What kind of martial arts/self defense system would you recommend to me?

[senseiblackbelt]

tbh if i were you id go for karate or kickboxing or boxing. there both good self defense techniques

 

[Juany118]

For people just looking for self defense I tend to suggest Krav Maga. It has one of the easiest learning curves out there for a formalized MA. Heck I had an instructor (took it for a bit) correct me and say "it's not a martial art it's a fighting system" because it was specifically designed to be easy to digest. It also incorporates a fair amount of "dirty fighting" which is useful for people lacking in raw strength and, if your instructor is any good, includes stress training because all the skill in the world means Jack if you can't apply said skill under stress inna fight.

 

[Don Johnson]

If you're keen for primarily a self defence system, look into SPEAR System, a method I think highly of. Let us know what you make of it. Decide from there if you like it or not, of course it's an individual thing

SPEAR system is excellent and specifically for street self-defense. So is Target Focus Training, and my own system, Protective Tactics 101.

More importantly, you have already positioned yourself as a victim. You are only 30 years old. Sounds like you are more likely to die prematurely due to a lack of knowledge and action concerning your mental, emotional, and physical health than a violent assault. Life is a struggle. Time to fight for what you want. Nobody wants to feel weak and unsafe. Today is the first day of the rest of your life. So life has knocked you down. You want to learn how to defend yourself? Start now. Get up!

You up? I hope so. Right now, where you stand, bend your knees and drop your butt a bit. Look, there you are, down again, just a bit. You are down, but you are not out. That's just like life, now stand up again! Those are called squats. Do it 20 times. Do it again tomorrow. As you get stronger, drop lower, deeper.

Now go outside for a walk. As you walk, look out at a distance. Pay attention to what is around you, both near and far. Now have a tall glass of water. Do those things every day. Start with that, everyday for 21 days, then you can reach out to me for the next step.

 

[Paul_D]

Self defnce isn't about waiting until you get attacked at a train station (or anywhere else for that matter) and then fighting back. It's about avioding being selected as a victim in the first palce, that way the chances that you will ever even need a phsycially response are greatly diminished.

Think about teaching a child to cross the road. You don’t teach them to wait to get hit by a car and then stuntman role over the bonnet, you teach them to avoid getting hit by the car in the first place. If you are interested in self defence, you need to concentrate on the 99% of skills which are non physical as these are the ones that will help you avoid being selected as a victim.

The problem with most martial artists is they only have that physcial solution, and becasue they don't have the non physcial skills, they concentate only on the point when they **** has hit the fan and they've been atatcked.

 

[BJJCop]

Guys this is real, this actually happened last week to a good friend of mine who is a phenomenal martial artist. Studied (still does) Kali, BJJ, Boxing for 10 years onwards. After seeing Paul D's comment there I shot online. My good friend was assaulted, even with all that experience, he was absolutely messed up by a 2-3 junkies. He told me exactly how it happened, being an LEO, I went straight to support him afterwards from the goodness of my heart. He was the only one out of an entire crowd. To be noticed as unaware (the attackers were stealing/mugging). He had his hood up, earphones in, looking down at his phone - exactly as he described. Got approached, knocked in the face, kicked, smashed in the head. Put on the floor and was so startled, shocked, his world rocked etc. He described that there was nothing he could do, and detailed that if he had heard them, he'd of smashed them. I quote.

 

[Self Defense Mentor]

Hello, I am new to this forum and yours was the first question to catch my eye. I hope that what I have to offer can help you.

First off, I think it is great that you are extensively looking into different types of training with an emphasis on finding a street-applicable art to study.

Now to address the matter of martial arts in the context of self defense. The most mentioned art on this thread, clearly, is Krav Maga. KM was designed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli Defense Forces. It is definitely a powerful system of defense born from a mixture of boxing, wrestling, gymnastic, and military styles. If you like, here's the link to my source, just in case:

Krav Maga Federation - Origin & History of Krav Maga; Israeli self-defense and hand-to-hand combat

While it is surely effective, I do not recommend Krav Maga to most people for one reason: it is very hard to train safely! Every training video and article that I find on it is exceptionally violent; I certainly wouldn't want to train with a friend, as it is simply too hard to train effectiveness while maintaining a sense of common decency. That creates a couple problems: not enjoying training time (which discourages training at all), not being able to train at street intensity (bad real-world reflexes), and overall it simply will not enrich your life, which is what good art will do. You should be able to have fun training to get the best of it.

