MA
By urvaksh
@urvaksh (189)
India
December 3, 2006 10:17pm CST
according to you which would be the supreme martial art to practice .
4 responses
@jugernaut (262)
• India
6 Dec 06
There is no such supreme martial art. All you need is dedication, concentration, self belief and a good teacher. Your practice makes you perfect not the names. it doesnt matter which style or art you practice.
@bertus_magnus (329)
• Philippines
6 Dec 06
i think muay thai could be considered as one. it is very well rounded, and very efficient. "the science of eight limbs" they call it, since it uses, feet, fists, elbows and knees. it also practices grappling.
now a very deadly combo is muay thai and bjj. that would make you a very efficient and effective fighter.
@kweighzaz (13)
• United States
6 Dec 06
I would consider Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu to be the best martial art for self defense purposes.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ) for short is a ground fighting art made famous by Royce Gracie of the legendary Gracie family of Brazil.
Just ask any Mixed Martial Art's (MMA) expert or fan and they'll recognize BJJ.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu was developed by Helio Gracie who was a small kid that didn't possess any natural strength, speed, or power.
Watching his brother who taught Judo lessons in Brazil, Helio refined all of the Judo techniques (which required strength, stamina, and speed) and turned them into what is now known as BJJ.
Helio incorporated leverage into all of his moves so that any person could defend himself using those techniques against bigger and stronger opponents.
The whole art was made for the little guy.
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu teaches how to close the distance on your opponent. Which may sound counter-intuitive.
The reasons are that your opponents cannot punch you as hard once you take away the distance. Punches are their most effective when they have time to go from point A to point B. Point A being the point at which the arm is cocked back and point B being the target.
The punch generates power as it accelerates from the two points. The more distance the punch has to travel across, the more power and the more lethal that punch becomes.
Take away this distance, and you dramatically decrease the effectiveness of strikes.
That is one reason why boxers who are losing, will often times try to hug their opponent (clinching). The referee would then break the opponents apart because letting one opponent clinch the other would make a very boring fight as neither of them could knock each other out.
So in BJJ the first step is clinching the opponent the second is to take them to the ground.
Fighting on the ground is very important because most people don't know how to fight on the ground and the majority of fights will end up the ground for one reason or the other.
Whether it be someone trips, someone overpowering another, a fighter intentionally getting the fight to the ground etc.
Learning to fight on the ground then is your best bet.
That is what BJJ is all about. Techniques that will stop a fight. You learn different positions that are found in ground fighting, the transitions between those positions (as you want to get in the best possible position in a self defense situation), and how to submit your opponent once your in that dominant position.
I would say Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is the way to go. But that's just me, I'm a big BJJ fan. I would definitely check it out though.
Hope that helped. Thanks for reading.