Which to Pick?

Controversy is nothing new to the debate about which of the vast number of martial arts is "best."  If we are talking about effectiveness, the answer seems to change often.  In mixed martial arts (MMA), where all styles are converged against each other in televized competition-style matches, two styles seem to have been incorporated into each successful fighter's reportoire.  The fighters that seem to win most often use a highly evolved hybrid of Jiu Jitsu grappling and Muy Thai Kickboxing. Jiu Jitsu is mostly a ground fighting art.  Most fighters like to argue that around 90% of streetfights end up on the ground, and if you know how to control an opponent on the ground and administer various joint manipulation and choke techniques you will most likely be able to consistently defeat a larger and stronger opponent.  This is because the weight and height advantage disappears once you've taken your foe to the ground.  Combined with a heightened sense of the physics behind the techniques, a weaker person can confidently rely on superior knowledge of technique to successfully defeat a larger aggressor.  

Kickboxing is primarily a striking art that is considered very powerful when applied aggressively.  With Kickboxing and Jiu Jitsu hybridized in your toolbox to an intermediate level of competency, you may be quite a force to contend with even if you were to go up against a Roman Legionare or Visigoth warrior. Ironically enough, the United States Marine Corps has only recently revamped all of its combat training manuals to be based primarily on Jiu Jitsu and Muy Thai.  They have also instituted a new belt-based system of martial arts training based on these two arts.  

Application of Jiu-Jitsu

Jiu Jitsu is special in that its toolbox of knowledge allows you to apply techniques by leverage rather than by overwhelming strength.  This means that techniques could be applied under water and even in space where there is no gravity. This is because you would be posting off your opponent's body in order to apply a technique.  This martial art seems to endow its trainees with the highest level of intuitive biomechanical knowledge.

In the picture above, the soldier with his back to the floor has gained control of the top oppponent. He wrapped both his legs around his opponent's waist in the "guard" position.  He then planted both feet on the ground, applied a shoulder lock, and then secured it by shifting his own hips to the side and by crossing one leg across his opponent's back to prevent his opponent from rolling forward and out of the shoulder lock.  Notice that the man applying the joint manipulation has a range of techniques available to himself.  He may dislocate his opponent's right shoulder by continuously rotating his opponent's wrist towards the opponent's head.  He may even decide to just hold the lock until the opponent on top can be detained by other forces.  The key is that there remains the option of peacably restraining your opponent even if he has knocked you down, and if ncessary and given extenuating circumstances, you can choose to escalate your response and incapacitate your opponent.  Jiu jitsu is replete with such techniques and may be a superior alternative in that you may choose to be nonviolent yet still be able to restrain your opponent, and even incapacitate him if the circumstances demanded it.

 Application of Muy Thai Kickboxing

Kickboxing applies all the aforementioned principles of physics very dramatically since knee and elbow strikes are usually applied in a short, snappy manner.  Muy Thai strikes come in the form of a jab, a hook, an uppercut, or even a headbutt. Take this elbow strike:

The elbow strike here can be downright nasty considering the speed at which it can be delivered as well as the massive force that can be generated by having the elbow's power come from 1) an upward lifting of the elbow at a dramatic rate using the hips to rotate the elbow upwards or 2) a strike with acceleration generated by the explosive downward muscle contraction of the deltoids and latissimus dorsi muscles.

 A Final Word

In today's state of human evolution, fighting for the sake of injuring another without their consent, either in war or for other purposes is one of the basest forms of regression to our unenlightened past.  Martial arts provides an outlet in sport or in demonstration for the warriors within us to master our bodies so our minds may eventually master peace.

There are exceptional cases in which one must protect him or herself and their loved ones.  In such cases, one must have situational awareness and keep an eye out for multiple attackers and to guage whether or not their opponent/s are armed.  

If in doubt, and you must defend yourself because you fear grevious bodily injury or even death, the three principles to winning a fight in which your health and ultimately your life may be in danger are as follows:

1) Engage in talking later with the authorities. For now, be the one to strike first and sight in on soft targets such as the neck, temple, eyes or groin with open palm strikes so as to avoid injury to your fingers.  Many swear by an open palm to the temple of your antagonist.  The open palm strike swung by way of torquing the hips from one side while hiding your arm and hand then whipping forward to the other side with the arm being shot out, like a door being drawn away from your antagonist at moderate speed then launched towards him, has tremendous knock-out potential.  

2) Strike fast and alternate with both hands. Use open palms if you must, to ensure you make contact.  An open palm against the side of an opponent's head can knock them out if done properly, and almost guarantees a hit over a jaw strike witha closed fist which is difficult in terms of being able to place such a precise hit against a moving target while adrenalin is flowing through you.  Charge in with a rhymic attack of open-palm strikes and make sure to keep your head weaving so as to avoid counter-punches.  

3) Strike repeatedly.  Don't let that first hit be your last, even if you think you've just knocked out your opponent. If the person has fallen, continue to strike as the person falls back.  When you are defending your life (make sure you review your country's or state's self-defense laws), you need to make sure the risk is neutralized. 

Of course, these three principles are not to be engaged in lightly.  Given that most if not all my dear readers will be moral agents who already would be ambivalent towards utilizing these principles, I do not favor advising you to temper your will to fight.  Many of you will be weak-hearted and will need all the courage in the world to launch into that state of mind.  I would advocate in your being happy knowing that many of these situations can be avoided in the first place.  Even if such a situation were to arise in which your life or health were in danger, you must assess the situation for the peaceful outcome.  If the antagonist merely wants your watch, give it to him.  However, if he begins to stab at you, you may at that point decide to intelligently defend yourself by way of attacking the antagonist, or you may attempt to flee. 

However, if you stay to fight after you've determined your health or life are in immediate danger, you cannot do any of these three things if you don't willingly mentally ground yourself in principles of physics consciously or otherwise, no matter what art you practice.  Biomechanics is an incredibly complex field in which the study of martial arts provides some of the most salient and rewarding shortcuts.  Gymnastics, yoga or any other number of related activities are also effective for heightening your appreciation of achieving discipline and mastery over your own body.  Remember, the bigger picture is that you have the opportunity for self-improvement on a mental level between you and yourself.  Your actions are merely a reflection and study of that state of mind.  If you were to defend yourself, you could justify doing so on the basis that you have a deeper respect for all the work you had put into studying and exercising to learn to control your body and ultimately your mind.  Do not dishonor your mind by letting someone dishonor your body.

A Nobel Peace Prize winner once worried that our technical knowlede had surpassed our understanding of social sciences and that this put us in a precarious situation as we knew how to make nuclear bombs that would destroy the world many times over yet we did not even understand the basic principles of how to institutionalize peace. Perhaps, with the discipline and humility it will take to acquire a superior technical understanding of our bodies and how they both work in tandem with physics, we can learn to overcome the most powerful weapon in the universe, the human mind.

Pictures provided courtesy of

socaa.homestead.com/ Membership.html

www.chausmartialarts.com/ muaythai/muaythai.htm