So since lockdown started easing(ish) i’ve been booking the kids on various classes at the behest of my wife

(i now know where all my money dissapeared to pre-COVID!)

Anyway i thought to myself, why can’t i do some classes too?!?

So some kind of Martial Arts/Self Defence class has been on my to do list for about 10 years now.

Thing is, i know nothing! Anyone got any suggestions?

I’d mostly be interested in the fitness side (and getting out of the house) but any usefull life skills would be a bonus 🙂

Not interested in being a hardnut (i’m not!) or fighing anyone ever but i always imagined if i found myself in a situation where running away was not an option then it would be useful to have some clue.

My friend swears by Brazilian jiu-jitsu but from a cursory glance at his instagram it looks like a lot of rolling around on the floor – i realise i’m probably doing it a massive disservice here but i possibly had somthing more mainstream in mind

Thanks in advance!

I’d mostly be interested in the fitness side (and getting out of the house) but any usefull life skills would be a bonus 🙂

My friend swears by Brazilian jiu-jitsu but from a cursory glance at his instagram it looks like a lot of rolling around on the floor

If you want to really know how little fitness and strength you have, pop along to a BJJ class or even better an (olympic style) wrestling class. Very humbling.

BJJ is so much more than rolling on the floor. It’s proper chess and with maybe the exception of muay thai, the only genuinely useful martial art in a real life situation. The learning curve is incredibly steep though. Think it took me a year before I managed to submit anyone!

but any usefull life skills would be a bonus 🙂

Sprint training would probably be better.

The best advice is get the f*** out of the situation rather than wondering whether Kick Boxing, BJJ, Tai Chi etc is going to work when some thug is intent on kebbabing you with a 14″ carving knife.

Thanks BoardinBob

i am open to it! the rolling around on the floor was a tongue-in-cheek comment, lets just say my friend is not the most athletic of humans 🙂

Proper authentic Muay Thai for fitness and for learning something that may come in useful (God forbid!). For proper fighting have a look at Krav Maga.

Most fights end up on the floor, good idea to be able to defend yourself if you’re down there.
Just remember, when in doubt give em a clout and eye gouging and biting are your friends.

I’ve done karate and a fair few other martial arts (inc Japanese JJ) on and off since I was about 11 (I’m now 45) and IMO I’d say it’s more important to get the right class than worry about which martial art.

Some clubs are just a money making exercise and they’ll push you through gradings and you’ll be a black belt within 18 months but you’ll also have absolutely zero chance of defending yourself. At the opposite end you can end up with a load of arseholes that have no actual control and every session just becomes a scrap and you end up getting injured a lot.
I’m lucky that I stumbled upon the group I’m with now as the sensei has a great attitude and the people there are all really good martial artists that can spar pretty hard but no one oversteps.
IME Japanese Jujitsu (or BJJ) are probably the best if you are ever in a bad situation, but that only tends to work if it’s one on one. Also I found that the training really takes it’s toll on your joints. If you have a friend that’s already doing BJJ then I’d say go along with him/her and give it a go.

IMO I’d say it’s more important to get the right class than worry about which martial art.

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Personally I would suggest trying to do a few taster sessions at different places and see what is the best fit for you.

I started Karate with my kids through a club run by their head teacher. This was a few years back and we are training for 1st Kyu now.

The important thing is to find a good club irrespective of the Art.

Ours has a great atmosphere. The teacher is no mug (European Champion a couple of years back), but the place isn’t full of meat heads trying to kill each other.

I’d go along and see what your local club does or ask about for a recommendation.

This is us http://prestwichkykkarate.co.uk/

Where are you based?

If you’re more interested in the Arts part, over the self-defence, then a trad kung fu class is the last word in artistry (if you can find a practitioner) – it is the OG source material. It’s pure movement, though, and exceptionally hard – only worth trying if you are quite limber and generally move well (imho). It’s also effectively non-contact – punching the air etc.

You could only spar with the techniques if you were very advanced – whereas even a beginner at judo or grappling is immediately in contact, trying moves on other people. So how much you want contact if probably an important question to ask.

Years since I did it but recall coming to the conclusion that the soft style Tai Chi we also did was actually much more rewarding (and even harder in terms of controlled movement) and you could get the conditioning elsewhere from normal sports. The hard style Kung fu did start to feel silly after a while but all trad martial arts can look ridiculous if you step outside of them.

This

Personally I would suggest trying to do a few taster sessions at different places and see what is the best fit for you.

