The Firing Line Forums - View Single Post

Blind Tree Frog · January 13, 2005, 06:14 PM

something else to consider is how the style you want to take looks at the fight that will take place. Consider the difference between Judo and Jujitsu/BJJ. Judo goes with the approach that the fight will start standing, so if you can control your oponent there, you will win. JJ says the fight will eventually end up on the ground, so control there and you will win. Neither philosophy is wrong, but it's a different approach. JJ doesn't focus so much on the take downs so much as what to do when they are down. Judo however focuses more on the take downs because the assumption is, if you can control them to the ground, you are in control when you are on the ground.

You see this in various Kung Fu's too where the ones that developed in the country focus more on kicks and the ones from the cities focus on punches. Every style has a philosophy as to how the fight will play out. And every martial art developes primarily on this philosophy, be it from asia or europe or west indies or whatever. Every culture of reasonable age developed a martial art, so just shop around and find one that seems to work for you.

And don't worry too much about Multi-Style systems. Every style has weaknesses and strengths. The multi style people try to eliminate their weaknesses by taking conflicting styles that have different strengths... say Tai Kwon Doe and BJJ just to pick two. This is all well and good, but my personal opinion is that if you focus enough on one style and learn it's strengths and weaknesses inside and out, then you should be able to defend those weaknesses as well. After training for a couple years if you want to try something else go ahead, but it will take a while for any training to start being an effective method of self defense and even then, it could just be that that style isn't appropriate for you.

I took Judo for years with Olympic Class contenders. I'm still not really good enough to effectively use it 100% of the time.

January 13, 2005, 06:14 PM	#13
Blind Tree Frog Senior Member Join Date: January 4, 2005 Posts: 298	something else to consider is how the style you want to take looks at the fight that will take place. Consider the difference between Judo and Jujitsu/BJJ. Judo goes with the approach that the fight will start standing, so if you can control your oponent there, you will win. JJ says the fight will eventually end up on the ground, so control there and you will win. Neither philosophy is wrong, but it's a different approach. JJ doesn't focus so much on the take downs so much as what to do when they are down. Judo however focuses more on the take downs because the assumption is, if you can control them to the ground, you are in control when you are on the ground. You see this in various Kung Fu's too where the ones that developed in the country focus more on kicks and the ones from the cities focus on punches. Every style has a philosophy as to how the fight will play out. And every martial art developes primarily on this philosophy, be it from asia or europe or west indies or whatever. Every culture of reasonable age developed a martial art, so just shop around and find one that seems to work for you. And don't worry too much about Multi-Style systems. Every style has weaknesses and strengths. The multi style people try to eliminate their weaknesses by taking conflicting styles that have different strengths... say Tai Kwon Doe and BJJ just to pick two. This is all well and good, but my personal opinion is that if you focus enough on one style and learn it's strengths and weaknesses inside and out, then you should be able to defend those weaknesses as well. After training for a couple years if you want to try something else go ahead, but it will take a while for any training to start being an effective method of self defense and even then, it could just be that that style isn't appropriate for you. I took Judo for years with Olympic Class contenders. I'm still not really good enough to effectively use it 100% of the time.