As far as other, less specialized martial arts go (i.e. boxing, kick boxing, karate, wing chun), I have a few comments. First, I will not deny, by any means, that most of these arts utilize some technique that will be helpful in a street situation. Their biggest problem is that Every. Last. One of them puts you in the Red Zone, that space between you and your attacker that is within range of punches or kicks from either of you. That is the area that they operate in, where they are supposed to work. Like I said: sure, it might work; we've seen many grand masters that have been successful with them. But they DO NOT WORK SAFELY! I cannot emphasize that point enough.

I hope you want to train in a martial art that is not only street-applicable, but safe and enjoyable as well. For this, I can recommend only one martial art: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, there is a difference between Gracie and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They were developed by the same man, Helio Gracie, in Brazil. He need a better methodology than what he studied before (which was Japanese Jiu-Jitsu), so he created his own system based upon leverage and survivability. However, "Brazilian" Jiu-Jitsu is the branch that took off as a sport, or competitive, art. That inherently grew problems, such as fighting for points verses fighting to survive. That's why the Gracie Family moved the operation into the United States: to teach Jiu-Jitsu as an art of self defense, which was its original intention.

I study with the Gracies online, at Gracie University. Jener and Jyron Gracie, Helio's eldest grandsons, have put the whole curriculum online; from white to black belt and beyond. For kids, there's the Bullyproof system, for women, Women Empowered, and Survival Tactics for law enforcement. The fact of the matter is that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective art in the world for both self defense and chaos control. That's why, last year, 16 officers from United Nations Security Force adopted GJJ in a GST session held at UN headquarters in New York.

Source: United Nations Experiences Gracie Jiu-Jitsu - Gracie News

A practitioner of almost a year, I can testify to the power and control of this art. I know that in a street fight, I will never have to throw a single punch to deescalate a situation, and I can control someone 50 pounds bigger than me with the power of leverage. Those are the two greatest aspects of GJJ, leverage and control. I might add that Helio, at age 95, was still rolling around on the mats with top MMA fighters; he could only due this through the energy efficiency and leverage of his art.

It's like Grandmaster Helio used to say: if you walk away from a fight without losing, then you've won! You don't have to beat someone up to win a fight, you just have to survive.

Here's the University landing page. I hope you look a little deeper into the Gracies, they truly are incredible.

GRACIE UNIVERSITY: Global Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Instruction – Straight From The Source.

Also, I just started a blog all about self defense. If you like, you can check me out at selfdefensementor.com I am still in the process of setting up the site, but I've got a couple posts going live soon. I have a form for my newsletter you can sign up for on the site if you want to find out more from me.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about my reply.

Cheers!

 

[kuniggety]

Hello, I am new to this forum and yours was the first question to catch my eye. I hope that what I have to offer can help you.

First off, I think it is great that you are extensively looking into different types of training with an emphasis on finding a street-applicable art to study.

Now to address the matter of martial arts in the context of self defense. The most mentioned art on this thread, clearly, is Krav Maga. KM was designed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli Defense Forces. It is definitely a powerful system of defense born from a mixture of boxing, wrestling, gymnastic, and military styles. If you like, here's the link to my source, just in case:

Krav Maga Federation - Origin & History of Krav Maga; Israeli self-defense and hand-to-hand combat

While it is surely effective, I do not recommend Krav Maga to most people for one reason: it is very hard to train safely! Every training video and article that I find on it is exceptionally violent; I certainly wouldn't want to train with a friend, as it is simply too hard to train effectiveness while maintaining a sense of common decency. That creates a couple problems: not enjoying training time (which discourages training at all), not being able to train at street intensity (bad real-world reflexes), and overall it simply will not enrich your life, which is what good art will do. You should be able to have fun training to get the best of it.

