Best martial art to practice for smaller individuals?

Question

If you are a smaller guy or a woman and have to rely more on technique than strength, which martial art would you recommend? Do you think there are any that even the playing field a bit?

Answer 1

Wade8888

Xper 6

find an Isshinryu Karate instructor who is at least a 3rd or 4th degree black belt OR a real Ninjitsu instructor. You DON'T want a paper black belt, you want to win real street self defense situations and multiple attacker drills, and you want 3/4 to full contact sparring every session, not point sparring.

Wade8888

1 mo
Just so you know, Isshinryu is one of the best combined striking/grappling styles. They don't fight in the UFC because they fight in private seminars. Every Isshinry instructor knows Jujitsu anyway, because the Shorinryu half of Isshinryu already teaches everything that's in Jujitsu.

Take a combined striking/grappling style. In a street fight you WON'T want to be on the ground, you win a street fight with striking, or STANDING submissions, because you don't want to be on the ground wrestling with someone in a street fight (don't know if there are other attackers, etc).

Jujitsu is a good sport, but Isshinryu and Ninjitsu is what they train Navy SEALS in.

Answer 2

Wade8888

Just so you know, Isshinryu is one of the best combined striking/grappling styles. They don't fight in the UFC because they fight in private seminars. Every Isshinry instructor knows Jujitsu anyway, because the Shorinryu half of Isshinryu already teaches everything that's in Jujitsu.

Take a combined striking/grappling style. In a street fight you WON'T want to be on the ground, you win a street fight with striking, or STANDING submissions, because you don't want to be on the ground wrestling with someone in a street fight (don't know if there are other attackers, etc).

Jujitsu is a good sport, but Isshinryu and Ninjitsu is what they train Navy SEALS in.

Answer 3

genericname85 | 98 opinions shared on Sports topic.

Master

just do MMA fighting. the separation between the martial arts is a thing of the past in our globalized society. if you're smaller, you should focus on using your speed advantage and lower center of mass for leverage.

Answer 4

R3DthatDude

Yoda

Judo. Grappling type martial arts don’t really need to be stronger then someone only a great technique and mastery

R3DthatDude

1 mo
I would suggest once mastered you should learn karate to mix that in with the judo so you can further do damage once they are brought down to the floor
Wade8888

1 mo
You definitely need both Grappling and striking, that's why I suggested Isshinryu.

A smaller fighter MUST have a wicked snap kick and jab, and you need a respectable thrust kick too, so you can control range and fight on your terms.

And submission swork on everyone, so I don't know why there aren't better submissions experts in UFC. I know like 500 military quality submissions they never use in the UFC, and I'm like, "Am I the only one who was ttaught all this stuff, or are these paper brown/black belts?"

If you want to be SAFE for street self defense, you need 1000 hours of Cardio kickboxing and 2000 hours of advanced Isshinryu striking and another 1000 hours grappling training.
Wade8888

1 mo
Yeah, I did the math just now, and it was right at 4000 hours total in Isshinryu and Cardio Kickboxing to get my 1st Kyu. So they don't give away 1st Kyu nor 1st Dan in that style to just anyone, you have to Earn every belt and every stripe.

So for strking I'd say Isshinryu, and yes for Grappling I'd say Judo.

Wrist locks work on everyone, and Judo knows a lot about throws, wrist locks, and arm bars, etc. It's a great place to start in martial arts.
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Wade8888

1 mo
Basically the goal in a Street Self Defense situation is to get Side Arm control or a reverse wrist lock, and then kick your attacker's guts out until they give up and run away. So yeah you need strikin gno matter what. Judo is good for submissions, throws, passing guard, etc. Isshinryu is good for redirects, power striking, and just the discipline of studying the best of all styles.
R3DthatDude

1 mo
That’s awesome. I would like to learn some martial arts myself
Wade8888

1 mo
Yeah I wish I had never quit full time karate training. I would have been better served training at least a few hours per week, but back when I was 20 years old, I could have won the UFC if I had fought in it at about 180 to 185 pounds.

the only reason I didn't get a Black Belt is I kept getting stufck about 90% of the way through Sunsu kata for the black belt test, but if I couldn't remember the last 10% of the kata, I must not have had the last 10% of the fighting skills either, so even though I beat 2nd degree black belts pretty easily in a fight, I technically iddn't pass the requirements for black belt, so I didn't deserve it.

Belt ranks in Isshinryu matter, but generally your not "supposed to" beat someone 2 belt ranks above you, but at that time in my life I was a freakishly good fighter... i just kept flunking the Kata portion of the black belt test.

Answer 5

R3DthatDude

I would suggest once mastered you should learn karate to mix that in with the judo so you can further do damage once they are brought down to the floor

Answer 6

Wade8888

You definitely need both Grappling and striking, that's why I suggested Isshinryu.

A smaller fighter MUST have a wicked snap kick and jab, and you need a respectable thrust kick too, so you can control range and fight on your terms.

And submission swork on everyone, so I don't know why there aren't better submissions experts in UFC. I know like 500 military quality submissions they never use in the UFC, and I'm like, "Am I the only one who was ttaught all this stuff, or are these paper brown/black belts?"

If you want to be SAFE for street self defense, you need 1000 hours of Cardio kickboxing and 2000 hours of advanced Isshinryu striking and another 1000 hours grappling training.

Answer 7

Wade8888

Yeah, I did the math just now, and it was right at 4000 hours total in Isshinryu and Cardio Kickboxing to get my 1st Kyu. So they don't give away 1st Kyu nor 1st Dan in that style to just anyone, you have to Earn every belt and every stripe.

So for strking I'd say Isshinryu, and yes for Grappling I'd say Judo.

Wrist locks work on everyone, and Judo knows a lot about throws, wrist locks, and arm bars, etc. It's a great place to start in martial arts.

Answer 8

Wade8888

Basically the goal in a Street Self Defense situation is to get Side Arm control or a reverse wrist lock, and then kick your attacker's guts out until they give up and run away. So yeah you need strikin gno matter what. Judo is good for submissions, throws, passing guard, etc. Isshinryu is good for redirects, power striking, and just the discipline of studying the best of all styles.

Answer 9

R3DthatDude

That’s awesome. I would like to learn some martial arts myself

Answer 10

Wade8888

Yeah I wish I had never quit full time karate training. I would have been better served training at least a few hours per week, but back when I was 20 years old, I could have won the UFC if I had fought in it at about 180 to 185 pounds.

the only reason I didn't get a Black Belt is I kept getting stufck about 90% of the way through Sunsu kata for the black belt test, but if I couldn't remember the last 10% of the kata, I must not have had the last 10% of the fighting skills either, so even though I beat 2nd degree black belts pretty easily in a fight, I technically iddn't pass the requirements for black belt, so I didn't deserve it.

Belt ranks in Isshinryu matter, but generally your not "supposed to" beat someone 2 belt ranks above you, but at that time in my life I was a freakishly good fighter... i just kept flunking the Kata portion of the black belt test.

Answer 11

NathanDavis

Yoda

Boxing.

Best martial art to practice for smaller individuals?

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