Sarah's Lecture IV: On Martial Arts

The true science of martial arts means practicing them in such a way that they will be useful
at any time, and to teach them in such a way that they will be useful in all things.
-Miyamoto Musashi, The Book of Five Rings

Walking the path of the warrior is a cumbersome burden. One comes to wonder: why does
one fight? How far have my fighting walked me? Did I learn anything useful as a warrior?

Thucydides wrote in his History of the Peloponnesian War: The Society that separates its
scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by
fools.

Near two millenniums later, Machiavelli would write in his Il Principe(The Prince): A prince
must not have any other object nor any other thought… but war, its institutions, and its
discipline; because that is the only art befitting one who commands.

War, combat, and any martial technique, with enough refinement, can become an art as
beautiful as any painting, or as emotionally inducing as a musical piece.

By virtue of martiality being an art, it is important to remember the words of Thucydides, and
not forget that by walking the path of a warrior, you also walk the path of the thinker, the
philosopher, and the artist, forever refining his craft into complete mastery.

For as long as man existed, so did martial arts. A bold statement yes, but remember that
most of our martial techniques were developed, as most human skills ever were, by
observing nature, and adapting what we saw in her to ourselves. And just like nature, martial
arts have evolved through time into a myriad of forms, some more effective than others,
though all are worth studying to a degree.

I will present here a list of different martial arts and my take on each of them. Each of these
martial arts I have either studied and or practiced myself, or fought against either as sparring
or in a real fight against a practitioner, so I do not want you to think I am talking out of my ass
here.

I take the study of martial arts extremely seriously and while I may have takes on some
martial arts I haven't experienced one way or another simply due to a mix of accumulated
knowledge and common sense, I'd rather touch on those I can back my claims with direct
personal experience.

A Note on Self Improvement vs Sport vs Self-Defense vs Combat

Martial Arts can be studied mainly for four different reasons. While the scope of this lecture
will largely touch on the combat application, I find it necessary to explain all four before
proceeding.

● Self-Improvement
Martial arts can be learned for the sole purpose of learning to better know oneself, and to
improve your inner self. This is fine in and of itself, and most martial arts touch on this one
way or another. There are martial arts in fact that focus almost solely on this, such as Tai Chi
Chuan.

● Sport
Many, many martial arts focus on this aspect. Most of them in fact. From boxing to
taekwondo, through karate and sumo, this is the main focus of the vast majority of martial
arts. And sport shaves off most of the bullshit techniques which is great. Stress testing your
art in such a fashion is the best way to test the efficiency of your techniques in a controlled
environment.
Which leads me to

● Self-Defense
Here we leave the controlled environment. You will find that most martial arts by themselves
will break their nose on this wall, especially those martial arts who claim to be for
self-defense(I am staring at you Aikido and Krav Maga). In a context of self-defense you are
reacting one second late to your attacker(s). So you do need explosive moves and
techniques to regain the advantage here. Your main goal in a self-defense situation is
running away anyway. There is a small overlap with combat, but this is the space where you
will spend most of your energy in a fight. That small 3-5 seconds window in case of an
attacker where you must react as fast and as violently as possible. However, after those 3-5
seconds, if fight hasn't ended one way or another, those explosive techniques devolve into

● Combat
Combat can be the escalation from self-defense or just a situation in which you are well
aware you will need to fight. And even, a situation in which you are the aggressor. Very, very,
very few martial arts systems are designed for this category(and work). Your goal in this is
not to escape, but incapacitate your opponent. Sometimes, permanently.

Which means the end of the overlap with self-defense. This is something most self-defense
instructors fail largely to anticipate and, frankly, usually don't understand at all. Something
that doesn't work in Self-Defense at all(like Aikido ironically) may very well apply surprisingly
well as the aggressor.

Combat is the specific scope of this guide, and my rating of a martial art here is based on the
utilities and tools you can extract from it for a combat situation. Which is why I may rate
aikido high here, but would frankly give it a huge zero for self-defense for example.

