Introduction

There have been popping up numerous threads on this topic here and over at /r/asktrp lately lately and it looks like a good idea to share the knowledge I've gathered up to now and my thoughts on this topic.

Most of these threads evolve either around which particular system to choose, or they center around situations, where OP either felt offended, intimidated or threatened.

As a short disclaimer, I'd like to throw in, that I for myself have been doing MMA just for about half a year now, and some of those things I mention are either my personal opinion, which I came up with through my experience and thorugh research so far, or are based on conversations I had with people who are very experienced in self-defense/martial arts.

Why you would want to learn a martial art or self-defense-system

I'd like to start with proposing the practicing of a martial art, or a self-defense-system, as a substitution for the holy grail of lifting. You will surely not get as bulked, but you will definetly have a well-defined body and be jacked as shit, if you are serious about it.

Bulking and martial arts do not mix well. In an actual fight, you need to be able to be both explosive, but also have to have stamina to endure throughout that fight. If you've watched some fighting before, you'll notice, that if somebody is gased, he is most likely to loose the fight.

If you have a huge amount of muscles, you're able to dominate in situations, where you need to be explosive, but you'll get exhausted much much more. There are of course a few exceptions to that, like the infamous Mark Kerr, but those just confirm the rule.

There are of course workouts specifically aimed at martial artists and I'd bet that Donald Cerrone and Jim Miller haven't got too much struggle with pulling girls, because of their bodies.

Learning how to fight has some additional benefits to offer though, apart from the most obvious ones: being more dangerous and having confidence.

The simplest one maybe is: you can skip cardio day. Just calmly rolling around and wrestling a little bit for five minutes, or dancing around with your buddy, while keeping your hands up and parting the air with your fists, will be enough for the start for you.

But seriously: You will develop a very special mindset pretty fast. It will help you to become much calmer in your thoughts and you will just not care about as many things. This will manifest in being more aloof overall, but also in acting more dominant, because you just cannot be bothered that much any more about how your actions make other people feel in this particular moment. Ever had problems with dancing around everybody, when you are in crowded places like the mall? That will have an end pretty fast.

It will rapidly increase your posture and movement. It didn't even take one month for me, although I walked like a very slow version of John Wayne for the first two weeks. It shares this with bulking, granted. Since you also practice stance, you'll notice, that you will stand much more upright and rooted.

If you ever wondered, why you might be able to find those alphas people are constantly talking about, you'll find them there (as you of course also will at the freeweight section in the local gym). I've made many friends there and it's a really friendly and supportive atmosphere there. If you trust another man enough to let him kick you, or choke you, you will have a special kind of relationship. There is also of course a lot of negging and light AMOGing going on, but you'll get used to it and it also is pretty funny and lightharted, if nobody acts sulked or insulted.

A neat side-effect is, that if you mention towards girls, that you are one of those guys fighting in a cage, you'll almost be able to hear the tingling of their vaginas, plus it's also almost always some food for conversations with people in general.

The most important part though is something I'd put with a quote by Rener Gracie: "In order to avoid a fight, you must know how to fight", which brings me to the next topic.

Martial Arts and actual self-defense situations

If you know how to fight, your urge to actually do it does greatly decrease. Sparring at least three times a week, getting hit and bruised by your pals, and loosing to better fighters will be enough for you to calm that wish down in you.

You'll also learn pretty fast, that a fight is always a potential threat to your life and should be handled as such. I've seen people writing that you shouldn't handle it as such, but these people do not know shit about fighting. Just because you won some wrestling on the floor of a dirty bar, with the local alcoholic regular, doesn't mean that it's always like that.

You'll learn that you can't judge a book by it's cover and that you cannot safely make assumptions about the capabilities of a certain person. There are many smaller guys than me at my gym, who would beat me up in seconds, and I've seen male landwhales who were able to do the splits and pin you down on the ground in a submission pose, before you would even have time to put your beer down.

On top of all of that, you should also be aware, that you aren't Superman and can x-ray persons to find out about the content of their pockets. You'll be surprised, what you are able to do with a sharp knife by just aimlessly slashing around with it. Just do a Google image search for knife wounds(NSFW). I don't have to teach you about guns.

Watch (How to defeat multiple opponents)[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vyyrpjm49hA](partly NSFW) by Rener Gracie to understand more about that.

Regardless of all that, you'll of course be able to defend yourself and I'd even say that it doesn't even matter which martial art you end up practicing, since they all will give you an advantage over an uneducated opponent, even if it's Aikido. Many of them share the same principles, like learning and about and controlling the distance. I personally have my favourites, which brings me to the last point.

Which Martial Art should I learn?

There are many many martial art and self-defense systmes out there to choose from. As I said, they all have their authority, but some are more suitable to actual defend yourself and also to practice in doing so, in my opinion.

Personally I advocate for doing something which involves full-contact sparring. This will not only help you with building your personality, but you'll learn how to remain calm in stressfull situations, and when you are actually hit. Anything, where you just fiddle around a little bit with your hands, or do not actually hit somebody is just some cultural dancing.

I also believe that there should be actual competitions where you can go. Although Bruce Lee's opinion was, that competitions are useless, since they've rules, and in a street fight, there are no rules, but it's the closest you can get to it, with another guy, trying to take you out and win against you.

You should also be able to judge distances and fight in different distances. If you are within striking distance, your strategy should be a different one, than if you are in trapping or grappling distance.

Being a good boxer will not help you very much if you are forced to fight on the ground with somebody who's comfortable there.

My personal favourites are clearly MMA (or Muay Thai combined with BJJ or Luta Livre) and Jeet Kun Do, also the latter misses tournaments, but they both will teach you how to effectively fight in various distances. JKD also has elements from Wing Tsun Kung Fu which can become useful in the confinment of crowded places, like the practicing of Chi-Sao.

I can't say very much about Krav Maga, since I possess too little knowledge about it, but I don't find it very sympathic, that it is segmented and if you arent working in law enforcement or for the military, you'll never learn the full spectrum of it.

Ultimately most streetfights are won by the person who's striking first and ruthless. A proper ellbow served to the chin, or a kick to the groin, followed by a knee to the head might be the two most successful strategies, when it comes to ending a fight before it even began, unless you plan on using inventory and chrystal ashtrays.

As mentioned I am a little bit biased by my own experience and I am looking forward to read about the opinions of fellow martial artists.