But what are the best martial arts for you if you are a smaller guy? If you are smaller in stature then you have to use what works best for you. Think of your advantages and disadvantages against a bigger person then go from there.
In my opinion, I believe MMA is the best martial art for smaller guys. Now I am not at all saying that other martial arts cannot be effective. But what we are really looking at here is what is the best all-round style to suit small man or women for that matter. What we can do is look at some of the very best fighting styles and how you can apply them to your own personal situation. And what we really need to do is take it from the gym to the street where a martial art can truly be tested.
While some techniques can look awesome in the gym or dojo when they are taken out of that controlled environment, the whole thing can just fall apart. As when you have an opponent who is unpredictable and does not play by the rules, it can completely throw you off and leave you vulnerable. I decided to keep the list pretty short as there are so many great martial arts out there for self-defence. What is Muay Thai? The simple answer to this is that Muay Thai is a standup striking martial art that uses eight points of attack on the body.
Although there was a time many moons ago that headbutts were also used, today that has been removed from the rules. This fighting style consists of kicks, knees, elbows and punches, as well as what is called the clinch.
Muay Thai offers the use of elbows as strikes when working in close again your opponent with what can be one of the most devastating strikes in the business. For a good example of how these elbows can be used in a confrontation, I have to go back to one of my previous coaches.
Being an Englishman of Irish heritage, he always gave the example of being attacked in a bar, go figure. But he repeatedly spoke about using elbows in close when someone gets in your face. So learning to use elbows effectively can be extremely useful against a bigger opponent. Another great thing about Muay Thai is the kicks.
The lows kicks can be very useful for chopping down someone, no matter what size! While teep kicks are great for pushing the aggressor away and creating space. What is the learning curve like? In a sport like Muay Thai, you can begin to make progress pretty rapidly. From the moment you step into the gym, the first thing that will be working on is improving your strikes. So we are talking punches and kicks. One of the most difficult aspects of a martial art like Muay Thai is the conditioning aspect.
Little improvements in your daily routine will pay dividends in the longer term. Is Muay Thai right for you? So to recap, Muay Thai is a striking art that utilises clinching. So you will be using a combination of kicking and boxing when faced with an opponent.
Would you feel comfortable in this situation, would this suit your personal size and style? If you feel like this sounds like the right type of fighting style for you, then Muay Thai may be just what you are looking for. So my advice would be to check out some Muay Thai videos, see what martial arts are near to you and then go from there.
There is a good reason as to it is regarded as perhaps the best standup martial art on the planet. So my advice would be to give it a go and see if it is right for you. What is Judo? Judo is a grappling art that incorporates sweeps and throws , along wide joint locks to defeat an opponent.
It does not involve any strikes and relies on your ability to throw people using leverage, their own body weight and momentum against them. One of the strongest aspects of Judo is that a smaller person is capable of getting in on a taller opponent and using their hips to throw them to the ground. Once on the ground, there are then a number of submissions and non-lethal options available.
Once on the ground if you are able to control someone who while standing was significantly bigger than you. Now that you are on the ground much of the height advantage has been lost. Through the use of chokes and joint locks, you can either subdue or choke out your attacker, so that you can then get away and live to fight another day. What is the learning curve in Judo like? Like many grappling martial arts, Judo does take many years of training to get proficient.
Grappling and submissions are in my opinion are harder to master than striking. Muay Thai is brutal, and thus probably not the best choice for someone that needs to subdue their opponent with minimal damage. BJJ is largely focused on ground fighting, so not the best choice if you need to face multiple opponents at once or retain the option of running away.
Next, let me question the frame of your question, if I may. If you are worried about actual self-defense effectiveness, are you sure a martial art is the way to go? Depending on your particular situation, you might be better off finding ways to avoid the need for self-defense fighting than you would be learning to fight. Now, with all of that in mind, if you really want a martial art for self-defense, then I recommend Krav Maga, but with some big caveats I'll get to at the end.
My wife does Krav Maga and it is entirely focused on self-defense techniques with no worries about competition or defending against tournament style techniques. She both enjoys it and has learned a lot of solid techniques. Now for the caveats: the school matters more than the art. If I need to find a new martial arts academy, I'd rather have a great teacher in my second or even third choice art than I would have a mediocre teacher in my first choice art.
The other big one is that no self-defense techniques are perfect, especially against an attacker who is bigger, or stronger, or armed. Any art where you train vigorously and practice applying your techniques against a moving, unpredictable, uncooperative partner will develop self-defense skills and attributes. The goal is to regularly practice sparring in class in order to develop your practical, applicable skills. But that doesn't really matter, since the determining factor is what schools are around you.
Try a class at each one, be clear about your goals, and don't believe anyone's spiels about how they're the best "for the street". First, I'll point out factors you want in any training aimed primarily at self defense. This is because there are schools, programs, workshops, etc.
Sparring, working against live opponents. This may not be the thing you do right away, however, it's something you should do before long and it should something that is a regular part of training. Around the world people use weapons because they work. This should involve dealing with people with weapons, as well as using weapons yourself, including improvised weapons.
Assaults aren't fair. Being outnumbered is a reasonable possibility and you need to train for this. A clear, empty room with a flat floor makes training easier. However, self defense rarely happens so easily - you should train to deal with fighting in enclosed spaces, with obstacles, uneven ground, falling on the ground, being seated, all kinds of weird positions, just so you can learn how to find your options while under less than optimal situations.
You should have some solid skills within 3 months of training going a week. This is "proficiency" not mastery. If a school is telling you it will take a year, or years, before you can hope to defend yourself, they're not teaching self defense.