As a final aside before I delve into the meat of the subject, I am a strong proponent of
studying multiple martial arts to build your own personal style. Some maneuvers and
techniques from many martial arts are superfluous, or maybe due to your own personal
conditions will simply not work in a real life situation for you.

Remember also something fundamental to martial arts:

There really are only three martial arts forms:

Striking, Grappling and Wrestling. All other martial arts are merely systems developing and
expanding on these three basic concepts. Let's explore all three concepts real quick.
● Striking
Probably the easiest to define here. Any attack that strikes at your opponent. Punching,
stabbing, slashing, kicking, elbowing, headbutting are all strikes. No matter how fancy your
kick combo you learned, it remains ultimately striking.
● Grappling
Here it may start looking a tad muddied for many of you. Here's the difference: Grappling is
all about takedowns and submissions. By forcing your opponent to submit via locks,
takedowns, and joint manipulations. Grappling is done usually standing but may end up on
the ground. Grappling involves grabbing your opponent and forcing him to either submit or
break something/get knocked unconscious.
● Wrestling
Wrestling is all about ground fighting and what leads to ground fighting. Throws, then locks,
holds and the such. Wrestling is the single most basic combat mechanic of human beings
and an untrained individual will default to this in a combat situation 95% of the time as an
instinctive mechanism. I could go in depth as to why we are primed to do this, but the tldr is
human is monke and leave it at that for the time being.

Now that we have touched on all three forms, why then learn multiple martial arts?

By enlarging your capabilities by studying multiple martial arts, you can plug and fill all the
holes that will become all the more apparent as you train. You will also find that most martial
arts use largely the same techniques (a side kick, regardless of how fancy that sidekick
might be called, remains, a damned side kick.) The importance in learning different martial
arts is in the application of said techniques. Let me give you one simple example.

The Front Kick. Simple move right. Raise knee, extend the foot forward while pushing with
your whole body in that same direction.
Muay Thai uses it to create distance to deliver sidekicks.
Wing Chun uses front kicks as a defensive maneuver to one measure an opponent's reach,
and two throw them off balance.
Savate uses it specifically on the hip to disarticulate it and possibly end a fight there and
then.

See what I mean?

Finally, you do not need to apply to a formal school to learn a technique. Anyone telling you
otherwise is bullshitting their damn ass about it.

What matters is the technical knowledge, then applied in practice and to repeat practice for
as long as you have not perfected the maneuver. The technical knowledge can be derived
from illustrations, books, leaflets, and videos, and then find a friend or three to practice
together.

On that note, let's begin.

Boxing
It is no secret that I studied boxing heavily and that my mother, herself a boxing teacher, was
behind it. The Noble Art, or so it is sometimes called, is an excellent foundation upon which
you can build your style. Its standard two stances, orthodox and southpaw are a mirror of
each other based on your dominant side. It focuses on punching power and heavy
bob&weaving, a form of dodging that involves strictly from the hips up and is surprisingly
very energy efficient.

It also makes a heavy emphasis on weight transfer behind each punch, teaching you the
basics of body mechanics you will need to develop for your understanding of martial arts.

Finally, boxing being such a hard sport, you learn good energy retention habits if you wanna
do a mere three rounds fight, and it teaches you to completely control your environment(how
to direct your opponent in a corner in the ring for example). All of these makes for a reliable
real life combat technique basis that can be readily accessed in case of a fisticuff.

Side Note: Kickboxing

Kickboxing does all that, but adds kicks into the mix. The kicks in kickboxing aren't fancy
either, but they do their job well. I will add the caveat that many kickboxers have a tendency
to rely too much on their kicks which, as good as they are, still mess with the balance which
can be lethal in a real fight. Their stance is also a tad too wide for my own taste. While it
adds stability and kicking power, and permits wide angle strikes, it removes footwork speed
and power in the upper body.

Final Verdict: A solid ⅘ for it being one of the best martial arts basis to build from. Kickboxing
has a 3.75/5 from me. You should study kickboxing, and you should absolutely learn boxing.