As far as other, less specialized martial arts go (i.e. boxing, kick boxing, karate, wing chun), I have a few comments. First, I will not deny, by any means, that most of these arts utilize some technique that will be helpful in a street situation. Their biggest problem is that Every. Last. One of them puts you in the Red Zone, that space between you and your attacker that is within range of punches or kicks from either of you. That is the area that they operate in, where they are supposed to work. Like I said: sure, it might work; we've seen many grand masters that have been successful with them. But they DO NOT WORK SAFELY! I cannot emphasize that point enough.

I hope you want to train in a martial art that is not only street-applicable, but safe and enjoyable as well. For this, I can recommend only one martial art: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, there is a difference between Gracie and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They were developed by the same man, Helio Gracie, in Brazil. He need a better methodology than what he studied before (which was Japanese Jiu-Jitsu), so he created his own system based upon leverage and survivability. However, "Brazilian" Jiu-Jitsu is the branch that took off as a sport, or competitive, art. That inherently grew problems, such as fighting for points verses fighting to survive. That's why the Gracie Family moved the operation into the United States: to teach Jiu-Jitsu as an art of self defense, which was its original intention.

I study with the Gracies online, at Gracie University. Jener and Jyron Gracie, Helio's eldest grandsons, have put the whole curriculum online; from white to black belt and beyond. For kids, there's the Bullyproof system, for women, Women Empowered, and Survival Tactics for law enforcement. The fact of the matter is that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective art in the world for both self defense and chaos control. That's why, last year, 16 officers from United Nations Security Force adopted GJJ in a GST session held at UN headquarters in New York.

Source: United Nations Experiences Gracie Jiu-Jitsu - Gracie News

A practitioner of almost a year, I can testify to the power and control of this art. I know that in a street fight, I will never have to throw a single punch to deescalate a situation, and I can control someone 50 pounds bigger than me with the power of leverage. Those are the two greatest aspects of GJJ, leverage and control. I might add that Helio, at age 95, was still rolling around on the mats with top MMA fighters; he could only due this through the energy efficiency and leverage of his art.

It's like Grandmaster Helio used to say: if you walk away from a fight without losing, then you've won! You don't have to beat someone up to win a fight, you just have to survive.

Here's the University landing page. I hope you look a little deeper into the Gracies, they truly are incredible.

GRACIE UNIVERSITY: Global Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Instruction – Straight From The Source.

Also, I just started a blog all about self defense. If you like, you can check me out at selfdefensementor.com I am still in the process of setting up the site, but I've got a couple posts going live soon. I have a form for my newsletter you can sign up for on the site if you want to find out more from me.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about my reply.

Cheers!

I'm a big BJJ guy and have studied the material taught through GU online and put about 40 hrs on the matts at a school teaching that particular curriculum. It's a flavor of all the same art. I love what Rener and Ryron have done, providing great video instruction, but you seem to have drunk the kool-aid a bit too much. It's all JJ... Just different flavors and Helio was ONE of the founders of GJJ/BJJ. His older brother is widely regarded as the patriarch of the family and Luis Franca and Oswaldo Fadda did just as much to develop and teach the art.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hello, I am new to this forum and yours was the first question to catch my eye. I hope that what I have to offer can help you.

First off, I think it is great that you are extensively looking into different types of training with an emphasis on finding a street-applicable art to study.

Now to address the matter of martial arts in the context of self defense. The most mentioned art on this thread, clearly, is Krav Maga. KM was designed by Imi Lichtenfeld for the Israeli Defense Forces. It is definitely a powerful system of defense born from a mixture of boxing, wrestling, gymnastic, and military styles. If you like, here's the link to my source, just in case:

Krav Maga Federation - Origin & History of Krav Maga; Israeli self-defense and hand-to-hand combat

While it is surely effective, I do not recommend Krav Maga to most people for one reason: it is very hard to train safely! Every training video and article that I find on it is exceptionally violent; I certainly wouldn't want to train with a friend, as it is simply too hard to train effectiveness while maintaining a sense of common decency. That creates a couple problems: not enjoying training time (which discourages training at all), not being able to train at street intensity (bad real-world reflexes), and overall it simply will not enrich your life, which is what good art will do. You should be able to have fun training to get the best of it.

