Which Martial Arts Are Legit...And Which Aren't

This is a question that has been pondered by pretty much everyone in martial arts. Which styles are worth your time and which are more of a dance routine? My criteria for a legit martial art is it will be extremely useful in a street self defence or you can use it effectively an MMA fight?
We are going to look at a dozen martial arts and I'll let you know what I think of each.
If you enjoy the video please like, share and/or subscribe 🙏
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
1:45 Karate
3:29 Judo
4:33 Boxing
5:54 Taekwondo
7:02 Jiu Jitsu
9:13 Muay Thai
10:30 Aikido
12:30 Tai Chi
13:30 Krav Maga
15:03 Kickboxing
15:48 Capoeira
17:39 Kung Fu
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[@GabrielVargaOfficial]

I know I didn't mention wrestling which is obviously super effective in MMA and a street fight. I wasn't sure if it's classified as a martial art of not. But everyone already knows it's legit. Many of the UFC champions have stellar wrestling.

[@richardsabino2961]

Also forgot to mention the amazing Martial Art of Tae Bo. Look how enthusiastic he is! Jk

[@shovanmahmudtariq8504]

I was actually waiting for the Wrestling, but yes, being good in wrestling allows a person to control the distance and pace in a fight specially a style of it that's compatible with your base martial arts.

[@johnfidalgo386]

Judo isn't just throws, we also learn submissions just not leg locks and we also learn immobilisation techniques on the floor.

[@jaketheasianguy3307]

Wrestling is a martial art. It got heavily watered down into an eye candy sport for spectators, same fate happened to Judo (which you could considred as Japanese wrestling). Catch Wrestling taught you not only to pin people down but also various submission techniques like neck crank, arm breaks, leg locks....

[@Dr.Dahkness]

@Andre's revenge i saw your fight i also do taekwondo and hoi jeon moo sool i do agree but again he didn't do it so i didn't blame him for not knowing

[@xBromsfanx]

Wrestling fits the definition of a martial art and so does boxing which a lot of people say isn't a martial art.

[@Mr.Smiley_J]

Totally. Both have stances, footwork, traditions, practiced moves taught from years of development passed down through generations to perfect their methods. What else do they need to be considered a martial art?

[@thehighcommunity247]

💯 I feel the same way Brother!! If Muay Thai and Kicc-Boxing are Martial Arts, then so is normal "Boxing!" People like to label them as "combat sports", which they are, but they are also a certain type of Martial Art for sure!! ✌️🥊🤼🥋

[@pilot.wav_theory]

@@thehighcommunity247 exactly, just because judo and bjj only cover one aspect of fighting (throws and ground respectively) they are still considered martial arts, so why not boxing and wrestling?

[@thehighcommunity247]

@@pilot.wav_theory 💯✌️

[@palabrajot505]

That's because a lot of people don't fully understand the definition of martial arts nor are they aware of the original origin of the term, they tend to strictly associate the term martial arts with East Asia and arts that originated from there, particularly the traditional martial arts like Karate, Kung Fu and so forth.

[@Condeycon]

Every martial artist youtuber must eventually make a video that makes Aikido nerds mad. Its a rite of passage. Congratulations Gabriel, you're now a full-fledged fighty-film poster.

[@BoxingForTheStreets]

Aikido by itself is almost useless. Just like Tai Chi.

[@PKeyChai]

@Great White Found the aikido nerd.

[@joey9068]

You are wrong. Aikido is the premier martial art against non-resisting, compliant students.

[@Condeycon]

@@joey9068 You. You funny guy. I like you.

[@THIS---GUY]

@Great White aikido is a joke sorry man I've rolled with a few black belts and it was akin to first year wrestlers lol the only martial art I've ever trained and not learned a single thing. Krav maga and it's throat strikes, groin shots and ground stomps are definitely more effective than aikido and your rehearsed sequences

[@vittocrazi]

Im pretty stunned that someone can practice judo for 6 months and not be taught groundwork. Yes, BJJ has more developed groundwork, but judo has more than enough tools to finish an opponent on the ground

[@mykulpierce]

I think there are many many martial arts schools that become cookie cutter instructors for their art where the progression of techniques taught are disjointed and don't follow a particular strategy. Identifying good baseline techniques to adopt into a basic progressive strategy is something a serious instructor should be looking at for their students. Unfortunately I don't think that's the case as many schools are interested in just maintaining a class and not training specifically to combat proficiency or for competition.

[@iorekby]

Same with BJJ these days though. People easily go 6 months in some schools without ever learning takedowns or takedown defence.

[@jhamk1676]

There are many Judo schools nowadays, some that teaches both throws and groundwork, some that doesn't, sadly...

[@vittocrazi]

@@jhamk1676 but its baffling. its almost as if you went to train kickboxing and not training leg kicks. 3/4 ways of scoring a win in judo are groundwork

[@jhamk1676]

@@vittocrazi Exactly, yeah... But that's true, there's a lot of those, especially in america it seems. Most people I knew from there had terrible training where groundwork was almost never used or taught.

[@theolysyk8494]

A defense of judo here!! Judo has a developed ground game. Lots of submissions and pins that open you up to ground and pound in MMA and self defense. Things like scarf hold and crucifix are from judo and I've used them effectively in MMA and the streets. Same with most high percentage chokes and arm bars (sankaku and Juji gatami) There's also a developed gripping game which helps you understand distance management to develop your stand up. The best part of learning judo is refining the clinch; which IMO is more difficult to craft later in your MA career. Judo and wrestling feels like the middle ground between stand up and ground fighting and fighters like Shevchenko, Kamaru Usman, Jon Jones and Khabib utilize judo techniques very very effectivelyy in the cage! Weight manipulation and high amplitude throws do good damage and knowing how to control your opponent on the ground takes priority over strictly submissions imo A roast of judo too! Modern Olympic judo likes to be point based and remove the Martial arts aspect of it.... No leg grabs? Point based throw system? Stand ups from the ground from inactivity and penalties for certain techniques absolutely cripple the Martial Art in favor of the sport. Navigating the grey area between No gi and Gi is also extremely difficult and a huge hurtle from Judo to MMA. I have over 13 years of experience of the sport and transitioned to MMA so I think a lot about translating my first true martial art into MMA :)

[@Michael-yr5oq]

@Great White That is completely false jujutsu is hundreds of years older than akijujutsu which was founded in the in the 19th or 20th century. And there was no single origin of jujutsu especially if you look at schools that include jujutsu both as part of the curriculum such as kenjutsu, iaijutsu etc... And jujutsu is very broad and changes immensely from school to school from grappling with weapons to grappling in armour to striking to folk wrestling, with different origins, techniques and philosophy. Most modern jujutsu like bjj and sports jujutsu come almost entirely from kodokan judo.

[@SeanWinters]

@@Michael-yr5oq There is modern iJJF which incorporated a great mix of judo and kickboxing, I'm a judo guy but I learned some kickboxing and it's essentially what I know: damn good martial art.

[@carritohmc]

I agree with you 100%. I guess I've been really lucky with Judo, I've done Judo in 5 different states in the US, every single one of them taught newaza (ground game), whether it was escaping side mount, armbars, triangle chokes, or sweeps, and this isn't like a "sport vs traditional" thing either, I mean, aren't wins in Judo statistically 50% from pins and submissions in most competitions? How in the world is a place not teaching ground work? It's not as extensive as BJJ sure, but I wouldn't say a Judoka doesn't know what to do when the fight hits the ground, I believe Gabriel said he trained for 6 months, anywho, in addition to JJ, Karo Parisyan is a great example of Judo for MMA, GSP did some Judo training specifically for MMA and almost all of the Dagestani fighters do a great job incorporating Judo (and Sambo sure, lots of techniques are shared), into MMA.

[@Todo_fighting]

Most grappling techniques use by the army in most countries are judo techniques.

[@Todo_fighting]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/qoO3d2ltZZampsk muay thai self defense.

[@monkeyboy275bobo8]

I think Bas Rutten made a pretty good point about the biting your leg during an armbar thing. If you have an armbar locked in and someone bites you it will probably hurt but a broken arm probably hurts more.

[@Bruski1231]

I thought of Bas Rutten too. “As soon as I feel teeth on my forearm I’ll break neck rather than choke” 😱🥲

[@monkeyboy275bobo8]

@@Bruski1231 Yeah that story he tells on Rogans Podcast is the most hilarious thing ever. Bas teaching a rear naked choke at his gym. Cocky student from other gym: We would just poke your eyes right now! Bas: Oh cool, can you show me? I would love to learn that. Student: Yeah sure. Bas while locking in a rnc on her: Ok in 3 seconds im gonna go, if you touch my eye im gonna break your neck, ok? Lets go!

