Martial Art / Self Defence? What to choose?

[simons123]

After doing Muay Thai for the last 15 years+, I've always wanted to try Ju Jitsu but every place I look is so god damn expensive. It's usually around £80 a month when I've looked which is crazy expensive compared to Muay Thai or Boxing classes.

[Hoofy]

simons123 said:

After doing Muay Thai for the last 15 years+, I've always wanted to try Ju Jitsu but every place I look is so god damn expensive. It's usually around £80 a month when I've looked which is crazy expensive compared to Muay Thai or Boxing classes.

Because it's trendy. I wondered about just doing 1-2-1 for a couple of sessions, sometimes you see like £50 with their junior instructors so you can see what it's like without committing.

[biggbn]

Hoofy said:

simons123 said:

After doing Muay Thai for the last 15 years+, I've always wanted to try Ju Jitsu but every place I look is so god damn expensive. It's usually around £80 a month when I've looked which is crazy expensive compared to Muay Thai or Boxing classes.

Because it's trendy. I wondered about just doing 1-2-1 for a couple of sessions, sometimes you see like £50 with their junior instructors so you can see what it's like without committing.

Must depend where you are. My mates run a well respected MMA club and fight team and have JJ classes, not dear and well attended.

[MC Bodge]

Go with the boxing/Muay Thai classes. If nothing else, it will improve most people's fitness.

[Sheets Tabuer]

MC Bodge said:

Go with the boxing/Muay Thai classes. If nothing else, it will improve most people's fitness.

This is what else I wanted to say, it is nearly always the fittest guy that wins. Most people puff themselves out after 30 seconds of windmilling and if you are conditioned you'll be dancing round them, of course they will try to go to ground so make sure they don't have a mate that can come and kick you in the face, happened to me once and I had the laces of an Adidas Samba imprinted on my face for a week

[simons123]

MC Bodge said:

Go with the boxing/Muay Thai classes. If nothing else, it will improve most people's fitness.

The guy is nearly 60 years of age. I doubt that's a good idea

[MC Bodge]

simons123 said:

MC Bodge said:

Go with the boxing/Muay Thai classes. If nothing else, it will improve most people's fitness.

The guy is nearly 60 years of age. I doubt that's a good idea

He is looking for fighting / self-defence advice.

[MaxFromage]

jdw100 said:

Did you ever try the ‘how far do you need to be away before you can turn and run without getting stabbed experiment’?

No, that's not one we've role-played, but I'll suggest it to my instructor. Just the usual run asap/give them what they want/plan a defence/attack. I'm glad I can run/move fast, as I'm not sure how I react to a real-life knife. There's only so much realism you can add to life/death situations.

[MaxFromage]

MC Bodge said:

He is looking for fighting / self-defence advice.

I spent 15 years on kickboxing, at one point training with UK fighters (getting beaten up ). I'm sounding like a broken record, but the OP really would benefit more from KM. As you age, the focus needs to shift away from brute force/striking etc and more about defence/elimination of the threat as safely or as quickly as possible.

[Gecko1978]

biggbn said:

SlimJim16v said:

Some really good posts.
I would add, Krav Maga is overrated, and grappling is not very good against more than one person.

Unless you are very proficient, nothing much works against more than one protagonist if they are intent on hurting you and not just rowdy, drunken yobs, as the saying goes, I don't care if your Muhammad im 'ard Bruce Lee, there are few people who will proficiently defend themselves on several skilled attackers.

Tik tok is useful for this. Videos of MMA fighters going against 2 opponents at once. Unless your Eddie hall v the two Dwarfs it's pretty much a non starter. I say this with zero skill but if a pro MMA fighter can't fight 2 people then odds are 99.9% can't either

[biggbn]

MaxFromage said:

jdw100 said:

Did you ever try the ‘how far do you need to be away before you can turn and run without getting stabbed experiment’?

No, that's not one we've role-played, but I'll suggest it to my instructor. Just the usual run asap/give them what they want/plan a defence/attack. I'm glad I can run/move fast, as I'm not sure how I react to a real-life knife. There's only so much realism you can add to life/death situations.

Being faced with a bottle, glass or any bladed implement is a game changer. I found 90% of people brandishing them are doing so for show and you really need to validate their deep feeling that they really don't want to use what they are holding, give them a way out if you like, a reason not to use it rather than a reason to.... The problem is, when you are full of adrenaline yourself, it is difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff mentally. Controlling your situation by controlling yourself is about the only constant variable you have, and we'll worth remembering

Edited by biggbn on Wednesday 3rd July 11:21

[Yahonza]

I'm going to suggest a traditional martial art like Aikido. Agree with everything said about the psychology of de-escalation too.

[SlimJim16v]

Gecko1978 said:

Tik tok is useful for this. Videos of MMA fighters going against 2 opponents at once. Unless your Eddie hall v the two Dwarfs it's pretty much a non starter. I say this with zero skill but if a pro MMA fighter can't fight 2 people then odds are 99.9% can't either

It can be done by skilled and experienced people vs unskilled, inexperienced people. There are videos on YouTube of boxers doing it and I know people who've survived encounters with multiple attackers. But yes, 99% of us can't.

[biggbn]

SlimJim16v said:

Gecko1978 said:

Tik tok is useful for this. Videos of MMA fighters going against 2 opponents at once. Unless your Eddie hall v the two Dwarfs it's pretty much a non starter. I say this with zero skill but if a pro MMA fighter can't fight 2 people then odds are 99.9% can't either

It can be done by skilled and experienced people vs unskilled, inexperienced people. There are videos on YouTube of boxers doing it and I know people who've survived encounters with multiple attackers. But yes, 99% of us can't.

You are usually reliant on the fact that at least one of any group doesn't really want to engage. The problem is when you are faced with more than one trained, fit, skillful adversaries...bit how often will that happen in your life? A vanishingly small percentage of the time unless you live a particularly specialist type of life!!

It was relatively 'common' to be surrounded working doors, lots of pubs were one man doors tbrough the week, and as always the best policy was not let anyone in you'd have trouble getting out...so talking to groups you had decided to refuse in a polite but assertive way, using humour where appropriate worked most of the time. I have been 'jumped' by groups in the past which is where my above advice comes from. If you can deter the loudest, most insistent of them, the others tend to shout and bawl but ultimately leave the scene..the groups i had most physical problems with were marines or, families or football teams..one for all and all for one in those situations and that could be tricky!!