This ^

I’d mostly be interested in the fitness side (and getting out of the house) but any usefull life skills would be a bonus 🙂

Its equally a social side … (if you want it to be).

Where are you based?

Shoreham (just outside Brighton)

Ah. My link is no use to you then.

Agree we were always taught option 1,2,3,4+5 are ‘run’
Option 6 is also ‘escape’

Last resort is you want to have been taught how to effectively ‘defend yourself’ (with the sole purpose of making escape possible), rather than some ritualistic martial art dance

Yep. We are taught to run away.

What muggomagic said, find a class you enjoy.

For purely self defence reason I’d be looking for judo, ju-jitsu, or something similar – as others have said fights tend to quickly end up as grapples.
If you are more after the fun/fitness side then you might consider karate. It will of course help with self-defence as well. SAMA karate are based in your area and have a good rep – they have loads of classes for all different ages and levels. They teach Wado Ryu style, which is based on speed and balance more than strength, and includes a few throws and grapples. They do trial lessons, so you could give them a try.

http://samaorganisation.co.uk/main.htm

Not sure about self-defense, but Muay Thai is loads of fun and an amazing workout.

Shoreham (just outside Brighton)

Small world. I live on Shoreham Beach.

More than welcome to join us (Sussex Karate) when we get back to it in the next couple of weeks. We train at the Shoreham centre on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

Personally would avoid Sama. They are the no.1 in pushing people through grades. They are tied in with schools around here too and it’s funny seeing how quickly these kids in my youngest’s year went from white belt to brown belt 😀

We’ve got our first face to face on Tuesday after months of online.

No kumite yet, but pad work is allowed!

Occasionally we do a bit of grapple type self defense too in a “someone has got you by the throat” type way. Lots of twisting and pushing against joints to get your attacker down then give them a slap and run away.

We also did an interesting “knife drill” using washable marker pens. Everyone was dead or bleeding to death within about 10 seconds. Very sobering.

https://kamonwingchun.com/worthing-wing-chun-kung-fu-class/

I’ve done lots of martial arts over the years and although I’ve not trained with Kamon for a while, they were always a great bunch no matter what class you went to, very progressive and useful self defence. They didn’t just  teach traditional Wing Chun and say this is how it worked for Ip Man so it’s got to be this way. Kevin Chan would incorporate some of the BJJ he’d learned as well as other styles to make it his own. Steve who teaches the Worthing class is a good guy, worth going along and seeing how you get on with it.

Small world. I live on Shoreham Beach.

Me too!

More than welcome to join us (Sussex Karate) when we get back to it in the next couple of weeks. We train at the Shoreham centre on Monday and Wednesday evenings.

Perfect sounds like a good place to start! Thank you.

it’s funny seeing how quickly these kids in my youngest’s year went from white belt to brown belt

That would take 120 sessions, 7 gradings and a couple of courses for us. 2+ years if you go every week.

Interesting ‘re wrestling, on one of the rugby podcasts paul stridgeon was on, he was commonwealth games wrestler, only 60kg. So when the rugby guys wrestle in training apparently a few think they can beat him, at say double his weight if a forward at say 120 kg. He flattens them, always go for the legs to get them on the floor.

I like the 5 defence moves tho..run run run. A mate was a copper he said he just avoided trouble in the first place if poss.

That would take 120 sessions, 7 gradings and a couple of courses for us. 2+ years if you go every week.

Yep, they know the kids love a new colour belt and they charge a fair old whack for each grading so they are certainly successful in making money.
When I first started out I went to Sama as they had a class just along the road from me and I graded up pretty quickly. This local class shut down a couple of years later and I went to Tang Soo Do class which I loved and but it took ages to grade and having gone from a blue belt back to white belt which at 13 was really annoying as I thought I was shit hot. So when I did my first grading after about 6 months and all I got was a stripe on my white belt I just quit as I was so annoyed at still having to wear a white belt 😀

Perfect sounds like a good place to start! Thank you.

No worries. I’m not sure if we can start training again indoors from Monday or not. They have been training up Buckingham Park every Wednesday but I draw the line at doing drills and Kata in the middle of the park though so I’m hanging on for indoor training again.

Like mentioned above :
Run
Tell your ego to shut up, play the wimp, run.
Run

Have a serious conversation with yourself – now – before any future fight – now! If you have no choice, how far are you willing to take it? How far are you willing to go protect you and yours?