[@sweetneko1257]

Unless it's Dan Hardy

[@teekay851]

yeah it was a very weird thing to say "if someone has me in an armbar i can bite their leg."...like what?

[@i_amscarface_the_legend9744]

@@Bruski1231 Bas Rutten is a legend of sport, in his level he can avoid to get beat. But, when the opponent is under your knee in an arm bar, he can bite the joint/nerves of the leg under knee and the pain is not something you can support, to make a comparaison, no one can resist a small flame of fire in his skin rather than 4 seconds. Another legint point, is that against 2 opponents, you cannot use BJJ, just look how many vids of boxers that beat a lot of street opponents.

[@THIS---GUY]

Wrestling is definitely a martial art IMO. Non traditional in grading as its more geared for competition. It's also more of a "school sport" than a traditional martial art but is still an Olympic sport and very effective for mma or street fighting.

[@jordanberry2358]

If it's utilized as offense or defense in martial arts it should definitely be counted as a martial art itself. It often dominates the other arts as much as i hate getting wrestlefucked

[@teekay851]

"but is still an Olympic sport" SPORT, you just said so 🤔

[@THIS---GUY]

@@teekay851 You're taking one point I made out of complete context. I was trying to draw a parallel with other traditional martial arts that have a practical use in fighting or MMA and a traditional / Olympic sport system that is only that specific martial art. It's more of a school sport in North America but in other countries it's instructed more in a martial art style from childhood and mixed with combat. Catch wrestling mixed with freestyle and Greco-Roman would be the best representation of wrestling as a martial art.

[@luisalejandrorosario5591]

@@teekay851 boxing, karate, tkd and judo are all Olympic “sports”

[@moustachio334]

I did TKD as a child under an old school instructor. I developed all of my flexibility from it and I’m still just as flexible 25 years later. When I took up Muay Thai, it was second nature. Been training MT in SE Asia for four years now. Love it

[@user-zy3dh4cm5r]

ayyy me too.

[@danielniels22]

Hi. I have just been beginning into a muay thai camp in my city. I was doing taekwondo for 5 years. The MT instructors always fixing my roundhouse kick, told me to raise my toe. I told him, that is kinda hard for me because my taekwondo kicks are already natural, and we do not raise toe while spinning kicks. Did you face this problem?? Please i need some advice. Am i wrong or should i find another gym

[@danielniels22]

Hi. I have just been beginning into a muay thai camp in my city. I was doing taekwondo for 5 years. The MT instructors always fixing my roundhouse kick, told me to raise my toe. I told him, that is kinda hard for me because my taekwondo kicks are already natural, and we do not raise toe while spinning kicks. Did you face this problem?? Please i need some advice. Am i wrong or should i find another gym

[@johnnapoletano]

​@@danielniels22Hi. Every coach will push you towards their own style of kicking. Watch how the great Thai fighters do a 'fast' kick and a 'power' kick. I see Superbon leaning back and turning his back foot like TKD would do. Switch kicks etc. All martial arts copy from each other. TKD though the stance is the main obstacle. Don't give up on your best kicks, just adjust them and revisit them as you advance. Good luck!

[@iorekby]

Biggest thing with boxing people gloss over is it also makes you very hard to punch, and in unarmed altercations crime stats show the most common attack is someone trying to punch you. And before people say "Okay but how will that help in a real fight on the street?" Most people get super gassed quickly trying to punch someone, as this video shows: kzbin.info/www/bejne/p4S7YYN5hr2chZY

[@handroids1981]

Boxing? Do you mean cardio, cardio, cardio and conditioning and slipping and dodging and blocking punches? Plus foot work and foot work and foot work? Nah, BJJ FOR LIFE YO.

[@prdddac8606]

Uuuu, timestamps😌

[@ir4355]

yessssss

[@MrStimpson38]

So... make them? Jesus. Entitlement is real.

[@Mr.Smiley_J]

@@MrStimpson38 no need when the bro up top did it the description. We are just so appreciative.

[@prdddac8606]

@@MrStimpson38 what a douche

[@rustywrench500]

Only one ad on the whole video and right at the end, so we can all enjoy the video what a legend.

[@marcuscs2484]

Great list! I have to say, Kung Fu is a generalization for Chinese martial arts in general, not a martial art. With that, I do agree that Kung Fu isn't the superior martial art because a lot of the moves are designed to avoid being hit in the groin, taken to the ground, etc, because in ancient times, that was more important than the other aspects that we have today. I trained with a Shaolin monk for a few years and I have to say their fitness if on point with pro fighters I've trained with, and I'm now competing in low-level Sanda (I'm almost 16)

[@sergiobatista2272]

And that makes kung-fu styles in general more effective in self defense and fighting, than the mumbo jumbo that we have today.

[@BachelorOfMartialArts]

Says Kung Fu isn’t a martial art…. Immediately tried to rank it as a martial art…

[@warhawksmemories3071]

Nice video. Early this year tried to practice a few eg Karate Capoeira Muay Thai MMA Brazilian jiu-jitsu Kickboxing etc. Really wanted to do karate again but ended up liking and sticking with kickboxing and Muay Thai

[@kotletko1174]

Thank you for your insights on the topic, champ! In my opinion there are few other interesting martial arts which are worth noticing: 1) karate kudo - sort of mma in gi and headgear allowing striking with your head, elbows, groin kicks, takedowns and submissions but with limited time on the ground (to make fight dynamic I guess) and limited striking on the ground (for safety and sportsmanship I reckon) 2) sanda/sanshou/chinese kickboxing - kickboxing + takedowns but no ground game, also very dynamic, interesting to watch 3) sambo and combat sambo - the former being sort of judo, but grabbing legs allowed (like in wrestling/bjj) and no ippons (cannot win a fight just with a single, clean throw, but with a submission or by winning more takedowns than opponent); the latter is mma in gi similar to karate kudo mentioned above. Cheers!

[@antoniovirgillito4126]

Your content is truly something else! You definetely deserve a bigger audience. Good luck and keep up the work!

[@arturkarpinski164]

Thank you for the lesson!!!

[@tacocatdeboss7665]

Great ideas and discussions! One thing I'd like to comment about Taekwondo is that the sport version is the most widespread, so if you step into a Taekwondo school you're more likely than not going to learn the sport version. However, depending on the school the more traditional martial art version will be taught. I've practiced Taekwondo my whole life and I've learned both the traditional and sport version, though the sparring has always been the sport version. The kicks in Martial Art Taekwondo are much less flicky and more powerful. From a biomechanical standpoint, the Taekwondo kick can generate more power, however it has a different effective range than lets say a Muay Thai kick. A Martial Art Taekwondo practitioner could supplement boxing into their training to develop the hand work and head movement and combine it with their kicks to make what I imagine to be a more range-versatile style of kickboxing.

[@sugardanny8924]

4:15 uhhh, judo's ne waza is actually where the bjj comes from

[@hervekalundu2978]

Ju-jitsu is the origin of judo and brasilian Ju-jitsu

[@sugardanny8924]

@@hervekalundu2978 jujitsu to judo then to bjj

[@terrywho22]

@@sugardanny8924 Yup... Mitsuyo Maeda brought judo to the Gracie family.

[@yawayawa946]

Gabriel is a world class fighter, but since his base is striking you shouldn't take his opinions about grappling seriously lol

[@terrywho22]

@@yawayawa946 Hmmm.... good point. Love his channel though.

[@abdouippo1793]

God bless you You give a lot of good content And the way you explain them is great

[@luithedude3300]

Realy legit and realistic breakdown, you sure know what you are doing, keep it up, love your chanel

[@papita69xxx]

I am a black belt 3° dan in karate. And probably learning how to break fall has been the most valuable skill i´ve learned because unless you live somewhere particularly dangerous or you compete you´d probably end up falling more than fighting in your lifetime.

[@jamielondon6436]

Amen to that!

[@jc-kj8yc]

Yes! 3 times yes! I've been doing martial arts for more or less all my life, but live in a really peaceful area. Any time I got in somewhat dangerous situations I could manage it by talking or running. But I've lost count how often I have been stumbling over tree branches or stairs, slipping on frozen ground, falling off my bike, etc. And break falling has saved me every time from serious injury. Never broke a bone in my body or hit my head on the ground, cause I'd instinctively roll or fall on my forearms or the side of my body. Learning to fall down has nothing but benefits. It's great self defense, it's easy to learn and it's also really fun to practice. You wanna learn self defense? Learn a forwards roll!

