I’ve never been in a fight, probably never will be in a fight. But I’d like to be able to defend myself should that time ever come, especially if it were with a dude bigger than myself.
On top of that, I’d love the exercise, discipline, and confidence that I hear comes with studying that sort of thing.
So what do you recommend? Where? I’d rather not spend an arm and a leg, but obviously you’ve got to pay to play.
talk to 540guy on here, hes a double black belt and took different kinds of martial arts. Hes pretty sick at it ranked 3rd nationally
i took a judo class for a semester. it was pretty sweet and a lot of it can be easily tied in with self defense.
If you can find any Sambo place near you, that’d be sweet. Its like a russian military defense style. Pretty BA in my opinion
[quote=“99Civic-EX,post:2,topic:32420"”]
talk to 540guy on here, hes a double black belt and took different kinds of martial arts. Hes pretty sick at it ranked 3rd nationally
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he needs anything hes 4 foot nothing and 100 lbs
and if you live by i think niagra fitness my friends a boxing instructor… golden glove in 2004 im pretty sure i can set you up
[quote=“Treads4Heads,post:4,topic:32420"”]
If you can find any Sambo place near you, that’d be sweet. Its like a russian military defense style. Pretty BA in my opinion
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i agree, i learned karate as a kid, and then rehashed everything and learned wing chung which i found to be more fluid and less wasteful when it comes to moves. BUT that being said, it depends on what you want to get into, theres a lot of discipline in martial arts, (i know others will flame me for this) but if you want to purely defend yourself look at the military programs, my friend took krav maga (the israeli military techniques) which i translate to basically dirty barfighting. whereas martial arts teaches you precise moves and defense, my buddy basically would just run at me punching and trying to kick you in the chest… i did a buds training prog a while back and they teach you the 1hit moves that will severly injure people, which is sorta not good because you dont want to kill the person, just defend yourself if youre fighting. just simple things that are effective, such as going to punch someone in the face but recoiling your hand and leaving your fingers limp so they hit your opponent in the eyes like a whip allowing you to proceed with another move, etc. but if you want fun, i know 540 does some crazy aerial shit, i had a lot of fun learning some amateur capoeira. yes its the brazilian dance fighting everyone jokes about, but its really cool if you were ever into break or anything, its sorta like a mix of breakdancing and wing chun, real fluid. prepare to do a lot of kip ups and flares, great exercise but not really self defense etc… so basically dicipline wise go with kung fu (karate and tae kwon do are too rigid and make unnecessary moves imo, judo i have no clue), if you want defense go with a military style prog like krav maga, and if you want fun then go with capoeira… just my 2 cents
Jujitsu. I do some judo, which is a watered down sport version, but I have found it very useful in fight situations. Just look at UFC and other mma style fights - it’s he Jujitsu that ends up winning fights.
Aikido is also very bad ass. The judo club I belong to also does aikido, and I sat in on it one day. There practice was to have one person stand in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed, and defend themself from random attacks by everyone else.
[quote=“sureshot007,post:9,topic:32420"”]
There practice was to have one person stand in the middle of the circle with their eyes close, and defend themself from random attacks by everyone else.
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:jawdrop:
Thanks guys. I’ll look into some of this stuff. Any place to go near Tonawanda?
I’m taking krav maga mainly right now, but just recently am dabbling in Jujistu and Sambo. I did boxing for a couple months and whilst my workout was crazy and it completely helped my striking for all other courses, I felt it left me useless in real life situations unless I was in a situation with another boxer. People in real life, for the most part, don’t know how to fight and will have tendancies to do certain things… things that boxing doesn’t teach you to defend against. This is where Krav Maga comes in. It’s not pretty, but it’s great to learn because it kinda goes with your natural reactions of what you’re going to do when (for example) someone chokes you from behind, your hands would naturally try to grab the guys (or girls) choke hold, so it works off of that and teaches you to pluck and maintain control of said hand, and begin your dirty krav maga fight tactics (pretty much gain control : hurt opposing person until they are somewhat incapacitated so they probably won’t go after you again : fall back and make sure no one else is going to hurt you).
