Article was originally published on Handerick.
Martial Arts are modified systems and traditions of combat practiced for a number of reasons such as self-defense.
Today more and more people are beginning to discover how useful Martial Arts can be for self-defense situations. The various styles of Martial arts include Krav Maga, Boxing, Jujutsu, Muay Thai, Karate, Tae-kwon-do, Aikido, and much more.
Men have been developing a long history of the war that shows how violent human is. However, it seems that women were born to repress these bad things.
Men should learn to protect their family and what they love, so they create a tool named “self-defense” to avoid a real war. Depending on the environment, culture, and human that self-defense martial arts will be different and vary in form, effectiveness, and purpose.
There are many useful martial arts that train self-defense techniques, for example, Jujutsu is simple and straight to the point. But Shaolin martial art is much more beautiful and somehow having redundant movements.
When looking to take martial arts it is really tough to know which one to take. The question to ask is what is the best martial art for self-defense?
If you are in a fight with one person then Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the martial art where you can defeat much larger opponents.
Let’s say you have to defend yourself against multiple attackers and taking someone to the ground is not feasible then we suggest training in MMA. Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
MMA is an abbreviation for “Mixed Martial Arts”, and has risen in popularity as of late. MMA isn’t just about fighting in the UFC; it actually has many practical self-defense techniques because it takes the best of every martial art technique and blends them together.
This type of training gives the fighter a wide array of styles and techniques that they can use in a fighting style competition. MMA is great for self-defense situations because you learn all forms of fighting. In MMA you’ll train standup fighting, ground-and-pound, grappling, and more.
Which Martial Art Should I Learn for Self Defense?
All of the martial arts listed above would be great for training self-defense techniques. It’s now up for you to decide which martial art (or a combination of martial arts) would be best for your specific goals.
If your goal is to become a professional MMA fighter, then you’ll probably want to learn a mixture of BJJ, Boxing, Muay Thai, and Wrestling.
There are hundreds of self-defense, however, I will review some in my memory. They are not the best but at least have repute in the community.
1.Krav Maga
The literal Hebrew translation of Krav Maga is “battle contact”, and that’s as good of a description you’re going to get for Krav Maga from me.
It was developed by the Israeli Defense Force to be used in real-life combat situations; so basically, this was developed for self-defense situations in mind.
In addition to punches, kicks, and throws, Krav Maga teaches real-life scenarios like how to disarm an attacker. Rubber knives and guns will make appearances in your training sessions.
Krav Maga training sessions aren’t for the faint of heart, and it requires a lot of effort and patience.
2. Boxing
Boxing, or better known as the sweet science, is a great form of self-defense. Believe it or not, Boxing is one of the original “martial arts”.
Not only is Boxing great for self-defense, but it’s also highly effective in MMA as well, teaching fighters head movement and footwork technique.
Boxing and Muay Thai are great for self-defense because their techniques are simple but dangerous that aims to weakness point of opponents.
Training Boxing allows to you get more knowledge in self-defense in the short term (such as 6 months training time).
Although boxing is great for self-defense, I personally would prefer Muay Thai training as you would know more about the clinch and have a longer striking range.
3. Jujutsu
Many of today’s popular martial arts styles including Judo, Aikido and Brazilian JiuJitsu are derivatives of Jujutsu.
It’s been so influential on modern martial arts that a list of the most effective styles likely wouldn’t exist without it.
This ancient martial art was developed by the Japanese and taught as one of the foundational fighting techniques of samurais.
The samurai were deadly with weapons, like the sword and bow, but if they were ever disarmed, they needed a way to defend them.
Jujutsu was developed to help these fierce warriors if they found themselves without a weapon.
Because of the armor’s heavy and perfect defense, Japanese has to find a way to exploit these weaknesses. For example, throwing these armed Samurais will effectively break their bone once their body contacting the ground.
4. Muay Thai
Muay Thai is a Thai martial arts style and has extremely deep roots in the country. The fighting style is Thailand’s national sport and its cultural martial art.
Muay Thai experienced an almost Darwin-like evolution. The deadly martial arts style was passed down from older soldiers and fathers to the younger generation.
As Thailand is completely surrounded by other countries, the nations were under constant attack.
Out of these countless battles, the weaker fighters were killed off and the strong fighters survived. Out of this, only the best Muay Thai was passed down to the next generation.
Over the years, the deadly martial arts style became more and more powerful
Conclusion
Learning how to handle yourself in a physical conflict is one of the most important skills you can have.
I recommend you try a few different martial arts styles before committing to one. There are so many martial arts in the world but these are the top 6 that we think would best prepare you to defend yourself.
Some of them will involve high intense training, therefore making sure that you know how to recover your body.
The martial arts listed train your mind and body to repel attacks or take the offensive to stop anyone trying to hurt you. Many of these martial arts you can become really good at in 6 months to a few years.
