I’ve been thinking about martial arts and how really it is useful these days since a lot of places will have criminals hiding firearms or in the U.S. some states have conceal carry.
Whilst it contains discipline and it is enjoyable to train in a club for, say Karate, I just think it might not be that useful in places where firearms are commonly held, all it really takes is for someone to take safety off, aim, pew pew and that’s it.
I suppose I probably get this thinking from kung fu where it’s seen more of an art form then actually being a serious bone breaking form of combat
Yes, absolutely! Mostly for exercise and mental health though.
For more practical styles, look at jiu jitsu, Muay Thai, MMA, and/or krav maga. Look for a teacher who has fought professionally or otherwise has practical experience. There are a lot of bullshitters out there who will happily take your money.
Also, keep in mind you get out of it what you put into it effort wise.
When faced with a firearm or a knife, any self respecting martial artist will tell you the one technique that will save your life.
Running the fuck away and or taking cover.
When it comes to hand to hand combat, understanding the dynamics of how to protect yourself and control the opposer like in Jiu Jitsu is very useful and can also potentially save your life.
But no, if they have a weapon of any kind, get the fuck out of there.
Agreed. Good instructors tell you to run if you can, and teach you to fight if you have to.
It’s pretty useful for looking cool.
Various militaries will train soldiers in some form of close quarters combat. All of them will say the best this training will do is buy time for someone with a weapon to come in and finish the job.
It taught me meditation and self-control. It made exercise desirable as an activity.
But for self-defense, many martial arts do teach techniques for disarming opponents. The range within a gun loses effectiveness against a trained, unarmed opponent is actually larger than you think. Not to mention that muggers tend to avoid “harder” marks like those in good shape or who move like fighters.
who move like fighters.
This is a big one. People who know how to fight can pretty easily identify other people who know how to fight. Just knowing how to fight will keep you out of a lot of fights.
Useful for what?
As a kind of joke, look at these senior citizen doing tai chi in the park, while many 80 years old can’t walk without a cane. Looks like pretty useful.
Judo or Aïkido will teach you how to fall, which may save you a visit to the ER if you slip on the street, and pretty useful again.
It’s also a fun way to exercise and stay in shape, so again, it’s useful
Break falls are the only skill I’ve kept from my martial arts training, but it’s literally the most useful one.
op mentioned the context is situations where firearms are used. so pretty sure they meant useful as a self defense method and not useful as a way of exercise
Get good enough and just dodge the bullets
That was some hilarious bullet dodging
Cool. Gun kata before Equilibrium.
Aside from how problematic the film is, I loved this as a kid!
tai chi in the park, while many 80 years old can’t walk without a cane.
As an aside, get someone to show you what they’re really doing when they’re doing Tai Chi. The muscle memory they learn is - when sped up - brutal and painful to others. It’s great how they hide it in a dancy movement class for blue-haired park-goers.
I’ve also met Fumio Demura at a seminar, and he comes across as just an old guy who wants to go fishing when he’s not teaching us to be damaging – so while they may look old and slow, there’s more going on.
Yeah people who don’t practice Tai Chi usually don’t realize that most of those movements they’re doing out there are slowed and exaggerated joint locks and throws. It is a combat training routine used as exercise.
Let’s be honest, most people who learn Tai chi as an exercise also don’t realize that it’s joint locks and throws.
Fighting seems cool in movies.
In real life, it’s police, lawyers and prison.
There are few stupider life choices one could make other than fighting in public.
Carry a knife.
MMA has an interesting trajectory where people actually didn’t know which style would win at first. Dudes in gis would actually fight some dude in kickboxing gear. Look up some old MMA fights and you’ll see the fights were usually awkward and bad.
Someone else called out in this thread that the rules of MMA influence what wins. I think that makes sense. They can’t just immediately kick each other in the balls.
I say join a gym and try out a few fights just so you know what it feels like to get punched in the face, and then do like everyone else says and get good at cardio. If you have asthma carry concealed I guess.
Look up some old MMA fights and you’ll see the fights were usually awkward and bad.
Art Jimmerson vs Royce Gracie at UFC 1
For those not in the know Royce Gracie is one of the best to ever in jiujitsu. He won UFC 1, 2, & 4.
Art Jimmerson showed up with one hand with a boxing glove and one without. Royce showed up in a gi with no gloves.
Let’s just say Art didn’t do so well.
The fight is on youtube for anyone who wants to watch it. It isn’t very long.
That shit was hilarious. Thanks for posting. One freaking glove, dude.
Not like against a bear, mountain lion, or gorilla no
Getting to black sash in northern Shaolin is a personal challenge. It’s great excercise, good community, gets me out of the house.
6 years in and 2 forms away from black. I’m almost there
With 6 months of brazilian jiujitsu training you’ll win an unexperienced person bigger than you at wrestling virtually every single time. You may still get punched in the face, stabbed or shot but if you need to go hands on with someone it absolutely is better to know BJJ / MMA / wrestling than not.
useful for what? when I was doing martial arts I was in the best shape of my life. as far as fighting? Fuck no.
I feel like I read somewhere that if you can’t run away the best thing to do if in arms’ reach is run into them as fast as possible. Fuck trying to hit anyone in the jaw with a punch, just run into them, knock them over and keep running. Third best thing (eg they have a knife) is to continually evade without even trying to retaliate as it’s a lot easier to keep dodging out the way than it is to attack and they’ll tire quicker.
definitely don’t run towards them if they have a knife though. although I wouldnt know what to do against a knife wielding attacker if I couldnt run away in general
The old addage is “nobody wins a knife fight”. Only solution is to disarm them and you are 99% going to get cut. Just gotta believe you won’t get cut bad enough to stop you from stopping them
The old addage is “nobody wins a knife fight”
One guy loses on the pavement, the other guy loses in the ambulance
all of the “real” Martial arts from back before guns were about using weapons. those aren’t really practiced as much anymore because they’re all useless in the face of firearms anyway. why spend years training with a knife when the same time could be spent training with a gun. if combat effectiveness is your goal then you need to learn modern combat techniques.
that said, there’s plenty to be learned from it, and it’s not like it can’t help you in a fight. but as another commenter said, the real way to win every fight is by avoiding them. so really the best thing to learn is de-escalation and recognizing danger.
