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Poll: Which is better in self defense?


Which is better for self defense
Western martial arts
17.7% (37)
17.7% (37)
Eastern martial arts
34% (71)
34% (71)
Kicking between the legs and running off
48.3% (101)
48.3% (101)
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Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1166
Joined: 23 Jul 2008

I was just wondering, which type of martial arts is better(or which you prefer).

The poll has broad east/west, but if you have one in specific go ahead.

This is not like Rosst(I can't remember the rest of his name)'s thread. He wanted to know which was best for him. I want your opinion on the whole subject of how one type is better over another.

Beat Writer
Posts: 148
Joined: 5 Nov 2008

Does CQC count as Western...or even as martial arts??

On the Record
Posts: 6994
Joined: 22 Aug 2008

A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2904
Joined: 12 May 2008

B-lockdown080:
Does CQC count as Western...or even as martial arts??

CQC as portrayed in the Metal Gear Solid series is actually a more offensive version of Defendo from Japan.

So Eastern.

Beat Writer
Posts: 148
Joined: 5 Nov 2008

Aries_Split:

B-lockdown080:
Does CQC count as Western...or even as martial arts??

CQC as portrayed in the Metal Gear Solid series is actually a more offensive version of Defendo from Japan.

So Eastern.

Yea but it was really adopted by the us army (i forget which branch but one of them uses a derivitive of it in some way or another) so i guess it could be either one

Muckraker
Posts: 346
Joined: 7 Apr 2008

Talking purely about self defence, your goal is to walk away as uninjured and safe as possible. Taking someone down, or at least stopping them long enough to become somewhere else.

Imma go with Krav Maga. Which I wanna learn cos its so damn cool.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 3310
Joined: 10 Oct 2008

Almost all effective versions of Western Martial Arts are based off of Eastern martial arts. I recently watched a video of a champion level normal Japanese Boxer fight a champion level Muay Thai kick boxer. Guess who got their ass handed to them?

JinxyKatte:

Imma go with Krav Maga. Which I wanna learn cos its so damn cool.

Which is also largely based off of Eastern martial Arts. And yes, it is very damn effective. It is made for subduing and killing people very quickly. It is also unfortunately very hard to find a good place to learn it.

Beat Writer
Posts: 148
Joined: 5 Nov 2008

Amnestic:
A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

*cough* Gun-kata *cough*

Muckraker
Posts: 346
Joined: 7 Apr 2008

B-lockdown080:

Amnestic:
A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

*cough* Gun-kata *cough*

Grammaton Cleric for the extreme win wooo.

Can you tell I love equilibrium.

Pulitzer Laureate
Posts: 741
Joined: 4 Nov 2008

I would recommend the noble ancient art of running like mad from any situation that would require self defence.

Beat Writer
Posts: 148
Joined: 5 Nov 2008

JinxyKatte:

B-lockdown080:

Amnestic:
A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

*cough* Gun-kata *cough*

Grammaton Cleric for the extreme win wooo.

Can you tell I love equilibrium.

Why of course

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 4126
Joined: 23 Apr 2008

Amnestic:
A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

Failing a gun, a knife.

Beat Writer
Posts: 148
Joined: 5 Nov 2008

Doug:

Amnestic:
A gun, assuming you've got a quick trigger finger and aren't looking in the other direction.

Truthfully? Neither. Your best bet is probably a mixture of the two, or not fighting at all.

Failing a gun, a knife.

...and were back to CQC(knife and gun out at the same time)

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 3617
Joined: 7 Aug 2008

There's Western martial arts?!? Call me Naive but I though all martial arts were Eastern...

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 4601
Joined: 25 Feb 2008

needausername:
There's Western martial arts?!? Call me Naive but I though all martial arts were Eastern...

No, there are plenty of western Martial arts. Mostly they fell by the wayside when us enterprising europeans discovered guns. The (current) traditional English martial art is Bartitsu. Although it only dates back to 1898 and has largely been superceded by the Glaswegian kiss.

The Swiss have Schwingen
The Italians called it Italian Swordsmanship (how imaginative)
The French have Savate
The Portugese do Jogo do Pau
The Greeks came up with Pankration in 648BC, clever bastards...