[@pranavmoorthi8532]

karate and kickboxing work really well together. i love the way tenshin blends them together

[@jaketheasianguy3307]

To be fair, the term kickboxing was used to describe all form of striking art using arm and legs, included Muay Thai and Karate

[@jaketheasianguy3307]

@Fishy Vagina Sanda is Chinese kickboxing. The word "kung fu" means martial art so they're not wrong. The chinese called Muay Thai "Thai kung fu" or any form of MA from the west as "America kung fu"

[@THIS---GUY]

@Fishy Vagina zabit trained sanda and wushu growing up. Some of his techniques are the same as the way we use them in tkd and kickboxing. He and his brother have some of the best front roundhouse kicks I've ever seen.

[@HeathenRides]

@@jaketheasianguy3307 but it became an evolving style I'm a BB in kickboxing all KB styles training the same style,, but the punches come from boxing and the kicks from tkd karate and Muay Thai , but ofcourse anyone can kick And punch without training at all but it's really not the same all KB clubs follow a program and work to accomplish goals and have graduations every six months and The sensor's come from other clubs and all the clubs here is under wako (world association of kickboxing organization's) it's a legit style with many different types of competitions semi contact light contact K1 full contact etc (but many clubs have dropped the semi contact because it pretty much became like TKD and often back in the days they compete against tkd invited each other)when I started it was illegal so it was called sport's karate and didn't have gi but kb pants and\or my Short's and sparred with ten oz just like now the but it's evolved a lot since then now all clubs focus on making Good k1 style figthers and k1 is now a rule set in wako just like full contact which in knee's and lowkicks isn't legal..

[@yawayawa946]

Both karate and kickboxing are a broad term so you have to be more specific when you say those. Tons of kickboxing (Muay Thai, Dutch,Lethwei,etc) and karate (Kyokushin, Shotoka, Goju ryu, etc) styles out there.

[@avechristusrexchristisking]

thank you for adding time stamps.

[@griffonu]

Great video, you can really feel the experience of the narrator! :) I really loved the Krav Maga part, so down to Earth! The main negative part is the omission of wrestling and grappling. Thanks for the content! :)

[@WillSlags]

Also the problem with Krav is you never get good at anything just ok at stuff and you can never go full out because of eye pokes, knee kicks, etc so in a real fight you’ll get overwhelmed more times than not

[@davidinawe791]

I don't really get your point, can you elaborate?

[@mliao1]

@@MAN_FROM_BEYOND I train MMA and krav, one for the sport, one for the self defense. I honestly don't really get the 'you don't need to train eye gouges and groin shots' adage. It's like saying you don't need to train head punches. Of course you do, if you want to actually execute it effectively on the fly. Eye gouging in particular is extremely hard to pull off, I'd still rather palm-strike the nose and hope my fingers scratch an eye as a bonus. With Krav, it really depends on the organisation. IKMF is super legit, great with sparring and pressure testing, I'd definitely rather have an IKMF trained fighter defend me than an MMA fighter who isn't trained in 3rd party defense, nor multiple attackers, nor escape as a 'win condition'. However, I will admit that the average athleticism in MMA gyms is much higher than in Krav gyms due to the sport and competitive nature of it. In Krav you get a lot of 'every day' office workers and moms etc who just want to passably defend themselves, and that can lower the training standard. Whereas in MMA, the average mindset is of an athlete aiming to be the best they can be, better than their peers etc. In a strict 1v1 no weapons I'd put money on MMA. But street self defense (that you couldn't merely talk or walk your way out of) is never 1v1 no weapons, and most successful scenarios don't necessarily end with the perpetrators completely incapacitated, but merely just forcefully dissuaded from pursuing the defenders.

[@zoidborg363]

can you please go over mirko cro cops kicking techniques, timings, and reasons why he uses different level kicks for different situations

[@user-hv3uf7om6g]

Very good presentation of various martial arts.

[@geoffrey8221]

Thanks Gabriel - wish I'd seen a video like this back when I started out with martial arts. Think most fighters would agree with your conclusion. I've also gotten more and more interested in Lethwei recently (made increasingly popular by your fellow Canadian Dave Leduc) - quite like MT but perhaps even more street focused.

[@nathanly8761]

Just to make a point, in judo practice and competition you're throwing a guy on a mat. If the mat is concrete, there is nothing else to do after you've thrown him to the ground because his ribs and/or skull will be smashed. You're other points about the art are completely valid, but the single thought of crashing someone into concrete seems like more than enough to end a fight

[@duncan1371]

I mean jiu jitsu is legit judos ground game they come from the same thing if your learning real judo your learning jiu jitsu too

[@nebis31]

Yea man, I’ve never done judo but have done wrestling and even with those throws if you get power slammed on a hard surface, you ain’t getting up and even if you do you are going to be useless from how much pain you are in.

[@jc-kj8yc]

Exactly! Judo is really the art of knocking someone out with the ground :D

[@OverSooll]

agreed here, I did judo as a young kid and hated it )), but it worked so well in school fights, I eventually dumped my useless shotokan karate - ineffective !, and I wouldn;t train BJJ, Judo throws are devastating, the ground work sufficient

[@buckaroobonsi555]

I trained TKD back before it was a sport and when punching to the head was the norm and when you would have at least 3 days a week on contact with contact to the head and body being denoted as full, medium and light. This way your head was not getting pummeled all the time but you always had contact and usually the body would be full to medium contact and the head was the one thing that would some days be light. That was ITF days. In fact my first time to Battle of Atlanta the only required items were mouth guard and cup and it was full contact. As time went on fist and feet pads became required. I am tall and in TKD I used that to my advantage to keep people at bay. When I started wrestling in High School it taught me how to be comfortable being in close and not being able to just depend on strikes. Plus since we wrestled 2-3 hours a day 5 days a week and competed on the weekends that was like 20 year of martial arts sparing condensed into one year in terms of total amount of time spent sparing. It helped my pacing, rhythm, timing, flow etc.....It also helped me to under stand the different ranges of attacks and what works in tight confines versus a large ring or open space. It has the same short comings as BJJ in terms of self defense but it does have some interesting tools that help make a good striker into a great striker while staying on his feet.

[@blakerunyon8523]

Totally agreed and well said...TKD for kicks can completely “make a good striker into a great striker”. I also had an old school TKD master. Training was very rough and strict. 100+ push up punishments(once had to do 300)/punching brick walls, and straight up bamboo sword beatings lol. Left class in tears many times haha. It took me 9 years to receive my black belt. But personally, having that traditional TKD background from age 7-16 really did wonders for me. It might not help everyone tho because I turned out to be 5’11 by the time I received my black belt. Luckily TKD happened to compliment my height. Playing to our body type is huge.

[@theblackmonk3153]

@Great White I think it also depends on the power level of people your spar have you seen what derick Lewis is doing to Wrestlers

[@camiloiribarren1450]

It’s great to see that Gabriel sees the good, even in soft style martial arts that have SOME aspect of fighting (such as the rolling from aikido and the concepts coming from tai chi/Taiji) Very nice

[@paulbridgman3437]

Excellent realistic advice for kids, and parents. Especially about starting with sports where you actually learn to get hit hard in the face. My Pop taught me that a long time ago. Hes no longer round. So now you're helping me teach my boys. Thank you and keep up the good work legend. Much appreciated 🙏

[@mich15smith45]

I'm kinda not really buying the whole "all i'd have to do is bite him" thing for getting out of an armbar. He might let you go after breaking your arm in two so idk if thats the best argument against bjj.

[@inditsnotdenon922]

For real. Biting is horrible, but if you can deal with pain (like you can if you've trained) it won't be that bad, and you'll come out with the advantage

[@boogeyman1016]

@Great White nah I'd just rip your arm off if you try to bite me during an armbar

[@tokenstandpoint93]

Boxing is also very important for conditioning. As much as I love the karate I'm doing (A Kyokushin offshoot) I might drop it once I can actually sprint to get into better fighting shape and over improved pressure testing from sparring for 6 months to a year.

[@critiquemytechnique1135]

Another great vid champ

[@dukey03]

Great video as always!

[@torres7918]

this video came at a good time, i will be 42 in august, and i am a real scary cat, who has never fought and will like to learn how to defend myself, i recently lost 88lbs and trying to lose 10 more, then work on six pack abs, chest and learn to fight. trying to find out what will be best for me.

[@societybelike]

I will say in response to the biting a leg during an arm bar thing, bas rutten discussed this before about "dirty" tactics against submissions. The only thing is that if you want to do those things, it's better to do it before they have a submission locked up, if you bite someone who has you in an armbar, they're not going to let go, they'll snap your arm in response to the pain, then they'll let you go.

