Do Martial arts really help a Martial artist in real street like situations?

So you asked a few questions I will address them as I see them:

Do Martial Arts really help? Yes, just the fact that you are an active person involved in an athletic activity, along with self confidence those are natural factors to not only help you in a physical confrontation, but help you to avoid them as well. You look like less of a victim, and your body language speaks to people more than anything you can say.

Applicability of your techniques in combat relies heavily on how you train. If you never train against a resisting opponent, then you will lack even the basic ability to refine or adapt your technique for a physical confrontation. Hard sparring gives you the tools to learn how to adapt a technique in practical use against someone who is trying to prevent you from doing it.

"Does it work the way it does in the movies?" This is the part of your question that concerns me the most about your training, NOTHING works the way it does in the movies. Not romance, not life, and definitely not combat. Movies are choreography, if you did a technique the way it is done in the movies, you would get a mudhole stomped in you.

"IMPORTANT PART OF QUESTION"

First off we do warm ups, stretches, and cool downs to reduce injury. At practice you are going to be doing a stenuous activity for a hour or more. We get our heart rate going and blood flowing and limber up.

Here's the thing in a real situation: adrenaline kicks in. Your heart jumps to 120 beats per minute or more, blood is flowing, oxygen gets flooded into your muscles, you senses get heightened, and all joints and tendons are lessened, basically your body completely prepares you for a short term, fight of flight situation. You will be faster, stronger, and feel less pain then you can ever emulate in the dojo. Instinctive reaction takes over, this is where training comes in. If your training doesn't ever approach the level of physical combat, there is a large chance that none of your technique will carry over to natural instinct unless someone follows something specific that you have muscle memory against. Chances are you will just flail, end up doing nothing that looks like Martial Arts and may win or lose depending.

Now if you train with a lot of hard contact, then you will find you do certain things instinctively without thinking, the same you block any punch or kick in sparring, (because it is thrown at full speed, with intent to actually connect hard with you), then widely telegraphed less powerful punches thrown by a lesser trained individual will seem to be coming from a mile away from you. You will already learned to adapt techniques to use, and the ones you use the most are the ones that pop up in those situations.

You are right to worry about how something will work in reality. Though it shouldn't be because of lack of warm up, it should be because of lack of training to apply techniques outside of kata, learning to adapt which techniques work for you, your body type, against opponents of various weights and sizes. YEARS of hard contact tells me what works against taller guys, what works against shorter guys, etc.

I can tell you I have gone and do go quite often from complete cold right into the middle of hard sparring. Anyone who has ever done a tournament can attest to getting caught and having to go full speed, full bore, without a chance to warm up.

Adrenaline does the job for you, and with proper training you will begin to understand that.

When I was late for class my punishment often was to be the "monkey in the middle"... "Get your Gi on, get in the middle" and basically deal with taking on everyone in class in random numbers, never knowing who or how many were going to come at you with full intensity.

In truth, the validity of pre workout stretching and warming up hasn't shown a significant improvement in reductions of injury. In fact, being overworked and severely muscle fatigued has a much higher risk of injury, and most Martial Artist will tell you, they get the bulk of their sparring and training under conditions of severe muscle and cardiovascular fatigue. That is being honest, there are a ton of studies out there now that basically show you really do not gain much as far as injury reduction from stretching. But that is going off point.

In truth you need to get adaptability to be applicable. No technique works like it does in Kata. That is why there is Bunkai, that is why there is sparring. You need to find the technique from the kata and realize what needs to be done to make it work, then you need to test that against someone doing everything they can to stop you from doing the technique including using technique of their own against you.

Hope that helps, in short training methodologies matter, but even with crap training, you are still better than the average person off the street simply because you are in better physical condition than them.

I am not sure what type of training you have had and where but you are missing some key aspects I think and applying what you do have to a everyone in general. Generalizing like that in most anything usually ends up being wrong in many cases.

I have used my skills more than once as well as applied some aspects of them when there was a weapon involved and they served me quite well during those times. I also don't need to Warm up for any of those things and can kick to the head cold if I have to although in all the street situations I have kicked to the body or groin if I did kick.

As for someone coming up behind you and knocking you over the head with a stick that's like saying someone walking into my house with an automatic weapon. I keep my doors locked for a reason and not having any kids I keep a weapon or two loaded, ready to fire in my house and garage because there are some bad types that do travel up and down the main thoroughfare that I happen to live on. Good martial arts teach you good self-defense techniques and awareness and avoidance and I have already had a person or group try to sneak up on me for criminal reasons or someone try to take me unawares only to quickly find that they did not have the element of surprise like they expected.

