What's better than Kungfu for self defense?

[Mephariel]

Seriously, less than half of the kung fu schools give any useful instruction at all. To much emphasis on forms and theory, no real application. At least with boxing, you know it works. No only for the "street" bullshit. I'm sorry but thats the sad truth. There are alot of frauds who teach crap like practising forms only will work and 1 hit KOs. Sorry real life doesn't work that way.

My grandfather did Shaolin Kung Fu for 6 years. He did it the old fashioned way. No crap about Chi making you invincible(sure they called it chi, but they didn't sit around meditating). Just plain old Hard ass body conditioning. Stronger hands? He would smack around an old phone book with his hands, palms and the back of the hands. Stronger legs? He hit his shins with wooden sticks to condition them. Better punches? I remember him standing in a horse stance for half an hour while doing punches with chains around his arms.
Now that is real kung fu.

Modern Shaolin monks train the same way. The problem with kung fu is that now a lot of the masters are not even real fighters. They either train in forms or just performances. And yes, they need to focus more on conditioning too. I really hate the communist leaders for destroying traditional kung fu the way it was supposed to be.

[Redpine]

It really doesn't matter all that much what martial art you learn from, there is more than one way to roll a rock down the hill. What really matters is that YOU and your TEACHER have the same goals. If you want to learn how to pick an opponent apart and make them suffer then you need to MAKE SURE your teacher has and is willing to share this skill. If you only need martial arts to improve your health or to improve your spiritual life then you find a teacher who deals more with that side of the art. The perfect teachers for me are skilled at both and really hard to find.

[thescottishdude]

I thought that karate and kung fu were very similar. I do think that they teach self-defense, apart from katas and forms as they are way too traditional for self-defense teaching in my opinion.

[Drunken Munky]

I thought that karate and kung fu were very similar. I do think that they teach self-defense, apart from katas and forms as they are way too traditional for self-defense teaching in my opinion.

My experience is that: Just because you can't see subtlies in the forms, doesn't mean they are not there. Forms, are the knowledge past masters have got from experience, in which they have passed it on with these sequences of body movements. Rather than word of mouth (Do you know what the game 'Chinese Whispers' is?)

[thescottishdude]

I get what you're saying, I'm okay with forms in martial arts but I hate it when you go months with just doing forms and nothing else in your class.

I also read that 80% of fights end in wrestling on the street, so should you perhas study kungfu or karate mixed with a wrestling art like aikido rather than doing both kung fu and karate?

[jubaji]

so should you perhas study kungfu or karate mixed with a wrestling art like aikido

Or a wrestling art like wrestling.

[npk9]

I don't think traditional martial arts address situations of today. Especially kung-fu. Most school are all about forms.

Now - granted you can pick out techiques and theories from these forms but not even people who have been studying for 5+ years actually sit down and strip a form apart like that and the few who do they don't even take it a step further to go over the techniques over and over again for it to become second nature.

From a self-defense point of view - IMO - its up to the individual, the situation, and how lucky they are.

To answer the thread title and to pick out a "style" - I would recommend Krav Maga for self-defense.