MMA
Sight. Each time martial arts comes up, so does MMA. You will inevitably hear someone
jump in the conversation stating proudly "I do MMA."

Now, I must emphasize this, mma is fine, really. It's largely a mix primarily of three martial
arts, namely boxing muay thai and brazilian jiu jitsu. It is a strong combination alright.

Here comes my warning thought. MMA is not energy efficient in the least bit. This comes
from the fact that it's a high intensity sport that takes place in three rounds but usually
finishes in the first. Bursts of energy are required to perform in this sport. Certainly, if you can
take down your opponent that fast, great!
But what if you can't?

The biggest problem with MMA is that damned attitude MMA practitioners get thinking MMA
took the best martial arts and put them together to form the ultimate martial art. There is no
ultimate martial art because art is constantly in evolution. MMA practitioners are led to
believe by their coaches and environment that they stand on the peak of the world and when
a street fight occurs they get lessons that will follow them the rest of their lives.
Now, to be completely fair, it's not all MMA practitioners that are like that. I wouldn't even say
the majority. But it's common enough to be important in my final classification of the style.
And many MMA fighters are extremely enthusiastic at learning new techniques.

Final Verdict: Overall, adapting the techniques of MMA into an energy efficient style is a very
strong base. A good ⅘ style that you should study, if only for its large practitioner base and its
glaring weaknesses and how to exploit them, while taking advantage of its many strengths to
incorporate in your own style.

Olympic Wrestling
It is common knowledge that 80% of all fights end on the ground. You can learn the best
punches and kicks, the best locks and the best throws, but if you can't defend yourself when
you, yourself, end with your back on the floor those techniques are meaningless.
Fortunately, wrestling is the most ancient martial art practiced worldwide.

Olympic wrestling, while being a highly sanitized form of wrestling (of greco-roman origins),
is still extremely useful to build a basic understanding of how groundfight works and the body
mechanics employed in such a position. Unfortunately, it has been so sanitized that many
excellent moves that you absolutely should learn have been removed from its practice.

Final Verdict: If you want to strictly focus on the basics, it's a 4.5/5. Otherwise, it downgrades
to a 4/5 due to its sanitization.

Muay Thai
Muay Thai is an extremely aggressive form of kickboxing which utilizes knees and elbows in
their strikes. In fact, some of those elbow and knee strikes may be the best strikes using
those body parts of any other martial arts.
Muay Thai is also extremely energy inefficient. Mixing high kicks with punches, elbow strikes
and jumping knee kicks, while devastating, runs out of steam fast. Its stances are also not
particularly stable, opting for high striking power and speed at the detriment of balance, or
takes a low, large stance that emphasizes kicking over using the upper body, falling in the
same trap as kickboxing(and mma). Most of its strikes are also wide, long and take lots of
space to fully deliver. Great if you fight in an empty parking lot, completely useless in an
elevator or a staircase(as aptly demonstrated in Ip Man 3, a serie of movies I will keep
commending for it's overall accuracy) https://youtu.be/b_fKzher8QQ

Final Verdict: ⅗. It's a good style if you want a high risk high reward style, but I personally
prefer cannibalizing its best strikes like the knee and elbow strikes and leave the rest.

Karate/Kenpo
Okay, I will need to subcategorize this one due to the sheer variety of styles. I will touch on
those I have myself encountered.

A small disclaimer is that Karate, and most eastern martial arts are usually divided between
soft styles and hard styles.
Soft Style emphasis on locks and joint manipulation.
Hard Style focuses on strikes. It's not exact but for the scope of this small text it will suffice.

Chitō-Ryū
This style of Karate emphasizes a concept called shime: the contraction of muscles in the
lower part of the body to increase stability and generate more power into its strikes. While
Chitō-Ryū specializes in Hard strikes, both hard and soft techniques exist in its system.

