track & field 200 meter sprint

-someone who does BJJ

edit: obligatory

I learned Ken po, I don’t know the legality of gouging someone’s eyes out but seems pretty effective… that was how almost every technique I learned seems to end. They had these mannequins with the eyes removed and they’d put soft boiled eggs in them. We never practiced on anybody & the guy who started it had an eye patch over one eye.

boxing? lots of cardio so you can run away, looks like a “fair fight” if you can’t. It’s good to have a ground game from BJJ, but if you take someone to ground their friends are probably gonna jump you, and if they were alone you probably could have run away.

I’ve never been in a situation where I needed to fight my way out. If I were to encounter one I’d probably be carrying a gun anyway. IMO, you could also train for fun, fitness, street fighting, etc; be realistic about your self-defense needs.

Getting good at fighting with any weapon, even just a heavy blunt object, will be easier to learn and more effective than unarmed self defense. Knowing how to use a firearm is even more practical if you’re in a situation where they’re an option.

Avoiding fights is always the best form of self defense though and being prepared for them if they happen is the second best.

Wrestling / BJJ and boxing, with an emphasis on defensive skills (footwork, head movement, stopping takedowns, clearing collar-ties, getting up quickly, etc.).

The value of unarmed self defense in a world with weapons is that you aren’t guaranteed a clean draw of your weapon, so having something to bridge the gap can be helpful. That’s really all though – beyond that weapons are entirely superior, with a little asterisk next to knives because it’s too easy for a stronger person to turn your own knife against you.

The true answer is that martial arts aren’t practical or effective for self-defense

i like bjj cuz it taught me ways to pain-immobilize someone without doing lasting damage (armbar, rear-naked choke), which has come in handy with drunk friends and such.

For anything that will realistically happen in real life? Boxing and kickboxing. Both of which are primarily about fitness, form and proper technique delivering a hit. Any bare knuckle streetfight is over in seconds and determined by one or two very clear hits.

Anecdotally the boxers I’ve known tend to carry themselves in a way that scares people enough to not even start fights with them. Whereas the kickboxers I’ve known regularly would get into and win fights, scrappy little shits.

This might be entirely coincidence or it might say something about the personality types drawn to the different sports.

Gun Kata

whatever you think the coolest one is because you’ll be motivated to learn it more

for me? probably capoeira or northern shaolin they both look sick as fuck and really that’s huge when you’re for some reason in a fight and public and didn’t bring any self defense. if you’re gonna go down, you gotta go down looking fuckin awesome. honestly if you have prep time bring some wire and pullies and you can do some of those wuxia kicks and shit and just turn it into a whole public theater. like if i for some reason get into a fight and my opponent starts floating over at me with a flying wire kick im just going to run: for you it’s life and death, for them it’s just another stunt

When in doubt strike the groin. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gyXhysmMNhE

whichever one you will stick with and actually practice, there are not really ‘more effective’ or ‘less effective’ styles in general/as a universal measure, outside of specific contexts. boxers lose to MMA fighters in MMA matches, MMA fighters lose to boxers in boxing matches. its more important to know how to read a situation and de-escalate or escape than how to throw a punch or do a fancy flying spinny kick. make sure to study self defense laws in your area as well, you might be surprised at the standards you are held to in terms of responsibility to flee or de-escalate. for example in amerikkka it is a ‘bad look’ in a legal sense to draw a firearm and point it at an assailant without firing, with the intent to intimidate/de-escalate, because you are only supposed to draw your weapon when you feel your life is in danger, and the fact that you did not immediately mag-dump your assailant will be used as legally incontrovertible proof that you did not genuinely fear for your life, especially if your target survives after you shoot them after they refuse to back down from your hollywood intimidation check. also any sport martial art is going to habituate you into ignoring eye gouges and groin attacks and the openings for such, since they are universally against any boxing/mma rules and for good reason. ww2 combatives, such as Get Tough written by W. E. Fairbairn, inventor of the famous fairbairn-sykes fighting knife from WW2, will at least give you an idea of what kinds of moves are lethal, what kind of moves people trying to genuinely ambush/kill you might use, how people approach for an ambush, etc. however, as a legal civilian, you may want to learn something like judo or aikido to avoid legally (or morally) costly injuries to your assailants - good luck convincing the jury (or yourself) you were in the right when your malnourished desperate drug addict assailant who is half your mass ends up with his head caved in while you, the athletic larger guy with scary martial arts training, are unscathed. depending on your context you might want to look into self defense tools or weapons like stun guns, tasers, mace/pepper spray, or even firearms. as a side note, i recommend open-hand/palm strikes and chops over punches for people who have not seriously conditioned their hands for bare-knuckle boxing or muay thai or the like. even with perfect technique you may hit a harder area than you intend, and WILL break your hand/wrist on their skull/knee/elbow, and its better to ‘only’ break your pinky finger bones with a chop than the ones in your wrist/knuckles with a punch.