There should be a saying in martial arts: "There will always be a superior fighter, but never a superior style."

I’ve trained for over 30 years, studying boxing, kickboxing,traditional Karate, Akido and systema. What I’ve learnt; the effectiveness is based on the circumstances and the physical environment you are in. In the Dojo/gym you will usually have mats and be practicing with people of a similar skill set. On the street, in a crowd, you are up against the unknown. You may not be wearing suitable clothing or footwear, and you may have multiple unknown attackers. On the street my skills/knowledge has taught me to be aware and to have confidence. Fear is your friend if you control it as it keeps you alert. Once in my early twenties, l was leaving a school gym late at night where I had been teaching kickboxing. Two very large lads were obviously going to mug me in the narrow dimly lit alley way. I sensed it, as they rushed towards me I threw my bag for the guy in front to catch. He caught it with both hands, I instinctively punched him in the chin. He fell to the floor unconscious. I picked up my bag, while the other chap tended to his friend. No one taught me that move, but my body/mind automatically figured out the best solution to live! Stay fit, alert and safe.

Kickboxing, wrestling, or grappling. I do understand. Thank you.

I am a 4th degree black belt in American Kenpo Karate and I agree with much of what you have to say. I also trained in Taekwondo, Tang Soo Do, Shotokan Karate, Ninpo, Aikido and Freestyle Wrestling. Yes, it ultimately does come to the three styles you state. Learning that is what the various styles do. In Kenpo we put them into long and short forms. That is just to learn, in a fight we all utilize what we need and when we need it. The firms just aid in training. American Kenpo was quite effective in its time because it blended several styles. Ed Parker our founding father so to say had a black belt in judo and was a golden gloves boxer. He studied karate in Japan and then sort of blended the best frim those styles. He taught us to get uo close and personal with our strikes which is more like boxing/kickboxing. Ge incorporated joint locks and throws from Judo. Its weakness is on the ground and where wrestling and Jujitsu come in. Id always wanted to learn BJJ, but no schools were around. In my childhood and teens I bounced from style to style as my parents moved, but in late teens and adulthood i focused on American Kenpo Karate and a touch of Hawaiian Kempo as to get good at one. I taught Kenpo Karate for years FOR FREE to kids at the church as to keep martial arts alive. This area had a lot of poverty and many kids would not have ever had the chance to learn. Unfortunately covid sgut down the program and i ended up getting covid and ruining my lungs. I'm looking into opening up the karate school again, bit letting my oldest son be lead teacher. He and i joined a BJJ gym. I am slowly learning with limits as ove got bad lungs, 5 herniated discs and arthritis from breaking my back. Im only learning BJJ as it was a lifetime desire ever since seeing the rise of the Gracie brothers in the 80s and 90s. I don't expect to ever be goid at it, but will learn what i can. My eldest on the other hand is picking it up incredibly fast and is wanting to move on to MMA. Am i upset? Absolute not!!!! He doesn't want to destroy my Kenpo Karate, no.....instrad he wants to being BJJ and MMA into my studio. He plans to teach traditional (gi) some nights and no-gi modern other nights. A true martial artist doesn't resist improvement, but embraces utilizing what works.

I spent years looking for the perfect most complete art only to realise that it doesn’t exist. If you're serious about combat you have to mix the arts, after all this is how MMA came about.

I learned silat from a dear family friend who was in the Indonesian army. He was the most brutal teacher I've ever had, but his most valuable lesson was "a fight you avoid is a fight you already won". He prepared me for the worst by never holding back when sparring. Lots of bruises, cuts, bleeding and tears, but it was all worth it. Doesn't matter what you practice, but make sure it is geared towards real, actual fighting, and not just going through the motions to get the next level.

I started MMA later in life, but my wrestling background gave me a distinct advantage over 95% of the members who only started at BJJ. The tricky part was incorporating strkes into my wrestling Arsenal.

While on Okunawa from 1971-2972 I started taking Okinawan Shorin Ryu Matsumura. It is a close quarters combat system. I have found that it works for self defense. I do not challenge others to show off. At 73 now I still keep up with the basic forms for exercise. Thank you for your video.