As far as other, less specialized martial arts go (i.e. boxing, kick boxing, karate, wing chun), I have a few comments. First, I will not deny, by any means, that most of these arts utilize some technique that will be helpful in a street situation. Their biggest problem is that Every. Last. One of them puts you in the Red Zone, that space between you and your attacker that is within range of punches or kicks from either of you. That is the area that they operate in, where they are supposed to work. Like I said: sure, it might work; we've seen many grand masters that have been successful with them. But they DO NOT WORK SAFELY! I cannot emphasize that point enough.

I hope you want to train in a martial art that is not only street-applicable, but safe and enjoyable as well. For this, I can recommend only one martial art: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Yes, there is a difference between Gracie and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They were developed by the same man, Helio Gracie, in Brazil. He need a better methodology than what he studied before (which was Japanese Jiu-Jitsu), so he created his own system based upon leverage and survivability. However, "Brazilian" Jiu-Jitsu is the branch that took off as a sport, or competitive, art. That inherently grew problems, such as fighting for points verses fighting to survive. That's why the Gracie Family moved the operation into the United States: to teach Jiu-Jitsu as an art of self defense, which was its original intention.

I study with the Gracies online, at Gracie University. Jener and Jyron Gracie, Helio's eldest grandsons, have put the whole curriculum online; from white to black belt and beyond. For kids, there's the Bullyproof system, for women, Women Empowered, and Survival Tactics for law enforcement. The fact of the matter is that Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the most effective art in the world for both self defense and chaos control. That's why, last year, 16 officers from United Nations Security Force adopted GJJ in a GST session held at UN headquarters in New York.

Source: United Nations Experiences Gracie Jiu-Jitsu - Gracie News

A practitioner of almost a year, I can testify to the power and control of this art. I know that in a street fight, I will never have to throw a single punch to deescalate a situation, and I can control someone 50 pounds bigger than me with the power of leverage. Those are the two greatest aspects of GJJ, leverage and control. I might add that Helio, at age 95, was still rolling around on the mats with top MMA fighters; he could only due this through the energy efficiency and leverage of his art.

It's like Grandmaster Helio used to say: if you walk away from a fight without losing, then you've won! You don't have to beat someone up to win a fight, you just have to survive.

Here's the University landing page. I hope you look a little deeper into the Gracies, they truly are incredible.

GRACIE UNIVERSITY: Global Gracie Jiu-Jitsu Instruction – Straight From The Source.

Also, I just started a blog all about self defense. If you like, you can check me out at selfdefensementor.com I am still in the process of setting up the site, but I've got a couple posts going live soon. I have a form for my newsletter you can sign up for on the site if you want to find out more from me.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about my reply.

Cheers!

Hi Nic,

Hmm… yeah, I have quite a number of questions and concerns about your reply… but I'm going to hold off for a moment, and instead invite you to visit our Meet and Greet area (Meet & Greet), and tell us something about yourself… for example, what is your background other than online study?

Thanks, and welcome aboard.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

While it is surely effective, I do not recommend Krav Maga to most people for one reason: it is very hard to train safely! Every training video and article that I find on it is exceptionally violent; I certainly wouldn't want to train with a friend, as it is simply too hard to train effectiveness while maintaining a sense of common decency. That creates a couple problems: not enjoying training time (which discourages training at all), not being able to train at street intensity (bad real-world reflexes), and overall it simply will not enrich your life, which is what good art will do. You should be able to have fun training to get the best of it.

Have you ever actually trained in Krav Maga or are you just making assumptions based on reading articles and watching videos? I'm pretty certain there a Krav practitioners out there who will tell you that they enjoy their training and that they train safely.

Yes, there is a difference between Gracie and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. They were developed by the same man, Helio Gracie, in Brazil. He need a better methodology than what he studied before (which was Japanese Jiu-Jitsu), so he created his own system based upon leverage and survivability. However, "Brazilian" Jiu-Jitsu is the branch that took off as a sport, or competitive, art. That inherently grew problems, such as fighting for points verses fighting to survive. That's why the Gracie Family moved the operation into the United States: to teach Jiu-Jitsu as an art of self defense, which was its original intention.

