Which one? Karate, Kong fu, Boxing or Samkal(l)a?

Question

I want to go to a self defense class but i don't know which to choose. I don't want to go to a class which teaches only defence but i also like to learn attacking moves. I am a somewhat small guy (in size=about 163-8), thin (58 kg/ about 17 yrs old) and very active (dont think thats got to do anything about it :)).
Give me reasons to why you are for or against each one of the above. NO SPAM PLS!!!

Answer 1

It took me several years and more than a few styles to find the one that fit me best and when I did, I found that they all "fit" because I had started mixing the different styles together and that would "throw off" anyone starting a fight with me and thinking that they're "billy bad A**" The one style though that, for me, pulled everything together was a type of freestyle kung fu which included weapons and hand-to-hand combat.

Good luck in your search.

Answer 2

First of all, the best martial art is the one that you are doing. Each of the disciplines have strengths and weaknesses. Because of that I recommend either looking for a school that mixes punching and kicking techniques with grappling and locks or studying multiple disciplines.

I'm a 2nd degree BB in Tae Kwon Do. I've taken Judo and Kung Fu as well. While both of these were useful and informative, TKD fit my body type interests best.

If you are looking at TKD for kicks and punches, make certain you shy away from Olympic styles of TKD. These concentrate on point sparring with kicks primarily and have limited usefulness in a self-defense application.

Standard TKD has a range of excellent attacks using both hands and feet. I see some folk disparage TKD as 'flashy' which is silly as all martial arts are flashy when compared to a street brawl.

I also see folks disparaging kata. This is just ignorant. Kata, the karate Kid aside, does not teach you how to defend yourself. Kata teaches you balance and body control so that your sparring becomes faster, better, and more effective.

Just punching at something for hours is a limited use. Practicing the transition from one stance to another, practicing facing multiple opponents and executing combinations, that is what kata does for the martial artist. You can learn to fight without kata, but it's a slower process.

The thing to consider is that martial arts is not UFC training. The UFC is an artificial environment and the best UFC participant doesn't face weapons or multiple attackers. so all the ranting about UFC champions demonstrating the best martial artist is, at best, silly.

Visit a few schools. Ask to take a free week of lessons. See what fits you best and then decide. Don't let someone crowing about their favorite Pro-Wrestling or other artificial fight hero decide for you what to do next.

Good luck.

Answer 3

A good well rounded style would be freestyle Karate.You will learn stand up,ground,grappling and weapons.What a lot of people don't understand is that freestyle Karate is about practical street defence not who can kick the highest or punch a pad the hardest.It's definitely not a sport martial art like TKD or BJJ.The motto of my style is the best of everything in progression.Basically that means we don't care where the technique comes from we improve it and integrate it into our style while still maintaining tradition as do most freestyle Karate's.
The hardest thing is finding a good experienced instructor.I would recommend Bushi Kai or Zen Do Kai, but if your not in Australia or New Zealand you may have some difficulty finding some one who teaches these styles.These styles also usually have separate classes available to everyone in Muay Thai and BJJ/Submission/Shoot wrestling.If you can't find one of these i would suggest Kempo or Enshin or another freestyle Karate.

Answer 4

Of the systems you chose, and since you are looking on the internet for MA advice, i'm guessing you have no background or knowledge about martial arts training.

In order for you to keep from bieng a "pigeon" to an unscrupulous karate or kung fu or boxing gym I would suggest you look not for a particular style, but for a good teacher or gym.

Even a good "combat orgami" class that trains and spars by throwing paper swans at each other is going to be better at teaching you to fight than the best martial arts gym that doesn't train with any resistance and only teaches you forms such as "horny goat ascends the mountain to eat a charleston chew".

The bottom line is that you need to train realistically. This involves students (at some point after they have had the chance to absorb the technique) training at a full resistance level. Some schools offer "easier to learn" techniques than others so they can be picked up and applied quicker.

As a sportative martial art, the average boxing gym will train at a higher level of resistance than the average "karate" or "kung fu" gym. If you don't know what to look for, and how to properly judge a gym, then you are likely to be easily taken by an unscrupulous teacher who doesn't teach you anything.

I think you will be able to apply boxing quicker and pick up the principles quicker. Most martial artists can't handle a boxer because the school they trained in didn't train with resistance. Unfortunately, while they should be able to, they can't.

I would suggest you look to a sportative art first- then check out the schools around you that teach karate and kung fu (i'm not familiar with samkala, does it go by another name?) and compare that level of training and realism to boxing.

While none of the arts you mentioned have a ground game- you should consider other arts that in fact do, but first focus on what you can and maybe at least learn a few takedown defences (sprawl) in the meantime.

I'm not saying kung fu and karate are not better than boxing- in fact I think that even though a boxer will have better hands- a kf or karate guy with realistic training have a huge advantage.
What I'm saying is to play the law of averages and find a boxing gym first because on average the % of kf or karate gyms that train realistically is immensely lower than the boxing gyms that do.

similar sportative arts you could check out are: muai thai, san da/san shou, regular kickboxing, judo, sambo, bjj.

depends where you are and your access to them, but once you find the intensity of a "sportative" gym- you won't be taken in by a bogus school from a generally "non sport" style.

Answer 5

All of them are great even though I don't know much about samkala, other then it has something to do with yoga.

Bad points:
Karate - takes a long time to become truly proficient, most styles cover no ground fighting.
Kung fu - most styles cover no ground fighting, not as powerful as karate.
Boxing - no kicking, no ground fighting, no defense against attacks to the legs.
Samkala - not sure but it doesn't seem to be a fighting art.

Answer 6

JUDO because of your size you have an advantage
AIKIDO is selfdefese that even the police learn & use
CSW-mainly for ground and take downs, its a hybrid form that uses catchascatchcan a style that enable their opponents quickly no over kill.
go to a school that has full or light contact to the ENTIRE body.
youll be ready for anything after that.

PS FORGET BJJ I keep telling everyone that BJJ is the GENTLE ART THAT IS ITS TRANSLATION !. Even RENZO on tv repeatedly said " I DO NOT WANT TO GET HIT IN D FACE" what type of ufc or pride fighter sais that? face it they are all afraid to get punched .....yes the submissions are not bad but you cant compare old school fighting to whats out there waiting for you today . besides 9 out of 10 fights dont go to the ground in a street fight.
traditional karate cannot compete with mma or csw its been proven. TDK is a good form of expensive excersize flashy kicks and katas are just NOT usefull for self defense. you can look at their #s tdk schools have over 3,000 schools across USA each with well over 300 students but only 5-7 students actually win important big named tournaments. those are crapy stats. I have seen 3-4 differnt tdk schools hoping to watch a class that i thought i could take but its joke.
Crav maga is better than TDK BUT it is over kill and has unnecessary multiple shots to groin... they dont go after the head either.
watch some ufc or fight tapes with JOE ROGAN as an anouncer and youll get a slew of info on styles.

Answer 7

Boxing. It it the toughest one. Learn that then later on take some of the other stuff. Boxing teaches mental toughness, conditioning, instinctive fighting and it can be used in real world. It isn't the complete art but I really think it is a great start.

Answer 8

Bluto is absolutely right. Too many people look for the right style. It is all about the right teacher.

Answer 9

it KUNG FU and you shoud do it. bruce lee was a very small man and he kicked ***.