[@koakopskillah]

great vid

[@khabirnooristani9159]

best video... tnx.

[@Juel92]

There's a difference between WT and ITF taekwon-do though. I trained ITF for a while when I was a teenager and we were taught most facets of striking including punching to the head (as well as some rudimentary standing grappling). ITF is supposed to be mainly for self defense while WT has a larger focus on the sport aspect. I would say we were taught how to punch and kick well as well as some basic jointlocks but not really how to fight since there was no full contact sparring. There was also a strong aspect on getting power in the moves so basically every time I asked why we did some particular part of a technique the answer was "To generate more power".

[@OmniTranscend]

When I studied ITF TKD, i was taught also elbows, knees, boxing style punching, ground grappling. Felt like a bit of everything even though stronger focus on kicks was still there. Took a few strong punches during sparring but nothing compared to getting a basic kick which was fast and strong and even those with the best guards would be down.

[@sebastianquintana5412]

Is... is this a response to that one guy doing the rounds in every martial artists comment section? Bc if so wow, props to you for finding a nice way to answer

[@trimakin6148]

I see you've seen that guy as well.

[@THIS---GUY]

Flat earth, space deniers and aikido people are my favourite to come across in a comments section or watch try and convince people it's legit 😂

[@turtlesaredifferentfromtor6745]

@@THIS---GUY legit question, not trying to troll. If aikido is useless, why are there MMA fighters who have successfully used it in the ring? Aikido has been used successfully in MMA most notably by Jason Delucia, Daniel Cage Theodore and Jay Dodds. There are some more examples, but those are the only ones I know of the top of my head. If it’s akin to flat earth, how would you explain this?

[@josedelgado7145]

Great show mr gabriel varga every martial art has something to offer

[@youtubeislife5562]

Great video and content you have my sub.

[@jordansmith1790]

Im not the hugest fan of TKD but I feel like you underrated it. When it's combined with karate like Andy Hug the level of hip dexterity and blending the kicks into each other is amazing

[@soiceygoon8763]

How many tkd dude have high level hands??... exactly

[@carrie7225]

@@soiceygoon8763 lol would joe rogan count?

[@chapulinski58]

@@soiceygoon8763 Benson Henderson

[@godly8781]

Counts on the gym my taekwondo gym has boxing and jiu-jitsu so it's a great place to evolve as a martial artist

[@Mr.Smiley_J]

@@HarryGreenMathematician nice!

[@mohamedtarek-cy2wl]

i did judo for 8 years and boxing for 2 years and still going judo made me win two street fights with ease it makes it very easy to take somone down i can mount them easy and sumbit or just ground and pound untill somone break the fight it truly saved me twice in my school judo is one of the best martial arts for self defence

[@critiquemytechnique1135]

I did wrestling and it has saved my ass in real fights too and ive been sent flying by judokas. Very legit.

[@theshapetv9203]

@Great White You probably get flipped daily, not so Great White

[@jordansmith1790]

Even knowing just the basics about grappling let's you dominate somebody who doesn't know anything

[@mohamedtarek-cy2wl]

@@critiquemytechnique1135 both are legit martial arte no doubt wrestling depeds on strength a bit more i think

[@mohamedtarek-cy2wl]

@@theshapetv9203 any grappler get fliped daily😂

[@sluggensluggen5075]

Brave video on your perspective towards martial arts. I imagine heads are exploding. Agree with your opinion 100%

[@doaimanariroll5121]

Hey gabe! Nice video once again, pretty much agree with ya. I’ve done judo for a while before moving to MMA, the school I trained at did a lot of ground wrestling and wrestling style takedowns so I thought judo was the shit, but many other schools focused only on the hip throwing and trips and such so not as applicable.

[@eliasschneeberger1337]

With Judo I have to disagree. First of all when you throw someone in a streetfight it can very well be a fight ender. Also you usually do groundwork in judo too. For dealing with punches you kinda learn that when doing kumi kata, the grip fighting. You parry their hands from taking your lapel which translates pretty well for punches.

[@minhducnguyen9276]

Agree. Even my karate teacher said if you manage to bring the other guy to the ground and he doesnt have grappling skill, it's almost a guaranteed win. It's the streets, not the rings, nothing stopping you from throwing a few soccer kicks even if you are not a grappler.

[@teekay851]

other people dont 'kind of' learn how to deal with punches though they ACTUALLY learn that, agree completely that throwing someone on to concrete is a massive fight ender though.

[@eliasschneeberger1337]

@@teekay851 You develop the hand eye coordination to parry punches effectively

[@supershooter20]

I am also a judoka ( shodan) and I think it’s essential. I also hold a nidan in oh do-Kwan Taekwondo( military style) as well as Hapkido and Shaolin five ancestors style.I found judo the most lethal ( especially when improvised with Hapkido arm bars, wrist twists, neck cranks and nerve attacks. My Taekwondo is hard style

[@Namekk84]

@@eliasschneeberger1337 you don't

[@chapulinski58]

It really all depends on where you train Judo, certain gyms teach the entire curriculum of Judo grappling and others just teach you what you will use in competition. Judo is huge internationally but here in North America (and South America) Brazilian jiu jitsu is lightyears ahead when it comes to organization, competitiveness, accomplished black belts etc. Just like Karatekas there are many judokas who have succeeded in combat sports other than Judo. In Brazil, it is very common for BJJ black belts to have a black belt in Judo as well (as it is the ancestor art) along with many popular disciplines of martial arts and combat sports in that give Brazilians extremely colorful and effective fighting styles!

[@thedarwinist672]

I think this is a great explanation.

[@spencerharris1559]

Very proud to hear Yoshukai mentioned here. Yoshukai is one of the least known versions of full contact karate I have had the pleasure of learning from one of the last real rough full contact teachers.

[@danielhounshell2526]

I would strongly recommend looking into Sanshou and Lei Tai, two competitive full contact fighting rulesets for Kung Fu. It might change your perspective on it just a bit. All those hand movements are basically handfighting to set up strikes. There's a huge difference between what Hollywood shows, which is Wushu, which is a performance art, and the actual historical martial arts that make up Kung Fu. Basically a rule of thumb for Kung Fu schools is that if they don't train for Sanshou or Lei Tai in some capacity, it's probably not going to be very effective in teaching you how to apply what you're learning, which means legit schools are somewhat difficult to find. Also there's unfortunately little opportunity to become a professional fighter in these rulesets unless you live in China where there's actually a market for Sanshou (often called Sanda there, and even then it tends to be more of mixed discipline there) the people who do go pro generally have to go to other sports.

[@stephenshw2262]

You gotta end up somehow in the China Olympic team to learn real Sanda.

[@danielhounshell2526]

@@stephenshw2262 not really, there are some great Sanda athletes out there, as well as some phenomenal talent in Lei Tai that no one pays attention to. The China Olympic team just happens to be the only thing that anyone pays attention to, since it's the Olympics.

[@MsAggie78]

I feel like most people who claim to know about Kung Fu's effectiveness are pretty much going off what they see in movies. I feel like Hollywood has made Kung fu look SO extra and ridiculous that real Kung Fu can hide in plain sight and not be recognized. Also, when the sellout Shaolin monks claim to be these "deadly fighters," yet pretty much just do basically gymnastics and wushu, it helps make Kung Fu look like a bunch of harmless arm-waving and dancing. When China and Hollywood aren't managing to make it look like ballet and impractical movie stuntwork, you've got the frauds, claiming to knock folks out with pure chi. OH!! And let's not forget the Tai Chi masters of China who refuse to do ANY stress testing against actual live opponents in their lives, but will accept challenges from fucking MMA fighters, who K.O. them brutally because THEY actually DO stress test. This only helps MMA fighters in THEIR bullshit campaign against Kung Fu, which appears to be accurate when the only Kung Fu people see is impractical and obviously wired aerials in movies, other absurdly impractical moves in cheap action flicks (performed by stick-thin women with NO muscle for extra credibility), Shaolin monks claiming to be "deadly fighters" yet never actually fighting, wushu AGAIN, showing no fighting. You're right, REAL Kung Fu is extremely rare. I'm actually worried that actual fighting Kung Fu may be critically endangered, because fewer and fewer people see it, and honestly China almost seems bent on hiding it. It's almost like they're sabotaging their own martial art. Also, Kung Fu takes FOREVER to learn, which makes it less appealing when you can be a trained MMA fighter in a fuckin' YEAR. Which sucks, because real Kung Fu is insanely effective, and an excellent and highly trained way to fight. Just, when no one ever actually SEES it, how are they to know?

