Martial arts are great as spectator sports and a good way to get fit,
but they really come into their own when they are used in self-defense –
undoubtedly the ultimate result for many of them. This list looks at
ten of the best martial arts for if you are especially interested in
defending yourself against attackers.
Firstly, and this is true for all these entries, if you’re on the
street and a stranger attempts to mug you, or worse, he most likely
doesn’t know any particular fighting style, other than “swing for the
fences and keep moving forward.”
There are quite a few offshoots of kickboxing, the most famous of
which is Muay Thai, which roughly translates to “art of the eight
limbs.”
Kickboxing for self-defense concentrates on its version of punches,
knees, and kicks: fast-paced, distracting, and aimed at all available
openings. If the attacker has a knife or gun, and is within arm’s
reach, he will use the weapon. The defender is thus armed with more
weapons, hands, feet, knees, elbows, head.
Simply walk toward the attacker (who has any weapon but a gun), and
throw a front kick straight up against his chin as hard as possible.
Kickboxing thrives on this sort of move, and teaches the practitioner to
execute it with such extreme speed, faster than the attacker can react,
that it virtually rules out the risk of “fancy kicks.” Do it correctly
and it will almost always break his jaw, crush his larynx, shatter his
teeth, force him to bite off his tongue, etc. He will not fight after
this. This sort of kick is well trained to the point that it can, in
fact, be delivered efficiently, that is, quickly and powerfully, without
being telegraphed.
Alternatively, step to the side, grab the attackers weapon arm, and
sling your forehead into the his nose. This will not hurt you nearly as
much as you think. The attacker’s nose, on the other hand, will
shatter like a firecracker.
Well trained kickboxers practice something called “combat qi”,which
is the physical conditioning of any part of the body through repeated
damage, until it no longer sends sufficient pain signals to the brain to
bother the person. Kickboxers will roll a baseball bat handle up and
down the shin firmly enough to cause aching, for about an hour a day for
2 years. The tibia is repeatedly damaged and rebuilds itself stronger
and thicker. Eventually, the kickboxer can kick the baseball bat in
half with his or her shin, and not feel pain.
Here, special emphasis is placed on attack deflection. Most punches
or knife lunges are performed straight toward you, not in an arc. Few
fighters are stupid enough to try a looping haymaker.
Thus, step to the side, creating a lateral line toward the attacker’s
arm, strike the attacker’s punch or knife hand, then quickly strike his
lower side, belly, or back with your other fist. This is very
difficult to defend against, and most likely he will not be able to.
Push forward and throw a knee into his quadriceps. This hurts like
crazy.
Strikes to the face and head are important, but the attacker will
expect them, so instead, block his right-handed attack with your left
fist (or vice versa), and punch with your other hand straight into the
soft spot below his sternum as hard as possible, twisting the hips.
This target is the solar plexus, and will incapacitate him as
effectively as a strike to the groin.
Or, if he charges forward, snap a front kick straight up with the
ball of the foot planted as hard as possible into his stomach or solar
plexus, not the groin. If one of the former targets is struck, the
attacker will be forced back in agony, by means of his center of
gravity. He is leaning forward while charging, and a kick to his groin
will cause him to lunge into you.
An interesting art that is immediately recognizable. It does have a
few striking moves in it, but for the most part, it is based on the
principle that when an attacker strikes, he leaves some part of his
defense vulnerable. If you, the defender, do not attack him, you remain
defensively invulnerable.
Do not resist his attack. Use its momentum against him. Steven
Seagal is the most famous Aikido practitioner in the Western world. He
may be a horrible actor, but he is a genuine 7th degree black belt in
Aikido, and his signature move is absolutely essential to any
self-defense arsenal: the kote gaeshi, or “forearm return.”
The attacker steps forward and throws a straight punch. You
sidestep, snatch hold of his wrist, and twist around in time with his
punch. Do it right, and it will fling him completely off balance, using
his own momentum, while you whirl around, and twist his wrist toward
the outside. He probably will not flip over like the classic theatrics
in a Seagal film, but his wrist may well break. He’s unlikely to fight
anymore after that.
Most critics of this art point out that it is nearly impossible for
the average black belt to catch a person’s punch and turn fast enough to
perform this move, but that’s not true. It’s actually a very easy move
to learn and perfect.
Aikido thrives on joint locks, which do not require much speed to
perform, compared to the kote gaeshi, and are extremely effective in
immobilizing and incapacitating an attacker.
