Categorized | Personal, Web Finds

Q. Which art for self defense?

Posted on 11 September 2006

I answered a question on Yedda today:

Which Martial art would be better to learn , for self defence purposes- Muay Thai or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu?

Note that I’m a beginner with no previous experience in martial arts.

Thanks.

The answer to this question depends on two factors:

1. Your age.

2. Your philosophy regarding combat.

Now, someone young (say under 18) should study (IMHO) a classic art such as Judo, TKD or Karate.

Someone over 18, is perhaps ready for the full contact arts such as the two that you mention.

So, presuming that you are of age, which one? Well, do you want to stand up toe to toe with your attacker and slug it out? Or do you want to roll around in the mud and end the confrontation with a choke?

Both arts are strong in self defense, BJJ was developed by one family from a combination of Judo, Jujutsu and grappling. It is an experts art on the ground and very powerful against a single opponent in ideal conditions. It relys on locks, holds and especially chokes to disable the opponent, knocking him out and in real life perhaps killing. It has an animal finesse but not a grace.

MT is an ancient form of kicking art from the Far East. It revolves around very strong fitness and is common for its use of knee attacks and elbow blows. It is practiced as a full contact sport and is one of the “hard” arts that build very tough fighters.

As with all martial arts, there is no perfect answer as it depend on the person. My advice would be to try them both. The important thing is to find a good teacher. I am sure the both BJJ and MT forums, organisations and websites can help you achieve this.

ME: My personal journey through the martial arts has been a “Stand up fighting one” and the majority of the arts I have tried are based around kicking and punching. I am also very large and so would personally choose MT.

Basho

2 Comments For This Post

Anonymous Says:
September 12th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Jui-Jitsu owns all.Almost every UFC fighter knows some ,or needs to.
But not MT .Almost every signal street fight goes to the ground.
Basho (mod) Says:
September 13th, 2006 at 9:36 am
Whilst I agree that most fights do go to ground, I would suggest that this is if they last over 10 seconds. For example, Bouncers spend a lot of their time learning to defeat an opponent inside that 10 seconds to avoid the ground.

I have a BB in Hapkido and have practiced Jujutsu in Uni; I would say that the important thing is to train in both arenas.