Looking to learn a new MA

[CKD]

If you want to learn a complete art with groundfighting,throwing, weapons and striking, multiple opponents defense and stuff like that then I would suggesst ROSS and Sambo. If you want to learn mostly striking muay thai. Mostly groundfighting Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, mostly throwing and takedwons wrestling and judo, and mostly weapons Philiipino arts like Kali. Tell us where you are located and we could probaly recommend a few schools.

[EmptyneSs]

So, if you want to improve your character, and increase you feel good well being then do shotokan, but if you want to learn self-defense....Then do something else.

no, shotokan is good for self defense, not good for combat. many people say karate sux because u dont really learn to fight. well, karate in general isnt for fighting. full contact karate might be, but thats different, and its in a tournament setting. thats y the teqchniques in karate are usually simple. its for regular people to learn a simple way to defend themselves if they ever need to.

[Thai Bri]

So, to recap......

It is good for self defence, but not for combat or fighting.

What is it? Running away?

[Python]

Self defense but not combat..WHAT?????

EmptyneSs,

You are saying Shotokan is good for self defense, but not good for combat?? That is alittle vague now isn't it? First of all, self defense could be termed as not throwing the first strike and only fighting back when attacked, but once that attack is made and you "defend" yourself, my friend, you are now engaged in combat, plain and simple. The only exception is if your defensive counter stops the attacker right then and there, otherwise, you better know how to fight!

I am not a Shotokan stylist, but I have sparred Shotokan stylists over the years and the biggest fault I see, in terms of fighting, is the big wide technique. And the ones I dealt with seemed to be brainwashed into thinking their art was all that was needed and all others not only sucked, but were obsolete. Just my experience, I am sure not all of you Shotokan guys and gals are that narrow minded, so no offense is intended.

I don't remember who said it in this thread, but yes, Pankration has the whole thing covered, however, even some of the techniques in Pankration are not as practical as say, Muay Thai. Another option, no one has mentioned yet is Erik Paulson's Combat Submission Wrestling system. It combines many arts into one system, like Shooto, BJJ, Catch wrestling, Muay Thai, and a few others. The only lacking area is the weaponry.

Sooo....in my opinion, for what it is worth....as someone else here said, "cross train" For a good ground game, go to a school that has a great BJJ program or Shooto program, it needs to cover both with Gi and without Gi for realism, and for stand up, go to a good Muay Thai trainer, or possible Savate trainer, since it is a shoe art and we wear shoes on the street. Next for the weapons(stick and knife), go to someone trained in the Filipino arts and JKD and Silat.....You see, no one system or art has it all.

Peace!

[darrianation]

no, shotokan is good for self defense, not good for combat.

Ehhh................

[EmptyneSs]

self defense is more like using only enough force to allow u to escape danger. combat is more for when u really wanna stick it out and finish somene. or my opinion anyway. self defense is different than combat i think because u have a different mindset for both. im talking about regular people too, because a trained fighter would probobly wanna stick around and destroy somoene who attacked them.

[darrianation]

self defense is more like using only enough force to allow u to escape danger. combat is more for when u really wanna stick it out and finish somene. or my opinion anyway. self defense is different than combat i think because u have a different mindset for both. im talking about regular people too, because a trained fighter would probobly wanna stick around and destroy somoene who attacked them.

In self-defense you do have to consider the law, and use of force issues. But at the end of the day you want to return home in one piece. Self-defense is about how to stay out of bad situations through knowledge, prevention, awareness, de-escalation, and escape/evasion, but when the shit goes down it's about thoroughly and agressively overwhelming your attacker's mental will, pysochological resolve, and his physical defenses through a determined, aggressive, and tenacious offense.

Self-defense is combat, you loose and you may find yourself in the hospital's ICU or the morgue, this is life or death, it doesn't get anymore serious than this.