For anyone considering martial arts, I would offer this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FwIKu3T09oo
Basically, if you want to be able to use something in a real scenario, you must be able to practice it against a partner who is not only resisting, but actively trying to turn the tables on you, in other words, simulate a real world scenario as much as possible. It should be no surprise that arts such as muay thai, boxing, jiu jitsu, and wresting are far and away the most prominent in Vale Tudo and MMA (as close as we can get to a "no rules, no limits" fight in the Western world). To a smaller extent, you will see people be successful using more traditional styles (read: hard, old-school styles as they were practised in their original form) of karate and TKD. Look at the way they train.
What you will not find in an MMA fight is someone who is very successful using hocus pocus stuff like "westernized" karate and TKD (read: soft, degraded, and barely recognizable to what they originally were), aikido, krav maga, etc etc etc, where there is either no sparring, or sparring is extremely restricted by rules / times / etc (point-sparring, so to speak, where the goal is to touch your opponent as opposed to actually hurting him).
My personal opinion on the matter of self-defence is that those who learn a martial art will be much more confident in themselves and will for the most part not find themselves in bad situations. Every bad situation I've ever been in, I can look back on and realize I could have easily not been in it. Those with true confidence in themselves rarely find themselves there, and that is the biggest value of martial arts, the other 2% of the value is that if they do find themselves there, they will most likely live to fight another day.
PuckChaser said:
If you're doing armbars at 100% effort you're going to run out of training partners really quickly....
Other than when I am rolling with new guys, I have to put 100% focus/effort into catching a submission, and no one gets hurt because they know when to tap out. If it's a new guy, I don't put 100% into it but since he's untrained I don't need to anyway.
PuckChaser said:
Is there a Close Quarter Combat basic course running on your base? Request to be course loaded. 7 training days will expose you to multiple fighting styles, with some specifics unique to military hand to hand fighting. Be a great way to see if you like grappling, or striking or both. Best part is: They pay you to be there.
I get your point, and yes it's probably a good way to try it out, but I have to use this point to go off on a tangent about how poorly the army is doing with its hand-to-hand curriculum and the non-existent training afterwards that is necessary to ever become proficient in using those kinds of skills.