What's the best martial art for self-defense?

The answer is "it depends".

Before you can answer this question (and, make no mistake about it, you *are* the one who is going to have to answer it), you need to ask *yourself* some other questions:

1) What do you *mean* by the term "self-defense"? What sort of situations do you envisage that require some sort of "self-defense"? Single or multiple opponents? Armed or unarmed? Size relative to you? Do you expect to be grabbed, thrown, kicked, or punched? Can you speculate on the motivations for an attack? Do you expect merely to be robbed, or do you consider rape, maiming, or murder a possibility? These are very unpleasant questions to think about, but they're necessary to figure out what your *personal* definition of "self-defense" is.

Essentially, what you have to figure out is:

a) What do you consider an "attack" that requires some sort of response?
b) What sort of response do you, deep in your heart of hearts, consider appropriate?

Note that the law where you reside may have a very different definition from the one you have in mind.

2) Who are you? What sort of personality type are you? Are you timid or assertive? What are your physical attributes? Note that an art which works well for a 220lb (100kg, for those of you in *rational* countries) 18 year-old female body-builder may prove useless for a 70 year-old man half her size, or for a small child.

3) How much time and effort are you *really* willing to put into this? Note that most people *drastically* overestimate this - you're probably no exception to the rule. Almost any martial art can be used for "self-defense" *IF* you're willing to invest the effort to become truly proficient at it. This includes a lot of arts which don't look too practical at first glance. A lot of martial arts practice is repetitive, boring, painful, sweaty, exhausting WORK. How much of that are you really prepared to endure solely for something as nebulous as "self-defense"?

Now that we've scared you sufficiently, let's discuss some specifics. Almost all martial arts have some "self-defense" application, but that application may be of marginal utility to you.

For example, the art of Shindo Muso Ryu Jodo is probably hard to beat if
you have to fight a traditional Japanese swordsman while armed with only a stick. But few people find themselves in that situation these days. Nevertheless, such an art develops excellent timing and an instinctive sense of distance - both of which are of great utility in defending oneself.

More mundane, and, if you will, "practical" specialties include throwing, punching, kicking, groundfighting, and so forth. There is endless argument about which of these is more "street applicable", with not much general consensus. Some are probably better for one class of attacks, some for another.

I have been studying Krav Maga for 3 years and I can tell you that it doesn't matter what style you practice, if someone has a knife your best chance of survival is to run like hell. You will most likely get cut regardless of how good you think you are.

The truth is there is no best martial art for self-defense. All and I mean all martial arts have holes in them. The best thing you could do is study as many styles as you can. Striking, ground fighting, and joint control are the big three concerns to consider. I'm not sure what you're planning on training for but some martial arts to check out are Aikido, Kung fu, Judo, Ju Jitsu, and Military combative school (if you can find one). Studying multiple martial arts is the only way to cover all you bases. I hope this helps.

In response to Altair -

Good advice. Especially:

"It is said that someone who is good with a knife will not let you know that they have a knife until they have cut you with it. Yeah you kick that knife out of their hand."

I have been stabbed under that exact circumstance. The knife was tucked in the attacker's coat sleeve, along his inner fore-arm. This was fairly well concealed, and he did not reveal it until his blow was already in motion and I had already moved in to take him down and restrain him. That being said, he was also intentionally trying to kill me, and it was a targetted assault, so this isn't representative of what most people will experience. I blocked the blow but I was scratched on the arm and received a large gash across my skull because the knife was long enough to hit me even though I had blocked.

In real life, you never know if the person has a gun, a knife, a couple friends waiting on the other side of the corner, twice as much martial arts training as you do, etc. And if they don't have a weapon immediately available, if you beat them up pretty bad, they may very well acquire one and come back the next day...

As an FYI - the type of people who start fights regularly (i.e., the people you are likely to be "defending" yourself against) also happen to be the type of people who carry knives and guns.

Bottom line: using martial arts for self defense may be better than nothing (as long as it doesn't make one overly confident), but it is still VERY risky for practical purposes unless you have an abnormally high level of dedication to it and extensive real-life hand-to-hand combat experience of the type that very few people in modern society have.

