What art is better for street fighting?

[SevenStar]

Sinar89, I'm not sure where you got your information. But it is inacurate. Jujitsu has more standup grappling than ground work. And the Kenpo/Kempo systems all concentrate far more on stand up fighting than on ground work. This is especially true of American Kenpo. But even Kempojujutsu is primarily a stand up art.

 

I'm guessing that he's referring to brazilian, not japanese.

[Sasori_Te]

I think it's a bit unfair that you judge all Kempo by what your friend couldn't do to you.

 

I will agree with one thing you say though. Not everyone will react the same way to a certain stimulus. With practice you can predict what the majority of people will do but you can never be sure. This is why I tell my students that you should never count on a single technique. You should be prepared to flow through as many techniques as are necessary to handle a given situation.

[SevenStar]

I'm not judging it at all. I was only using that to say that perhaps this poster has had a similar experience, and that could be why he feels the way he does.

[delta1]

the kenpo guys I've seen teach that certain strikes to certain areas make the opponent react a certain way. Those reactions are what their strikes are based on. What if the person doesn't move that way? A friend of mine tried seven swords and other techniques on me and could never finish one full combination. I'm sure not every kenpo class trains this way, but perhaps vinne has had a similar experience to mine.

 

SevenStar, you *^#@ ! (Relax, you new guys and mods- that just means 'grappler'. It's an old joke between us.) Any way, it's good to hear from you again. Most of the stuff you said is good, but you had to go and screw the above statement up!

 

Those reactions are taught as the most common, usual, normal reaction to particular strikes. They are not taught as an absolute. Drugs and alcohol, screwed up cns, or just a bad opponent who can eat any pain can change things. Also, strikes don't allways land as you planned when you threw them. So no, we aren't taught to depend on them. When we get into the variable phases of learning technique, this is explored. Ask your Kenpo buddies to explain grafting and technique flow to you, and you'll start to get an idea how we handle this.

 

As to your friend, it sounds like he fell into two traps the inexperienced often get into with any art. Unfortunately, some experienced martial artists often do this when looking at other styles, even though they should know better. First, they assume that these techniques are meant as rote responses to given situations or attacks, meant to be called up off a list and run as written. They aren't. They are tools for training. Second, he assumes because you can't make it work on him in a demonstration, it won't work. But those moves were meant to be delivered with force, to hurt and cause dammage. Even if your friend had the Kenpo guy hit him hard, he wasn't hit full force. And the demo was set up to run a technique, not to estroy an opponent if the reaction wasn't there.

 

Look at it this way- would you let an inexperienced person put a choke hold on you to demonstrate the effectiveness of your escapes? I only work some techniques on inexperienced people I know well enough to be sure they'll take my warning to heart when I tell them to fake certain parts. Otherwise, I'll have to really apply the technique and they'll get hurt.

 

Edit: I still got asterixed, and for a common, clean word! I can't win!

[Son Goku the monkeyking]

I whould say the best style for fighting in a street fight is any style of kungfu( because you will be able to beet them up, and scare them away with a fancy Kata or move set) Or Jeet Kune Do because Bruce Lee made especially for street fighting, and made it out of many other styles.

 

HOLLA

[Hudson]

JKD isn't a style, there is no JKD kick, no JKD punch. It's just what Bruce Lee thought up at that time. And he'd probably have a whole new mindset if he was alive today, since he was frequently thinking up new ideas and concepts for his fighting.

 

With that set aside, not all Kung Fu styles are good for "street fighters", because you can't learn it well without constant practice and hard work, and lots of time. Some of the styles are very complex and while just as worth it in the higher levels of training, very hard to grasp in the beginning.

[VinnieDaChin]

my comment needing explanation:

 

well, based on the other post "Kenpo Vs. Boxing" i probably exagerated a bit- but i still like boxing's methods of striking and training better.

 

anyway, i said that because i saw kenpo as a bad striking style (upon more research, that isnt always true- just among the people ive met that do it), and to make the point that knowing bjj is very good for street fighting, multiple opponents or not.

[Mr. Mike]

IKCA American Kenpo is basically the same as what Bruce Lee was doing...Keeping what worked and throwing away what didn't. No, Not every situation will be the same as in training, in fact most likely, not a single situation will ever be the same as in training.

 

here, check this out:http://www.karateconnection.com/IKCA3.PDF Go to the article about the night I met Bruce Lee, by Chuck Sullivan.

 

There you will see what I meant by Keeping what works and throwing away what doesn't

 

If you can't decide between striking and grappling, here's an idea: CROSS TRAIN!

 

Learn the best of all worlds.

[Fyrebrand]

I have found that American Kenpo Karate is quite effective in street fighting. Of course, not using it's techniques by the book as they are designed for ideal situations...

[wingedsoldier]

I have found that American Kenpo Karate is quite effective in street fighting. Of course, not using it's techniques by the book as they are designed for ideal situations...

 

true. but i said it once before. a fighters greatest strength may not be the art he studies, but his ability to adapt to the situation and to the opponent. if you can do this, the combat system you study will provide you with the knowledge and capability to handle the problem.