Infamous Scribbler
Posts: 683
Joined: 29 Apr 2008

The difference between western and eastern martial arts is documentation. Training in melee combat is a universal need when combat most often takes place at melee distances. However with the invention of fire arms melee combat training is easily forgotten by any society even ones with a proud martial tradition. In the West the Literate people (monks and merchants) were a different class from the people who maintained martial traditions. Thus the actual training and techniques that we assume to have existed back in the day have been forgotten. The East, especially Japan, has not had this issue since the Samurai class were keepers of both literacy and martial tradition. Thus we see more eastern martial arts not because the easterners were particularly better but because they kept unarmed combat traditions as part of their cultural heritage.

Press Junketeer
Posts: 446
Joined: 20 Aug 2008

the gun martial art is called gun fu- they hold their gun SIDEWAYS (yup gangsters copied)
and empty as many cartridges as possible
I would choose hung gar if you are really going to go and get to fighting, keeping a rooted stance to the ground not a lot of things can or will topple you.

News Room Contributor
Posts: 3897
Joined: 21 Feb 2008

If you're looking for something for solely self-defence then it's actually very simple.

Learn how to kick someone in the balls and then run away

Martial arts, as pretty as they are, often complicate the actual defence of self.

Infamous Scribbler
Posts: 587
Joined: 5 Jun 2008

Well i think the french have the best form of self defense, running away like cowards :P Although being serious (and less insulting to the french) i'd say that eastern martial arts are alot more disciplined focused which is absolutely required for self defense so if you start winning the fight you have the discipline to peg it and not get shot by the gun in the other guys pocket.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2487
Joined: 29 Nov 2007

Huh...I'd probably opt for Krav Maga if I had to pick. Israeli death commandos scare the piss out of me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krav_Maga

Muckraker
Posts: 226
Joined: 18 Aug 2008

axia777:

JinxyKatte:

Imma go with Krav Maga. Which I wanna learn cos its so damn cool.

Which is also largely based off of Eastern martial Arts. And yes, it is very damn effective. It is made for subduing and killing people very quickly. It is also unfortunately very hard to find a good place to learn it.

The original creater of Krav Maga was a Slovakian Jew, and he developed it while defending himself against Nazis and anti-Semites in street fights in the '30s. I'm not seeing much of a connection to eastern martial arts at all.

News Room Contributor
Posts: 3897
Joined: 21 Feb 2008

needausername:
There's Western martial arts?!? Call me Naive but I though all martial arts were Eastern...

The idea that all martial arts are from the East is a complete misconception. Fencing is a martial art in the same way that Judo is, as is boxing.

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 3383
Joined: 29 Jul 2008

What do you count krav maga as?

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2904
Joined: 12 May 2008

Vek:

axia777:

JinxyKatte:

Imma go with Krav Maga. Which I wanna learn cos its so damn cool.

Which is also largely based off of Eastern martial Arts. And yes, it is very damn effective. It is made for subduing and killing people very quickly. It is also unfortunately very hard to find a good place to learn it.

The original creater of Krav Maga was a Slovakian Jew, and he developed it while defending himself against Nazis and anti-Semites in street fights in the '30s. I'm not seeing much of a connection to eastern martial arts at all.

Not even the fact that Slovakia is eastern?

BANNED
Posts: 3780
Joined: 9 Sep 2008

A gun > a knife > Krav Maga > box

Everything else is pretty useless.

<facepalm> Slovakia is not an eastern country. Its east-central eauropean country but its not eastern like China.
Don't make some kind of mongolian barbarians out of eastern europeans, please.

User was banned for: We are all related? a odd little theory. (Permanent)
Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1428
Joined: 18 Sep 2008

crossbow cause those fuckers hurt like hell. get shot anywhere with one of those and you won't be fighting

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1180
Joined: 21 Oct 2008

I'd say Eastern purely because its the only ones that survived to this age, as someone else said European martial arts did exist but became forgotten due to the prevalence of guns.

But even then from a practical point of view the majority of modern Eastern martial arts exist in competitive sport form rather than the original form.