It's a very strong form of karate. Two problems exist within its system however. Most of the
strikes don't generate much power, and its basic stances aren't particularly stable, which
admittedly is why shime is such an important element of this style. However, shime itself has
a glaring weakness. Contracting muscles slows down their reaction time. Which in turn
makes the lower body of a Chitō-Ryū practitioner his greatest weakness.

Genseiryū
Genseiryū is in a sense the opposite of Chitō-Ryū. While both hard and soft techniques exist
in its system, it places a greater emphasis on soft techniques.

It is also one of the best styles to learn for fending off multiple opponents, its movements,
circulars, can be used to defend against attacks from many directions. I highly recommend
taking a look at their katas and taking notes.

It has the same problem as many eastern martial arts however, in that it doesn't generate
much power in its strikes, and many of its soft techniques waste a lot of energy to produce
by being almost acrobatic(not quite, but almost). Nonetheless, its theory of Sansei makes
genseiryū a formidable style to defend in a three dimensional method of thinking and too few
styles actually think that way.

Gōjū-Ryū
The Hard-Soft style(Gō means Hard and Jū means Soft). Its philosophy is great, making a
point to say that in life you should approach life with both hardness and softness and use
whichever resolves the problem the easiest. It has some fierce strikes and some definitely
good techniques for sure. However good its life philosophy is, Gōjū-Ryū makes a massive
mistake in its application. It states that in combat, all that matters is kata. Kata is good, yes.

But when you face a situation your katas didn't prepare you for, you will find Gōjū
practitioners fall over fast. Another weakness of Gōjū-Ryū is its inherent lack of speed. Its
techniques are strong, but they are also very obvious and slower than many other styles. I
will however denote that they practice iron shirt, a body strengthening technique that lets you
endure strikes much better and that is their one advantage in a fight and a reason to study
Gōjū.

Gosoku-Ryū
This style of karate denotes itself by casting off the shackles of theory and making a point of
focusing on practicality. It's also different from other karate styles in that it incorporates
ground fighting techniques and most of its kumite ends on the ground. Its stances are
shorter for faster reaction, then changes in longer stances when delivering power blows.
The main weakness of Gosoku-Ryū lies in that moment when the stance switches from one
to the other. Its other weakness is, as most forms of karate, an inherent lack of power in
delivering its strikes, along with a poor economy of energy.

Isshin-Ryū
I wanted to make a note of Isshin-Ryū less because of its standard karate techniques(which
are fine, they resemble Gosoku-ryū quite a lot), but more because they emphasize kobudo,
the usage of weapons in their style. From sai to staff to nunchaku, it is a style worth studying
solely based on its kobudo.
Just like the other forms of karate, it wastes its energy unnecessarily however.

Kyokushin
sight. Kyokushin is a sad, sad story. It had a great start in its self-defense teachings, but
grew so much into sporting that many of its self-defense teachings fell in semi-obscurity and
aren't taught in most dojos.

If you manage to find one where they still teach it, jump on the occasion, for it is probably the
best karate style along Gosoku-Ryu for actual fighting. Its strikes are more powerful than the
average karate style, however, it also wastes a lot more energy into "bursts". It's a high drain
style. Effective, but runs out of steam rapidly. However, its techniques are fantastic and if you
do find somewhere where they teach its combat application do yourself a favor and look em
up, if only to incorporate em in your own style. It's sport techniques are largely completely
worthless though.

Shotokan
When you think of karate, there's a 90% chance you're thinking of Shotokan. It's the karate
style that popularized the art in the west. It's a high acrobatic, explosive style with some
vicious kicks and strikes.

It's also the form of karate that runs out of juice the fastest in an actual fight. And while
acrobatic moves may terrify an inexperienced opponent, an experienced combattant will
exploit it against you. Overall, High Risk, High Reward style.

Final Verdict: Karate steals a ⅗ from me. Some of its styles are worth studying to cannibalize
some of their teachings, some are better left alone. Overall, having at least a good notion of
how karate works is extremely helpful if only because of how popular a fighting style it is.
Odds are if you are fighting an eastern martial artist, you are fighting someone who learned
karate or kung fu. You will be able to make the difference easily.

