karate/tkd/kickboxing/judo

[theory of knowledge]

i am looking for something

1. practical (good for actual fighting, i enlisted in the army recently too)

2. suitable for a smaller frame (5'8, 145lb)

3. i'm not very flexible (i will train to become more flexible, but some of my joints have cracking problems)

if anyone can provide some feed back on these 4 martial arts and their suitabilities thereof, it would be great.

much appreciated.
tok

 

[Adone]

i'd take kickboxing, but unless you're pretty good, each of them is not very useful in a real fight

 

[Le Parisien]

Personally, I've been training in Capoeira for more than a year, I'm loving it!

I'd say go for Muay Thai or Taekwendo. Damn, after some years of training, your kicks will be so quick and powerful and high that your adversary will be totally K.O.ed just with one single kick.

Sure when you are a beginner, most likely you will feel that your kicks are so slow that they will never be effective in real fights. But you will see, with practice, you gradually improve. At some point, your kicks will be quick enough so the no trained average person will have no way to dodge them.

Capoeira is a little different because you learn to hit but in normal circumstances you are not supposed to hit, you are supposed to be able to stop or at least slow down just before the impact. Capoeira is a martial art but at the same time it's supposed to be playful, so when you play a "regular" game, you most of the time only show your opponent that they were hit, you don't harm them. But in the more agressive "rodas", it can get ugly if not bloody...

The way I see it, Capoeira also trains your physique a lot, so you will get in shape real good as well. On the other hand, if you simply want to learn the most effective ways to fight and hurt people, there are simpler routes, I'd suggest a self defense class, like Krav Maga. You simply learn the "cheap" ways to hurt people as much as possible, like groin kicking for example...

One last thing, in Capoeira/Karate/Taekwendo you need space to fight, so not really helpful in confined places like on a bus or a subway train. Plus there's no grappling or ground fight, so jiu jitsu would be a very good complement.

 

[protienpowder]

For smaller people, its so much easier to take on bigger people through grappling than it is through striking. It doesn't take much skill for a big person to throw a powerful punch.

 

[Brian20o2]

Since your small I would suggest Judo or Jiu Jitsu.

 

[Spiky]

Ive trained in a few different martial arts over the years but ive found that Muay Thai kickboxing or just regular kickboxing translates best in real life. BJJ is technically very nice but in group situations your opponents buddys will just kick the stuffing out of you as you fumble around on the ground.

But to be totally honest, gaining strength and power at the gym is the best way to make you a good fighter on the street.

 

[grr]

Read www.bullshido.com for a couple weeks then decide. They're pretty offensive over there, but all the info posted is pretty good.

As others stated BJJ is your best bet. Thai kickboxing bears recognition, but a BJJ'er beats a thai kickboxer 99% of the time. Boxers also bear recognition. Judo is probably the best overall fighting style known, to date, but the way they practice is less hands-on than jui-jits, and some believe judo requires being big.

Any strict *striking* martial art has one very large flaw: If you miss your killer strike against a grappler (which you probably will) then it goes to the ground and then you lose. Thai kickboxing has a lot of deadly moves in it, but again... if you miss..

Only a huge person or a moron fights groups anyway.

DEFINATELY stay away from tae kwon do, most karates, & kung fu unless you don't plan on fighting. In most cases they put you above the regular person but they're just mostly useless against effective martial arts.

Effective martial arts means injuries. BJJ just has a nice balance of real world practice, conditioning, & effectiveness, but I hear you'll eventually have to give it up when you get older due to joint injuries. (Just like competitors have to give up football when they get older.) So, plan on practicing jiu-jits and then move to something less injury-prone, eventually.

 

[Adone]

Any strict *striking* martial art has one very large flaw: If you miss your killer strike against a grappler (which you probably will) then it goes to the ground and then you lose. Thai kickboxing has a lot of deadly moves in it, but again... if you miss..

Actually, Muay Thai has grappling and clinching moves, I believe you're confusing it with regular American Kickboxing

 

[grr]

Seriously, if Thai has grappling it is anecdotal at best in contrast to the alternatives like BJJ, Judo, Pound & Ground, or freestyle wrestling. Styles that focus on stand-up primarily suck vs BJJ. Read the bullshido website. Find a video of a thai boxer fighting a BJJ'er.

Coincidentally, I watched an mma UFC match on tv this weekend. Thai boxer vs BJJ'er. This is how it went:

BJJ wins over Thai using rear naked choke, first round ~1:30.

Look at the conflict of interest in the case of a Thai vs a BJJ'er:

-Thai would prefer to stand up fight.
-BJJ'er would prefer to go to the ground.
-Thai would prefer to be mounted rather than in the guard. (I'm guessing, the opposite would just be weird.)
-BJJ'er prefers the same, but has experience in both.

SO

BJJ vs THAI

Step 1: BJJ takes Thai to the ground
Step 2: BJJ will probably be mounted because he initiated the takedown in the first place and he is primarily a ground fighter.
Step 3: BJJ'er wins by submission.

The only way to counteract a smart fighter with ground experience is to A) Get EXTREMELY lucky and actually KO the person in the first couple attempts at a strike OR B) Embrace it.

Thai doesn't embrace it, so it loses to jiu-jits, statistically. Judo DOES embrace it so it can win vs BJJ.

All that said, I would prefer thai over pretty much any other striking art, its just practically impossible to stay standing up when the other person wants to go to the ground. They say something like three months of BJJ can prepare you to fight someone with 2 years of TKD/boxing/kickboxing, or even a year of Thai? That ridiculously favors BJJ'ers.