My base martial art was TKD. My parents put me in it as a kid; I trained it for 30+ years. I’ve also trained BJJ, aikido, hapkido, Japanese jujutsu, kali, Muy Thai, iaido / battojutsu, and on. Name it, I’ve trained it. That said, I’m a former corrections officer. I have been the first guy in on riots. I’ve been attacked. I’ve gone hands-on so many times it all blends together. I could not tell you the number of physical altercations and restraints I’ve been in. Whatever martial art you train? It’s not enough. It’s incomplete. You absolutely need to train in any / every martial art that you can, you take what works for YOU, and discard the rest. In the end, you build a system that is customized to you, your temperament, your physical abilities and skill sets. That is the best martial art, or I should say combative system for you. NAO fite me! You’ll lose. Just kidding. I’m old, beat up, and just go for my .357 these days ;)

I did Judo from 10 and Jiu-jitsu when I reached 16 until my early 20's then stopped. Never had a real fight until I was in my early 30's, I hate violence. Three people attacked a friend of mine and I felt I had to do something. So I stepped in. No idea what happened, it was so quick but my early training must have taken over. I ended up taking on all three and winning. I am now in nearly 60 and have not had to use it again and hope I never have to ever again. I hate fighting but it's nice to know if I have to I can.

All martial arts have their use. I got jumped on, attempted glassing, multiple people (male and female) on me, with misguided bouncers trying to keep me restrained whilst the fight carried on. I got through it and won through strength, reflexes, taekwondo and aikido. I doubt very much that this guy has ever been in a real fight in his life.

I’m a practitioner in Kajukenbo and I do agree on the point that you will not pull “technique 12” in the street. I know 24+ forms and I’ve never used any of them in the street. The thing is, these forms are supposed to give you a concept to use those techniques or an idea, if that makes sense. I’ll say an example: I was taught a defense against a rear naked choke. It was very technical. Few years later, someone put me in a rear naked choke and I ended up not doing each step I was taught. I took concepts from about 5 other techniques and defended myself.

I saw you included my mom's fighting art in your list at 5:03. I would argue that her style is devastatingly effective, and it does not include striking, takedowns or joint locks. But after a 3 minute conflict, you will need a week of recovery from emotional impacts , guilt takedowns and humiliation locks. Understand, it takes years to master her art, and she will keep some techniques to herself until you are "ready". Lemme know if you want her to stop by your gym. 😉

I have combined three arts and they are surprisingly successful, Wrestling, Boxing and Gymnastics. People sleep on the power of gymnastics but it is brutal training that only wrestling comes close too. When i was young it gave me insane take down defence and mobility, my boxing was defence heavy and gymnastics made my clinch very effective, I could move out of the way of any strike, I could block most punches and if we clinched my balance and dynamic strength would be a complete surprise, it is an unstoppable combo i think that I stumbled into by just by accident having trained all three at the same time. I believe GSP speaks very highly of gymnastics and how it improved his clinch and defence.

You're absolutely correct! It's also true that no matter how many forms you learn or how complicated they get, and real life situation, the simplest moves are the best. In a real fight or in a ring everyone uses the most basic techniques.

As a person who has been interested and involved in martial arts in one way or another for most of my life I can confidently say that even a beginner with a small knife removes the need for years of training.

I agree. I trained in multiple styles. Tried to take the best of each. But my favorite was track and field.🙂

I went full circle. I started with Tang Soo Do as a kid. Then started doing Judo and BJJ in college, then boxing and Muay Thai. Ultimately ended up at an MMA gym saying “I wish I knew all this when I was a kid doing Tang Soo Do.” Fast forward to me in my 40s and I’m like “man, I just miss training Tang Soo Do.” Kind of like you said, I think I just like the traditional side of it. I’d come to your gym, but you’d just beat me up…I agree with your video.

It’s the “Your Mom” listed in the in-between martial arts at 5:04 . You’re HILARIOUS Bro. 😂

When the 5hit hits the fan, no fight will go according to how you train. No matter how long or hard you train.

I have been doing a very old school traditional form of Tiger Claw Kung Fu for almost 30 years. I've been teaching for half that time and find myself completely agreeing with everything you're saying 100%! In fact I've been saying a version of this for years. I've been in hundreds if not thousands of fights in sparing and tournament and every single one of them has been a version of kickboxing. Much of our system is kickboxing with some grappling. The most successful member of our system had 47 wins and in 1 loss and was a 19 title champion Paul Vizzio in kickboxing. I've watched dozen of Kung Fu tournaments with styles ranging from Wing Chun to Choy Le Fut to Eagle Claw to Hung Ga and the fights are all versions of kickboxing. Do some of our style specific techniques come into play? Yes, sometimes but it's all kickboxing/grappling in the end. Even our 86 year old Grandmaster says all styles are basically the same, the difference is you. You make the system great, the system will not make you great.

Kenpo was the first MA that I really pursued and immediately found that it had holes. Luckily, my instructor was of the same opinion and I found this out one day when he watched me spar and said, "You'd probably do really well with boxing. Wanna learn it?" Turned out he was a silver gloves champ and once a month we started doing a boxing class, and that turned into twice a month. Loved it.