Anyway I think the only difference between martial arts is the fluff they use, they all use the fundamentals. Pressure points, strike points, throwing, locking are essentially the same because humans physiology is the same the only difference is how much theatricals they add to it.

On the Record
Posts: 5949
Joined: 7 Mar 2008

needausername:
There's Western martial arts?!? Call me Naive but I though all martial arts were Eastern...

most comes from greece, the story goes like this

Alexander and his men liked to do pancration, they travelled to India, the Indians liked the idea of pancration, they adapted it into kalaripayattu, Bodhidharma took this art to China and taught the monks of Shaolin and they turned it into kung fu

everything else came from there

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 2770
Joined: 13 Feb 2008

Well, as far as unarmed stuff goes, there's this one Russian style that's crazy effective at disarming and the like. It's name escapes me.

Generally though, western stuff is the best self-defense you can do without being a super-expert in eastern martial arts. Most eastern martial arts don't teach much second intention until late in training, and most western stuff teaches it straight off. Trickiness usually wins the fight.

Edit:

nilcypher:

needausername:
There's Western martial arts?!? Call me Naive but I though all martial arts were Eastern...

The idea that all martial arts are from the East is a complete misconception. Fencing is a martial art in the same way that Judo is, as is boxing.

Hooray, it's finally acknowledged!

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1600
Joined: 1 Nov 2008

It depends on what you're used to doing really. I always thought there were loads more Eastern styles over Western styles, so surely that means there's more choice for Eastern.
Plus, martial arts is an eastern invention, so they know their stuff when it comes to this...

Gone Gonzo
Posts: 1225
Joined: 13 Dec 2007

nilcypher:

Learn how to kick someone in the balls and then run away

I've taken a 2-week period of Jujutsu as part of my high school gym class, and during the practicing of techniques, a great deal of importance was placed on not getting kicked in the balls.

A kickboxing stance has the body turned slightly so that one foot is in front of you, and one foot is behind. This stance makes it difficult for someone to kick you in the balls. I don't know what kind of stances other martial arts use, but they most likely have some stance/technique for defending against such an obvious weak point.

So if some chav on the street has a cursory knowledge of martial arts/a cup, exploiting the weakness of Freddy and the twins might not be that easy.

Infamous Scribbler
Posts: 544
Joined: 10 Jul 2008

Krav Maga. If you are within 15 feet of an unarmed Israeli soldier, you're fucked.

News Room Contributor
Posts: 3897
Joined: 21 Feb 2008

Jharry5:

Plus, martial arts is an eastern invention, so they know their stuff when it comes to this...

Unless the concept of fighting originated in the Far East, you're utterly wrong there. Any systematic form of combat, be it Wing Chun or Jousting, can be considered a martial art.

EDIT: I may have added a new option to your poll.

EDIT 2:

Duck Sandwich:

nilcypher:

Learn how to kick someone in the balls and then run away

I've taken a 2-week period of Jujutsu as part of my high school gym class, and during the practicing of techniques, a great deal of importance was placed on not getting kicked in the balls.

A kickboxing stance has the body turned slightly so that one foot is in front of you, and one foot is behind. This stance makes it difficult for someone to kick you in the balls. I don't know what kind of stances other martial arts use, but they most likely have some stance/technique for defending against such an obvious weak point.

So if some chav on the street has a cursory knowledge of martial arts/a cup, exploiting the weakness of Freddy and the twins might not be that easy.

You raise a good point, but if we're going to start playing the what if game, any form of defence can be broken down. Besides, if kicking in the balls doesn't work, jam your heel into the top of his foot, hard. The small bones are very easy to break and it will make running away all the more easy.

Press Junketeer
Posts: 469
Joined: 18 Oct 2008

I have been looking at Krav Maga on Wikipedia, and I find myself asking, "what's the big deal?" It really doesn't seem that different from other martial arts. Am I looking in the wrong place?

Muckraker
Posts: 344
Joined: 8 Feb 2008

Eastern Martial arts that have been modified, or further still made into sports, are probably the best, the are designed to be easy to pick up the basics but hard to master. This allows the user to have an advantage in a street fight against a lay-opponent even if they haven't spent decades learning the intricate technicalities of wha every joint and muscle should be doing.

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