Along with all this a good, well trained martial artist should know what his best and strongest techniques are as these are some of the first that you should employ in a situation. I know what mine are and I have several that if successful will stop most people pretty quickly and none of them require warming up or a compliant partner. Perhaps you have not developed your skills to a high enough level and need to train and work harder and maybe push yourself beyond what you have already.

While it does sometimes work out like it does in the movies there are other times when it does not but even in those times people can tell afterwords that I have had some type of training. I suggest you redouble your efforts in your training and developing your skills to a higher level and as you do this also work on your mental approach to all this.

No it's not like the movies. Movies are movies. Choreographed fight scenes that are sequenced to look nice and pretty for the audience. Reality is not like that. There is no one to yell "CUT" and save you from a potential beating if something goes wrong. That is why the "street" is so dangerous. There is always the element of surprise, of unpredictability in the street. That being said, is martial arts training useful in the street? Yes for the most part. It's better than nothing at all.

However, that comes with a caveat and that is, it works well if you have the proper training and the properly executed response to the situation. Sometimes you might see a great technique work in a dojo, but it fails miserably out in the street in a live situation. Why? The main reason is the stranger in the street is not your buddy in the dojo. He will no cooperate, he will not respond when you tap, he will use weapons, he will fight dirty and look for ways to pound you into the pavement. So will his buddies if they are around. If you aren't well trained in the dojo or gym for such real life intensity and that fighting mindset, if you have conditioned your brain to the relaxed state of the dojo and bring your technique straight to the outside without properly testing them first inside the dojo against full-blown fully resisting opponents, you will be in for the shock of a lifetime. It may even cost you your life. As a common example, going into the guard is fine inside your dojo. Going into the guard outside of the dojo could turn ugly if a hidden weapon is drawn during the scuffle. What prevails in such situations is not which martial technique but a properly trained self-defense mindset. How to approach a potentially bad situation? How to weigh the pros and cons? What should be done to avoid it?

You do not have time to tell the other person in the street to wait while you properly stretch and warm up. Nor can you tell them to stop while you mentally adjust yourself to face the onslaught. That would be nice however but it doesn't work that way. What works is properly training your mind to switch instantly from zero to a hundred. Fight psychology is important as well as scenario based training. This will at least prepare you to face the challenges ahead in a real assault, clear your mind and vision in that so-called "fog of war" and minimize and harness the effects of the shakes from the adrenaline coursing through your body. The hours spent on such training will have honed your aerobic and anaerobic capacity enabling you to last and outlast the stress of a fight.

These traits and prerequisites (along with a little bit of luck) are important factors in pushing the odds in your favor when it comes to the real thing.

In essence you will be much more focused and relaxed than someone who has never been through such conditioning. If you are worried about your range of movement and flexibility, talk to your instructors about it. There are several different ways to stretch your body, from static to dynamic methods, that will condition your legs and limber them up so that you could possibly kick cold without any warm up whatsoever.

Good answers already, not much I can add really.

All that I want to say is that I kind of think it depends on the style and dojo you learn at. For example certain moves are best suited to self defense and real life practicality whilst there are obviously others that are inside the move set purely for competition or tradition.

In a real fight, you are limited by you training and what i mean by that is that in a real fight, adrenaline will be pumping so you will not have the time nor the mindset to think about what moves you will do. You will probably act from instinct, and hopefully your instincts will be to use the martial arts training you have done.

You are right to be concerned about this. As an instructor it is always on my mind as I train my students. I try to prepare them the best I know how for whatever life throws at them. I can tell you from experience of a couple of my students that at least the training they got at our school was a benefit. They prevailed in a street situation that was life threatening. Of all the hundreds of students that have passed through our school few have reported back any incident. I know as a scientist in my daytime job a negative does not prove the case : I can say that it could be a sign that our particular form of training helps on the street.

It all come down to a few factors. Foremost in training is mind set. You must be mentally prepared to respond to a threat with ferocity and intent. Next is self defense specific training. Most martial arts schools I have seen do not train their students specifically for self defense. Most schools train for competition which is a whole different animal. Whatever the style self defense is not a well understood aspect at many schools. Avoidance and street wisdom are also hardly ever a topic at many schools. Anger management, self control, distancing, situational awareness , are other topics you don't hear a lot about. How to fight dirty and for keeps.

After all that I have to say that being athletic and having some training is probably better than none. The avarage street thug probably does not train at all. Your main problem can be your art may get in the way of the apropriate responce. For instance no one is going to hold still while you wind up a reverse side kick. or a flying side kick or some other move that call for the oponent to be set up. And yes a lot of teckniques won't work well without a warm up. Why because you were not trained how to use them in close without a warm up! because you were not trained for self defence.