Capoeira
A Brazilian style originally practiced by slaves and taught as a form of dance to avoid being
noticed by the enforcers of the earlier regime, it is a style that heavily focuses on kicks and
acrobatics.

If you were thinking "He's gonna complain about energy conservation" Congratulations,
you're beginning to clue in on the pattern. The much lower stance of capoeira also puts them
at a high disadvantage for standing fights, although it does give them great balance, I will
give them that much. It has some great half standing kicks too, worth taking notes of.

Final Verdict: ⅖ Only a few kicks here and there worth noting, not enough to learn the style in
my opinion.

Dambe
First time I fought a Dambe practitioner, I was surprised at the efficiency of an African style
and it gave me much to ponder. Dambe is a boxing style practiced originally by butchers
ritually to celebrate slaughter of livestock. It is a Nigerian style originally although it has
spread through Africa like wildfire.

It's a technique that emphasizes traditional warfare and makes a note of producing strikes
usable both unarmed and with a knife or a spear. The fighters wrap their offensive hand in
cords and their offensive leg in a chain to deliver extremely damaging blows. It has
unfortunately devolved into a ritualistic, sportive event and lost a lot of its most nasty
techniques. It has however a great emphasis on having a good balance and keeping your
energy as much as possible.
Final Verdict: Dambe gets a solid 4/5. It's a surprisingly effective combat style that can hold
its own in a real fight by itself with good strikes and grappling. It loses a point due to being
ridiculously predictable tho and having very obvious movement patterns. However,
incorporating those techniques in a less obvious style can make for a nice ace in the hole.

https://youtu.be/BvLA2xcr0z8

Eskrima
I will refer to Kali, Escrima and Arnis here under the umbrella term of Eskrima. A Filipino
fighting style, it is an extremely vicious fighting style mixing knife fighting, stick fighting and
unarmed strikes.

It is not a style for the faint of heart, your goal is to make your opponent bleed and most of its
techniques can absolutely be applied in a real combat situation. Especially the stick fighting
techniques, which I highly recommend if you wanna get a retractable baton as a weapon. It
also has some excellent energy retention and good stances.

So what am I going to complain about here? The knife fighting part. Karambit knives are
originally from this style. It's a great style overall, but its knife fighting part assumes a lot of
non resistance from your opponent, which is completely unrealistic.

Final Verdict: ⅘, especially the stick fighting part. In fact, I'd argue study the stick fighting part
and leave most of the rest.

Taekwondo
I was talking about how acrobatics downgrade my ratings of a style. So why am I so quick to
praise Taekwondo?
Because it is self aware of its problems. Taekwondo focuses solely on kicks, with the
absolute bare minimum of hand strikes, mostly used to create distance for more kicks.

It has also one of the worse energy retention capabilities of any martial arts due to that same
overemphasis on kicks.

However, Taekwondo knows this and openly encourages you to learn other styles to
complement itself for real combat situations. And its kicks are absolutely top tier.

Final Verdict: ⅘ If only because you should learn its kicks and because it is self aware of its
weaknesses.
Jujutsu
The Gentle Technique, as it translates, is a japanese martial art developed for ground
fighting, it includes grapples, joint manipulations, locks and focuses on throwing and pinning
an opponent to the ground. It has three main variations, the Japanese Jujutsu, Brazilian Jiu
Jitsu and Gracie Jiu Jitsu. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is the most common and most accessible.

It has great holds, locks and is overall a strong contender for learning how to fight on the
ground. However, it lacks finishing moves and takedowns hard. Sure it has some, but those
are far from being great and actually effective in a real fight situation.

Final Verdict: ⅘ absolutely cannibalize this style for its best techniques, while keeping in mind
its two glaring weaknesses.

Judo
Judo is the ultra sanitized version of Jiu Jitsu that has decided to focus almost solely on
takedowns. And, to be fair, it has some of the best takedowns in martial arts. It also has
some very decent wrestling techniques.