There are classes specifically FOR self-defense that take less time and include more of a focus on the psychological methods that are actually likely to dissuade and discourage an attacker. I recommend one of these, along with a concealed weapons permit, for someone who is serious about self-defense.

Buy a gun, conceal and carry is legal in 39 states.

Impossible to say, if I were to say Karate, that would blanket so many variations of what "Karate" is, and taking into account all the bogus teachers that are out there, you can't say the name of an art and hope for it to be good no matter where you find it.

The short answer is this, and I give it here at the beginning because the rest of this will be long drawn out explanations of awful examples of what is not self defense, if you walk into a school, ask the instructor, "do you do sparring?" if they say yes, walk out (yes this will disqualify a lot of schools, i know) if they pass that test ask them "how do you teach self-defense?" and if they have a good answer, you've found your home (at least probably, i mean there could always be some unaddressed issue with this school, but i dunno, I can't go visit every school in the country and tell you which will teach you good self-defense, just a couple rules of thumb)

I recently went to a friends second degree black belt test, which happened to be 6 hours long, which was more than enough time for me to get very dispassionate about his art (but that's beside the point). When they weren't showing how they can stand in 56 different ways and throw 521 different useless kicks. At one point the panel of instructors watching from behind a table had them get a box of rubber knives and they would practive "Knife self-defense" the instructors would yell out something like "Knife disarm 2" and the ones who did not have the knife would do this long complicated series of moves to get the knife out of someone hand, while the person with the knife would just stand there and let this thing happen to them.

This is not self-defense, this is one impossible scenario, you need to find somewhere that will teach you a dynamic form of self-defense, because every situation will be different

Then there was another one, and this is a joke, if you ever see this, run. They would actually kick the knife out of their opponent's hand, this relies on the hope that the person holding the knife has a bad grip, that you can actually hit their hand, and that they don't move their hand while your leg is moving up at it. It's a fact that your arms can move around 6x as fast as your legs, what makes them think that they can kick a knife out of someones hand?

This is also not self-defense, this requires your opponent stand there while you do your thing, I can guarentee if you really get attacked and need self-defense, they are not going to stand there with their knife extended so that you can kick it out of their hand.

It is said that someone who is good with a knife will not let you know that they have a knife until they have cut you with it. Yeah you kick that knife out of their hand.

I said it before, but didn't explain it, on the matter of sparring, it's not self-defense, it's a game, a sport, you're not trying to hurt the other person or even stop them from attacking you, you are just trying to hit them to score points. Any sort of "martial arts" competition will be based on rules, even the no hold bar fighting which claims to be real, it's still based in rules and the rules takes the realism away and make it not effective for self defense. You can get people mean enough to turn these things into a way to defend themselves but that will require you to be bigger, stronger, and/or meaner than your opponent in order to beat them when they attack you for real. and if you are the kind of person who is worried about needing self-defense it's because you probably are not bigger, stronger, and/or meaner than the kinds of people that might attack you.

Which brings up the argument, "Well my art does self-defense and sparring" I'm sorry, you are fooling yourself, whatever time you spend sparring you will be training your body to do movements that are not intended to defend your body, and when you get into a fight I promise you that you will not be able to think out what you are going to do, you are going to do whatever movements you have practiced, and if you practiced sparring, it's going to come out in a fight, and you are going to get hurt for it.

Find something dynamic, I cannot stress this enough, there are so many arts that try to make a technique for every possible attack, and you'll get arts where you have to memorize hundreds of techniques, when you get into a real fight, and someone is throwing a punch at you and your brain is trying to sort out which of the 250 techniques you know is appropriate for this punch, you're not going to be in a good possition. It needs to be dynamic so you can create the technique you need for the situation, find someone who will teach you how to fight instead of someone who tries to explain every step by saying "when this happens, do this"

There is no best Martial Art, its all down to how well you master it!!! :)

Here is a short answer.

Learn karate to block kicks and punches. Learn aikido to get attacker off-balance and bring them to the ground. Learn to run fast. Running away is best defense.

Brooklyn Judo...cause judo know if I got a knife, and judo know if I got a gun.

I am a boxer and experienced knife fighter. I beleive self- defence s a victim's word. I would steer you towards the filipino Kali arts. Stay away from the commercialized Arts. Learn how to Box would be step one.

