What's the best?

[Hardball]

Look into some combatives training, Its the self defense aspect of the martial arts stripped down to bare bones. no politics, no marketing, no bullshit.

Beautiful, I love your flashing Gun Control messge. Damn Good.*****

[treelizard]

I was just reading Dept of Justice statistics for 2003 on violent crimes, and after staring at 100+ pages of graphs and charts for all of last night, I'm not sure I've walked away with as much as I wanted to... (Why isn't there a website where you can just plug in your demographics, hit a button and get a nice personally tailored chart on your most likely violent scenarios, by percentage?) But I paid close attention to the stats of people resisting a crime usu. with a weapon and I noticed that the tendency was that the resistance helped, though it did sometimes make it works (i.e. make the perp more angry/agressive). However this was predominantly for burglary and assault, and almost never the case for sexual assault. I thought that was interesting.

[gabbah]

treelizard, stats like that are what I'm talking about.

Mike, I should point out that I never meant to compare MA as an alternative to guns. I never meant to compare them or say that any one of them is better.

Anyway, you make good points about large groups of people where a gun might be a good option, simply because MAs make requirements on the persons physical shape.
And even when they don't have enough training, it sounds very likely that an attacker with no firearm will give up and run away if the victim pulls a gun, and no shot is fired. And I believe that statistics support this as you said.
However, I still doubt that the majority of theses people will get the training that (I belive) is required to handle a situation where the attacker has a gun as well. (You seem to believe the opposite. Do you know of any statistics on this?)
That was actually the scenario that I was interested in, but I forgot to mention it.
You have one or two attackers with guns, and the victim has gun as well. This is the case where I feel a misstake is so dangerous, because the chance of someone eventually fireing a shot (escalating the situation to a deadly one) is so great.
The question is, what does statistics say about these kind of situations?
What does it say about the situation that the victim does NOT have a firearm?
Which case has the highest probability of survival for the victim?

Remember, we're talking about a victim that does not have enough training with a firearm, and the situations that can occur, the tactics and psychology involved in such scenarios. So the victim is not educated.

If it's uncommon that the victim with no gun is killed, then perhaps it's the best choice to surrender and give them what they want and come out of it alive, rather the pull a gun and risk getting shot. Because when you pull the gun the attacker will probably panic.

[treelizard]

Gabbah, for the record it did say there were some instances where having a weapon made it worse, but the majority of the time it said that having a weapon helped.

[gabbah]

Very interesting statistics!
Well Mike, in that case I'm with you now, you won me over to the dark side
Gun + good training is the way to go for self defense, at least in the USA or equally gun dense countries... of course, additional training will do no harm, for instance train some MA or unarmed self defense course like krav maga.

[bbbb]

What Have You Learnt?

Is there a particular martial art style that's the best for defending yourself on the street? Or at least something with a main focus on pressure points, disarming, grappling, and throws?

I haven't been doing martial arts for long, but after 6 months in praying mantis style kung fu I still feel like if I were in a situation where I needed to defend myself, I probably couldn't do it and that's pretty frustrating considering I go 4-5 times a week.

Maybe the techniques you are learning are fine- you just need more practise with them. Give us one to work with!

[bbbb]

There are 4 emotion's:

Maybe the techniques you are learning are fine- you just need more practise with them. Give us one to work with!

Mad Glad Sad or Scared

You are Mad(=Frustration). Feel that emotion...and then proceed.

Proceed to another M.A. if you wish. Or, just realise, that it is only a little bit of anger at your own slow progress...and it is bound to improve soon.

Isn't Frustration just the beginning of a breakthrough!!

Practise: Positive Mind(alway's seeing the positive in every second of the day).....there is an element called SUN that is translated as CORRECT ATTITUDE. Why don't you think about this important element of fighting...and improve it!!

Why don't you tell us what you do know!!

[Jeff_p]

I haven't been doing martial arts for long, but after 6 months in praying mantis style kung fu I still feel like if I were in a situation where I needed to defend myself, I probably couldn't do it and that's pretty frustrating considering I go 4-5 times a week.

I've joined a Krav Maga school and there are many people that have switched from years of other forms for the exact reason you mentioned.

Many of us aren't demanding a fast-food Martial Art. But again, I don't want to practice something for 5 years to 'get the basics' and still not have the reassurance that it will succede in a real street fight envolving weapons or multiple attackers.

One of the greatest points about Krav Maga is the learning-curve. There's not much that compares to it. The forms are not counter-intuitive, it accelerates very quickly, nothing is introduced without direct application and it deals with 'real life' scenarios (weapons, multiple-attackers, back up against the wall, if injured, protecting another person, etc.)

There are no rules; you're taught to fight with keys, credit cards and the attacks are very brutal.

There are numerous schools in my area. Look for Krav Maga, Haganah or Hisdurut. You learn even quicker in Haganah. Regards.

[Tant01]

Bullet proof

Is there a particular martial art style that's the best for defending yourself on the street? Or at least something with a main focus on pressure points, disarming, grappling, and throws?

I haven't been doing martial arts for long, but after 6 months in praying mantis style kung fu I still feel like if I were in a situation where I needed to defend myself, I probably couldn't do it and that's pretty frustrating considering I go 4-5 times a week.

Martial arts without MODERN weapons is like a toufu turkey or veggie burger.

Get REAL. Go read some statistics and EDUCATE yourself.

The reason they call VIOLENT crime VIOLENT CRIME is because it often involves weapons. The weapon of choice for the violent criminals is a HANDGUN.

If you aren't prepared to deal with an armed attacker, well... you're not prepared, are you?

I wish you the very best and hope your life is peacefull...



Read my signature line, it's old and it's new. It was as serious a problem in his "modern times" as it is TODAY.

And yet here we have a load of modern "martial" artists that say empty hands are all you need for self defense... DON'T KID YOURSELF!!