Final Verdict: ⅗ Nothing fancy here. Steal its takedowns and some of its chokeholds and then
branch out.

Pencak Silat

Aight aight aight. I will compliment Pencak Silat. It has…a nice…history?

I dunno man, I tried okay. Poor guy who tried to fight me once using that style was crying
because he thought all his rituals to the spirits would help him somehow and it made me feel
bad enough to make me try but…I can't. I really can't. This martial art surely has a few very
odd techniques here and there that are okay, but the whole premise of praying to the spirits
and jumping through a ring of fire to prove to Allah that you can kick my ass will only lead to
you injuring yourself.
Bonus point for having the right philosophy of "don't fight, kill" I fucking guess?
Look. It has the right idea. Kick the groin and strike at the throat. You don't need to ask a
demon to grant you force to have some fucking common sense.

Final Rating: 1.5/5 For the right idea and for pity for that one guy who really, really wanted to
show off.
Kalaripayattu
The Bollywood Martial Art. It is admittedly one of the oldest martial arts still in practice today
to be completely fair and is the root of Shaolin Kung Fu (yes, for real. An Indian traveler
taught Shaolin Monks how to fight to defend against brigands or so the story goes). And
frankly? It does have some good strikes. Its use of weapons is great too.

It's also insanely acrobatic and has zero energy conservation whatsoever, and has a
tendency to overextend and over commit to its moves.

Final Verdict: ⅖. It's fun to watch, but apart from some sword and knife techniques here and
there it lacks in striking power and overextends waaay too much for my taste.

Aikido
If you want my take for self-defense, aikido gets a fat circular zero out of me. Good thing we
ain't here for self-defense.

Aikido has some great throws and takedowns. The trick is that you need to lure your
opponent in specific motions to use them. Hard to do in a fight, but if you do manage to lure
them in, those techniques can lead into a perfect finisher of some sort and completely
dispatch an opponent here and there. Hence the secret of Aikido. It's secretly an offensive
martial art.

Final Verdict: ⅗. You should look through all the Aikido techniques not from an eye of "how is
this going to help me defend myself", but rather "how can I use this offensively". A hard thing
to do hence why the 3 points. If you manage to do it however Aikido becomes a terrifyingly
effective martial art.

Sumo
Okay, I will begin by saying Sumo might be the supreme sport martial art. I know, weird take,
but you'd be surprised just how fit and combat capable sumo wrestlers are.

I watch all professional sumo tournaments. They are incredibly entertaining and the
techniques used are surprisingly effective. The style is also extremely energy deficient. It
requires a lot of energy to throw a 6'2, 350 pound man around after lifting him.
Final Verdict: ⅘. Learn its techniques for the initial attack sequence of a fight, and absolutely
watch and learn from sumo. But do not rely on it in a combat situation. Learn what you can
from it and continue watching the sport itself.

Kung Fu
Aight, another one I will need to subcategorize. Fun. I will describe only the key ones.

Shaolin Kung Fu
Shaolin Kung Fu is…frankly, completely ridiculous. It's super acrobatic, doesn't even
understand the idea of energy conservation and flies in the face of any fighting principle out
there.

It's also somehow ridiculously effective. Now, I will make a distinction between the average
shaolin kung fu practitioner(who learned some shaolin kung fu but is really a wushu
practitioner), someone who has practiced with a shaolin monk and still practices the art daily,
and shaolin monks.

The first usually are shit fighters that are trying to look and sound cool but end up hurting
themselves in the long run. The second are definitely dangerous opponents and you should
learn from them. You shouldn't try fighting one vs one an actual shaolin monk, you will
probably end up on your ass not even understanding what happened if you are an average
fighter, and you might tie if you are an actual good fighter. If you got the opportunity to learn
from one, shut the fuck up, stop complaining about their completely mental regime and just
do it, thank me later.

Tai Chi Chuan

Don't expect this one to be useful in a fight. Good for "Self Improvement" and that's it. Any
movie showing it being a killer martial art is just bullshitting.