[@danielhounshell2526]

@@MsAggie78 it's kinda like what happened to Tai Chi, from historical record we know that at some point encountering a Tai Chi person in a fight was thought of as a nightmare scenario, because they were phenomenal grapplers and a lot of styles weren't equipped to deal with it. However, over time with instructors softening the art, and moving away from regular sparring to appeal to a casual demographic, along with the myriad of historical and societal changes, eventually we ended up with a situation where most instructors didn't even understand the movements in the forms they were teaching, and themselves had never sparred or fought a day in their lives. After generations of the blind leading the blind we ended up at the bizarre place most of the art is in now. It's as if a hundred years from now people forgot how to wrestle and went to the park in singlets doing slow motion arm drags, convinced that it was solely for health benefits. Beyond that it's really not even the fault of the wider martial arts community when Wushu has dozens of times more popularity than any group of Kung Fu people who actually train to fight, and China relentlessly bills it as THE authentic Chinese martial art. Nor do I think that the frauds we see are purely malicious or they wouldn't take these challenges, far more likely they've been convinced by the people around them that they're unstoppable fighters and that MMA guys are just brutes with poor technique, and Chinese media reinforces this. Again they were likely taught by an instructor who had little idea of the application behind forms and had himself never fought before either. Combine the results of the blind leading the blind with the confusion and dilution brought about by certain events during the boxer rebellion and the cultural revolution and you get the current situation, where finally the more legitimate circles are slowly becoming more popular and respected again due to people being pushed to take their training more seriously and look for places that actually spar by the likes of Xu Xiaodong, the rising popularity of Sanda, and the slow but surprisingly steady trickle of Kung Fu fighters onto the much wider stage of other combat sports. The big problem here is that the biggest and most popular styles tend to fall victim to the issues above the most, and the fighters in the Kung Fu community tend to mostly keep to themselves to the extent that some styles with great track records that have been well preserved, such as Tien Shan Pai, depending on which group of people you choose to believe about its origin, have basically no resources publicly available beyond its Wikipedia description. With an MMA gym you at least know what you're going to learn the first time you walk in, with Kung Fu that isn't the case and just adds to all of the confusion even more.

[@buenosnachos1374]

Re: Krav, there are a few specific self-defense components to consider. Defense against weapons is valuable, particularly against sticks and knives (obviously, the preference is to avoid confrontation altogether). Additionally, Krav considers scenarios with multiple attackers. Overall, Krav makes for a great add-on once you have a foundation art. Many Israelis that I know have a base in a striking art (generally, Karate or Muay Thai) or a grappling art (historically, Judo). As far as the "deadly techniques," those are drilled but not used in sparring. Krav sparring is (depending on the level) boxing, kickboxing or MMA lite. As Krav is not a sport, the practitioner would learn the self-defense aspects while still competing in their base art.

[@basedbane787]

Krav maga is used by the idf an army that issues diapers because they kept crapping their pants (I'm serious look it up) unless you're fighting Palestinian women an children I'd learn something else

[@zenmorte2793]

Big ups Champ!

[@kevinolega1]

I love your comment about Aikido, luckily I haven't had to use the Aikido roll to save my life. Glad you're okay. I practiced a few years back and began practicing kickboxing. I also delved into a little BJJ. I later discovered that Aikido is more of a weapon support martial art. The techniques are intended to prevent the attacker from grabbing your weapon but in modern-day practice, there's no weapon present so the moves seem to make sense. I'll try some FMA and stick fighting and report back to see what I've learned.

[@brauliochavez2231]

ive done tkd a lot, and i can say some: there are different types of taekwondo, traditional goes into 2 types, just poomsae and light sparring and such, and the 2nd is more sparring, poomsae, but also using hands, hitting real, basically a real martial art made for being functional, then there comes the modern interpretations, martial arts based: combat, poomsae ( kata), making it usefull to live, and the sport version of it: which is making more athelic safe contact sport, which is cool, and sorta functional, but they go for points and such, then the other sport tkd where they go a little harder and pucnhes are allowed etc mmm over all, it varies in how you train and what you train it for, but yes it can be really functional or just sport tippytappy fucntional

[@fabriciocaxias9572]

Olimpic TKD does not have punches to the head, but we get kicked in the head a lot, also ITF TKD has punches to the head, so living and learning.

[@unknownchad4156]

As he said he doesn't have much knowledge about tkd

[@saysamnang9851]

Even if you guy were allow you hit in the head still your martial art focus too much on kicking your round house kick doesn’t have much power but it fast you used too much protection and have nth against close range I’ve nth against it but I am just splitting out the truth abt tkd even if it old school or not the only good thing come from your martial art for me is those tricky kick like spinning back kick which can be adapt to other martial art in my opinion Muay Thai is just a better option

[@MrJKISS96]

Been practicing Aikido in a really good association called "Aidas" (it's in Lithuania if anyone cares) for 7 years. Earned a 2nd blue belt (4th kiu) and then decided I didn't wanna continue. The belts were not given away easily, usually, when you were ready to take the exam, you had to do a week of seminars (2 training sessions a day) with really high ranked Aikido masters (3rd, 4th, 5th dan) and at the end of the seminar session, those masters would hold an exam for you that was usually super intense. It wasn't like "if you attend you get the belt", nothing like that, if you were shit or you just didn't have the commitment you would never pass the exam. So yeah that being said I now see Aikido more of like a dance, lifestyle, great workout, and a different view of the world. I am really grateful to my masters because they made me who I am, taught me respect and love (fun fact Aikido means: The way of entry and love), and also made me work hard! The practicality? Yeah.. It's not there :( While manipulating joins and stuff is realistic, there will be a slim to none chance to do it in a real fight. I get why people bash it as a martial art and it doesn't bother me, but truth be told if you attend Aikido classes for wanting to beat someone up :D well, let's just say you are digging your own grave. Now I started training Kickboxing in Kaunas Fighter House Gym, and I can say that Aikido really helped me with my movements footwork and spatial orientation, feeling the distance. When I started I didn't know how to punch, kick or defend and also I have never been hit hard before. But it was really fun to see that when I got the technique down I could apply it and move with it really fast, so those 7 years didn't go to waste :). I hope everyone is doing well in these dire times and I wish all of you health and keep practicing martial arts!

[@irvinjaycarranza6828]

Mr. Varga, is it true that Dutch Kickboxing came from Kyokushin? From one of the students of Mas Oyama?

[@aleksandarvasic134]

What would you do after throwing someone on the floor with judo throw on the street? Brother there is no after once someone’s head hit the hard floor on street it’s end .

[@wadestoss3325]

Great video Gabe, I mostly agree with the exception that if I had to choose between only Judo or only Jiu Jitsu I would choose Judo. The takedowns/slams are very effective on pavement and in addition they have enough submissions that you will be more than enough advantage over a street thug or a pure striker. Judo only falls apparent when it faces the potent mix of wrestling+jiu jitsu which is widespread in MMA. Also a note on Kung Fu, its actually an umbrella term and most of its variants match your description, but there are also legit fight sports that fall under the Kung Fu umbrella, such as Sanda and Shuai Jiao.

[@thedanish5523]

Great vid. One of my takeaways is a lot definitely rides on the gym or school. I've moved a lot for work and have practiced at so many different schools, mainly in taekwondo but also boxing and kickboxing, and I've sparred against guys from so many different martial arts. I'm very amateur and haven't competing since college, but my observation has been that. for most people, the gym and its training routine is more important than the style. Some kung fu guys I've sparred are extremely scary. Some judo guys aren't. It's one of the reasons I've gravitated more toward kickboxing and boxing in recent years. The level of training/intensity/conditioning seems to be more consistent across the board when compared to your average McDojang.

[@IsmaelKenig]

This man is a gentleman and very diplomatic

[@MrTooEarnestOnline]

3:45 so we have Ne Waza in Judo which is basically like BJJ but there’s also pinning. The pace is also a lot faster than BJJ, where as BJJ is more detailed. Either way, there’s definitely things you can do when you get to the ground. Edit: also old school judo had leg attacks

[@euromotorsports]

Also the skill to learning to fall correctly. I do Muay Thai now and soo many stick their hand straight out when getting dumped...ouch big no no

[@Sakattack2023]

K wrestling is better and teaches some practical judo moves as well. The ones where you don’t have to grab the crutch (gi)

[@vittocrazi]

@@Sakattack2023 i wouldnt say its better. maybe more specific to no-gi. but everything works in a context

[@MrTooEarnestOnline]

@@Sakattack2023 trust me I’ve done both. They have different applications all together

[@Sakattack2023]

@@MrTooEarnestOnline in terms of what? Fighting? Grappling? Getting someone down? Street fight? I’d rather have wrestling in all of those situations.