I'm afraid you've bought into Rener's advertising spin, so let me offer some corrections:

Helio Gracie did not single-handedly develop BJJ/GJJ. That was a collective effort starting with Carlos Gracie, Helio Gracie, George Gracie, Luis Franca, and Oswaldo Fadda in the first generation and continuing on with many more Gracie and non-Gracie practitioners in subsequent generations.

BJJ and GJJ are not separate arts. In the beginning, it was just "jiu-jitsu" as taught by Mitsuyo Maeda to Carlos Gracie, Luis Franca, and others. (Maeda was actually a judo practitioner, but at that time some judo practitioners still used the "jiu-jitsu" moniker.) For years, Helio Gracie claimed that he and his brothers were the only ones teaching the true unarmed art of the samurai as passed down to them through Maeda and that Judo was a watered down version created by the Japanese to fool foreigners.. To the best of my knowledge it was only after his brothers passed away that he started claiming that he had single-handedly developed the art by improving on what Maeda had taught to Carlos.

When Rorion Gracie moved to the U.S., he trademarked the name "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" and threatened legal action against other family members who used that term. Eventually the trademark was overturned in court after a court battle with Carley Gracie who was teaching in the U.S. under the "Gracie Jiu-Jitsu" banner before Rorion was. In the meantime, "BJJ" became the default blanket term for the art since most instructors didn't want to deal with litigation threats.

Every school and every instructor of BJJ has their own emphasis. Some focus more on self-defense application, some focus on vale tudo/MMA, some focus on pure grappling competition. Many include all three aspects. Rener and Ryron emphasize teaching the combative aspects first before moving on to the pure sport applications of the art, but they are far from the only teachers to do so. I myself teach the same way, although my rank comes through the Carlson Gracie lineage.

I study with the Gracies online, at Gracie University. Jener and Jyron Gracie, Helio's eldest grandsons, have put the whole curriculum online; from white to black belt and beyond.

Actually, they're only up to blue belt stripe 3 at this point. They've stated their intention to eventually have lessons for the entire curriculum up through black belt, but at the current rate of progress it will take them years to get there. (BTW - it's Rener and Ryron.)

A practitioner of almost a year, I can testify to the power and control of this art. I know that in a street fight, I will never have to throw a single punch to deescalate a situation, and I can control someone 50 pounds bigger than me with the power of leverage

I would caution against overconfidence based on spending a year drilling some video lessons with whatever buddies you have available to train with. You've barely scratched the surface of the art and you aren't really to the point yet of knowing what you don't know.

 

[Self Defense Mentor]

Thanks for everyone's input! I'd like to address a couple responses, so bear with me.

When I talked about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu I understand that my summary was very generalized. Of course, I know that many other practitioners were just as much, if not more, involved with developing the system as Helio was, I just put him up as a good representative of the art. Also, I agree with you guys that GJJ and BJJ are so similar it's hard to even tell them apart. I was just thinking about the philosophical standpoint in training--not very substantial, I know, but I feel it's an important aspect of self defense. Thanks so much for correcting me, I wouldn't want to mislead anyone.

Have you ever actually trained in Krav Maga or are you just making assumptions based on reading articles and watching videos? I'm pretty certain there a Krav practitioners out there who will tell you that they enjoy their training and that they train safely.

I definitely don't mean to come off as an expert on Krav Maga, and surely not a hypocrite who has only read or watched videos. I have trained for a few short months locally with a small group that has experience in a couple different arts. I certainly don't have a great amount of experience myself, but yes I do read and watch a lot trying to learn. If you think my post is misleading I'll definitely edit it to reflect that (if I can, I'm still trying to figure out how the forum system works). And you're quite right, their names are spelled with R's, I don't know how I missed that. As far as the curriculum goes, that is absolutely my fault; I'm afraid I really misrepresented their system with that. I apologize for the discrepancy.