Wing Chun Kung Fu is the art that Yip Man taught to Bruce Lee, and
which Lee rebelled against as too slow and formal for self-defense.
That’s quite misleading. He meant that it was insufficient for him when
fighting against professional martial art experts, like Wong Jack Man,
with whom he fought a famous duel.
Lee invented his own version of Wing Chun, which became entry #5,
because of the inadequacies he noticed in Wing Chun. With this method,
he defeated Wong in 3 minutes, when almost any other fighter in the
world would have needed a lot more time, and would have suffered much
more injury.
He won by delivering Wing Chun’s signature punches: they do not use
the hips, but are instead, very fast, rapid-fire left, right punches to
the attacker’s chest, not the belly, not the throat, but the sternum or
solar plexus.
You block the opponent’s attack with one hand and respond with the
other fist straight into his chest, following with the other fist, again
and again, walking into the attacker as you punch. The forward motion
of your whole body adds power, which, coupled with the arm strength of
the average 100 pound woman, results in about 300 pounds of force rammed
repeatedly into the attacker’s chest. The only thing left is to
practice your speed in doing this. 15 punches before the attacker can
react are not unheard of. These punches also have the advantage of
keeping the elbows close to the sides, preventing the attacker from
grabbing the punching arm.
Then there’s the centerline defense versus looping attacks, like a
haymaker or roundhouse kick. The shortest distance between two points
is a straight line, so instead of picking up extra power by swinging
around and twisting the hips, you block the attacker’s strike and
simultaneously throw a front kick straight forward into his belly. This
will take almost anyone off his feet the first time, if you kick as
hard as possible.
The closer range of this method favors a shorter person, like a woman
defending herself against a would-be rapist, etc. The closer the two
people are, the easier it is for the shorter person to invade the reach
of the larger person, effectively penetrating his defense.
This is the most universal style on this list. It is a true hybrid,
incorporating elements of grappling, hard striking, eye gouging, choke
holds, biting, joint locks, as well as the awareness of the defender’s
center of gravity versus the attacker’s center of gravity.
You throw your attacker by lowering your center of gravity under his,
and jerking him over you, or around you. It’s simple and effective.
If he attacks with a weapon, you trap this arm, then deliver a
knife-hand strike to his collarbone, while shoving him backward and
down, locking the weapon wrist and breaking it.
If he throws either a front or roundhouse kick of any kind, he must
stand on the other leg. You sidestep his kick, trap the leg, and
deliver your own kick into his standing knee, breaking it backward, then
whipping him around by his raised leg. He will go down and will be
unlikely to be capable of much retaliation.
If he charges forward and grabs your shirt, you do not move backward.
You move forward and bend down, ram your hip into his midsection, grab
one of his shoulders with one hand, and with the other grab him around
his back, and whip him over your own shoulder, shoving upward with both
legs. A 100 pound woman can do this very easily to a 250 pound man.
You can then trap one of his arms and lock one of its joints while he is
down.
Bruce Lee envisioned “a style without style,” which seems
nonsensical. But try to understand the concept of adaptation. Lee
emphasized this above all: “the worst thing you can do is to anticipate
the outcome of a fight. You ought not to be thinking of anything but
his attack and your response. Clear all other thoughts from your head,
or they will slow you down.”
Thus, you use one stance, the western fencing “en garde” stance.
Remain bouncing on the toes in order to switch from left forward to
right forward foot, to retreat or to advance, to be able to kick with
either leg. Footwork is all-important in a real fight, as it determines
how far you are from the attacker.
Elements of Wing Chun include close-quarters trapping of hands and
feet; no kicks higher than the waist, since kicking higher than this
leaves the groin and standing leg vulnerable; and simultaneous
attack/defense (see #1).
Elements of Jiu-jitsu include body throws and strike deflection.
Emphasis is placed on the speed of strike combinations, and well trained
practitioners can strike the attacker’s throat up to 10 times in one
second.
You’ve heard stories of would-be muggers picking the wrong old man to
mug. The fight typically ends with one swing. That’s all a boxer
needs. In fact, boxers have been imprisoned (wrongfully, in my opinion)
for defending themselves from muggers, murderers, bank robbers, etc.,
on the grounds that their hands are lethal weapons. Boxers throw
punches faster, harder and more accurately than any other trained
fighter on the planet.