I don't think that anybody with actual martial arts experience, who is familiar with different styles could be mad at you, because this is simple, distilled truth!

Option 4 Poisoning Option 5 Sniping Option 6 biting Option 7 Blackmail.. all in my art LOL :)

Agree. My Tae Kwon Do instructor always was humble towards other martial arts and fighting techniques. Because of that he taught us to study other styles and be open to learn new things even if the dojo was focused on TWD. So we learned a little about wrestling, hapkido, boxing to name a few, because we understood that strict TWD was not going to be enough in every scenario.

As a practitioner of Japanese jujitsu and kenpo karate, this is by far the best explanation I have ever heard regarding different martial arts. I’m lucky as both of my instructors explained that even though we have set techniques we practice, it is also the movements we try to ingrain into our memory. We may not use the entire particular technique we practiced but if an opening occurs where we can use a portion of that technique then it’s a win. Fantastic video, this is the first I’ve heard of your channel but I will definitely start listening to more.

Tai chi has many great benefits for real fighting. The ability to sense telegraphs and off-balances in your opponents it a huge advantage.

Kickboxing, wrestling, grappling. Great breakdown. UFC/MMA integrated them, and demonstrated how they are all useful. That used to be a debate, nowadays its just a fact.

One thing I noticed while jumping between martial arts is that what you're saying about the the 3 style is true, the biggest difference between them all comes down to how they execute these movements which ultimately affects how they look. Boxing for example, uses hip rotation, core strength, upperbody and footwork to generate their punching power, which is why they have the most number of non-linear punches compared to other martial arts. Wing Chun uses spinal structure, core, some hip rotation and elbow(punching from the elbow) to generate their short range power but not long range, so their punch is very linear. Bajiquan tries to generate maximize their power using multiple body movement at the same time, so the same punch and elbow can look completely different depending on which movement you use and omit to generate power.

This video here is a great example of what I been doing. I did Shotokan Karate for 5 years and recently been doing MMA involving Muay Thai, Boxing, Wrestling, BJJ, and Judo. I took what worked for me from the times I learned Shotokan Karate like the stance, the Karate Blitz, and chambering kicks to make myself a more well rounded fighter mixing in my Karate with the other style…. Something like Lyoto Machida’s 💪

That is a fair analysis. People always try to compare, to be honest, every style (form) has their pros and cons. Just the way it is. So the best is learn them all and apply according to the situation and opponent. People who are genuinely good will always respect the others - only the junior people cannot understand the code of honour. The better they are, the more likely they refuse to fight with no respect.

As Lao tzu once said He who conquers others is wise He who conquers himself is enlightened

I won golden gloves joined Hapkido because I did not want to continue knocking people out. I found the martial artist lacked footwork so I could easily knock them out when I wanted. It was hard to train when there was an obvious lack in a basic skill. But I played along although my partners knew I had a major advantage. They thought I was just really good when it was just a skill that could be learned just was not being trained there. I think it is a good idea to learn basic skills then bounce around to learn street skills that actually work in the street. Never go to the ground in the street unless you know you are alone or you may get kicked in the head by someone!

"I do not fear the man who has practiced a thousand techniques. I fear the man who has practiced one technique a thousand times." Bruce Lee

'Martial Artists' are so cute when they attempt to apply dojo or MMA sparring to real combat. Wonderful 'knife/gun defence techniques' are the most adorable. Many people have made a lot of money building false confidence in students over the years. The true fact is, no experienced knife fighter presents his weapon in the pretend way students are shown in dojos. By the time you see the knife, you have already been cut. The only MA I have ever seen that fully grasps this reality is the trinity of the FMA. Believe me, in actual fighting for your life combat, 4 inches of steel (and ability to use it) is worth more than a 4th Dan in any style. I have been a martial artist for many decades, having earned a few black belts along the way. However, I have learned not to confuse that training with actual combat ability or survivability. Anytime I forget, my scars remind me. Stay Aware - Stay Alive.

I have done a bunch of different martial arts over the years. My fighting style - what I have used in the security industry and in the street - takes little bits from all of them and combines it into something that works for my body and my instincts. I know enough ju-jitsu to defend against it and get up off the ground against most opponents. Unsurprisingly, this is my advice to everyone. Learn a whole lot of techniques, then work out what works for you.

I entered Kenpo as a mid teenager. My instructor had a class after his class that taught a mix of things to survive in real fights. People going to jail and with a bounty on their head would join. You always have to have the right tool in your box. He didn't just teach unarmed combat, but a lot wasn't coming to a fight with a weapon. A lot of it was situational advice in how you can find one if needed or an escape plan.

