Picking A Martial Art Is No Easy Cake
A Suitable Martial Arts For You
With the World being on lockdown, most of us have no opportunity to practice martial arts.
At the same time, this also offers us a unique opportunity to spend some time on our own and reflect on the martial arts that we are either practicing or would like to try out and to decide, whether it is the most suitable martial art for us.
I’ve been practicing and teaching martial arts for over 15 years. During this time I’ve had the opportunity to experience some of the best and worst of martial arts – the myths and the reality, meanwhile doing my best to figure out what is what.
In this article I will lay out everything that I think one needs to know when considering whether your already chosen martial art, or a martial art that you are planning to practice – is the right fit for you. In this “How to pick a martial art” guide, we will take a look at how to choose a martial art.
Martial Arts Near Me
In the past, our access to martial arts, or information about it, was much more scarce than it is today, so to a degree, it made sense to choose a martial arts school that was around your area. Sometimes – you simply didn’t have an alternative. These days – there are usually a lot of martial arts schools and styles to choose from.
On one level it can make it confusing. On another – some people are still choosing the martial art which is close to home, despite that, instead of asking what martial art is most suitable for them. Yet that naturally poses a question – how do you decide which martial art is most suitable for you?
Which Martial Arts Should I Learn
Most people would probably choose a martial art, which looks the coolest, or one which they heard good things about, or saw a cool movie, which had that martial art. Yet that is a dangerous way to choose it since people can say a lot of good things about practices – which are not necessarily good – simply because it is their unconscious bias.
Meanwhile, the question that I suggest asking first, is more personal to you – and that is – why do you want to learn martial arts to begin with? Too many times, we don’t even have a defined idea why we want to practice a martial art.
Is it primarily for self-defense? Is it primarily for the fitness aspect of it? Leisure? Confidence? Or is it for the community?
Of course, it can be a mix of things, but one of the aspects will usually stand out for you. It is very important to decide before choosing a martial art, because otherwise, you may easily choose the wrong martial art, which will not offer you what you are looking for, without you even knowing.
When you decide what your main reason is – and all of them are usually quite good reasons – it doesn’t necessarily mean one is worse than the other – it’s a personal preference, when you know which one it is – then you can start doing some investigating, by figuring out which martial art is the best for your chosen reason.
Unfortunately, it may sound easier than it is. And that is, because some martial arts schools and styles are not clear themselves about what they are offering, while also sometimes, they can be even unaware that what they claim to be offering – they do not deliver. This is where things become tricky. But that’s also why I wrote this article to clarify some things and make the process easier for you. So let’s break it down.
Why Learn Martial Arts
One of the main reasons people start martial arts is due to want to learn self-defense. And that aspect, unfortunately, is I dare say, the most confusing part of martial arts. It is my opinion, which to be fair is usually also shared by various self-defense experts, that martial arts and self-defense – unlike what most people (and sometimes martial artists think) are related, yet different things.
I’ve written other articles on this subject, which you can feel free to check out for more details, but the basis of it is, that most of what self-defense is – is about prevention. How to know where it’s safe to go and where it’s not? How to keep a safe distance? How to notice a potential threat early? How to de-escalate a growing conflict?
These and many other answers are rarely offered in martial arts schools. Some of them do – and that’s a great sign if they do, but most martial arts will only teach you what to do When you are attacked.
Ex. if somebody grabs you – you do this! But what about the long-lasting moments before the grab even happens? If you are capable of knowing how to avoid those – you are 90% self-defense proof. And it is important to know how to deal with a grab or a punch, but that’s per se, just about 10% of what self-defense is really about.
So do learn to defend yourself against a punch or grab, etc. But don’t fool yourself, or let a martial arts school fool you – that the whole deal is just about that. Also, some martial arts schools are better at teaching you to defend against a physical threat.
How To Pick A Martial Art
Now you ask – how do you know which one it is? And actually – the answer is fairly simple here.
These are martial arts – which include pressure testing. In other words, the attacker is not “helping out” the defender. As coach, Matt Thornton says: “Watch the feeder, not the demonstrator”. That means: looking at how the defender is being attacked, not at how he defends. Martial arts which are not good at actually teaching you how to defend against a physical attack are ones – where the attacker for example punches into the air and stops and waits for the defender to do the move.
It may look cool – but that won’t teach you to deal with someone who wants to hurt you (even if the teacher will tell you it will).
Meanwhile, there are martial arts, where you will be confronted with someone who is trying to defeat you and you will have to learn to deal with such an attack, but that doesn’t mean you will get hurt. For example in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, there are usually no strikes to the head and injuries are not common, but at the same time, you get two people who are trying to “get the tap”, or in other words get you into a position where you give up. And then you go again. With that being said you may still ask: what about the self-defense prevention aspect?
