What martial arts should I study?

[Ledz96]

Hello everyone!
I'm 19 years old, and I've been doing taekwondo for the last three years: at the moment I'm a green belt, since I skipped the last two exams due to school/university (I got my high school diploma on July and took my first exams on Jan).
In the last six months, I've been "influenced" by the TV series Daredevil: even if I'm definitely not going to be a (blind) vigilante, I'd like to learn some of the interesting techniques performed; at the same time, it would also be great to refine my senses. I know it could sound childlish, but I think it's not: I'm not looking for superhuman senses, I'd just like to improve my perceptive skills as much as I can.

Here are some videos to show you some techniques I'd love to learn:

00:15, I think it's a joint breaking technique. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't work against a person willing to kill you in real life, but I took this example in order to show the kind of "self-defense thing" I'm interested on.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1646729508896619

Some fighting styles

01:35, maybe. I don't know if this is realistc: probably not.

Even if I'm a bit busy right now, I feel like in two months I'll be ready to start another martial art (without dropping tkd, of course): considering all I've said, what do you think I could start with?

Thanks for your help!

 

[Touch Of Death]

Arm breaks only work in real fights if you are skilled enough to watch for the opportunity. If you don't practice looking for technique openings, you will always be too late.

 

[Touch Of Death]

That last vid was fantasy.

 

[Ledz96]

Arm breaks only work in real fights if you are skilled enough to watch for the opportunity. If you don't practice looking for technique openings, you will always be too late.

Of course, if I had thought the opposite, I would have just bought some dvds.
I think that, if you have a good master, martial art training can put you in a situation which is as close as possible to a real one. I'm not saying you can be 100% sure that you'll be able to fight back on the street (i.e.: if it's possibile, it's better to run and avoid the fight), but there's a possibility you could survive, especially if your aggressor is not holding a fire gun.

That last vid was fantasy.

Yeah, the last one is fantasy, and probably even the most durable man couldn't stand all those hits, but it's not supposed to be a "martial arts tv series". That said, all choreographies are pretty enjoyable.

 

[Touch Of Death]

Looking for long arm attacks is the equivalent of looking for the sweep. They just plain give it to you.

 

[Ledz96]

Looking for long arm attacks is the equivalent of looking for the sweep. They just plain give it to you.

What do you mean with "long arm attacks"? Attacks "applied" to a full extended arm?
Even if I can speak english, I'm from Italy, so I'm not probably going to understand some "technical" terms. I'm sorry about that.

 

[Buka]

Welcome to Martial Talk, Ledz96.

Before offering any opinion as to what art you might take, what Arts are offered in a reasonable distance to where you live or work?

 

[MAfreak]

the acrobatic moves in the last video at 1:15 might be from capoeira. such is called tricking.
a shoulder throw when being choked might be possible, also a jumping forward roll. you'll find the basics for that especially in judo.
from what i saw furthermore (mix of punches, kicks, armlocks/"breaks") you'll find it in almost every martial art:
karate, taekwondo, hapkido, ju jutsu (not to be confused with brasilian jiu jitsu - only ground fighting there).

 

[Ledz96]

Welcome to Martial Talk, Ledz96.

Before offering any opinion as to what art you might take, what Arts are offered in a reasonable distance to where you live or work?

Thank you Buka!

I'm not sure about it: I'm (hopefully) going to get my license on june. 'Till then, I'll have to move by bike and my options will be limited.
For now, I think I could attend just boxing, muai thai and krav maga courses.
From june, I'll be able to chose among wing chun, karate, jkd, ninjutsu, kung fu hung gar, mma, aikido, capoeira and maybe more. I'm just trying to pick the best one in order to grow both as an athlete and as a person.

 

[Touch Of Death]

What do you mean with "long arm attacks"? Attacks "applied" to a full extended arm?
Even if I can speak english, I'm from Italy, so I'm not probably going to understand some "technical" terms. I'm sorry about that.

This could be as simple as watching for someone reaching for a pencil, but any time somebody extends their arm, for what ever reason, is open for a break, by simply hitting their elbow, opposite the thumb. Ninja trickery, you might call it.