Like Bruce Lee said,the nature of every single and separate person is going to be different,be like water,embrace everything,your truly attack is going to be the attacker mirror,yes you need speed and use to it,train your eyes and reflex on human movements and eventually you'll learn the human behave while attacking, don't claiming to be the best, on top of everybody,you need to be everybody.

I have seen street fighters defeat amateur martial artists because the street fighter had real life experience and enough confidence in himself. However I have also seen professional martial artists easily defeat street fighters with simple techniques. In the end it depends in confidence, alertness, and experience. Even with my 60 years experience, I am still learning.

Well said. I took 5 years of wing chun. Even got a tattoo. Took one Muay Thai class and quickly realized WC didn't hold up. Now I've moved onto Muay Thai, boxing and bjj. I do see elemens of wing Chun in each, but as you said, it's better to incorporate those movements into the other styles than to keep training wing Chun and try to make it work.

Here in the Philippines Kali's techniques is often used in street fights, so I can say It's effective in different kinds of fighting even with weapons or kickboxing

I think all styles of martial arts can be beneficial in a fight, but it also is very situational. A "MMA fight" with rules, safety equipment, in a neutral space where both fighters are aware of the fight and said rules, is very different than actually "getting into a fight." I think knowing a martial art will always be better than NOT knowing one, whichever one it is you train.

Fighting Sports have Rules - Boxing (no Kicks), Judo (no kicks, no hits etc). Martial Arts are from ancient times for war and survivel. Today there are no rules but laws and those laws are diffrent from country to country, so if u study a martial art you have to adapt the martial art to the law, that way it "can" become a modern selfdefence

I would say that wrestling is a form of grappling, so there are really only two fighting styles, striking and grappling.

This video gets a 10 out of 10. I became a black belt in Tae Kwon Do when I was 14. Been in 2 actual street fights since then and realized quickly I was also fighting the pavement beside the other person. The 1st fight ended up wrestling the other person, on the pavement, having him submit just bf I was about to put my elbow through his nose. He also had about 80lbs on me, same height. The 2nd fight I was much more precise with my kicks and punches and knocked him out right bf the cops got there. Grappling and wrestling are essential along with strikes bc if you don't settle it fast ending up on the ground is inevitable.

If you can get a good throat strike early in a fight, you can shorten the time you have to fight. When you can't breathe, nothing else matters!

I was set to be mad when I clicked on this, but I feel you made some good points. I've trained Tai Kwan Do and Kung Fu for years, and I will say that, by and large, you are correct. Kickboxing, wrestling and grapling are the main points of unarmed combat. This reminds me of what my Sifu once told me "There are no styles that are superior, only those who practice them. Kung Fu, Muai Tai, Tai Kwan Do, Karate. They are all valid. It is only when one uses their brain and their environment that a student becomes truly good." That said, I do have to say, do not underestimate Tai Chi, the way it is taught and trained may be slow and stretching, but I've seen practitioners who have sped the movements up to combat speed, and they are devastating.

As someone who practices several martial arts, including aikido (and its variants), uechi ryu, and kickboxing, I completely agree with everything said here. He provided a pretty nice breakdown of basically every martial art there is.

Bruce Lee said anyone with a year or two of wrestling and boxing could waste any martial artist

True statement! Using No Way as Way.. Use what is useful to you and reject what is not… It is the individual who expresses themselves well by their training, not a martial art style!

You are 100% correct. The truth hurts, but it will set you free. Ultimately in a street fight, one's preference in a specific style of martial arts is just that, preference. What you need in real life besides diligent training, is situational awareness. Remember, there are No rules in a street fight. It's survival of the fittest. There's always someone bigger, faster or stronger than you.

“Never fear the man who knows one thousand moves, fear the man that only know one move but has practiced it one thousand times.”

Great video. In our black belt test for Tang Soo Do, there was a self defense portion. I'm 6'6" and 330lbs. I simply used my size street and fighting techniques to easily beat the 2nd and third degree instructors. Our lead instructor always stresses that TSD is an art, fighting is something entirely different.