The one you actually bother to practise. No point lamenting that there is no "ABC MA" school within ten hours of where you live. Hell, even footy and ballet are better than nothing. Having said that, the other people also have good ideas.

Krav Maga

Looks like Krav Maga is winning. I'll give that my vote also, since it has no 'artistic' or 'sport' element to it....it was desinged for one purpose: to do unto others before they can do unto you. Regarding multiple attackers: unless these guys are a well-organized troop of fighters with set rehearsed patterns, the fact that there are more of them can actually work AGAINST them if you're a skilled martial artist. BJJ is strictly a one-on-one form....KM could probably handle 2 attackers, but it's not desinged to be fast or powerfull, just EFFECTIVE. If you really are brave / stupid enough to take on 3-5 guys, then what you need in your corner is Muay-Thai. 4 attackers means you cant spend too much time on one and then move onto the next. You have to whittle their numbers down quickly, and MT can drop an opponent with a single mighty blow. Also, MT focuses on speed, which is also crucial for multiple attackers.

That depends on who it is you feel you need to defend yourself from. For a standard street-thug attacker, I personally would prefer a Hapkido-type approach (control but no damage) to unarmed defense, but a concealed carry permit and gun safety classes if you feel you are likely to be attacked.

If you are a soldier and need to actually kill people, Aikijutsu is more down your alley. The idea there is that every technique kills. You wouldn't want to do that to someone on the streets of New York. In fact, I personally wouldn't want to do that anywhere.

Furthermore, any half-hearted effort at a martial art is worse than no effort at all. If you actually want to be able to defend yourself with a martial art, you need to be an artist, not a trainee. There is nothing worse than a green belt who thinks he knows what he is doing.

I've studied Hapkido for 4 years. If you mixed Aikido and Taekwondo together, you'd get something just like Hapkido. We do kicks, punches, elbows, knees, knife/ridge hands, hard and soft blocks, balance disruption, strike redirection, joint locks, hand throws, body drop throws, hip throws, leg reaps, pressure point manipulation. It is biased towards self defense. It can be used for controling, maiming, or killing an attacker, depending on necessity. We do little ground work, but the joint locking principles work regardless of position.

A martial art that is appropriate for self defence will be simple and direct in execution.( that doesn't mean it can be learned in 6 weeks). no overcomplicated moves( these fail when adrenaline hits the bloodstream, as it will with a vengence in a real fight.) Essentially moves must be retainable under extreme pressure when you're so scared that you feel like collapsing into a quivering wreck. Most people are not mentaly strong anough to bare the trauma of a physical attack, including the larger majority of martial artists. In order to build the mindset to prevail under such circumstances you need to train full contact sparring( with someone who is trying to knock you out.)I know sparring does not mirror the physical variables of a real fight, but the fear, pain and mental strength gained from it will be relevent for the street. sparring also gets you used to getting techniques right with a very uncomplient opponent. I think often the teacher is more important than the art. Also most realistic training tends to be less a formal art and more an evolving body of streetfighting know how taught by someone who has been there and done it. Check out Geoff Thompson on the web. I also recomend Dave Turton of the self defence federation. If you already practice an art, ask yourself this simple question. Am I afraid to use my art for fear of killing someone? If the answer is no than your art may not be very good for real fighting. If your art is of limited value for self defence, that in no way demeans it as an art form and method of fitness, personel development and spiritual growth.

This........

There is no Style or system that is better. Its what best fits you and suits your needs n satisfaction.

I preffer the Bruce Lee's Concept of Jeet Kune Do! like Dana White president of UFC stated: Bruce Lee is the farther of MMA.
(Mixed martial arts.)

I Truly believe Bruce Lee n his concept of Jeet Kune Do is the best in my opinion becuz it incorpates all forms or martial arts but without boundaries, like a real life fight. Real fights dnt have rules or boundaries.

Many Martial arts now adays focus on fixed n predicted attacks or movement.

Where as in Jeet Kune Do you utilize those movements according to situation and a constant change in a fight.

U can never 100% predict wat an attacker will do next but u can counter act or attack. hence the saying: way of the intercepting fist.

Watever works best for u n makes u the best Martial artist u can be, thats the best choice to pick.