[@TheCartoonMaskGaming]

There are good sanda(Kung Fu ) fighters in MMA like Chung Lee and alot of the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters being Brazilian learned the footwork of Capuiera in the Jenga and there is currently a American Taiquando champ In the UFC and most krav maga techniques do not work because the teacher don't have a solid base in anything ( but nice t-shirts)I think conditioning timing and tenacity win fights not styles but what do I know👍

[@AugustusAsgeir]

As a muay thai practioner since 11yrs old, and having done a couple yrs of Kung-fu & karate from age 4-7 plus like 3~4 yrs of silat-kali/Eskrima and dabbled in Krav Maga for a few months I really appreciate this breakdown it's going to help me improve so much I hope everyone who sees this becomes successful

[@daveshif2514]

In case anyone was wondering, the style of tai chi shown is called old chen form, and is considered the more traditional and basic form. The idea is that slow is smooth and smooth is fast. There are other kinds of tai chi that are more for fighting, and they use the same or similar ideas, except they are executed quickly. Over two years of tai chi xian, we did chen form every single day for at least an hour (in class and at home) . Usually 3 or 4 hours on a weekend. Just over and over. Its essentially yoga but movement is the focus, you have to balance on one leg and off balance yourself and hold it, it develops good core and balance

[@NicSupreme]

Biting the leg as an arm bar defense. would really like to see how that goes.

[@vittocrazi]

you get your arm broken faster and then get an extra ground and pound. or a second broken arm.

[@NicSupreme]

@@vittocrazi would've been my guess. But i didn't want to sound cocky on the Internet. Benefits noone;)

[@vittocrazi]

@@NicSupreme but like bass rutten said (if im not mistaken) A fighter can fight dirty too. and do it better. I agree with the cockyness though. sorry if my comment came across like that. But when people use cheap tricks, they put in on the table. and i wouldnt want to start a biting contest against someone that could already fold me like laundry if he/she wanted to

[@johnathonhamilton232]

He said of Judo “what do you do after you get them down there”. On my Judo team we spend just as much time practicing groundwork as we do the standing game. But more importantly how dumb of a comment is that coming from a striker when he didn’t make that comment about any of the striking martial arts? No comment on what Muay Thai or Tae Kwon Do does when taken to the ground? Only going to criticize Judo, a martial art that actually does do ground work. Just that comment did not make very much sense. But of course when he was working Judo he did mostly hip throws and standing work. He’s a kickboxer who is allowed to do some takedowns and no ground work. So logically he really focused on the standing aspect of Judo. But it seems odd to ignore one half of the martial art then criticize its ability on the other.

[@boogeyman1016]

Why would we do Judo for kickboxing

[@stanclark3992]

@@boogeyman1016 "Cause the title of the video is "Martial arts." Dah.

[@stanclark3992]

GV is attempting to cover a lot of ground... and from his perspective. Good comment on your part. He put it up for discussion.

[@DEBO5]

Judo is cool but the ground work is terrible. That’s what bjj is for.

[@johncarter4956]

Well. Judo was SUPPOSE to be pair with a knife or use as a set up for execution, breaking neck, head banging and so on. It true form is basically a samurai version of wrestling.

[@antoinehourtane4459]

Feels good, I started Muay Thai, JJB and Judo this year, curious to see where that'll take me. The good martial arts for self defense are those where there is some kind of confrontation during practice, it's so offputting at first to get punched in the face but the feeling wears off quite quick, I know I wouldn't hesitate to swing back at someone who was trying to hurt me

[@chrischanshihyung3155]

very surprise on your take on akido. but not negatively.

[@shaolinkungfu861]

Kung fu is not actually a style, its an umberlla term for al chinese martial arts, tai chi is also "kung fu". There is actually an effective style of "kung fu" called sanda (chinese kickboxing)

[@P0rQpine]

Sanda legit as shit man. It just doesnt get as much exposure outside of china. I know great iran russian sanda fighters but thats about it

[@jasonwang7028]

SANDA IS THE SHITTTTTT

[@cianmoranburke2499]

wish he would’ve added that really high level judo is very effective in mma with people like ronda and karo parisyan

[@1x403]

And how did that work out for them 😂😂

[@cianmoranburke2499]

@@1x403 karo actually had good striking but he had been professionally fighting since he was 14 so his chin was shot by the time he was 25

[@jordansmith1790]

Rousey for sure makes a lot more with the WWE than any female does in the UFC. Anyway judo is way underrated because it helps with things like takedown defense, scrambling, and balance. Khabib has great judo and uses it offensively when people try to defend his wrestling

[@mndeg]

and Khabib? Khabib himself said Judo was more of a competitive sport than wrestling

[@SeanWinters]

@@1x403 Rhonda did great until her coaches told her to try striking against a world champion boxer. If Rhonda would have stayed grappling she would have done amazingly well for a lot longer. Look at shevchenko, Jon jones, or khabib, all of which used Judo

[@michelangelocasarini5481]

Tkd used to be one of the toughest martial arts and they turned it into a leg dance in the Olympics. And I'm a huuuuuuuuuge tkd supporter,glad I've been trained the old school way.

[@walterleiva7233]

This is a very important and educational KZbin video ill be honest I hope I'm not overwhelming my self with taking kun fu, boxing, jit jisu, Muay Tai I really love all four of this to study on my spair time occasionally I do it for the health and getting back on some tuff injuries and surgery and behind that I don't want nothing bad to happen to me in the street with all this craziness in the news so I need for self-esteem and self defense people of America...

[@davidemanuel1750]

Watching standup fighting you'll see the fighters clinch up where the referee has to intervene. This is more common than actual knockouts. A scenario like this is where a Judo fighter would have a huge advantage to throw the standup fighter into the ground. This would be followed by top control, ground strikes and submissions.

[@deinemutter1729]

Yes I also think his evaluation of judo is very bad. Judo practitioners know stuff on the ground. It's not like bjj invented every single technique. Secondly judo doesn't work very well in mma because of the missing clothes. Imagine getting thrown in your winter jacket on the street-not very pleasant. And of course your point of clinch is also great. Judo is basically a clinch-throw martial art after the banning of double and single leg takedowns.

[@TheCartoonMaskGaming]

Only in boxing

[@deinemutter1729]

@@TheCartoonMaskGaming no, in kickboxing and K1 they also do that. Even in Thai boxing they sometimes get broken up. You're totally wrong

[@marcoslacombe9831]

How would you compare ITF tkd vs Olympic TKD?

[@rema_style]

ITF is like semi contact kick boxing. Better then point karate. If add some boxing is great. I competed in freestyle wrestling and ITF. Now in my 50s boxing and calisthenic. I think kicking is not for people 40+ because even if You are flexible risk for truma and joint problem is very high. You could boxing in 80 too. I think ITF against untrained person is ok. But still I was wrestling too 😃.

[@lemonadeandoranges2157]

@@rema_style damn respect, any tips for me a beginner? I want to do MMA.

[@rema_style]

Start with what You like most - boxing, kickboxing, wrestling or BJJ and upgrade with rest. You can start with MMA but still You will find that You like something most.

[@lemonadeandoranges2157]

@@rema_styleThank you! I appreciate it a lot! I am already 7 months in kickboxing, and i'll use your tips to accomplish my dream. Thanks again.

[@Docinaplane]

@@rema_style The biggest problem I see with ITF is the sparring rule set is too limited. Now, if you are at a school that does leg kicks, spinning hand attacks, jab, cross, hook, uppercut, etc, and you spar with your chin tucked and your hands in a good moving guard, then it's a very good striking system. Mix in some grappling and you are great. But if it's a lot of back and forth turning kicks off the front leg with not much more than a superman punch for hand techniques then it's crap.

