Martial Arts - Which one for me?

As someone who has been teaching Martial Arts for two decades, I am often put in situations where my opinion is sought over what martial art is best.  The answer is very simple, yet very difficult.  The best martial art is the one that answers your needs.

So next you need to identify your needs, or your cause.  Your needs are different to mine, so your ‘best martial art’ could be a completely different answer to mine.

The first step is to ask yourself what you want from your practice.  Do you want competition?  Do you want self defence?  Do you want a study that will never end or something less obsessive?  Martial Arts cover a lot of activities, not all martial, and not all arts. 

Below is a list of categories of martial art.  The list isn't exclusive, nor are the lines separating the arts.  Most martial arts will have aspects of all areas within, but concentrate on the area I have included them in.

Combat Arts.

Combat Arts are what most people think of as martial arts.  They tend to where white ‘pyjamas’ called ‘gi’ if they are Japanese or Korean in origin, or something more colourful if Chinese.  They do tend to be from the orient, though other systems are out there.  These are ‘arts’ and as arts form is important.  Arts like karate or taekwondo, tai chi chuan, various kung fu styles, some jujutsu schools, hapkido and aikido all fit in this category.  You can practice a combat art at all ages.

Combat Sports.

Combat Sports specialise in competition.  Some contests are ‘full contact’ where knock-outs can and do occur, some ‘semi-contact’ which are more a game of ‘tag’.  Some use weapons, some fight on the ground and look to pin or submit the opponent, and some combine most of the above.  Combat sports practitioners will develop excellent fitness, and some go on to be Olympic or elite athletes.  Judo, Maui Thai, Brazilian Ju Jitsu, kick-boxing, MMA (Mixed Martial Arts), and kendo are all examples of combat sport, as are western activities such as wrestling, boxing and fencing.  You can compete at all ages, many competitions have a ‘seniors’ category, but these are mostly for the young.

Combatitive Methods.

Combatitive Methods are systems which try to get you to a point where you can fight as quickly as possible.  They abandon the more ‘arty’ aspects of Combat Arts or the rules of Combat Sports, though may retain elements of both they find useful.  A lot of these systems also look at psychology of attacker and defender as well as the physical aspects.  Some systems are fairly old, like Systema, some are quite new, like JKD (Jeet Kune Do) or Krav Maga.  Some have massive publicity behind them like KFM which has been used in movies such as Jack Reacher.  Many are just called ‘reality based self defence’ (RBSD) pioneered by greats like Geoff Thompson who drew from decades of experience working as a bouncer.  In my personal opinion, this area is the most difficult to recommend.  There are brilliant guys out there, but there are also guys who just ‘made up some stuff’ because they crave recognition as a ‘hard man’ or to boost their ego.  Once again, in my opinion, someone teaching self defence should have self defence experience, but how much in what situation do they need this experience, and if they have a lot of experience, this might be because they are pretty poor at avoiding confrontation or reading the situation, so caveat emptor definitely applies.  Out of these systems, I will only recommend Kali, Escrima, Systema, Krav Maga and JKD, purely because I have experienced these and there are so many systems involved I cannot speak for all.  Some of these have a lot of depth and take a lifetime to learn, some you can learn in 12 weeks.  Most people get into these systems in their late teens and 20’s, when physical confrontation is a reality. 

Martial Arts

If Combatitive Methods are a minefield, then true Martial Arts are equally difficult to provide assurance.

In essence, a Martial Art is the highest form of all of the other methods.  The art is of a higher standard and more exacting, and the combat methods more direct and designed for war, not street scuffles.  There are no rules or limitations so weapons and hand-to-hand work side by side, and armour are considered.  Strategy, psychology, anatomy, history, first aid, philosophy are all covered.  These are predominantly Japanese, due to the long-term warlike culture the county embraced.  This was not the case in China or Korea for example. 

The practicality of practicing a Martial Art can sometimes be questioned, why learn to defend yourself against sword or staff, why learn to fight in, and against armour?  For me, it is easy to see parallels (sword and staff – baseball bat and pool cue, armour – some leather clothing is pretty tough).  Study of a martial art is a lifetime practice, and people tend to come to a martial art later in life.

The problem comes where some arts stop questioning or lose the attitude of combat.  Practitioners should maintain the fitness that the athletes look at and the ‘hard-nosed’ attitude of the combatitive arts.  But often they don’t, and their training is lethargic and lacks purpose.  There are also problems with ‘fake’ schools, which claim lineages that don’t exist or are part of long dead systems.  Some buy densho and makimono, the documents and scrolls from a school, and try to recreate the school, or illegitimate membership of a school.  You can’t even use the fact that a school originates from Japan any more.  Once again, caveat emptor.   

So, which martial art is best?

I always ask a question of the questioner.  What is better - a tractor, or a F1 car?  It simply depends on what you want to do with it.

If you are interested the best thing to do is go along, talk to the students and talk to the teacher.  Find what you like, who you like, and then try a lesson.  Eventually you will find what you are looking for.