For those whom also believe this, you shud suggest MMA or Jeet Kune Do. Becuz it covers the strengths of all the realistic skill dat u wud use in a REAL fight.

all the others martial arts are for sport n entertainment. But that doesnt mean they arent useful or affective. Cuz they all are!

wish everyone cud read this!

There isn't one, really. The field of MA is so vast, and remember that a martial art is a product of certain cultural conditions and was designed to solve specific problems. The litmus test is "does this MA do what it's designed to do?". Some have become so ritualized or sportified over the years that they are no longer being taught in an optimal combat-effective manner, but that doesn't mean the core art isn't valid. It just means that the transmission of the art for combat purposes has suffered. Also, the teacher makes all the difference. Remember it's the fighter that wins fights, not a particular fighting system. :)

A gun.

Krav Maga and Sambo are excellent for self defense against modern weapons and knives, but nothing can compare to Brazilian Ju Jitsu in a street fight

There are some great responses out there, but with many people becoming more proficient and knowledgeable in martial arts, it is unlikely that one style or one discipline can truly be nominated as the best. Sure some are considered better that others, but at the end of the day if the practitioner has no heart when they are confronted, all the training they have done will be useless as they will end up freezing out of fear. Personally, I find Hapkido a very rewarding martial art.

In all seriousness, if you are asking to learn a martial art and want it to be effective, I have studied the following martial arts in my years of experience among my most effective to least:

1. Bujinkan Ninpo-Taijutsu
2. Muay Thai
3. Hung Gar Kung fu
4. Arnis/Kali
5. Judo
6. mma/brazilian jiu-jitsu/other worthless garbage...

I'm a former amateur mixed martial arts fighter, and honestly the protection value lies in >your own training and experiences.< You can study god-fu but still die if you don't know what youre doing or if there are flaws in your training.

And I can tell you that first and foremost, you need to understand that martial arts are not your only means of self defense. And no, I don't mean "don't forget about guns haha" bs. You need to live a smart, and foreseeing life. By doing so, you will learn to be untargetable in the sense that if anyone is dumb enough to attack you when you're constantly surrounded by people, you are in well-lit areas under camera, you are potentially armed, etc. xhowever many more factors of smart-prevention, the only time you will be truly in danger is if in your own residence, and in that case you need to rethink what you do in your day job...

On that note, guns are by no means an answer. They are however effective at saving lives >sometimes<. The chances you will be in a situation where you will be able to draw a gun, point it, and shoot it, without killing innocent bystanders, without missing and failing, and without getting severely raped by the corrupt legal system we have, are indeed slim and you need to accept these points. I would not ever, ever, carry a knife for self defense.

I would study the first 3 arts I listed, I would get yourself a taser, some hard core 2mil pepper spray, and if you want to take the risk, get a .45 or a .357.

On that note, there are a lot of fakes, bad teachers, and poorly educated people out there, so if you take any martial art, don't ever discredit the martial art. Discredit the teacher, choose not to use it, whatever, but don't doubt a martial art, as it was invented for a reason and for a good effect, and it may not be applicable to >you< or a specific situation. A lot of people just don't grasp that concept and I hope you do.

On that note,
The technical aspects of it are the same mr. Judo., you're kind of missing my point. You just said he >was< a judo practitioner, and made his own style. I.e he has now effectively made it non japanese. BrazilianJJ is not judo. It may have a lot of the same and be virtually identical, but its not simply because of the fact he has tailored it to be ground focused. I know the similarities, however they still aren't literally the same thing no matter how much you say it. "Specialization" changing the focus of an art means you have effectively created a new art, just how it is.
If it was judo, they would call it judo. not brazilian anything, and not jujutsu. do/jutsu is not the same thing firstly, and second, brazil is still not japan, so even if they are identical, they aren't the same style obviously because of the name alone. Just how it is, if you want to study judo fine, but its not BJJ.
I have talked to people in japan, and I have talked to a few students of BJJ from the gracie tree, and simply put, you take judo, you go to america and name it french boxing, its not judo anymore. The "technical" aspects are the same, but so are hundreds of other martial arts in comparison to each other. Have some respect for tradition and open past the "technical" views.

