillian Jiu-jitsu, a favorite of UFC fighters, "offensive" since it involves tackling and strangling your opponent rather then gently deflecting his force or something - but ask yourself, if I find myself in a fight and choke the man unconcious, have I not resolved the fight without any serious injury and without prolonging the fight? Can I not now just walk away?

In the sense that it allows you to KO someone without hurting them, the "Offensive" art of jiujitsu is very defensive.

The only thing that really matters about the martial art you choose is that they train hard, with realistic techniques, and they are realistic with you about what parts of your goals they can deliver on. You should be wary of anyone who says they'll teach you to safely handle multiple attackers armed with guns or knives - if such skills were commonly available for $40 a month, there would be a greatly reduced market for guns and knives!

I know that wasn't the quick answer you wanted, but I hope you read it anyway and take it with you as you audition schools.

Answer 2

Basiclly you want to find the best martial art available for you.
Because most martial arts have good points to them. You have to find the one that most interests you so you will respect it and devote your self to it so that you will master it. As far as weapons and mulitple attackers. The tequniques in martail arts will not teach you this exact thing what it will do is teach you how to be a fierce warrior, and the fighting technique to utilize when involved in a fight. It may also show some techniques to disarm someone with a knife or gun , but situations are always different, and the odds that someone with that knife is trained also or faster than you is pretty good too. So the reality of you finding one art that will teach you exactly this is not real good. You have to study the art you find interesting and master it. At the point where you do run into an armed assailent chances are good you will keep a cool head and if he makes a mistake you will be well trained to dispatch him quickly, but if he is good too well...

Those are the odds.

Answer 3

All martial Arts can be used defensively. If you want to be able to handle multiple attackers, you will need a striking style such as Tae Kwon Do or Karate. The style is less important than the instructor.

Answer 4

Judo, Tai Chi Chuan, and Aikido are two that come to mind. They are defensive in that they require your opponent to make the first (aggressive and attacking ) move, and then teach you how to avoid the force of it, redirect it, and move your opponent into disadvantageous positions via joint locks, holds, chokes, etc. Nor is there a lot of striking in those arts.

As far as what art will prepare you for a fight against multiple opponents, armed or unarmed, if there was any art that followed through on that promise, EVERYONE would be taking it!

Answer 5

I would suggest Wing Chun. It seems to be a very defensive martial art. I dont know how true it is, but I have heard that wing chun was developed by a woman. The reason was she could not compete against the ancient Shaolin Monks with their style of fighting back then. So she developed her own style, wing chun, which included much more defensive and counter techniques.It was said she faired much better. Before anyone starts bashing me, I would like to repeat it is only a theory I have heard. I dont know how truthful it is.

Answer 6

They ALL fall under defensive, that's why they are caleed self defense, but several of them are aggressive enough to be Offensive fighting disciplines because they can be used for attack as easily as they can be used for defense.

look man, defending against more than two or three attackers at a time, especially with weapons is a difficult thing at best. and even then you have to take your training seriously, because that can only be done through good training. and no one (especially not here) not me or anyone else can tell you which one will be the best for YOU to study.

Any Martial Art can teach you those techniques that can help you defend yourself, there isn't a particular Martial Art that will teach you self defense because they all will in one way or another.

it's all in how well you train that determines how good you're gonna become, if you have a poor training ethic then you'll be a poor Martial Artist, if you practice well and train on a regular basis, then you can become a good Martial Artist.

it's a personal choice of which discipline YOU want to study, there isn't a "best" Martial Art. Only you can make the decision about which one is best for YOU and what you want to get out of studying Martial Arts for your personal benefit.

What many people fail to realize about Martial Arts is that there isn't a particular "brand" that fits EVERYTHING they want.

Because the fact is that when people ask "what's a good Martial Art for me to learn?" or “what’s the “best” Martial Art to learn” has 2 major problems:

1st: these questions prompt the majority of people here to start blurting out names of disciplines that are probably not even available in your area wherever you live, so you have to research what schools are available, and go from there to find the one that'll suit you best.

2nd: Just because they recommend a Martial Art that they may (or worse MAY NOT) have studied and it just happened to become THEIR favorite Martial Art for whatever reason it is or was: they’re interested in studying it or they studied a particular discipline and it just happened to work for them doesn't mean that it's going to work for you or that you’ll find it just as interesting.

The discipline you may wind up studying DOESN'T MATTER for two reasons: 1: there is NO discipline that is better than another, and 2: they ALL have their strengths AND weaknesses in their techniques, there's no end all be all discipline to study.

First of all, what YOU need to do is research local schools by looking in the phone book or internet search engine to find out if there ARE any Martial Arts schools in your area, and according to what disciplines that ARE available you'll need to narrow your choices down to at least 3 schools that you found the most interesting, or seemed to fit your goal(s).

Second, once you've made your initial 3 school choices, watch a few classes at each one and decide which one out of those 3 schools that interested you the most.

Third, the next thing you should do is find out if they have some trial classes (up to a weeks worth to help you make a decision, hopefully without being hassled to join or sign a contract to join the class), and if you find that you like the school, then enroll in the class.

You just need to find a Martial Arts School that will provide a safe, friendly, "family like" environment for you and that the instructor(s) are going to help you become the best Martial Artist that you can become.

The biggest problem you should worry about in finding a school is being aware of schools that're a "McDojo's" or "belt factory" type of school.

These schools usually do a lot of boasting; particularly about how soon their students make their 1st degree black belts. A prime example of this: having several "young black belts" that're usually 9 or 10 yr old kids, which should be a rare thing to see unless the child started learning the discipline when they were 4 yrs old, or promising that as a student you’ll be making your black belt in about a year’s time (the average should be between 4 to 5 years or better) which often means that they have a high student turnout rate. This is a Red Flag

They may also try to get you to commit to (by signing) a contract, usually one that's 6 months long or more or try to get you to pay down a large sum of money for that kind of time period. This is a BIG red flag

And don’t be fooled by these schools telling you about how many tournaments or competitions their students have entered and placed in or won a trophy, which is NOT a necessity in Martial Arts. Tournaments/competitions can be good to test your own skills at point sparring but again, it’s not necessary because they are the LEAST important aspect to concern yourself with in Martial Arts.

Good luck.

Answer 7

Tae Kwon Do! Tae Kwon Do it is literally the art of self defense. At the moment we are learning knife defense. But choose your Tae Kwon Do schools carefully, there are a lot of fake Tae Kwon Do schools out there. It is a good idea to ask for a trial class at a Tae Kwon Do school before you commit to a contract. Another good martial art is Judo.

Good Luck!

Answer 8

all ma are not classed as self defence styles some are fighting styles.muay thai,bjj are a couple.my advice would be stick with the tried and true styles karate(not tkd)judo etc.and cross train or find a good freestyle karate instructer.avoid the fad or craze ones.it doesn't really matter what you do as long as your learning more than one type of self defence.stand up,grappling,ground.have a go at a few and pick out a couple of good ones as a base and crosstrain in others,you also have to realise it isn't going to happen overnight.

Answer 9

Aikido is the art that focuses on all of that - being defensive, disarming and multiple opponents.

The downside is that it takes a long time to learn. But it does work.

Answer 10

Here are some suggestions , CHA 3 kenpo , wing chun , wado ryu karate , tang soo do , kajukenbo , and escrima . These are just a few styles you may find of interest . All of them offer what you have described in some form . As someone else said , its more the teacher ,less the style .