Krav Maga, Systema, and there's a variety of smaller systems usually using the words "tactical" or "combative" in the name or advertising that usually covers a variety of stuff. A lot of the styles which focus on weapons do pretty well here. Some schools of Penjak Silat as well. More defense focused Jiujitsu schools also incorporate a lot of the principles above. You're a female, and you're mostly interested in self-defense.
Presumably this is because you just want to be able to defend yourself in common real-life situations women might find themselves in. And you're worried that the class you enroll in will only teach things that are useful for much taller men.
Briefly, my recommendation for you is to look at Brazilian Jiujitsu. Specifically, if you can find a Gracie style BJJ school, that's where you should go.
Gracie Jiujitsu has a long track record of success with regards to training women. So does Judo, but Jiujitsu is more oriented towards practical self-defense.
Regarding physical attributes gender, height, weight, strength, and athleticism and how it affects your ability to defend yourself: Generally if all of physical attributes are equal, the person with the most skill will have a better chance of "winning" in a physical confrontation.
When there is a physical attribute disadvantage, greater skill is required. Keep in mind that those physical attributes do matter. A black belt in Brazilian Jiujitsu or any martial art will have a harder time winning against a pound white belt than a pound white belt.
Size does matter. There are even cases where BJJ black belts lose to beginners, just because the beginners are able to use their overwhelming strength and weight to their advantage. But skill also matters. Skill can make up for size disadvantages. And generally speaking, the more the size disadvantage, the more skilled you have to be to overcome your opponent.
What that means for women who want to learn self-defense in preparation against men is that they will need to train for a longer period of time to be able to reliably defend themselves against larger men. So the average man starting Brazilian Jiujitsu training may only take a year to reach the point where he's skilled enough to reliably defeat other average sized men. But the average woman starting BJJ may need two or three years to reach the point where she's skilled enough to reliably defeat an average sized man.
It just takes longer. This physical attribute disadvantage is inherent in any martial art. If you find a martial art that tries to tell you size doesn't matter in a fight so long as you're using their martial art, just walk away.
They're either very delusional about their martial art or are trying to sell you on it. Don't waste your time or money there. If you have a choice of BJJ schools in your area, go to each one and check them out. You should make sure the school has women already training there. Many schools of BJJ actually have a separate women's-only class and allow those same women to participate in coed classes as well if they want.
Make sure whatever school you choose, it places self-defense higher than the sport aspects of BJJ. That's why I say I prefer Gracie Jiujitsu for this, because they try to ensure that self-defense is their core material, and sports is secondary. I wrote a lengthy answer in the past that describes exactly what "realistic" self-defense practice should look like and why.
It was to a question about someone asking if Taekwondo was good for self-defense. I think I'd just be repeating most of it to explain to you what you want to be looking for, so please read my other answer at the link here:. Alternatively, I'd suggest looking into Krav-Maga. You can take a small course about 3 months long usually, and they'll cover a lot of practical topics.
It gives you a good introduction to what it's like to punch, kick, elbow, and knee people. It teaches some throws, some grappling techniques, situational awareness, and maybe even some weapons stuff. Its ground fighting training will be pretty minimal, though. All of that will be in the first months. It's designed to kind of give you a crash course on unarmed combat. So from that perspective, I like it.
But personally, I think you'll be able to take more from Brazilian Jiujitsu that you can actually remember and use successfully. I say that because of the way BJJ schools train people: with fully resisting partners but with safety as the highest concern that don't let you fool yourself into thinking you're able to use it for real.
Krav-Maga might give you a small taste of that kind of training, but it's not done nearly as often. That's the thing that really counts when learning realistic self-defense, more than anything else in my opinion.
You have to know it can work on a fully resisting larger man first, in class, before you'll ever have the confidence that it will work for real outside of the class. Most martial arts schools don't give you that. Instead, they give you a false confidence, which can get you killed, or at the very least, it will waste your time and money.
In some states of the USA you can carry a gun. This makes military styles such as Krav maga much more useful as they teach you to make space to draw a gun.
Where I live in the UK weapons are illegal; no guns, no blades, no sticks. As a result Krav maga is perhaps less useful, though still not at all redundant.
How long do you plan to train? Some styles take a lifetime to learn. Others will teach you to defend yourself in months. The more complex styles may well pay off in the long run, but if you don't make training part of your lifestyle they will be of little benefit. How much are you willing to risk to learn?
Some jujitsu styles carry high risk. Somebody large, heavy, and tall will easily overpower somebody short and skinny in almost any art form, or only by just running at them. So, what can you do if you are on the lower end of the BMI chart?
Or, to put it better: what is the best martial art for skinny people? The best martial art for skinny people is Taekwondo. A thin person will not be as successful in wrestling and grappling sports as someone heavier, but they can compensate with powerful, quick kicks.
These strikes are the hallmark of Taekwondo. Read on if you are interested! Taekwondo is a mostly kicking-based martial art, developed after the second world war.
Contrary to common belief, Taekwondo is not Chinese or Japanese like the majority of the most famous martial arts nowadays. It actually hails from Korea. There were 9 traditional Kwon- s in Korea, all teaching mix-matched martial arts styles, which were put together by combining elements of Chinese, Japanese, and indigenous Korean martial arts styles. These 9 Kwons and a couple of important military figures decided to make an effort to unify these styles that the Kwons were teaching.
In this theory of his, he describes a bunch of observations and ideas on fighting and the physics of doing it effectively.
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