 

[MAfreak]

don't think breaking arms is that easy. and arm catching is that easy.

 

[Ledz96]

the acrobatic moves in the last video at 1:15 might be from capoeira. such is called tricking.
a shoulder throw when being choked might be possible, also a jumping forward roll. you'll find the basics for that especially in judo.
from what i saw furthermore (mix of punches, kicks, armlocks/"breaks") you'll find it in almost every martial art:
karate, taekwondo, hapkido, ju jutsu (not to be confused with brasilian jiu jitsu - only ground fighting there).

Thank you!
Anything on the "senses" part? Some friends told me that mindfulness meditation might be a good way. It also helps fighting stress (which I need, since studying computer engineering might be stressful at times)

This could be as simple as watching for someone reaching for a pencil, but any time somebody extends their arm, for what ever reason, is open for a break, by simply hitting their elbow, opposite the thumb. Ninja trickery, you might call it.

Well, I completely misunderstood what you were saying ahah!
Is the first action realistic, then?

 

[Ledz96]

don't think breaking arms is that easy. and arm catching is that easy.

I don't think it is easy at all. I hope I'll be lucky enough not to need to use any of my knowledge... and be sure that I'll be prepared to give even my own a** to anyone pointing a fire gun towards me. We're not in a movie.
That said, I think that studying martial arts with the right dedication can help you handling some situation, that might even be really dangerous.

 

[MAfreak]

armlocks and breaking joints is realistic, but it won't be easy like in movies and like "ninja" would tell you to get your money. arms aren't matchsticks and catching one of a punching opponent won't work in most cases.
not sure what you mean by "senses", but there is lot of meditation stuff out there from qigong to yoga.

 

[Touch Of Death]

It also won't work if you don't believe in trying.

 

[MAfreak]

i wouldn't say it if i never had tried to catch punching arms or to lock up arms from training partners when they didn't wanted me to lock it. especially guys 20-30 kilos heavier than me.
thats why in ground fighting styles they often use their whole body to lock an arm. also striking isn't allowed there.

 

[Ledz96]

Well, all those stuffs are pretty new to me, since (as you probably know) they are not allowed in tkd.
What do you suggest?

 

[MAfreak]

my suggestion always is to mix things up. even mma isn't complete.
mma - sport, no specific self defense techniques (but of course most of it could used for self defense also)
krav maga - self defense without any show-stuff and very few ground fighting
but these are the most effective styles. from what you mentioned i personally wouldn`t do ninjutsu, wing chun and other kung fu. there are to many fake schools out there.
capoeira is lot of fun, kind of dance-fighting, but without grappling and not effective for self defense i guess.

 

[Ledz96]

my suggestion always is to mix things up. even mma isn't complete.
mma - sport, no specific self defense techniques (but of course most of it could used for self defense also)
krav maga - self defense without any show-stuff and very few ground fighting
but these are the most effective styles. from what you mentioned i personally wouldn`t do ninjutsu, wing chun and other kung fu. there are to many fake schools out there.
capoeira is lot of fun, kind of dance-fighting, but without grappling and not effective for self defense i guess.

Well, I would have mixed things up anyway I'd like to learn (meaning I'm so good I could teach them) at least 3 styles

Last year, before I moved to Turin, my taekwondo master was also a fantastic sifu: his master was Filippo Cuciuffo. Maybe I could ask him if the Wing Chun course in my town is run by a good master.

 

[Buka]

Ledz, some things to consider -

You're probably paying tuition to study TKD. And you're about to get your driver's license, which is going to be an added expense because you're going to want to drive everywhere (just like the rest of us when we got ours) To take up another art will be another tuition.

You're young, you got lots of time. Maybe just stay with TKD for now and pursue other methods of research. List every art near you, get all the info from them - then go study all you can about each art (on line, a library, buy books, ask people here, etc) make it like a research project for yourself. Keep a big notebook.

See if there are any seminars of the arts you might be interested in, in an area near enough for you to get to. Go to one and talk to all the other attendees there.

But keep going to your dojo in the meantime.