The best martial art for self defence,is the one you can learn and master more easily for yourself.

Any of them would be good for self defense. Do the one you enjoy the most. May as well enjoy your defense.

Kung-Fu is the best because all other fighting style was adopted from Chinese Kung-fu.

There is no best art, too many variables, too many unknowns, too many possible self-defense situations.

The key to self-defense is to not be there in the first place. And the way to avoid these situations is awareness of your surroundings.

When that fails, run like hell.

The Only One

I'm very partial to Aikido, but saying any one discipline is "the best" would be presumptuous. What each individual considers "the best" will vary widely based on personal preference, experience, etc.

There is no "best martial art", the truth is they all have their own unique advantages and disadvantages and certain styles will work better for different people, this site offers some nice, easy to understand explanations of some of those differences www.fightfu.com

You should watch "Fight Science, Self Defense" I think on one of those channels like National Geographic or Science channel. It showed the science of certain quick self defense strikes that should incapacitate the assailant long enough to get away..... some of the strikes that could potentially do more than that, and all of these strikes we are all capable of. If it comes on again, you should look for it and watch it.

Ninjitsu fight science said that in ninjitsu you actually learn how to quickly it is one of the very famous five pressure points in your body and it is not a myth you start sending signals to the brain for each point a different reaction cpy and paste this in your address bar to watch video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMOTWHnd9X0

Feng Shui

Just get proficient at throwing things at your opponent! The further away you can keep the enemy to you the better! Always carry a number of select objects that will make sure they leave you alone! Learn how to hold any object and make it go exactly where you want it to go! Remember always present the smallest profile to your opponent!

Just for Defense? Judo

If you're new to martial arts I suggest judo or TKD. No, they're exactly not the best, but for beginners, judo & TKD are more game-like/sport-like & less serious.

Since the goal is "self-defense", you never know what will come your way. Therefore, I think you should choose a Martial Art that will teach you skills to fight while standing, on the ground, and to defend from weapons.

The two styles I suggest are Ju-Jitsu and Aikido.

A note on Ju-Jitsu: If you're learning a style like Gracie Ju-Jitsu, you will be well rounded for a fight--standing or on the floor.

Notes on Aikido: The purpose of Aikido is to take control of an opponent immediately...and joints will likely break with several techniques. Second, the techniques learned in Aikido are more complex than strikes and take a lot of time to master.

Thinking about all of these angles, police officers (whom need to train on the essentials) learn strikes, Aikido techniques, practice ground fighting, and use techniques to get out of several holds/locks.

In case you wanted to know my basis for this, here's my background:

After having tried several styles of Karate, and obtaining a black belt in one of them, I learned some Aikido. I also graduated from the police academy.

I hope this helps.

I'm casting my vote for Kung Fu. It is more fluid to me than Karate, and was also a cool tv show back in the day.

everyone has there different preferences i believe Muay thai is a really good martial art but to call your self a complete martial artist you will have to be good standing throwing and down on the ground..

A lot of good answers here so far. Another thing to consider is the instruction. A really good street-defence system taught by a substandard instructor isn't going to do much good. It also depends on what you want to do with it. I study Historical European Martial Arts, and they tend to be quite lethal. There's not much focus on merely subduing the opponent. You're usually trying to maim or kill him, whether you're armed or not... lots of weapons and limb breaks and throws. So to get consistent training you can count on, go to a boxing gym. You'll learn to hit hard and fast. Take up wrestling so you can learn to control your opponent's body. The take a military combatives course, which usually take techniques from a wide variety of arts. However, if you're unarmed and your opponent has a weapon, you are in BIG TROUBLE. Run if you can, since you'll likely die if you don't. A decent knife fighter can make a hash out of a very experienced unarmed MAist in seconds. Then take whatever art you want.

