Wing Chun or Krav Maga

[Lenny]

Which style, in your opinion, is a better real life self defense. I know they are both good and I'm not asking anyone to put the other one down or anything, just pros and cons.

 

I want a no bull crap, well rounded self defense and I think I’ve narrowed it down to Wing Chun or Krav Maga. What’s your take?

 

Thanks.

[TJS]

km

[simpso1j]

KM - definately. I have taken various other styles and KM is the best, by far. My goal is self-defense. I don't want kata. I don't want tradition. I want fighting skills. KM is where it's at.

[Shane]

Out of the two you listed and what you said your looking for I would for sure suggest KM

[pvwingchun]

Wing Chun. Easy to learn, very direct and very effective. The forms teach you to cover all ranges of fighting and it doesn't tie you up in predictable sequences (Sorry simpso1j no kata's here just the form). You learn the techniques and you learn the principles and you make it yours, that is you utilize what is taught in a fashion that works for you not what works for someone else. At least that is how I teach it. But be wary because anything can be watered down and taught in a fashion that preaches self defense but doesn't teach it.

[Drunken Monkey]

i'm not sure if the average wing chun school is going to give you fast self defence lessons.

 

then again, i'm not sure if krav maga classes do either.

 

self defence is a very different animal to 'normal' training.

 

a style might be an efficient self defence system that has instinctive moves but without real SELF DEFENCE emphasis and training,

 

it still means squat.

[Keumgang]

Krav Maga all the way...

[pvwingchun]

DM

 

That is exactly how I train my students. I want them to be effective defending themselves as quick as possible. Start with a few tools and build on it. Teaching only private lessons allows me to train each student to their personal need while still teaching the art and the self defense aspect of it. It can be done but you have to emphasis the fighting and self defense aspects of the art. You are right most average WC schools probably don't teach it that way, at least in my opinion and from experience.

 

I have an ex cop training with me now who recently told me that she learned more about self defense in the first few weeks then she did all the time she was an officer.

 

Any art can be effective for Self defense if taught in that manner. Although some are inherently better than others because of the nature of them. But so much of it is in the instruction.

[Nick_UKWC]

I don't know anything much about KM, although it is highly regarded.

 

I feel WC IS suited to real life self defense application, but I think it's going to take you at least a couple of years to get competent.

 

I don't know if this is the case with KM or not.

[Drunken Monkey]

there's one place near me that i think teaches wing chun very well as a self defence art.

 

they teach the whole form and all the related jazz but when it comes to sparring/drilling they keep it very simple.

 

a lot of it is based around simple step/pak sau/punch.

 

y'know, the basics.... that work.

 

a lot of the training is for receiving hard attacks under pressure.

 

even the beginners are facing attacks at decent pace after three/four lessons.

 

one excercise has a few of your classmates in front of you acting out a type of scenario where they are 'aggressive' (varying levels of aggression).

 

one of them attacks without warning.

 

typically, we have the attacker go for a grab on the throat cos it's not that dangerous,

 

i mean, it's not like they're going to tear your thorat out. just make the light grab....

 

it works and really does give you an idea of how you might react, or not as the case might be.

 

you also have to bare in mind, you DO know that you're going to be attacked in this excercise so you're kinda ready for it.

 

more often than not, you'll end up doing a step/pak sau.....

 

but this is more or less the self defence/fighting part of the training.

 

we did do a lot of 'art' training as well

 

i.e 'pretty' wing chun stuff.

 

but we did these with decent pace as well.

 

then there was the 'after class' lessons where we would maybe gear up and pound each other.....

 

i know full well that this isn't a typical wing chun class.

 

i would have to say that the sifu being a doorman has something to do with the way the class is geared towards actual use/effective use.

 

the good thing is, i've noticed that more and more wing chun classes are going back towards a more real traditional 'fight' style training of first gen yip man hk students (wong shun leung, lee shing, jiu wan etc etc).

 

at a guess, i would say this is because these classes are now being run by those sifus' first gen students who are by and large around 30-35 years old and pretty handy with their fists, just like their sifus before them were at that age.

 

like i said before, self defence is something that you train for.

 

it doesn't come from the style itself.

 

i mean, basic tkd form is a series of blocks and punches (four direction punch+block)

 

if you want to learn self defence you can take this and work with it and make it self defence applicable.