Wushu(Sanda)
The most practiced martial art in the world. Okay, now that I triggered exactly 100% of every
martial artist out there, including Wushu practitioners, let me explain.

Wushu is the combined term for Chinese Martial Arts created by the Communists to "unify" it
all under one banner and spread it internationally. Be it Praying Mantis, Eagle, Dragon, Tiger,
Crane, you will find it in Wushu. You should seriously take a look at some of them, some
others should be completely discarded. Honestly, take the time to do it, because if I were to
do it here I would take 50 pages going through all of them and it's just not the scope of this
short lecture.

Which leads me to Sanda. Sanda is the practical Boxing style that evolved as a sport from
Wushu. It's a fairly strong combat style, if, as most other eastern martial arts, completely
devoid of the very notion of energy economy. Still, worth parsing through.

Wing Chun & Jeet Kune Do

Wing Chun might be the one eastern martial art that understood the notion of not being
acrobatic and conserving your energy. It's an extremely strong martial art when fighting in an
enclosed space and has amongst the best defense in most martial arts against strikes. Jeet
Kune Do is an evolution of Wing Chun that adds long kicks and punches developed by
Bruce Lee. It's a good style but unfortunately sacrifices a good part of what makes Wing
Chun so great for increased reach.

Final Note: 4.5/5 Many Kung Fu Styles are worth studying, especially Wing Chun, and if you
somehow manage to get a hold of a Shaolin Monk, their style too. Wing Chun by itself is a
5/5 especially if you are of smaller size due to its effectiveness at close range.

Savate
Savate, the French Kickboxing sport, is the best form of kickboxing out there. Yes, I know,
that's a hot take. It's a form of kickboxing that, within the sport rules, only allows foot kicks,
but doesn't have prohibition where those kicks are aimed. Its stance is great and it is
surprisingly energy efficient. It was practiced as street fighting in 19th century France, mostly
by sailors and thus its balance is extraordinary since it had to account for being practiced on
a boat.

Additionally, it includes french fencing and fighting with la canne(walking stick), which gives
you a reason to start carrying a walking stick wherever you go(which doubles both as a
fashion statement and as an excellent self defense tool).

Final Judgment: 4.5/5. The only reason it loses half a point is that it restricts kicks to foot
kicks and focuses on strikes. Otherwise this martial art would be well within 5/5 and is well
worth studying.

Systema
Just…Don't. Really.
https://www.memedroid.com/memes/detail/1932964

https://www.reddit.com/r/TheMcDojoLife/comments/q7w5oo/lets_do_the_systema_twist/

Final Verdict: Zero. Fat. Fucking. Zero. Don't. That's how you get yourself killed.

Krav Maga
sight. Aight, look, Krav Maga is the ultimate try hard style that somehow doesn't completely
suck.The reason why it doesn't completely suck is because it tries to take basic human
reactions and try to pass it off as a legitimate martial art. I mean, sure, it kind of works, but
you shouldn't need someone explaining it to you.

Final Verdict: ⅗, simply because if you don't understand human body mechanics it gives a
good basis. But if you already have a basic understanding of human anatomy you don't need
this.

Sambo
John Wick's wrestling martial art. Some of the best wrestling techniques one can devise,
excellent throws, chokeholds, and has a few very good finishing moves. Very energy efficient
too.
Final Verdict: 5/5. Learn this for Wrestling and ground fighting.

Okichitaw
The first Canadian Martial Art on the list! Now, I know how this will sound coming from me
but Canadian martial arts are some of the absolute best martial arts out there. Canadians
have a reputation when it comes to war and it's for a damn reason. Our martial prowess lets
us punch several weight categories above what we should possibly even be thinking about
trying in combat.

Okichitaw is a warfare martial art system based on the war techniques of the Great Plains
Natives tribes. It teaches you grappling, wrestling, how to fight with two weapons, axe, knife,
gunclub, warclub, bow. When you learn Okichitaw, you train to kill someone. Yeah, the
masters will tell you "no no", but they're lying. They know. You know. I know.

