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by Andrew Von Dinklage

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Before you can answer the question of which martial art forms are best for self-defense you have to first define yourself and your own mental and physical attributes. The martial arts are mostly individual disciplines and therefore statements such as: 'Karate is better than Kung Fu' or 'Kung Fu is better than Karate' are irrelevant unless they are connected to a student or practitioner of those respective martial arts. As you can easily see, the above statement implies that anyone who does the 'better' art will defeat anyone from the 'lesser' art which is of course absurd. So the first thing you would look at in deciding which art to choose is decide what YOU are willing to do mentally and physically in learning a form of self-defense. Are you willing, for example, to train 2 hours every day, or would it be 30 minutes twice a week? Believe me, there is a big difference. Are you willing to have training partners wrench your arm within an inch of breaking, or would you only be willing to practice techniques in a less strenuous manner? Food for thought.

Another point about self-defense that should be noted: Self-defense is not fighting. Fighting is a set play. Self-defense is protecting your body or person from (usually grievous) physical damage. A fight, whether a boxing match in a ring or a brawl with someone you don't agree with has set parameters. In sport this consists of rules, codes of conduct and the fighting area and time frames; in a brawl it consists of the same rules that apply to human nature and fairness. Just because a guy engages you in a brawl doesn't mean that you can pull a knife and stab him if you get the opportunity nor does it mean that you can run away as fast as you can. You would save yourself physical damage but be very much frowned upon for either undue violence or cowardice. If you are being attacked by a hoodlum and you have the opportunity to run, you should and if you have the opportunity to use a weapon to incapacitate him, you should. And there would be no negative repercussions upon you because you were protecting yourself from undue harm. So the training for one is not necessarily the same as the training for the other.

If we look at the various martial arts we can rate them in terms of their relation to self-defense. A self-defense situation we assume is one where a person is being attacked against their will and then required to defend themselves. In many cases (but not all), the attacker is past the point of reasoning, so we assume he will continue until he has gotten what he wants or is physically stopped from attacking. Generally this situation takes place in a short-distance or no-distance case where the attacker is very close to or touching the person. In other words to do physical harm the attacker will have to come right up to the person (we can safely assume that he won't throw objects or abuse from a distance and then leave).

One of the ways that martial arts can be classified is by their effective distance between the two opponents. Basically we have long, medium and short distance and then a 'zero' distance (grappling, etc). Some long distance arts would include Taekwondo, Karate, Kung Fu, Weapons Arts; some medium distance arts would include Kick-boxing, Taekwondo, Karate, Kung Fu, Thai Boxing; some short distance arts would include Boxing, Thai boxing, Ju Juitsu, Kung Fu, Karate, Hapkido, Aikido; and some 'zero' distance arts would include Judo, Wrestling and Ju Juitsu. By this classification, I do not mean to offend any martial arts by not including them in one or another (as many arts overlap the different distances) but to merely illustrate that certain martial arts in the majority of their techniques are better suited to certain distances. The Taekwondo practitioner has the advantage over a random opponent if he can keep the distance long just as a Boxer has the advantage over a random opponent if he can keep the distance short. Ground fighting techniques are also important as any form of physical combat can and often does end up on the ground.

The self-defense situation therefore would require an art or arts that have a strong short distance effectiveness and zero distance effectiveness. They should be able to be learned by most people (some arts require advanced flexibility or coordination in the early stages which not everybody could easily attain), and have a good input-output ratio - in other words the training input results in the ability to deliver effective self-defense techniques progressively in a reasonable amount of time. Training for a year before you can effectively throw a punch would not be a good input-output ratio. Nor would learning advanced techniques in your first training session (as they take considerable training to master and therefore would not be effective in a self-defense situation). You want to learn basic techniques that are useful from an early stage and then build on those to more advanced techniques as you gain experience and physical fitness.

Another factor in making your decision is not the art but the school. You have to be able to learn the art and martial arts are taught by instructors and masters who teach them in schools. Taking time to look at various schools in your area is worthwhile. What time do they train? How long are the classes? Do you need a uniform before you start? Do they offer free lessons to try the training out? What are the fees? Do they focus on self-defense or is it mainly competitive or forms training? And then there is the instructor. Is he good at his job? Can you understand his explanations? Does he handle situations well (injuries, arguments, etc)? Does she organize and control the class well? Doing a small amount of homework like this, you can save much time pondering over which art to do. If you have already made up your mind on which art then you can still check out schools for that specific art.

Speaking for myself (being 37 years old, 6'2", 175lbs, average strength, average fitness and reasonably disciplined when it comes to training) I would favor one long-distance art due to my reach and weight (such as Taekwondo or Karate) and a short distance art (such as Wing Chun or Boxing or Ju Juitsu) and find a school that trains 2-4 times per week with sessions being no longer than 90 mins.

To summarize, the art has to be learned by you so the best art will be the one that you can learn the best. No art is best if you are unable to learn it. Each of the martial arts have their strong and weak points and you should consider these when choosing and see which ones fit your own mental attributes (how hard can you push yourself for example) and physical attributes (are you tall, short, male, female, athletic, not athletic, young, old). This way you can find the correct one for you. And lastly find an instructor and school that you are happy with. Learning martial arts can be a highly satisfying endeavor and can take years of commitment to reach the advanced levels so make sure that you choose well at the beginning and set yourself up for a rewarding journey.

Learn more about this author, Andrew Von Dinklage.

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