As far as my experience in GJJ goes, I plan on taking my blue belt test in another month or so. While I would not regard myself as an authority on it, I feel that I have a quantifiable base in it--at least enough to share my thoughts on the subject.

The bottom line: I really appreciate your comments and for pointing out the holes in my argument. That's truly invaluable for revealing the truth. But I hope you keep in mind that I am also an MA practitioner and learner just the same as everyone else. I am merely pointing out what I think and trying to gather some feedback from everyone else, because I realize that I am inexperienced and in need of training.

Thanks again.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

I definitely don't mean to come off as an expert on Krav Maga, and surely not a hypocrite who has only read or watched videos. I have trained for a few short months locally with a small group that has experience in a couple different arts. I certainly don't have a great amount of experience myself, but yes I do read and watch a lot trying to learn.

So this local group included some Krav Maga training?

Anyway, my point is that any art can be trained safely, although how you do that can depend on the art. As far as whether an art is fun, that's a subjective thing which varies with the individual. I love doing BJJ, but some people don't enjoy it at all.

If you think my post is misleading I'll definitely edit it to reflect that (if I can, I'm still trying to figure out how the forum system works).

The forum gives you a short time window to edit posts after making them - just enough to hopefully catch typos. After that, whatever you wrote is permanent.

As far as my experience in GJJ goes, I plan on taking my blue belt test in another month or so.

I don't know if you saw the announcement earlier this week. GU will no longer be awarding blue belts through online testing. The material from the initial 36 lessons will culminate in testing for a "combatives belt" (white with a blue stripe) for demonstrating the combatives curriculum in accordance with their technical standards. Testing for blue belt and higher will have to be done in person at a Certified Training Center(CTC) and will include live sparring/rolling. (This update also affects students who attend the Gracie Academy in person. Previously they just worked on the Combatives program through white belt and only started sparring when they reached blue belt. Now they will have to complete the Combatives curriculum and then get 6-12 months experience with live sparring/rolling before they test for blue.)

But I hope you keep in mind that I am also an MA practitioner and learner just the same as everyone else. I am merely pointing out what I think and trying to gather some feedback from everyone else, because I realize that I am inexperienced and in need of training.

That's cool. You'll definitely get some feedback from the folks around here. Hopefully that feedback won't be too harsh. Just a heads up - I know you're enthusiastic about what you're studying, but you will probably get better reactions if you focus more on asking questions and commenting just from your personal experience rather than opinions you've gleaned through reading. This forum has a fair number of members who have been training for decades in a variety of martial arts. I myself have been training for 35 years (about 16 or 17 years in BJJ), and I'm far from the most senior person here. Some of them get grouchy when people make hasty generalizations about their arts based on limited exposure.

 

[kuniggety]

I don't know if you saw the announcement earlier this week. GU will no longer be awarding blue belts through online testing. The material from the initial 36 lessons will culminate in testing for a "combatives belt" (white with a blue stripe) for demonstrating the combatives curriculum in accordance with their technical standards. Testing for blue belt and higher will have to be done in person at a Certified Training Center(CTC) and will include live sparring/rolling. (This update also affects students who attend the Gracie Academy in person. Previously they just worked on the Combatives program through white belt and only started sparring when they reached blue belt. Now they will have to complete the Combatives curriculum and then get 6-12 months experience with live sparring/rolling before they test for blue.)

I actually hadn't seen that yet. I think it's a good move on their part. It might produce some grumbling but I think in the long run it will keep the expectations more aligned with what most other BJJ schools expect before handing out a blue belt.

 

[kuniggety]

It's too late to edit my last post but I went and found the announcement (i.e. Actually read my e-mail) and saw how it was really connected to bringing Rickson Gracie on board. He was vocally opposed before to what Rener and Ryron had done to the blue belt. He always referred to a blue belt as a "tough guy" who earned the rank through the trials and tribulations of sparring. I wonder if Rickson will push the system any in his affiliation. My old school where I earned my blue belt, Axis, was a Rickson Gracie affiliate school. I remember hearing rumors before I left of him pushing a white belt with blue stripe as a step gap to blue since it typically took a person a couple to few years to earn a blue belt in his affiliation.

