No Martial Art is the BEST...

[Great Sage]

The best fighters are what they make of themselves... Period. Forget about people who say grappling is better than boxing, or that judo is better than karate... That’s a load of crock. Everyone seems to have fallen into the Gracie Marketing Mechanism... Bill Wallace was correct when he mentioned that since a few lousy stand-up fighters lost in UFC, many people have come to assume that grappling is the ultimate martial art. In truth the rules of UFC, Pride etc... favor grapplers... These so-called “ultimate” fighting are no more than what boxing is to boxers, or kickboxing to karate fighters.

Consider that in a real fight, if a boxer were thrown down, he would resort to biting, groin pulling, eye gouching tactics because his ground repetoire is less formidable. A grappler in a boxing ring would also need to use his bag of tricks... Thus, pitting a boxer in UFC where he cannot realistically defend himself once fallen is the same as a grappler who cannot use takedowns once in a clinch.

This is by no means a backlash to grappling... It is a lost art which has only recently begun to resurface again... But all this talk about this “style” being better than this, or that this beats this... It’s all bogus... In the streets, whatever works, works.

[kungfupanda]

true...its all up to the indevidual fighter.

[Ryu (JKD?)]

First, if you have no experience at all grappling, you won't pull off any eye gouging, etc. You'll just be face down, legs grapevined behind you, taking elbows to the back of the head. You won't get out if you have no clue how to grapple.


Second, "But all this talk about this “style” being better than this, or that this beats this... It’s all bogus... In the streets, whatever works, works."

Okay. Well what about individual fighters? Can one person be "better" than another?

Certainly hope so. LOL

Ryu

[Typhoon]

There is truth in all of this. In my opinion any style can be made to work if you can adjust your self to use it for the situation at hand. Tkd is said to be unefective in real fights. Thats just judging it by the peopel that were trying to do all of the fency stuff on the streets, but if they used the simple techniques of tkd like kicking to the legs or maybe the body it would be quite usefull. Same goes for all the styles if you can apply the style that you know to a situation you are in you can make anything work. My master is a friend of Bill Wallace and Jow lewis I have met both of them at seminars at our dojo and they will both tell you the same thing that its not how effective the style is on its own its how the person applyies the style that he studies.

[ryanhall]

Though the fighter is the principle ingredient in success, the ideas and principles on which an art or style is founded DOES severely impact the success of the individual in any combat environment. If you are trained to fight out of a "ready" stance, you will be much less effective when someone tries to sucker punch you than if you were taught to keep your hands up, palms open, and strike first. If you are not trained to grapple, you will not be able to do it well. If you are trained to keep your hands low and your base wide, you will probably not fare well against a mobile ring fighter with a high guard. There is no style in real combat. There is just "what works." The better fighter and the fighter who better sticks to "what works" will have a better chance of coming out on top.

Not all things, people, ideas, arts, etc. are created equal. The individual is important, but can only compensate for so much. There is no "best" style, but there are "better" styles.

[ceasarx]

I dont beleive that any system is better but I think it tailores itself to the individual. I.E. I study TJJ but we use alot of street combat drills and also use BJJ grappling. I have a friend who is die hard Karate and we were bouncers at the same bar. I never had to baiul him out of a Jam and he leveled alot of people with swinging high and kicking low. I could not never see this guy grappleing anyone but I have never seen anyone take him to the ground. The point is he is good at what he knows and It is the best system for him Just like TJJ is the best system for me. it is upto the individual wich is better for them

[ramus]

take aikido for example, it's not for everyone. Same with drunken boxing

[aseepish]

1. Let's say you were able to clone yourself a couple of hundred times, and then you had your clones train in different styles for two years. Then you have your clones fight eachother in different scenarios. In the ring, on ice, in three feet of water, in a crowded bar, weapons, multiple attackers, you name it. When you tally the results I'm pretty sure you'll find (along with a lot of dead clones) that some styles fared much better than others in more scenarios.

Now if you take the survivors and have them cross-train... now were cookin with clones!

2. Before any training, the clones would have identical attributes. But because of the difference in training methods among styles, the clones would NOT be equal after a significant period of training.

The individual is more important than the style, but to a certain degree the style moulds the individual.

[Ryu (JKD?)]

"Not all things, people, ideas, arts, etc. are created equal. The individual is important, but can only compensate for so much. There is no "best" style, but there are "better" styles."

Ryan, you're my new hero.

Ryu

[ceasarx]

I think wether a style is better or not is determined by the individual needs and ability. A 300 pound person is going to have a hard time learning how to do high jumping kicks and low sweeps . It would not be impossable but the person would be better off learning a grappleing style. In short I think that each system has stength and weakness that makes them balance out in the end

[JIMI]

Oh god not this subject again. I generally feel this same sentiment too, that no one martial art is the end all best result, however there are some styles that are more complete than others. I think that one of the most underated styles out there is KALI. I has just about everything, stand up, ground, weapons, empty hand, submissions and so on.