Now, Krav maga is by no means pretty. It teaches you the basics of a good fighting stance, striking mechanics, and control of the situation. Compared to jujistu, it almost looks like Krav Maga is a guy doing random moves.
Sambo is kinda the filler class, and I haven’t been taking it for that long, but it’s making me stretch a lot and I pretty much learn how to throw people or not be thrown (or taken down) at different distances. A nice addition to everything else.
So, Speedracer got it right pretty much. Sambo and Krav maga are more “useful” and easier to get (they pretty much teach it to anyone who gets into the military, so you have to think of all different body types that come in, some in shape, some strong, some tiny, some fat, etc). Other stuff like jujistu, aikido, judo is definately more focused on discipline, and will obviously help you in a bad situation, but will probably take longer to learn to defend against the broad range of situations. Taekwondo and karate are more of a strictly discipline sport - don’t get me wrong they will help you a little in fight situations, but for the most part - look at how they spar… one hit, stop the fight, point.
Just my opinion. Sorry I kept getting interrupted while I wrote this so it may jump around…
ive did tae kwon do for 8 yrs, which is an ok form of self defense, but now do muay thai and jiu jitsu and in actual real world type of defense, this is something youd use more since most fights eventually go to the ground, its good to know how to defend yourself if you/when you make there…
i love the muay thai because its much better than traditional boxing since it teaches you to use your feet, knees, legs as well to defend yourself, plus put you into INCREDIBLE shape
I’m interest in try out some muay thai, because while i like krav maga, I meet a lot of people who say krav maga is good, but is absolutely nasty when you mix it up with some other form or martial arts…
I never realized how much someone can choke you and you can still effectively fight back. My sensei loves to focus on choke techniques.
[quote=“sureshot007,post:14,topic:32420"”]
I never realized how much someone can choke you and you can still effectively fight back. My sensei loves to focus on choke techniques.
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Now that I know like, 10 different ways to defend when someone is choking me, I would NEVER choke someone - it’s like, the dumbest thing ever…
I’m not talking about your classic arms extended and hands around the neck choking - I’m talking about sleeper hold, submission choking. It can be VERY effective when the fight turns to grappling. That and arm bars 
i currently train in boxing and muay thai… which is excellent for striking, not so much BJJ though, if u want to focus on striking, i suggest MUay Thai, if you want to focus on chokess holds and that other wrestling type stuff, id say BJJ or the krav, if both, then that wnymma.com looks cool, i never knew a place like that was around here, very cool
[quote=“MicaH,post:17,topic:32420"”]
i currently train in boxing and muay thai… which is excellent for striking, not so much BJJ though, if u want to focus on striking, i suggest MUay Thai, if you want to focus on chokess holds and that other wrestling type stuff, id say BJJ or the krav, if both, then that wnymma.com looks cool, i never knew a place like that was around here, very cool
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how long have you been doing muay thai ? im doing BJJ as well with it and love it… im sure theres better martial arts combinations out there, but it seems to be pretty good for now…
im going to probably match up with something else once i get proficient in the BJJ.
if you ever saw the ult fighter 3… the guy, “big mike” who unfort didnt last too long on the season, is one of the guys i train with at Colorado BJJ
he was the crazy tall dude with the tats covering him
http://www.aikidoinc.com/home.asp?sid=2353A4DF-4101-44B4-A587-F7A575AE6D6E
Looks interesting, and there’s a dojo in Kenmore.
What about Kung Fu? I was reading about what Summit Martial Arts Academy has to offer. Seems to be less about fighting and more about exercise/mental, no?
[quote=“BikerFry,post:19,topic:32420"”]
http://www.aikidoinc.com/home.asp?sid=2353A4DF-4101-44B4-A587-F7A575AE6D6E
Looks interesting, and there’s a dojo in Kenmore.
What about Kung Fu? I was reading about what Summit Martial Arts Academy has to offer. Seems to be less about fighting and more about exercise/mental, no?
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www.summitkungfu.com this is where i train
*mental development is a huge part of martial arts