Ha, I amy be able to answer this one. The last on I came across it wouldn't let me answer it. 1. I do not see a picture so I am going to guess it is locked in. I am going to get my chin under his elbow and turn towards the choke and turn to the side. Straighten a leg out and remove a hook. turn back towards face up and switch my hips over and wind up on top. 2. I am the shortest person in the gym so all I can do is guess really. I would use the only take down I am actually good at and that is the single leg sweep. edit: I am not the shortest person but the people shorter than me are a lot lighter. So I really do not know. I should ask though 3. Now I no I could be very wrong on this. What I do is throw the same punch as the person I am holding for but I don't try to match it with power more of a way to bounce it back. I do not know how to say that. 4.Oh man, I have a hard time remember what little judo I got to learn. I think this one is the ukime to the side of your body with the the arm landing first. 5. well piss them off comes to mind. omaplata. they normally just pick me up stack me bad and pass. can opener, doesn't work on people my size. 6. the floating rib is the bottom rib that only connects to the other ribs and does not go back to the sternum. It breaks easier and if broken badly it can puncture organs 7. When I catch a good punch I goes black for a second, my ears ring and my legs are wobbly. I really don't feel the wobbly until the blackness goes away and I try to step. 8. glactic acid? 9. My first TKD instructor. John Hardmann 10. My worst habit is cutting the same way all of the time and dropping my had while doing it. For some reason I can't get it right. I keep eating left hooks over and over but for some reason I still do it. Any tips on this would be greatly appecieated. What I do is when I fight south paw I cut out to the front at a 45* angle and drop my right hand and sure enough there is a left hook just waiting for me. Edit: I missed the part on #1 that said what is the key. It is to get and keep there arms or hands seperated. I feel qualified to say this because we went over rear naked choke defense tonight, guess I got lucky

Hey there

That depends on the martial artist and how well trained the martial artist is, how good a student he or she is, how good their instructor was at teaching, and what the instructor was teaching.

If the martial artist is well trained , then yes martial arts certainly helps in a " real street like situation "

Otherwise a martial art would not be a martial art. All martial arts are effective in their own way if taught properly and learned and applied correctly. It takes time, dedication and patience to become proficient though.

It's the martial artist not the martial art when it comes to street self defense, think of the martial artist like the driver of a car. The car might be excellent, but that does not always mean the driver is

Kind regards

eireshane

1. While yes we do stretch and warm up before class that is because we will be active for at least an hour, while a fight will only last afew minutes tops. Also the adreline will put your muscles in fight mode.

2. We do the excersises over and over to comit them to muscle memory. That way in a street fight we can apply these moves with out thinking.

3. Martial arts also teaches a mind frame. If martial arts does nothing else it will allow you to keep a calmer mind in a tough situation. But you also have to have confidence in your training, which it kinda sounds like you dont.

Martial Arts can and do help in street situations. You have been doing a full Martial Arts sure you have been training to fully develop your particular kind of Martial Art. If you don't think that these can aid you in a street scenario then sit in on a self defense class at your gym or dojo, and it will change your mind. I am a woman whose introduction to kung fu was through a weekend self defense workshop. I unfortunately had to apply what I learned in that work shop a couple years later when I was walking to my car after dark. I then saw how useful it was and starting studying Kung Fu and Aikido as a regular student as I still am doing today.

The whole point of martial arts IS that you never know what will be coming at you. We long term martial artists know that no matter how many years we train, we still know that we could be beaten. We understand that only continued training can get us closer and closer to being totally prepared. But being totally prepared for anything is an impossibility. Even if it were possible, we as humans have good and bad days. We have days when our thinking is not as good. We have days when our reflexes are not at their peak. We are imperfect no matter how or what we study. We can only train. Those looking for a quick fix to being prepared in all ways fool themselves. but then many people with that attitude don't have the patience and persistence necessary to master a martial art.

I love it when someone ask something like, "How long will I need to train in (insert any fighting style here) to be able to defend myself". Heck, I've been diligent with my training for nearly 44 years. Yet I know in my heart that at any time I could end up in a situation I am not prepared to handle. Or I could be beaten because I was not at my peak that day.

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I can assure you that ANY martial arts training will be of benefit in a street fight situation.

Will a martial artist be able to maintina compusure and do everything correctly? Probably not. But the whole reason that we practice is so that our moves become second nature.

Before I learned martial arts, I was pretty pathetic in how I would go about "punching". After only a year of training, my fighting skills improved dramatically. Heck, after only 6 months of training they were so much better.