[@daniel-san836]

Karate has saved my butt a few times (physically and existentially etc). Surprised me quite a bit too I'll add. Timing, distance and diplomacy, it was all there every time like I was told it would be. A calm demeanor, effortless distancing, hard traditional blocks against kicks and punches, once with a weapon, followed by talking them down, talking not taking.. the block (and verbal command) was in each instance ..enough. I don't know about you but i train my blocks to be hard! the way I was taught, hard not like a tense potato but with correct form and technique with a fine whip, like the corner of the fridge door as it swings into that juicy spot. I've always been so impressed with traditional styles and their torque in a technique in relatively small, but fast movements, always attentive to maintain focus and return quickly to guard like nothing even happened meanwhile you're sore for the next two days where you've been demonstrated on. Kempo was brutal like Krav Maga, i did that for a couple of years, the context was basically always that someone is trying to kill you, rape you or just generally hurt you badly which is when you use x, y, z.. But for standard robberies, you give them your wallet or whatever and avoid being in that situation in the first place. As for fighting against trained fighters "in the street" as all these Ramsey Deweys out there go on about all the time as their evidence why traditional styles are s**t, well that's not gonna happen, in a street it's a crack head wanting something off you, it's a drunk having a bad night, it's a bunch of boozed up lads wanting to take out some rage, its rarely some sinister villain scene from a movie.. in these real life scenarios any of the styles you've mentioned would be a strong advantage.. but personally, i've come to love Karate and what it continues to give me and that's not limited to self defense. That being said, so many clubs continue training for benign purposes in this regard.. such as a lot of the ippon between two Aikido practitioners which is geared toward Samurai times

[@armyparty]

First degree black belt in WF taekwondo here. Totally agree the no punching to the face, That is a big problem and also the lack of low kicks. Currently I am doing shidokan kickboxing to fill in the gaps. But taekwondo was a good basis and I will continue doing it, just with some modifications.

[@hannmajr.303]

The vid is good but you messed up with Judo. Judo has a lot of ground fighting and a lot of Judokas are high level ground fighters.

[@mykulpierce]

I would love to see better rulesets for full contact karate and taekwondo to fully explore techniques taught in the systems. Where I train for taekwondo the lead instructor is definitely interested in teaching more of the old school power taekwondo since taekwondo is still technically a knockout sport even though people usually are competing for the points. Not sure if he can get everyone to that level with the current classroom paradigms but I'm definitely putting in the extra effort at home to see if I can follow the vision. Edit: taekwondo is still an olympic sport. Coverage for Olympic combat sports in general is kind of garbage. Hard to watch judo, and wrestling too Edit 2: Judo classes usually teach rolls and break falls as well. Probably where Akido gets those movements from.

[@xenadon]

I would look up Karate Combat if you haven't heard of it. They use a full contact ruleset that allows head punches while still trying to preserve the unqiueness of karate.

[@ethienosinsky5186]

There is Karate Combat, it's here on YT

[@mykulpierce]

@@xenadon I've seen it, but I'm currently cross training at an MMA gym as well. I want to adapt my taekwondo for a more fluid environment. Looking at philly shell used by Bill Wallace and Mayweather for my hands and kicking. Looking at John Danaher's students for ground and Dan Gable for wrestling.

[@mykulpierce]

@Great White you can have that opinion. I disagree with it, but you can have it.

[@mykulpierce]

@Great White hehe yep I know what you mean. There is a very wide skill range. In terms of kicking it is excellent, but there are no hands in the sparring which makes it a very huge gap. But that also sets it up very nicely to be mixed with boxing!

[@wieschermannstephan3575]

I think Boxing is super underestimated. Boxing ist not the most effective Martial Art but it’s the most important in stand up fighting. No Muay Thai, Savate, Kickboxing or MMA Fighter will ever be successful without a good boxing basic. Boxing is knowing how to move and go to the right positions and not only how to hit hard.100% of everything you learn in boxing you can use in Self Defence. I Love practice boxing since I was 12. Now I’m 28 and once a week I go to Nogi JJ for 5 years but my heart is a boxer.

[@ives3572]

Situational awareness or presense of mind, quick physical reactions or reflexes, mental strength or toughness, composure or self-confidence, resourcefulness, the instinct or the will to fight back and defend yourself, knowing when to fight back or when to just run away as fast as you can, avoiding people places and situations that potentially lead to violent encounters, and your martial arts or self-defense skills and techniques (if you have any or some) which you have spent long periods of time practicing and training, can drastically increase your chances of successfully defending yourself and surviving potentially violent self-defense encounters. Speaking based on my personal experience as a self-defense practitioner.

[@hanumananky]

I love your take, you seem to know your stuff and be a little more conscious than most. I do have some criticism however, there are some of the martial arts you covered which could be seen with more in mind. You clearly already understand what I'm about to say, but maybe it can clarify it for others, or help you clarify it for others. The first major critique, which I bring up as a foundation for my next few, is that realistically no martial arts are effective. All martial art systems are school of thought, they may have forms, or drills, or exercises, which are just ideas about how to move and conduct yourself in violent situations that any practitioner can act upon. However ultimately, it is up to the practitioner to seek to understand the meaning behind these sets of ideas, and seeing as many martial art systems are ancient, the ideas have been lost for many, and people often come up with their own ideas which aren't as details or specific, and do not have foundations in reality. Martial arts don't work, the practitioner must work. The second critique is touching bases with "Tai Chi". It is actually called Taijiquan, or "Grand Ultimate Fist". It is a Martial Art system developed by the Daoist monks. Taiji refers to the Force, or Yin and Yang in relationship to the Dao, or God, or the simply the laws of physics, or essentially the way things are as we cannot prevent them. Quan simply means fist, and is a common descriptor in Chinese martial arts. Taijiquan is system full of legitimate ideas, much like any other proper martial art. The slow exercises you often see people do are called soft Qigong, or "body effort". Soft Qigong is for training the nervous system for accurate movement, but they must be done with great intent, and consciousness. It is an exercise that is an essential part of any serious martial art, yet often people don't know what it is for, and often only do that, and they don't do it properly. Proper Taijiquan schools should also do hard qigong, or conditioning, sensitivity training, for example sticky hands exercises; and they should also do sparring, other drilling, and a list of other training activities. Much like you mentioned while discussing Karate, there's always a bunch of McDojos for every legitimate school. The third critique is on "Kung Fu", which although is the western pop culture term for any fancy movie fighting. The actual term for Kung Fu as an art is Wushu, which used to be literally, "War Art", but now has been reduced to theater stunt training since the cultural revolution and the mass martial artist emigration from China. However the term "Kung Fu" is an incorrect romanization of "Gongfu" which means, "Effort skill". A Gongfu practitioner is someone who puts much effort into developing a skill. Anyone who takes martial arts seriously does Gongfu. You do Gongfu, you mentioned real Gongfu after discussing Kung fu in the video. Anyone who understands their art well and can utilize the ideas they have practiced effectively, we say they have good Gongfu. However "Kung fu" is often used to lump together all Chinese martial arts. There are a plethora of legitimate martial art systems from China. Taijiquan is from China. Karate is even a derivative of Chinese martial arts. Others include Baguazhang, Choy Li Fut, Wing Chun. There are so many systems of Chinese martial arts that it doesn't make sense to lump them all together as "Kung Fu". All martial arts that have survived culturally must have foundations in real war, otherwise people would not practice them. The catch is whether or not the people who are practicing them understand what they are doing and why. There are many schools that have become distant from the origins of their art. However when understood properly, and trained properly, all martial arts will teach the skills to and help develop the attributes in a practitioner that they need to survive violence. So if even if you train Silat, or Judo, or Pak Mei, or Aikido, or other systems from east or west or north or south, if you find a proper school, and do it for Gongfu, self cultivation, with real intent, with patience and understanding, time and effort for great skill, then you will be able to use what it teaches you effectively to handle violent situations with grace and a clear mind. In this world saturated with information, where ideas are available for free or really cheap, where a lot of things can be viewed from a distance and people can know without understanding, where people can open schools they aren't qualified to teach, it is up to the learner to care enough about their own safety, ableness, and well being to discern whether or not a school or class they are attending is taught by people who understand their own art. They won't tell you if they are a flunky, or phony, they probably really believe they are able to handle themselves, but sometimes ego, or money, or other things get in the way of them coming face to face with reality. We must not let the shortcomings of those who do not know or understand get in the way of us understanding and being able to apply good ideas. The 5 hinderances will turn any great art or idea into a joke by those who are hindered. One must be attentive, yet relaxed. One must be hopeful, yet critical. One must be eager, but patient if they are to decipher the language and ideas of ancient people, and apply them for a task in which they will find success.