I've been saying something similar for almost 30 years. Martial Arts training IS NOT combat training. A martial art is almost NEVER a complete combat skill set. What a martial art's value actually is comes from the techniques, the tools it can give you the training helps condition your body and develop individual techniques/tools to apply to combat. Nobody in the history of street fighting has ever squared off against each other in a specific stance then waited for someone to tell them its time to go. Those things are solely done to accommodate technique training, not to simulate combat. Aikido is full of small joint manipulation and force redirection. If that's the only skill set you've got you will not be successful in combat. However, taking those skills and techniques and integrating them into a more complete study of combat techniques, strategies, and environmental awareness can absolutely be a profitable investment that can give you the edge you need to achieve success over an opponent or adversarial situation. Martial Arts like Karate, Aikido, Kenpo, Tae-kwon-do, and on and on should never be seen as or taught as complete combat arts but as building blocks to finding YOUR combat art. Everyone must develop their own style that works for them and everything from wrestling and boxing to traditional martial arts are the pieces you can use to build your personal art or style. Not everyone is the same build, height, weight, level of flexibility, and so on. You train to create the best YOU possible. There are general techniques and concepts that everyone should be exposed to and learn to understand not only for your own application but to understand potential adversaries. Just because a technique doesn't work for you doesn't mean someone else couldn't figure out how to make it work for them. Bruce Lee famously said to be like water, to adapt to the shape of any situation. People too often let ego lead them to say and do stupid things. Traditional martial arts have value. They're just not a complete combat system. Same with boxing. Boxing training is extraordinary. It teaches how to strike, move shift weight, slip, duck, and so on in addition to be exceptional conditioning. That said, it ignores using legs, grappling/wrestling, striking with things other than a fist, and so on. If someone trained in boxing only their whole life, chances are they'd be a great striker but would become utterly helpless on the ground. So boxing is obviously NOT a complete set of combat skills. Rather than get ones panties in a bunch, claiming this art is better than that, people should study both and understand which parts give them an effective combat skill and which do not.

A few years ago I want my wife to learn martial arts. Then she got another man and separated me. I called it " Marital Art ". Now she's an expert in facing different men.

I started my martial arts with Taekwondo in elementary and practiced that for 3 years but was really concerned about the, in my opinion, over-emphasis on flashy kicks. I got into a scuffle with a friend's older brother, nothing serious, and he floored my the moment I lifted my foot off the ground. That was a hell of a shock for me. Moved to another state in middle school and started again at a Goju-Ryu karate dojo. This place was cool because it didn't just teach you the traditional karate stuff but also went into jiu-jitsu and judo and occasionally brought in some wrestlers who vigorously taught me how to sprawl, double-leg take-down, and control my center of gravity. By high school I started mixing in some boxing with my stand-up karate strikes and felt pretty comfortable with how I could handle situations. I only got into 2 serious fights in school and both were won thanks to getting out of a football tackle and following through my punches (each only took 2 punches). I'm not the strongest or best and wasn't at all at my dojo, but just knowing those things really saved my ass from being humiliated. I still liked Taekwondo as it did help me with flexibility and performance once I started weightlifting; it just never ended up helpful in fighting.

Great video, Dominic Izzo put me onto you. My take on this is era's, I'm 55, back when I was in My late teens, early 20's, 90% of people couldn't fight. Those guys that did some amateur boxing & Karate back then were the fighters, won almost every street fight they were in. When UFC first started with the Gracies, they won hands down, as all the traditional Martial artists didn't know how to defend against the take down. As UFC evolved, mixed martial arts took over from BJJ, because of the obvious. Now here we are today, everybody knows somebody that does mixed martial arts, so there's a lot more then 10% of guys out there that can fight, so b4 when you could get away with ya Wing Chun, now you have to be excellent at the art, for it to even have a chance of working. Another aspect is fitness, most traditional martial artists are unfit, most guys that practice MMA are super fit, no contest straight away, your getting ya arse kicked period. I did Judo, Karate & wing chun as a kid, sucked at them all, why, cause some of us are born to fight regardless of style, I wasn't. Good luck with the channel 🤜🤛

Bruce Lee said it best, "But basically, we all have two arms and two legs, so that is why I believe there should be only one way of fighting, and that is no way."

Sparring = Helpfull for Self-Defense = Not equil to all forms of Self-Defense = Not equil to all forms of Combatives Self Defense = All forms of Sparring + Combatives

I trained in Japanese Jiu Jitsu with some kick boxing in my training routine. I trained hard at the dojo for 3 days a week and trained every other day with my girlfriend, we were only 16 - 20 when we were together. She was my sensei’s daughter. So my sensei used to give me a real hard time in training. We went out to a few bars one night when a group of very drunk guys decided to make offensive comments to my girlfriend. She is gorgeous by the way and she will take down any guy no matter how big he was. They surrounded us and all I can say it was over in less then five minutes. My girlfriend ended up doing most of the work, she was a black belt and I was just a brown belt. But god damn she can fight. I’m 51 now and I still train in jiu jitsu and kick-boxing but when you’re in your teens with a girlfriend that’s a 9 out 10 in looks and a perfect physique, and then throw in a black belt in Jiu jitsu, she was perfection. I still often think about her. There’s nothing more sexy than a woman who can take care of herself when the odds are stacked against us.

