How long in a dojo to be able to defend yourself

[Pablo]

How long (assuming I take 3-4 classes a week) would you suspect it would take me to effectively defend myself? It can be someone untrained (as most people are in my area) but larger than me. Would 4-5 months , if I am serious, be enough or more?

[Lupin1]

It depends on SOOOOOO many factors that we just can't tell you. It depends on the fighting style of the person you're fighting vs the style you're learning. It depends on how your training's conducted, how well you learn, if the sun gets in your eyes or if you get nervous and forget things, it just depends on so much. My advice would be try to avoid situations where you have to physically defend yourself.

[Rateh]

I agree with Lupin1. It depends entirely on the type of training you are doing in class, and the particular situations you encounter.

You could train 2 hours a day 5 days a week for 5 years, but if your training is ineffective then it wont make one bit of difference.

[GeoGiant]

I may be a bit off base here but do you want to learn a MA or do you want to learn how to fight?

With MAs you learn to defend yourself but you will also learn tradition (to some degree) and kata. If your desire is to fight back you may not like learning traditional forms… or I should say that you won’t see the need for learning these things. Not that you are thinking Bruce Lee, but get any idea out of your head that you are going to grab you attacker flip him around and walk away bushing your cloths off.

Why not try boxing? A good portion of a fight is mental. If you put gloves on and bang for a few weeks you will gain confidence in your physical abilities. I would never want to discourage anyone from MA training but you sound like your focus is defending yourself in a fight... and you sound like you need to do it now.

Good luck my friend.

[Pablo]

I have many reasons to study MA; I've anways ,liked them, how the Gi look and more, but I thought that if the average teenager tried to sucker punch me that I would be able to fight back some how.

Is martial arts (in modern times) not really an effective way to defend yourself from the average attacker?

I dont NEED it,but I would like it. I have never gotten into a fight with someone because they were P.O. at me. NEver will, I am the person to avoid those such altercations. I was just curious if TKD would be beneficail in that respect.

I am deciding between TKD, BJJ and Kenpo. All intrest me and are near, all I must do is see the facility. I was just curious; I am not intending to be no bruce lee but I have seen people (good friends of mine at that) get broken bones and bloody faces from fights and all I want to do is know that if someone starts that fight I can effectively push them away. Is that clearer? lol

[GeoGiant]

I have many reasons to study MA; I've anways ,liked them, how the Gi look and more, but I thought that if the average teenager tried to sucker punch me that I would be able to fight back some how.

Is martial arts (in modern times) not really an effective way to defend yourself from the average attacker?

I dont NEED it,but I would like it. I have never gotten into a fight with someone because they were P.O. at me. NEver will, I am the person to avoid those such altercations. I was just curious if TKD would be beneficail in that respect.

I am deciding between TKD, BJJ and Kenpo. All intrest me and are near, all I must do is see the facility. I was just curious; I am not intending to be no bruce lee but I have seen people (good friends of mine at that) get broken bones and bloody faces from fights and all I want to do is know that if someone starts that fight I can effectively push them away. Is that clearer? lol

Ok. MAs are an effective way to defend yourself.

For people that have not been in a fight or people who are not natural fighters you may find that you are not used to getting hit so you drop head when you are hit....or you are not used to keeping your hands up to protect yourself so you leave yourself open to attack. I will be honest, I did both of these things in class and I got hit a lot.

If you get in a fight on the street chances are you are going to get hit and doing either of the things i mentioned is going to get the crap kicked out you.

I wasn't trying to mock you with the Bruce Lee comment, sorry if it seemed that way. What I was getting at was - if you want to be able to defend yourself in a fight by training in a few months you may want to consider boxing. Boxing will focus on footwork, protection, punching,,,,, it will focus on all the bad habits you may have when faced with fist fight. MAs will also teach you these things but it will take longer (IMO) to break habits like dropping your head because all your time in the dojo will not be focused on engaging someone.

[Biskit]

In my opinion, kempo and JJ are two great and defensive arts, I study both. I do Shaolin Kempo which is EXTREMELY effectice in real fights. We learn kempos, some forms, but a TON of self defense techniques. Like we specifically learn what to if someone grabs your wrist, tries to choke you, tried to hit you with a club, etc. Then if something happens and the fight goes on the ground (which is likely) BJJ comes in and is equally effective.

In my opinion, and I'm sure many will disagree and agree, TKD is not the best for self defense, although it could depend on which type you take. However, it's very fun and can work in real fights, just not as much IMO. Don't let that discourage you though, if you want to learn TDK go for it Plenty of people disagree with me and think it's great

[ninjanurse]

Learning to a few self-defense moves can get you out of a jam (if you are lucky) but learning to defend yourself takes time.

In my opinion, and I'm sure many will disagree and agree, TKD is not the best for self defense, although it could depend on which type you take.

This is a common misconception held by many-largely due to the commercialization of tkd schools. There are ineffective teachers out there that produce ineffective students but they are not unique to TKD by any means!

My theory is this: Everyone starts at the bottom of the mountain and each of us chooses our own path to the top. Each path is different, each journey unpredictable, and the rate of ascent changes frequently. Once we reach the top of the mountain, and we have a solid foundation beneath our feet, the paths converge to form one that we all travel-styles blend, techniques are shared, concepts become universal, the lines blur. The trouble we run into is watching the guy/gal on trail next to us and not paying attention to where we put our own feet along the path.

[Pablo]

I am reallly limited in schools. I am meeting up with a Soo Bahk Do school and another TKD school. I am calling a bunch of places, mostly Shokotan Karate as those are the only other types we have around here. I am a natural fighter, but my size is not an advantage and I have trouble reconizing and esaping basic moves. Hopefully that makes sense.

I didn't take the Bruce Lee thing personally, I imagine a lot of people come on here expecting that. Its all good

[bushido_man96]

Its going to depend on the training focus. Some schools jump right into self-defense training. Others spend more time developing technique, and then get to the applications. If this is the case, then your learning curve will be larger than if you jump right into self-defense.