 

[Juany118]

My only issue with Mentor on BJJ is that any open hand art is going to put you in the "Red Zone". Once you get a "non-ground fighter" on the ground BJJ certainly comes into its own but until you get them down, you are in the Red Zone.

There is also another issue, not just with BJJ but any art that gets you into trapping/grappling range, that I see but Tony can feel free to correct me if he feels I exaggerate. Kali and WC both spend a fair amount of time in this range when open handed. When doing the Medio and Corto Hubud drills in Kali (12-6 strike and elbow strike respectively) I see fellow practitioners all the time being outside of effective striking range. It gets on my nerves a bit because, especially with the Corto Hubud, if you are not in the actual striking range, with elbows practically nose to nose, you don't have the proper spacing to appreciate just how narrow the window is for a check or gunting.

What's the point of the above? People from different cultures have different ideas of personal space. As an example the average accepted personal space in the US is 4 feet, compared to 2-3 feet in Europe. If you chose BJJ be sure that you can overcome this issue. Its certainly doable BUT its something that imo still needs to be considered.

 

[Chris Parker]

Hmm…

Okay, I was trying to be gentle and a bit accommodating initially, rather than take your incredibly flawed initial post to pieces… but Tony has done a bit of that already (bit odd… we're kinda switching positions there… hmm…), so…

Thanks for everyone's input! I'd like to address a couple responses, so bear with me.

When I talked about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu I understand that my summary was very generalized. Of course, I know that many other practitioners were just as much, if not more, involved with developing the system as Helio was, I just put him up as a good representative of the art. Also, I agree with you guys that GJJ and BJJ are so similar it's hard to even tell them apart. I was just thinking about the philosophical standpoint in training--not very substantial, I know, but I feel it's an important aspect of self defense. Thanks so much for correcting me, I wouldn't want to mislead anyone.

GJJ is BJJ… not "so similar it's hard to even tell them apart"… Gracie Jiujitsu, very simply, IS Brazilian Jiujitsu… it's just not the only form. Saying "it's hard to tell them apart" is like saying it's hard to tell the difference between Shotokan and karate. You don't want to mislead people? Don't prematurely put yourself out as an expert or reliable source when you don't have the experience or knowledge.

I definitely don't mean to come off as an expert on Krav Maga, and surely not a hypocrite who has only read or watched videos. I have trained for a few short months locally with a small group that has experience in a couple different arts. I certainly don't have a great amount of experience myself, but yes I do read and watch a lot trying to learn. If you think my post is misleading I'll definitely edit it to reflect that (if I can, I'm still trying to figure out how the forum system works). And you're quite right, their names are spelled with R's, I don't know how I missed that. As far as the curriculum goes, that is absolutely my fault; I'm afraid I really misrepresented their system with that. I apologize for the discrepancy.

So you have basically no experience with much of anything you're critiquing or commenting on? To the point that the very little you have some tiny experience with, you go ahead and misspell the names of the teachers, and misrepresent what's actually taught? This is leading in one direction, and you might not like it much…

As far as my experience in GJJ goes, I plan on taking my blue belt test in another month or so. While I would not regard myself as an authority on it, I feel that I have a quantifiable base in it--at least enough to share my thoughts on the subject.

No. You're barely out of your swaddling clutch. You have little knowledge to share. You can certainly comment based on the fact that you have a very small amount of experience, but everything you say should be prefaced with that fact.

The bottom line: I really appreciate your comments and for pointing out the holes in my argument. That's truly invaluable for revealing the truth. But I hope you keep in mind that I am also an MA practitioner and learner just the same as everyone else. I am merely pointing out what I think and trying to gather some feedback from everyone else, because I realize that I am inexperienced and in need of training.

Thanks again.

Here's my feedback for you.

You're a 19 year old kid. You have, by your comments here, a "couple of months with some guys who trained in a few things" (paraphrasing), so no coherent or formal education at all, combined with a short amount of online-only training with the Gracie's system. Yet, remarkably, you've decided you're already in a position to be offering advice to complete strangers here and with your blog (read the one post you have up already, by the way… frankly, you don't know what you're talking about, as the entire post is based on an incomplete understanding of the situations presented, as well as an incomplete understanding of the tactic you advise…), have named yourself "Self Defense Mentor", and aim to appear informative. You're not.