I thought I was gonna hate this, but I actually agree. I think this is why you have to train the fundamentals of whatever category your style is in if you want any realistic chance of efficacy. Case in point, I've trained FMA for years, but we had boxers in our gym to give fundamental boxing training...which made how we trained some of the empty hand techniques far better. Most styles are just the icing on the cake of their corresponding fundamentals. Liked and subscribed!

There was an armed robbery in Indonesia. 3 armed blades robber vs an empty handed homeowner. All three were found dead while the homeowner lives unschated, he is a Silat master. I think this is the true purpose of Silat.

Back in graduate school I had a friend who had been in the Soviet military, where he had trained in martial arts . During training he had broken fingers and ribs, but the important thing was they practiced to kill at full speed and did not pull punches. When he entered martial arts tournaments here he destroyed just about everybody because they simply weren't used to getting hit for real.

Martial art is essentially for winning fights and staying alive. One may have his unique base style due to different localities. In addition to that, he has to research other styles, get from them a functional technique, practice it, modify it, and incorporate it to his own system. This is basically the idea of bruce lee. Learn your own,study others,discard whats useless, adapt and modify what is usefull. Practice repeatedly.

Very practical fighting styles for most situations are Kickboxing, Muay Thai, Boxing, Sambo, Judo, Jiujitsu, Wrestling. The higher the degree of grappling, the better.

So you want CTE? Go train MMA. Don’t say you never go too far in sparring,and the pressure to compete is immense. You will get your bell rung there. For most of us, our brain is gonna earn us more money than fighting. Probably like 99% of us. Or more. BJJ and Judo are better bets. You gotta be young to wrestle. Instead of martial arts, get yourself a mountain bike, meet some people and have the time of your life. Or even go hiking. Wanna protect yourself? Learn to talk, Judo for the mouth. Further? Go armed. Best advice for concealed carry? Never, ever, ever, pull that gun. You will go to jail.

"there are only three styles that work, the only three ""styles"" that exist." Way to spend ten minutes talking without actually saying anything. That's impressive bro.

Nice video! I myself have a Kyokushin brown belt, and while I do enjoy wearing gi I did not choose my art because of that. I choose it because of the whole package that no other art seems to have. The brutal training with bare knuckle punches, the kyokushin mindset and conditioning, the samurai and Japanese philosophy, the beautiful and powerful katas with meditation and breathing techniques, the Japanese culture, philosophy and respect, and also the grading system which gives a linear and clear goal of something to always improve and learn, you can in fact spent your whole life on kyokushin but still never be able to reach 10th dan, which is what I love. And also by not allowing head punches you keep your brain cells in the long run, so it's a good combination of everything. I love that a lot of people in my dojo are 40-60 year olds who still train and fight hard, there is no age to the art which is beautiful.

This was actually a very intelligent formulation of martial arts as a whole. Not many people can articulate it in such a well-organized way. Brovo!

All these things haven't been martial arts for a very long time. We're talking basic self defense here, not war. "Parkour" is n°1. Second is the use of non lethal defense weapons, and only then come hand to hand systems.

If you're talking about sport fighting your wrong , if you mean in a street fight you're still wrong, You're breaking down and simplifying the arts

I had a friend back in high school back in the 80's him and his brother were black belts in Tae-kwon-do , they were instructors assistants, been in the martial arts since they were kids, all these different degrees of black belts they were. Used to fly in mid air, looked they belonged in kung-fu movies, one day he got into a scrap, all that tae-kwon went out the window, the fight went straight-ghetto I did not see not one martial arts move, fight ended when they finally broke it up, it was 50-50, I will stick the motto "you may know karate, but I know chingazos"

I did what you were talking about.. I got my black belt in karate when i was 17 way way back in the day… but I noticed at my school the training didn’t seem to be super effective.. so I started training in my garage then I started going to a boxing gym. And noticed how they trained.. bag work Pad work… everything geared toward combat. and then I signed up for a kickboxing fight.. After that l quit traditional karate. But I didn’t drop the style I just took what I loved about karate and incorporated into kickboxing.. so, my spinning kicks and spinning backfist. I appreciate the style I trained in because It gave me a unique kickboxing style but i was over the gi and traditional bowing in and out of a gym and saying “yes sensei!” I loved going in with my gym shorts and getting some good training in.