I recommend Bujinkan Budo Taijutsu. Not only do they teach ground fighting and stand up techniques, they teach you from the very begging how to defend yourself from a gun, a knife, etc. Bujinkan does not teach hundreds of useless kicks and punches, they utilize natural body movement. The techniques aren't robotic, they are fast and smooth, and will leave your opponent either maimed or dead. I took Taekwondo and Jujitsu for a while before I found Bujinkan. All those useless kicks and punches never worked, and it's not wise to grapple someone to the ground when they have a knife, or have some buddies around the corner. Bujinkan is indeed the best way to defend yourself, Taijutsu is defined as "The art of the body", and I consider it martial combat, not a martial art. Other martial arts, like TKD, Judo, BBJ, etc, are martial sports, they have been watered down for today's society. Do you honestly think a 7 year old black belt could defeat a 300 lb mugger? Bujinkan teaches you to go with flow in any situation. A black belt in Bujinkan(better known as Ninjutsu) could easily defeat a crowd of 30+ kung fu/TKD/Judo, etc. black belts. If you are serious about defending yourself, you should take Ninjutsu.

The answer is simple:

"No matter how strong, big or tough a person is, their fingers are not meant to bend backwards."

There really is no "best" martial art for self defense, however there are arts that are more street effective than others for example: jeet kune do may be more street effective than kung fu but there are still attributes of jeet kune do that make it a less effective style. As long as you know about the human body and how it works you know certain things are not supposed to happen to certain body parts.

krav maga seems to be the best and most effective self defence, i've done judo, kung fu and ju jitsu and there's just to much to useless info in all of them that simply will not work in the street, when you're attacked in the street you must react without thinking doing whatever you can and then get the hell out of there, self defence is about survival not thinking you can fight like jet li, even if you can talk your way out then you've survived. My advice is go somewhere that will try to teach you how to avoid bad situations and will focus on real life encounters rather than belts and gradings

I say go with Ninjutsu its not only great at teaching you how to defend yourself its also great when it comes to disarming people whether or not they have a knife or a gun at your back. You also don't need to be fit too even take it cause it like ninjutsu adapts to you, most other martial art forces you to adapt to it unlike ninjutsu.
It encompasses Mind, body, and spirit most other martial arts focus on mostly body.

I feel fairly qualified to answer this question, being that I have fought in both MMA and actual street fights. I have some experience and training in tai chi, karate, judo/ jujitsu, kung fu, kick boxing, aikido, and boxing, with the most training in aikido, judo, and karate. I have found the most practical and simple to learn is karate, which is what I have used in street situations with luckily great affect. I agree that if the attacker has a weapon, try and run or talk them down first, always better not to fight unless you have to. I only faced a guy with a weapon once which was a pair of handcuffs (attached to one hand) he swung at me in a downward motion, I side stepped his swing and kicked him in the knee dropping him immediately, so as I said, very effective and simple. I am not saying other martial arts are not effective, but seem to me to take allot more time (sometimes years) to become effective in self defense application. I also should say to add strength training and train allot "consistency in training is the key".

I feel fairly qualified to answer this question, being that I have fought in both MMA and actual street fights. I have some experience and training in tai chi, karate, judo/ jujitsu, kung fu, kick boxing, aikido, and boxing, with the most training in aikido, judo, and karate. I have found the most practical and simple to learn is karate, which is what I have used in street situations with luckily great affect. I agree that if the attacker has a weapon, try and run or talk them down first, always better not to fight unless you have to. I only faced a guy with a weapon once which was a pair of handcuffs (attached to one hand) he swung at me in a downward motion, I side stepped his swing and kicked him in the knee dropping him immediately, so as I said, very effective and simple. I am not saying other martial arts are not effective, but seem to me to take allot more time (sometimes years) to become effective in self defense application. I also should say to add strength training and train allot "consistency in training is the key".

i have been in tae kwon do for a few months and i must say it has changed my life in every way lol there is also hapkido all it is is self defense and its very very affective and it teaches you a lot of tae kwon do too lol hope it helps =]

Martian Arts are no defense for Earthly weapons like guns and bombs.

You ever suplex someone onto asphalt? It's quite noisy and dramatic. Most people are too shocked for words - their first instinct is to run like heck.
If you're well trained and they are untrained muppets, you can do pretty much as you please - take your pick of your technical repertoire.
As for the dog pile - well, you punch one, the rest jump on you. How does your example change anything at all? I fail to see how giving one a bloody nose and then being tackled by the other 4 leaves you any better off.

bad breath. Trust there is no better self defense than having a bad breath.

Trust me Nobody wants to hurt someone who is already hurting his/her image