The ACTUAL Best Martial Art For Self-Defense

The ACTUAL Best Martial Art For Self-Defense

A common recurring question in martial arts is which martial art is best for self-defense. Now, a lot of you might say mixed martial arts because it gives you a bit of everything, but that's cheating. That's not the question because MMA just steals bits and pieces from other martial arts.

When someone asks which martial art is best, you can't just say all of them. So let's limit the question to cohesive singular martial arts and the martial art that's the absolute best for self-defense is wrestling. It's barely even a contest.

And more specifically, the American folk-style collegiate slash scholastic wrestling, which I am henceforth going to refer to as American wrestling. There's a ton of reasons why wrestling is the best art for self-defense. First of all, the winner pretty much had to be a grappling art.

You might be tempted to pick a striking art because you could theoretically get quick knockouts, but grappling arts can slam people on their head. And when a really good striker fights a really good grappler and those are the only skill sets they have, the grappler wins pretty much every time. This is because most grapplers have ways to get standing fights to the ground, but most strikers don't have ways of getting back up.

And we saw this dynamic play out in the early UFC events where grapplers absolutely dominated. I feel like that's going to make a lot of people upset and they're going to try to give you reasons why boxers are good enough. Boxing's fine.

It's just not the best. If the striker doesn't get a knockout, immediately they lose. If you pick one art for self-defense and you picked striking, you better hope and pray that you never meet any grapplers.

But there are a lot of good functional grappling arts. So why is wrestling better? Well, first of all, the culture of wrestling in general, and American wrestling specifically, is much better at churning out effective fighters. As an example, look at other combat sports.

If you've been to a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, Muay Thai, or boxing class, you've probably seen people that take it really seriously and want to be the best. But you've seen a lot more people that casually dabble, don't compete, and just come to practice because it's a fun way to get out of the house. They might be older or out of shape or not quite challenge themselves as much because they're just there to have fun.

And most martial arts classes have to go easy enough to get these people in the door and have them keep taking lessons. And coming to martial arts to have fun is perfectly fine. There's nothing wrong with that.

But we're talking about what churns out the best fighters. Because when you go to a wrestling practice, those casual practitioners don't exist. No one in a wrestling room is just coming to get out of the house.

They're all there to compete. Everyone that wrestles is expected to take part in wrestling competitions. Everyone in that room is there to win.

The ACTUAL Best Martial Art For Self-Defense

And that has a dramatic effect on the atmosphere and culture of that room. Practice is harder, expectations are higher, and having fun isn't as important as being effective. While wrestling is much more demanding than other martial arts, it also churns out skilled athletes at a rate that other arts could only dream of.

Because virtually all wrestlers compete, wrestling teams are able to create a culture more conducive to performance. When only a few people in your class are really focused on being fit and athletic, you're not going to feel all that pressured to put in the work. But if everyone in your class is working their tail off to become a phenomenal athlete, you're probably going to put in the work too.

Peer pressure is a powerful thing. And when most of your team is putting themselves in a do or die competition mindset, you're going to end up going at a lot higher intensity when you spar them. When the vast majority of the students are gearing up for competitions, it's going to change the attitude and intensity level of the rest of the room.

And you're going to get swept up in that sense of urgency, whether you choose to or not. This leads to a much more demanding and results focused gym culture that, while difficult and exhausting, leads to higher effort and better results because a rising tide lifts all boats. This kind of gym culture is something that very few BJJ, Muay Thai or Judo gyms are able to copy because they have a much higher percentage of students that don't intend to compete.

If you've ever grappled against a high level wrestler, you might have experienced this difference for yourself. They often operate at a much higher intensity, and even teenage wrestlers have levels of explosive athleticism that advanced practitioners of other arts never develop. This intensity is actually a big deal in a fight.

If you spar a high level Muay Thai or Brazilian jujitsu practitioner, they leave you feeling tired, confused and uncomfortable. But if you go against a high level wrestler, it feels like you're being continuously run over by a car the entire match. Plenty of people can make me feel unskilled, but only wrestlers have made me feel like a weak little baby.

In addition, this constant level of intensity also breeds very tough people. There's a common saying in Brazilian jiu-jitsu, how do you turn a black belt into a brown belt? You punch them. How do you turn them into a purple belt? You punch them again.

