What percentage of guys in N. America know any EFFECTIVE martial arts?

[Mik_36]

I'd like to hear your opinions.

By EFFECTIVE martial arts I mean the type of skills that would win most "one on one" street fights with unskilled opponents of reasonably comparable size, speed and strength.

So I would include skilled high school and college wrestlers in this list.

I'm talking about avg. across all N.America, and avg. in big cities. Naturally the number would be higher in L.A. and NY.

My guess would be less than 1 percent avg. across the continent. Actually that may be about right world wide (industrialized countries, with some variation from country to country), not just N.America, but I have no idea. Maybe 2% in places like L.A and N.Y.. Of course I could be way off in either direction, I'm giving an uneducated guess.

Does anybody think the numbers (of "street" effective martial artists) could go HIGHER in the coming years?

I personally don't think so because the UFC is out there and in every video store now, and has been for a long time now.

What I mean is watching the UFC (years ago) is how I got interested in NHB and I might guess that is how MOST (not all) N.Americans would get any exposure to NHB.

The number would go even lower if disaster struck and UFC was banned in the U.S.. There are a lot of morons that want that to happen, so you never know.

I would love to hear some opinions (guesses) on this.

[bobby_steeles]

the exact number is 3.86921%

[devildog]

percentage

Actually i would think the percentage in L.A. and New York would probably be less than in the midwest/central U.S.(hotbed of wrestling) or Philadelphia(boxing).Perhaps you might have many more high tier fighters with so many schools on the coast,but as far as people with a beginning to intermediate understanding of body mechanics and how to handle themselves against Joe Schmoe the drunk in the bar,i'm pretty confident Oklahoma and Iowa stand up pretty good against the rest of the nation.Of course it could be because we have more limited options of what to do for our hobbies and sports.

-Devildog

[tuffguy]

I would say it would be fairly low. There are stil a lot of people who don't know what BJJ, submission fighting is or even Judo or Muay Thai for that matter. I think a lot of americans are only interested in things that originated in america(football, basketball, baseball etc...) and have no interest in anything that occurs outside of the USA(soccer, tack & field:which is huge every where else in the world, etc...). Most martial arts fall into this category. Although there probably is a good deal of pure boxers and pure wrestlers, they propably have no idea about submissions, the wrestlers would have no idea about striking and the boxers would have no idea about wrestling. SO I think that would limite thier affectiveness.

[Mr. Miyagi]

If I tell people i do BJJ then:

98% will say how is juijitsu brazilian?

1% will say "oh, that's like that stuff Royce Gracie does"

1% will know BJJ is a grappling art and what the techniques are like.

[bobby_steeles]

ha! that's funny, one time a girl saw the bjj t-shirt i was wearing and aske if I was brazillian.
i said "i am if you want me to be, baby."

[DIRE WOLF]

Every metropolitan area in the country probaly has a few Submission/BJJ schools.

[Mik_36]

Ya, I was guilty of that (only being interested in Football and other "American" interests). I had heard of things like Karate (of course) but had never actually PERSONALLY seen them work in a street fight and so didn't take much interest. Then when I rented UFC, that is when I got this interest in MMA.

You would have to say that the number of Americans taking an interest in martial arts (that they have seen WORK in the UFC) has probably increased since the start of the UFC, or do you think that the Americans that have seen UFC, see it as just pure entertainment, and never think about it other than that, I don't know.

I can tell you as far as the people I know, a friend of mine and I are the only ones who have taken an additional interest in MMA after enjoying the UFC.

Your probably right about the midwest thing (with their huge participation in wrestling), and other centers with alot of boxers, having alot of people with effective skills. I hadn't thought about that.

So again, does anyone think the numbers of effective martial artists in America could go up (i.e. Americans taking an interest in NHB, even though it is not "American" per say)?

And do you think my 1% guess is about right? (this number would include good wrestlers and boxers).

[devildog]

unfortunately

I hate to say it,but yes i think 1% is pretty close to the mark.Maybe 3% know a little bit,but not enough of them keep themselves in shape,or it's been 10 years,or they saw it on tv,etc. I also was not trying to say wrestling makes a "complete" fighter,same for boxing.The question was how many people know enough basics to handle an average guy,so i threw it out there.Then again,i don't consider bjj as a complete fighting system either.I think any system that focuses too much on one range falls short.Knowing one range really well is better than having great skill at guessing what is going to happen next on days of our lives in a fight though.

-Devildog

[Ronin]

I disagree, devildog!

My knowledge of "Days of Our Lives" has saved my a$$ on many occasions.