Really, you admit you know you're inexperienced and in need of training… but you still want to present yourself in that fashion? Can you see how that will come across to people who have been involved in this area far longer than you've been alive, let alone how long you've been "training" and reading? What is wrong with just being a student, just learning? What's the need to be seen as some kind of authority, when you're so clearly not one?

Frankly, my recommendation is to change your name on the forum, deep-six the blog site. They're only going to lead to issues.

 

[Tez3]

while maintaining a sense of common decency.

Ooo do they rip each other's clothes off then? haven't tried KM, perhaps I should be looking for my local place to train.......... just to watch you understand so I get a better sense of the style.

 

[Self Defense Mentor]

That's cool. You'll definitely get some feedback from the folks around here. Hopefully that feedback won't be too harsh. Just a heads up - I know you're enthusiastic about what you're studying, but you will probably get better reactions if you focus more on asking questions and commenting just from your personal experience rather than opinions you've gleaned through reading. This forum has a fair number of members who have been training for decades in a variety of martial arts. I myself have been training for 35 years (about 16 or 17 years in BJJ), and I'm far from the most senior person here. Some of them get grouchy when people make hasty generalizations about their arts based on limited exposure.

Duly noted. Thanks for the tip, I'll do just that.

 

[Kenpoguy123]

Hmm…

Okay, I was trying to be gentle and a bit accommodating initially, rather than take your incredibly flawed initial post to pieces… but Tony has done a bit of that already (bit odd… we're kinda switching positions there… hmm…), so…



GJJ is BJJ… not "so similar it's hard to even tell them apart"… Gracie Jiujitsu, very simply, IS Brazilian Jiujitsu… it's just not the only form. Saying "it's hard to tell them apart" is like saying it's hard to tell the difference between Shotokan and karate. You don't want to mislead people? Don't prematurely put yourself out as an expert or reliable source when you don't have the experience or knowledge.



So you have basically no experience with much of anything you're critiquing or commenting on? To the point that the very little you have some tiny experience with, you go ahead and misspell the names of the teachers, and misrepresent what's actually taught? This is leading in one direction, and you might not like it much…



No. You're barely out of your swaddling clutch. You have little knowledge to share. You can certainly comment based on the fact that you have a very small amount of experience, but everything you say should be prefaced with that fact.



Here's my feedback for you.

You're a 19 year old kid. You have, by your comments here, a "couple of months with some guys who trained in a few things" (paraphrasing), so no coherent or formal education at all, combined with a short amount of online-only training with the Gracie's system. Yet, remarkably, you've decided you're already in a position to be offering advice to complete strangers here and with your blog (read the one post you have up already, by the way… frankly, you don't know what you're talking about, as the entire post is based on an incomplete understanding of the situations presented, as well as an incomplete understanding of the tactic you advise…), have named yourself "Self Defense Mentor", and aim to appear informative. You're not.

Really, you admit you know you're inexperienced and in need of training… but you still want to present yourself in that fashion? Can you see how that will come across to people who have been involved in this area far longer than you've been alive, let alone how long you've been "training" and reading? What is wrong with just being a student, just learning? What's the need to be seen as some kind of authority, when you're so clearly not one?

Frankly, my recommendation is to change your name on the forum, deep-six the blog site. They're only going to lead to issues.

Yeah I have to agree with all this why call yourself self defence mentor when you're barely a white belt

 

[Tez3]

Yeah I have to agree with all this why call yourself self defence mentor when you're barely a white belt

To be fair though you don't get belts in self defence.

 

[Tony Dismukes]

Yeah I have to agree with all this why call yourself self defence mentor when you're barely a white belt

To be fair, when I was 19 years old and barely a beginner in the martial arts I was offering ill- informed lessons and advice to my friends and family based on the little bit I had read and experienced, with not much understanding of what I didn't know. If the internet had been around at the time I might have done what Nic is doing now, so I can't be too judgmental.