Final Verdict: 5/5, it fits perfectly our notion of Combat. Goal is to beat the ever living crap of
a motherfucker or two. With this you add a fair few weapons to your arsenal.

Pankration
The actual real ancient Greek wrestling sport from the antiquity rebirth in modern days. The
sport version is regulated, of course, but the actual martial art was practiced by Spartan
soldiers as an actual fighting style and some of its techniques are deadly. It is the oldest
"mma" style form of combat out there.

Final Verdict: 5/5. Yes, learn this. Implement this in your fighting style. On par with Sambo

HEMA
I love HEMA, now, are you going to find yourself fighting someone else with a frigging
Zweihander? Improbable. But, HEMA doesn't stop at swords. Knife Fighting, Grappling,
Wrestling, and the variety of different weapons used, while also learning to wear armor
properly is a solid avantage to learn for a warrior.

Final Verdict: 4.5/5. The only reason it loses half a point is that its relevance in nowaday
fights is largely improbable, like sword fighting. If you don't care about that it becomes a 5/5
style.

Defendo
Defendo is the watered down version of Combato that was developed for Law Enforcement,
even though it was still considered too overkill and was watered down further for current
police forces in North America. Actual schools for Defendo are extremely rare and few
between. It is intended as a self-defense martial art(in which it gets a 5/5 score). With
minimal effort it can be turned into a complete combat martial art.

Final Verdict: 5/5, if you've got the chance, learn it. Don't look back.

THE BIG THREE

The Big Three are as perfect to our goal as you can get. They are self reliant, meaning you
could only learn one of these and be up there when it comes to actual combat capability.
They would be "6/5", because they touch all aspects of combat. Striking, Grappling,
Wrestling, weapons usage, all of it. They are style made for winning a fight, not merely
defending yourself.

Bujinkan
The first, and least, of the big three is actual Ninjutsu. It teaches you striking, grappling,
wrestling, how to use traditional japanese weapons, but also how to defend yourself against
modern weapons, like knives and even guns. It doesn't stop there though, it also teaches
you how to move, how to assess your environment. Unfortunately, it is only third on the big
three because it does include a fair bit of pointless moves that you need to parse through.

MCMAP
The Marines have developed perhaps the best martial art system in the world currently in
use. They deserve their reputation for a damned reason. The Devil Dogs have developed a
military martial art and it does exactly what it claims to do, which is win wars. Do yourself a
favor and get yourself a MCMAP manual at your local military surplus or something and
learn. It largely earned the second spot in the big three due to its mentality to always
improve, always adapt and always learn better techniques for winning a fight.
I will leave with MCMAP's motto which really says it all "One Mind, Any Weapon". But if
MCMAP is so great? What can possibly take first place?

Combato
There is a martial art school called "American Combato". It's not the real deal. Even JTF2 is
prohibited from learning Combato because it is that overkill. Combato was taught to a
handful of people back in WWI and WWII, who would get parachuted behind enemy lines
with the goal of assassinating high priority targets and fighting their way back to ally lines.
None of its practitioners died during either world wars. Most of it is highly classified, so here's
what I can tell you.

One had to infiltrate Dachau, learn about the rumors of death camps and come back. Not
only did he succeed, he fought his way out of the camp and was back behind ally lines within
a week. Unfortunately, it being classified, that martial art is practiced only by a handful of
individuals to this day. If you get the chance, however slim, learn it.

Final Combination of Martial Arts

Realistically, meaning no Combato here, here's in my opinion the best combination of martial
arts you should learn

Base: Base yourself off of MCMAP or Bujinkan, your choice for flavor really, and find the
"Combato" book(which is really Defendo) and incorporate it into your base.

Striking: A good mix of Boxing or Dambe, Savate, Taekwondo/Muay Thai and Wing Chun

Grappling: Aikido and Sumo

Wrestling: A mix of Sambo and Pankration, maybe with a little Jujutsu of the flavor of your
choice