What Martial Arts Teaches Self-Defense Prevention
The truth is, you don’t even need martial arts to learn the prevention side of things.
Either a good dedicated instructor of the subject is enough (but those are rare), but also – there are great books which offer the right information about it. A couple that I would suggest are: “Meditations on Violence” by Rory Miller and “The Gift of Fear” by Gavin de Becker. And while it’s a rabbit hole that you could go down forever, having read a couple of good self-defense books, you will most likely be 90% safer already.
And then – you can learn a martial art as an add-on. To learn how to physically defend yourself, or just enjoy it! Because martial arts can be awesome 🙂 But at least you won’t be in a mindset of thinking: shoot, I will have to learn a martial art for 10 years before I will know how self-defense works!
And one more hint: if you won’t be able to defend yourself against an untrained attacker after 6 months of training a martial art – it usually means that martial art is not a good one for it. And before we finish this article – I would quickly like to address the rest of the reasons for training in martial arts, those being: fitness, community, leisure, etc.
Most martial arts will offer that. But something to look out for While almost all martial arts will offer these aspects, some martial arts will also pretend to offer more than they do – especially at the self-defense level. It’s OK to practice a martial art that is not effective for self-defense, as long as that is honestly admitted, like in let’s say, Tai Chi.
How Can You Tell If Martial Arts Are Fake
If you will come into a martial arts school, which will tell you that you’ll need to learn for at least 2 to 4 years until you will be able to use it against an untrained attacker, or there will be no live resistance and pressure testing, AKA the attackers will be ‘helping out’ the defender and won’t be offering a challenge – I would not recommend such a place, because it’s culture is based on a lie, and that usually leads to other inherent problems – such as cult-like behavior, denial, dishonesty, lack of critical thinking and even more.
And before I, really, really end the article, I know what you are thinking. “This guy rambled on for such a long time on how to pick a martial art and eventually didn’t even recommend one! What a waste of time”. Well, let’s make sure I didn’t waste your time then and talk about it 🙂
Best Martial Arts To Learn
This will be only my own opinion from the gathered experience, so do take it with a grain of salt and stay open-minded – a lot depends on the actual instructor himself – how honest and good he is, not only the style, but various styles do have general tendencies.
The martial arts, which generally tend to claim that they teach self-defense, but usually fail badly at it are most commonly known to be Aikido, Wing Chun, various styles of Kung Fu, and Bujinkan, are the first ones that come to my mind.
You will also bump into martial arts which claim to be more “reality-based”, but those can be deceiving and should be looked at with a critical mind – since they can sometimes claim to be effective, but be off in reality.
For example, I am skeptical about Systema, the Russian martial art, and Krav Maga (although I’m told it highly depends on the particular school), but I can’t put a final word since I haven’t tried it out myself. In the middle, you can usually find Karate and Taekwondo, which sometimes can be limited due to a heavy rule set, but it also really depends on what style or school it is.
If you want to learn to strike, usually there’s nothing more polished than Boxing. Muay Thai and Kick Boxing will do too since you’ll learn some badass kicking too. But be careful about the culture of the gym.
If there are heavy blows to the head included in the practice – best avoid such a place for your brain health. A good striking gym will usually have a beginner’s program which will protect your head.
Grappling wise I personally love Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Don’t mistake it for Japanese Jiu-Jitsu, which is a different subject and can be all over the place. My impression is that Japanese Jiu-Jitsu often lacks live pressure testing, but to be fair, I didn’t have a lot of exposure to it.
Meanwhile, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu – most schools will teach you very well how to handle a single attacker and choke him out if you’ll need to. Wrestling is good for taking people down too, although I keep hearing that the sports level of it can have a lot of impact on the body, which is not very healthy. You’ll have to figure out this one on your own. Learning MMA can be a good mix of learning a mix of all the skills too.
There are also other martial arts that I didn’t mention such as Sambo or Judo, but that’s mainly because I had very little contact with them or did little investigation about them.
Yet with all the information that was presented in this article, I have a feeling you will be able to make up your mind much better now about which martial art to choose. Thanks for reading the whole article. If you are interested in similar subjects about martial arts, check out some more information on Teach to Fight.
There are loads of videos and articles like this one 🙂 If you are interested in critical thinking in general, not only in martial arts but also Yoga, meditation, and more – check out our Health & Conditioning info here on our site. I wish you to own your journey in your martial arts endeavor.