Martial arts is for self defense and defense of others and if in deadly fight you need to know the pressure points weak areas of the body and the best method of using them against the attacker no matter size or fighting skills of attacker !...

Excellent commentary! Well thought out. You give us all food for thought. Thank you. 🥋

"Anderson Silva is so good at fighting so he made it work". This is why i like you Rob

After 42 years of study in a wide array of styles... I’d only call myself moderately good. Your analysis is spot on, you have to fight within those styles because it’s what it all boils down to. I’ve survived open heart surgery, knee surgery, two ear surgeries(deaf left side), I’ve been shot, stabbed, I jumped into a malfunctioning carnival ride to save some kids, I’ve had eight concussions, two rollovers, and three broken ribs. All of that has left its Mark and made it exceptionally difficult to be more that a moderate martial artist, especially with another trained individual. So I focus on all three of those areas to improve, and then I simply hope. Note: most of my health problems were congenital birth defects... except for the stupid heroics, those are all on me.

It's 100% down to your competence, capability and confidence. Style means nothing. If you're present in the moment. Your discipline will bring you victory. Be of the right mind.

Jeet Kune Do is made to work. The father of MMA. “I personally do not believe in the word style. Why? Because, unless there are human beings with three arms and four legs, unless we have another group of human beings that are structually different from us, there can be no different style of fighting.” - Bruce Lee

I 100% agree. It all comes down to the individual artist and how much work he puts into it.

Judo was developed to be something you could practice at full speed, using all it's techniques and come back the next day, unharmed. It is a martial art, a sport, a form of self defense and a form of physical and mental education. We never called the matches in our competitions fights, (I started Judo in 1967). We called ourselves judoka (one meaning was judo player). We never saw the Kime no Kata till we reached Shodan. If you are truly defending yourself, you are not 'closing the distance', meeting someone outside, or stepping into a ring to fight for money.

7 Star Mantis saved my life against a gang. I had a knife thrown at my head and though i couldn't see it, i felt it coming and blocked it with perfect timing. It was at night too. Dont knock what you don't know.

If you get good at boxing and wrestling you can beat any black belt

I actively train Muay Thai/Muay Chaiya and Jiu Jitsu but have also trained wing chun(still practice 30 minutes daily) and I totally agree with your comment regarding Silva. I've also watched a video of him on a wooden dummy and he wasn't using standard wing chun as I know it and at one point literally looked like he was slapping it open handed. Wing chun is very useful but it is important to think about the context. First, it isn't a "practical art" and instead it is a "conceptual art" and it is a "dead art" vs a "living art" meaning the tech is set by some source that can not be question and the system doesn't grow(unlike Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu where whatever works within the rules wins). Muay Thai and Jiu Jitsu are examples of practical arts. Wing Chun, and most martial arts with forms, are conceptual and some more or less on a spectrum between pure concept and some mixture of concept and practical use. Wing Chun forms are almost entirely pure concepts and the concepts are useful but imho only if you already know how to fight. Just as an example, and a relevant example imho, no one punches in a real fight like you see people punch a speed bag. I know several techs on the speed bag that are actually hand fighting where I'm using it to clear their guard as a setup for some other strike. Wing chun is basically a bunch concepts like speed bag drills and you either have to have someone who knows how to use it practically in a real situation against a skilled opponent or just figure it out on your own.

Valid points man, I saw how susceptible boxers were to leg kicks and decided to learn me some muay thai. I still spar in my boxing stance though and get the crap kicked outta my legs every week but I just pretend it doesn't hurt and hope they get bored. They don't get bored.

This is the attitude that kept me far away from MMA gyms all these years. Imagine the arrogance it takes to tell people who aren't trying to fight you that they need to come to your gym and fight you to prove their art. Not everyone who practices a martial art is trying to fight you. Millions of people practice an art (whatever it is) because they love the art, without trying to a)"save" the art, b)fight the most highly trained fighter or c)cone to your gym and "prove" anything.

Wow. My Kuk Sool Won instructor taught a lot of what you're saying. Same philosophy. He also said something to the effect that there is no such thing as dirty fighting... only walking away and crawling away.

This is a great video. I've done TKD and MMA for 15 years and I can understand when other martial artists get in their feeling about this topic. Keep up the great work on this content!