[@prvtthd401]

I wanted to add more info to help people select their arts. Judo: where I train, it is 50% standup and 50% groundwork. I'd pick my school over modern sports bjj anytime. Compared to wrestling, it tries to mantain the self-defence aspect in the art as reflected in the katas and rules. However many schools indeed focus on the standup. So judo is worth considering, but you should check out the school first. Karate: I always considered karate a watered down version of kickboxing, but have since then changed my mind after actually practicing it. They have the "unique" skillset where they weaponize their body. Although a niche skill, I find it useful nevertheless to know where to hit somebody with which area of your body. You can't train all of that with gloves, because gloves actually do change the way we fight. But to be fair, a punch is a punch and an eyepoke still needs to reach their target. So it is still important to know how you can actually hit targets. However, if it hits, it is very effective. Karate has since watered down through the ages and it is really unfortunate how the older styles died out for the kata heavy styles. If you are able to find a school that understands the old karate methods, then consider picking it up. Karate training used to resemble boxing training to give you an idea. Kihon was for perfecting techniques (eg. How to throw jabs), kata and bunkai were like studying tactics and maneuvres (eg. How to setup a cross / different ways of using jabs) and kumite is sparring (and they used to spar way more compared to now). The particular style I do, Kyokushinkai, is excellent for character building. Unfortunately, like many school, they seem to do katas without understanding why. Though, kyokushinkai is excellent for character building since they try to tire you with hard exercises and force you to take shots and fight bareknuckled. I really underestimated the mental part of kyokushinkai and at the beginning planned on quiting because it was PAINFUL. Aikido: my bittersweet love. It is my first true art and I am heavily invested in it. Unfortinately, like Gabriel, I can't recommend it for practicality although it is fun. (Gabriel's story made me chuckle really hard.) However, I have been experimenting and aikido still has potential nevertheless. It unexpectedly has great synergy with BOXING. Same footwork and defences in particular. If you got swift feets, good parries and slick rolls in boxing, consider picking up aikido. Who knows what potential you may unlock? It is for a big part still undiscovered. I was able to pull out some techniques and wonder what more you can do. I highly recommend it if you are the pacifistic type. If you plan on using your boxing skills to avoid attacks, defend and not actually hit back, Aikido is a great addition since they share the same defence toolset (though it may take some time to see the similarities) Picking Aikido up along with that gives you even more pacifistic skills like off balancing people, quick escapes in case you do get grabbed to stay mobile and in worst case control techniques and takedowns. The takedowns don't compare to judo, bjj, muay thai or wrestling, but they are saver for the attacker (eg. They don't fall head first and break their skull) while the control can be quickly released in case you need to (eg. Another attacker incoming) compared to a full body pin. Lastly TaiChi: Haven't practiced it myself, but wanted to put it out. TaiChi used to be wrestling. Now not anymore. That is literally all I wanted to say (You can look it up). I have no idea what happened to it. Could be the effect of a martial arts ban in China.

[@pcprinciple3774]

I find the "self defence" argument so tedious. One of the many major flaws is that my opponent in "sport BJJ" is nearly always more skilled than anyone i'd fight in a self defence scenario... much more skilled. Beating an untrained fighter is so incredibly easy, the idea that they'd even have a free hand to grab a knife is laughable. Iron sharpens iron.

[@keyboardwarrior5175]

Good explanation keep up the good work...Im a real fan of you...But in terms of BJJ when you get an arm bar on a street fight 1on1 even if they bite your leg just break their arm and they will let go of the bite😁😁😁

[@romanroman3331]

My judo dojo trains about 50% throws, sweeps, trips and 50% ground work. We also learn wrestling take downs and defense. I can’t complain on the versatility my dojo offers. However, I do agree you need to know some striking defense/offense and understand distance.

[@blakerunyon8523]

TKD for me, felt like boxing training but for my kicks. For me, it was a great base to develop my main weapons (kicks) but training actual boxing years later really helped me feel like a well rounded striker.

[@kakazex1345]

New school taekwondo (and Olympic style taekwondo are the most useless in a real fight while old school taekwondo and itf taekwondo is way more useful in a fight.

[@nerrad67able]

The old way of tkd is not taught anymore which is giving people the wrong idea of taekwondo. I was taught the old way and seems nobody is able to teach that way anymore. I ended up a 3rd dan. My students ended up really good and ready for anything. The old way of training needs re introducing for people to see what tkd is REALLY about.

[@muayboran6111]

Itf is still quite bad

[@Juan-ot2me]

Great

[@rgrtnyjjc]

Boxing I would say is number one for self defence with Muay Thai a close second as kicking is a risky endeavour on the street. But if you train in any of the tried and tested combat sports like ju jitsu, kickboxing, wrestling or judo you’ll be able handle yourself to a degree.

[@arisaka9963]

Knees and elbows, also taught extensively in Muay Thai, are very useful for the close in fighting you find in the street. But you also need a ground game.

[@crep757]

Judo has the ground work tho... (Grappling was taught to the Gracies by a Judoka named Mitsuyo Maéda, as you may know) Maybe not all gyms teach it that much, but still, if you take it as the whole art, then actually almost every single takedown you see in MMA + the huge majority of submissions come from judo, and are teached to judokas. Even double legs, rear naked chokes, guard game, and all that shit.

[@jaketheasianguy3307]

Yea, thanks to the Olympic stupid rule set, the training in alot of Judo dojos only focused on stand up game, which made people mistake thinking Judo only teach throwing people. The Newaza is spectacular, sure it's not as detail and focused on like in BJJ but still incredible to learn

[@gamemak0r]

@@jaketheasianguy3307 one thing that judo has never let up on which has been lost in some BJJ schools is killer pressure and speed. BJJ ruleset allows for you to relax too often whereas judo you gotta stay active.

[@shokizm1]

man - Kung Fu gets a hard rap - if they train with 'San Da' rules sparring - then they'll probably be decent (San Da = punches and kicks to face for all senior students and also takedowns/trips but no groundwork - basically same as kickboxing rules.)

[@VTriggered88]

There's also literally hundreds of different styles of Kung Fu and everyone is significantly different. Sounds like he was talking about sport Wushu exclusively.

[@MsAggie78]

@@VTriggered88 What's irritating is that he admits he knows basically nothing about Kung Fu before tearing it down. Judging from the comment section, that was unwise. People are getting tired of MMA fighters talking shit about Kung Fu while knowing virtually nothing about it outside of what they've seen in movies. It's about time.

[@MsAggie78]

@@GoldLegYan The problem is, he admitted he knew close to nothing about Kung Fu, then proceeded to drag it through the dirt as useless. This is VERY common with MMA fighters. They seem to be TRYING to give Kung Fu a bad rep. They seem to be deliberately spreading false information about Kung Fu while remaining pretty impartial to other fighting styles. I think they feel threatened by it somehow, they REALLY seem out to discredit it.

[@victorvigorous7125]

if you are a kung fu practitioner and the school you go to does not do sparring run. However if you spar regularly and expose yourself to other styles you will find what techniques work for you just like any other martial art.

[@victorvigorous7125]

@@GoldLegYan I hate generalizations and I have encountered constantly since I started training in kung fu. Some people who never even trained in any martial arts telling me how kung fu doesnt work because they watch UFC lol. I pay it no mind

[@pinatatomata2221]

I train at a small gym, we train Wrestling, Bjj and Kickboxing. I love the mixture of it all

[@swang2489]

Your point about combining a few different martial art is really good. I think Kung fu and boxing complement very for kickboxing. Kung fu is like karate. There are so many different styles that it is hard to lump it all in one. Some of it not very practical in real match, but it is really hard to do and helps with flexibility, quickness footwork and trickiness. And you get good at kicking. Depending on the school they may or may not teach sparring. Kind of like the sport karate style, it is really hard to spar with someone like that that has those really quick reflexes and movements. That combined with someone who learns how to throw hard punches and lboxing defense and add power to the kicks and it's pretty good.

[@swang2489]

Also I was go to say I used to spar at a Muay Thai gym and did fine there with Kung fu background. Not saying Kung fu is better but it has a different pace and rhythm that you can capitalize on.

[@loganciappa94]

* laughs in Stephen Wonderboy Thompson *

[@teekay851]

who is an exception to the rule not the rule, most people cant do that hence his nickname 'wonderboy'?

[@johncastle3039]

@@teekay851 he got his nickname by his opponent saying “ i wonder why I got into this ring with this boy”

[@Hempujonsito]

WB, like Machida before him, are generational talents They're the exception to the rule

[@monsterhunternathanultimat4114]

You forgot to mention that Wushu Sanda is within Kung Fu!!!! Wushu Sanshou Sanda is agood kickboxing martial art!!!!!

[@KrypptikkSoulslayer]

The moment I hear you explain about Krav Maga, I was thinking of the Karate Kid movie quote, “No Mercy!” 😁

[@dudea3378]

Great video. By the way, kung fu literally means martial arts in Chinese. There are hundreds of different styles.