This is because boxers train on average for 4 years to do just that:
punch properly. They are not allowed to kick, so their hands are all
they have. Consider that Rocky Marciano knocked out Rex Layne with an
off-balance, out-of-reach right hand, covered with a 16-ounce leather
glove. This punch knocked Layne’s mouthpiece 10 feet across the ring,
out of clenched jaws, and sheared off four of his teeth at the gumline.
Boxers also toughen their bodies religiously, every day, to
strengthen their muscles for endurance and durability. They don’t look
as hulkingly large as bodybuilders, but their muscles are as powerful
and hard as a farmer’s.
They punch, block, bob and weave going forward, and punch, block, bob
and weave going backward. They are drilled relentlessly with the
maxim, “Always protect yourself”. The hands stay on both sides of the
head, the posture crouched so that the whole body is ready for explosive
power, and that the front of the torso is protected by the forearms.
Your target is the side of the chin, which will wrench the attacker’s
head sideways and shut off his brain by pinching the spinal cord in the
neck. His strength and rage do not matter. He will black out
instantaneously.
This hybrid mixes Jiu-jitsu’s standing throws and strikes with ground
fighting, which emphasizes joint manipulation and overall control of
the opponent, effectively ending a fight very quickly. The larger the
attacker, the more easily he can be grappled off his feet, using his
center of gravity against him, and forcing him to submit (or pass out).
Once on the ground, the first thing Brazilian jiu-jitsu teaches is to
seize a limb and break it at a joint: kneebars for snapping knees or
ankles, armbars for snapping elbows and wrists, chokeholds and the use
of the powerful legs to immobilize the attacker’s torso while the
defender ends the fight with fists or elbows to the face.
You’ll see it in Chris Nolan’s Batman films. It was developed by
Justo Dieguez and Andy Norman, based on Dieguez’s street fighting
experiences in Spain. Batman’s method of fighting is understood from
the comic books to require the utmost efficiency, because Batman is a
genius at fighting crime, and will not waste time or effort in putting
criminals away. Ten or twenty bad guys at a time routinely attack him,
and Dieguez and Norman have developed the style to defend against this
many people. It sounds impossible, but after 6 or 7 years of training
in it, which is not too terribly long, anyone can perform all the
necessary moves. You become a self-defense machine.
Nolan looked around for a style of fighting never depicted on screen,
something fast-paced, close-quarters, but quick, dirty and brutal.
Classical Tae Kwon Do is beautiful to watch, but terribly inefficient in
terms of the street fight, in which there are no rules.
The Keysi Method has almost no kicks of any kind. It thrives on
extreme close-quarters combat using every weapon the body can quickly
wield in such a small space: fists, head, knees, and especially the
elbows.
There is only one stance to know, and when you see it one time, you
can do it: “the thinking man,” with the hands clasped on the head, and
the elbows raised to protect the head, neck and upper chest. It looks
like a man holding his head while deep in thought.
It is designed to strike with the sharp elbows, and lots of hammer
fists, which are MUCH more powerful and devastating than straight
punches, because they employ the entire upper body in bringing the
firm, outside muscle, from the root of the little finger to the wrist,
down like a hammer against the target.
This is a hybrid style, using elements of grappling from Jiu-jitsu
and Aikido, ground fighting from Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, close strikes and
centerline defense from Wing Chun, and trapping from Jeet Kune Do. The
Keysi Method teaches its practitioners to defend themselves against any
number of attackers, 5, 10, 20 and even more, with a 360 degree range of
aggression, and to observe all objects in the vicinity for their
potential as weapons.
It is Israel’s national martial art, developed largely by Imi
Lichtenfeld, and dedicated to no-holds-barred incapacitation for the
purpose of street survival. No quarter is expected or given.
It incorporates Western boxing punches, Karate kicks and knees,
Greco-Roman wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu ground fighting, Jiu-jitsu
throws and grappling, and most importantly, “bursting,” adapted from
Wing Chun. This is a simultaneous defense/attack: instead of blocking
an attack and then delivering a response, you block the attack and
deliver a response at the same time, i. e., block with the left arm and
push forward with the legs, striking with the right fist to the throat,
all simultaneously.
Also stressed are attacks to vulnerable body parts: the eyes, throat,
and groin. Attackers can expect testicular ruptures. Emphasis is also
placed on disarming attackers with both knives and handguns, and
turning these weapons on the attacker. It also exclusively trains
hand-eye coordination, until defense becomes second nature and does not
require thought. And a good Krav Maga instructor can teach all of this
to anyone, regardless of athletic prowess, in only 3 to 6 months.