I studied tang Soo do in highschool, and actually made it to the finals at the all valley under 18 karate tournament..but my final opponent was this kid from Reseda named Daniel....I really don't want to talk about this. 😩

3 Best Martial Arts Styles: 1. Gun 2. Running 3. Not leaving your house

1. Striking 2. Wrestling 3. Grappling

I started with boxing, then moved to Wado-Ryu and when that club closed, did Wing Chun for a few years. All have a lot to commend them, but real fighting is all about speed and aggression. Most techniques, apart from the basics, go out of the window as soon as it all kicks off. Unless it's groin/knee level, forget about using kicks, it just means you are off balance. From experience (I worked the doors at clubs for a bit), avoid the grappling styles, as you don't know who is with the person you are trying to subdue, but you can be sure that whoever they are, they will be using your head as a football if you go to ground. Use hard surfaces. If you can bounce someone's skull off of a wall with a push or shoulder barge, it will be far more effective than a punch. If they are wearing a hood, pull it over their face. Use a hammer-fist rather than a punch to save your knuckles, if you can use your elbows, knees and head at close range, they will be far more effective than locks and holds. People pick up on the speed and aggression faster than they do anything else, and tend to back off really quickly. OK, I am 6'5" and 250 lbs, which probably also helps. But more than half the battle is showing intent. If you move really fast, and with purpose, and look like you might bite their nose off and eat it, they tend to behave.

I've been saying that strikes, locks (joint locks and strangulation etc.), and takedowns (throws, trips, tackles etc.) are what comprise all effective fighting techniques for a long time. This is spot on.

first and only rule if you are "unwillingly pulled" into a street-fight ( ALWAYS LEAVE if possible!) ; THERE ARE NO RULES WHATSOEVER IN A STREET-FIGHT! stay alert and protect yourself at all times.

Well, since you mentioned Tang Soo Do I had to respond. First let me clarify something. The martial arts as practiced today are not the same as they were 40+ years ago when I trained. Today, they are much more sport oriented and the training much less rigorous. I also noticed all the things people are not taught. The three skills mentioned used to exist in all martial arts styles, including Tang Soo Do. Techniques are governed by the structure of the human body. They may vary in execution, but at the end of the day, a punch is a punch, a kick is a kick. So there is no need to save your "style", you just need to learn all of it As for challenges, that used to happen back in the day. There were no rules, no referee, no gloves and before it was over, someone was getting hurt. It was combat, not a game. It happened to me twice and I was lucky that my opponents were unprepared to back up their challenge with superior skill. When I watch modern martial arts, I see a sport that has some utility for basic self defense. It is art, not combat. There is a lot of physical training but little training of the mind which is more important if you want to survive. But hey, I am an old man and the world is a less dangerous place, so perhaps the changes are for the best. If you are interested in the perspective of someone even older than me, try to find the book "The Weaponless Warriors" by Richard Kim. You may want to read it more than once as it contains lessons that are not obvious.

In my younger days I wrestled in high school, took judo and hapkido while I was in the service, and did take some bjj when I was older. I worked as a security guard, and also got into some fights in my younger days when out drinking etc. But to be honest, I feel like the best martial art I learned was my four years of high school wrestling. Judo also was good because I learned chokes and locks, and I also could mix in my wrestling with it. I was never a big striker but could still throw a punch, but it was my wrestling and judo that really did work out in the streets in real fighting situations.

Icy Mike talked about this in one of his videos, essentially that, in America, the “highest denominator” would be a wrestler, since a lot of people had access to it through school growing up and it’s an effective system, so if you train to be able to at least beat a mid level wrestler, you should be okay in a fight more often than not.

1. mUAY tHAI // KICKBOXING 2. WRESTLING 3. RUNNING

A lot of people are giving their opinions on street fight s, but how many have actually been on one , the one thing that martial arts can not teach you is aggressiveness and confidence. You eighther have it or you don't have it, that can actually make the difference on the outcome of a fight

I am actually one of those Tang Soo Do guys trying to make it more functional... Overall, I really like your video here, and agree with all your points for the most part. That said, Tang Soo Do, being a Karate-based art, if it really went back to it's roots, would be a system that continues to evolve. Real, Okinawan Karate was more like MMA than what we see in tournaments today. It had grappling, wrestling and striking. It also evolved as it was passed from instructor to student, rather than being regulated by a large organization. I'm in the middle of nowhere when it comes to Tang Soo Do. There's no one else around me who does it. I use the name Tang Soo Do because it's the style I "grew up" in, but I've cross-trained in other styles, admittedly. There's a TON of techniques in TSD that are completely valid techniques, but expressed or applied poorly for actual defensives. And, there's a lot of stuff in TSD being touted as real self-defense that will get someone killed quickly. I left my association, and am completely independent now. I treat it more like TSD is my base style, rejecting that which I find ineffective, and embracing concepts that work. Again, great video!