Consider:

Your opponent gets lucky first attach – pushes you. You stumble – fall back smashing your head on the curb – and you will never be the same for the rest of your life.
or
Your opponent is a 55k weed you met 10s ago. But unknown to you he is a ex-uk kick boxing champ contender with a chip on his shoulder and has just caught his women cheating on him. He’s angry and nuts and wants a human punching bag. Won’t stop on you until he feels satisfied.

So: your choices are to:
Run
or to do anything to finish the fight as fast as you can. Then run (because his mates will hit you over the head with a bottle).

Self defence is about mind preparation, situation preparation and physical preparation. The first 2 serves people much better.

I hope neither I or anyone I care about ever needs to go for the third.

Which one is it that ninjas do? All about those flying kicks. Also, do you have to bring your own stars?

As a lot of people have already posted the best defence is to run away.

However, as a practical form of training that will get you and keep you very fit you have three options……BJJ, Boxing or Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). Pick one of these, find a decent club and go regularly and you will make friends for life and will maintain a good level of fitness which as a by product will assist in the first option of running away.

The other forms of Martial Arts are window dressing compared to the 3 above.

I did some krav maga- quite liked it, nothing clever, nothing fancy, it felt more applicable/usable than other martial arts I’ve tried. And I liked how much of the lessons were about escaping 🙂 Not just “run away” but “if you can’t run away, do this, then run away”

Having said that it’s something that can vary a lot depending on your teacher/school.

I was attacked at work and decided to get some training to help me get over it. There’s not much round here in the way of weekly classes so I travelled and did a 3 day Krav Maga course and loved it. Similar to Northwind the preferred solution is just to get the hell out of there and run away. If you can’t then the techniques are very useful IMO. If there was a regular KM class near me I’d go to that. I realise it’s not a martial art but it is very much self defence.

+1 for Krav Maga. It’s clever, effective and quick to pick up although like anything it’s muscle memory so need to train. Simple philosophy of taking what works from an array of fighting styles for one to be able to block an attack (punch/kick etc), strike back and get away. It’s not about looking good – no Karate Kid crane kicks from Mr Miyagi – just what can you do to stop and attacker and get away. Highly recommended. Loads of examples on Youtube.

Earl: Self defence is about mind preparation, situation preparation and physical preparation. The first 2 serves people much better.

This for self defence.

For martial arts, go with the class that you enjoy going to.

I have done a lot of martial arts and contact sports in the past.

Contact sport’s like Judo/BJJ/Muay Thai/kickboxing/BJJ/wrestling are great for improving your fitness and training at progressive levels of resistance. Learn to handle the adrenaline dump and get a view for what you can and can’t do against a fully resisting opponent.

It’s a lot of fun and may help later on if you end up in a situation you can’t escape. Humbling how much skill it takes to overcome a 15kg weight difference.

Grappling based sport’s are fab for kids, you need to work with and look after other people to succeed.

Don’t do any striking art that promotes round kicks with the top of the foot and all the tiny delicate bones there. Use your shins instead like a normal person! 😂

Not doing extensive bag or pad work and relying on forms/kata is like learning to swim on dry land. Anything which is small joint or pain compliance based is too hard to pull off live. Almost all “reality based self defence systems” are neither based in reality or will teach you to defend yourself… 😉

from my various experiences: –
kick boxing for the best workout,
muay thai if you want to strike effectivly
mma if you love the stench of testosterone,
krav maga for most expensive, pointless*, cult

expect to trial a few, go along to the BJJ class with your friend and see how you find it.

ive been with the same Ju Jitsu club for 6yrs, to me its a good blend of fitness and technique and can be trained as hard as you want, sparring, ground work, weapons & open hand kata… and sorting out your ability to hit the ground without damaging yourself translates well to the bike

*teaching techniques that you cant actually train without seriously damaging your training partner

kimura54321 Free Member

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no Karate Kid crane kicks from Mr Miyagi

Even in Karate there aren’t any crane kicks from Mr Miyagi!

I joined a freestyle karate class about 8 years ago and would echo what others have said – it’s great for fitness, but for self defence, your best option is to run. I’ve really missed it over the past year and am looking forward to getting back.

I’d agree try a few and see what you like. The style of how the class is taught really matters.

There are lots of classes run as businesses where it is about gradings and belt progression. Others more about the fighting and some about the art of it.

Find a style you enjoy. I’ve done judo since I was 6 and still doing it in my 40’s. Can do competitive gradings or technical/theory based ones.

Good for fitness, mobility and strength.

I have used it in self defence once but generally I’d go with most good classes teaching you the best option is defuse the situation or leg it rather than try to fight.