You know what a wrestler becomes when you punch them? Angry. A common problem with grappling arts and martial arts in general is that they don't prepare you for the intensity and chaos of an actual fight. Wrestling usually does.

The ACTUAL Best Martial Art For Self-Defense

Now you might be thinking, hey, there's plenty of arts similar to American wrestling, like catch wrestling or various kinds of folk wrestling. Wouldn't those be just as good? And the answer is not usually. The reason is because they don't usually have the same kind of volume or infrastructure behind them.

You see, when a martial art gets more popular, you get more minds working on the same problems, more funding and a larger number of world class athletes. All of this leads to greater innovation and a higher quality of athlete. As an example, look at the time a catch wrestling world champion was easily beaten by an unranked Brazilian jujitsu practitioner.

Is this because catch wrestling fundamentally sucks? No, it's because catch wrestling is tiny. You can't be a big fish in a small pond because the small ponds doesn't have enough resources for you to grow. A lot of high level grapplers that came from catch wrestling ultimately end up training with and competing against Brazilian jujitsu practitioners.

Sports like freestyle, Greco-Roman and American wrestling, however, are more than large enough for anyone to reach their potential. In addition to general advantages and mindset, fitness and intensity, wrestling also has many aspects specifically useful for self-defense encounters. First of all, wrestlers have comparatively short matches, usually maxing out at seven minutes.

This means that they operate at a much higher pace than other combat sports. And when we look at videos of street fights, this higher pace is usually how the fights go down. This means that wrestlers are more likely to be comfortable with the level of speed and energy in a street fight compared to practitioners from other combat sports.

Second of all, wrestling might also be a legally safer alternative than most other arts. You see, self-defense is primarily a legal term, and how you handle the encounter will determine whether you defended yourself or go to prison. Exactly what you have to do depends on the laws in your area, but a common requirement is that you can only hurt someone if they are an active threat.

Arts like Brazilian jiu-jitsu advocate for position over submission, meaning that you should be in control of the fight and in a dominant position before going for a submission. And from a tactical standpoint, that is absolutely correct. Unfortunately, it's often a crime.

If you're mounting someone and in complete control of the fight, you can't break their arm, depending on where you live. You're in control. They're no longer a threat.

We actually have footage of Brazilian jiu-jitsu experts competently and legally defending themselves, but they usually just take someone down and hold them until law enforcement shows up, which is wrestling. Immediately went for the choke. But then in my mind, I'm like, OK, I can't choke him out because it's an assault in New York.

So I immediately transitioned to his wrist control, both hands. And during the transition, I was able to just get on his back and he was immobilized. All the submissions they know end up going out the window because all they're allowed to do is control the guy.

The ACTUAL Best Martial Art For Self-Defense

Likewise, most striking arts have a similar problem in that anything that isn't a clean walkaway knockout doesn't necessarily end the fight. If you manage to rock your attacker with a solid punch, do you follow it up with a combo? Because if you land 20 to 30 unanswered strikes in a row and give your attacker brain trauma, the prosecutor might not believe that you were the victim. Sure, you know they were still conscious and you might believe that they're going to come right back at you the moment they get their bearings.

But it doesn't matter what you believe. It matters what the jury believes. And the only thing the jury knows for sure is that you turn this guy's face in the mashed potatoes.

Self-defense is a legal term, and we can't talk about self-defense without talking about how the legal system works. Keeping yourself safe is a lot harder to do when you're in prison. Thankfully for wrestlers, taking someone down and controlling them is pretty much the entire art, meaning that what you're practicing is not only effective but also less legally problematic.

American wrestling heavily specializes in ground control, and when Brazilian jiu-jitsu or mixed martial arts practitioners have to deal with a belligerent person, they often just end up wrestling them. Being able to put someone on the ground, force them into specific positions, and prevent them from getting up is probably the best way to defend yourself without going to jail. And without risking going to jail.

Of course, if you need to hurt them, you can just punch them. It doesn't take a genius to figure out how to do that. Wrestling's heavy emphasis on takedowns and ground control make it uniquely suited to self-defense, even compared with other grappling arts.

And American wrestling's even heavier emphasis on ground control gives it an advantage over other forms of wrestling. But what if you don't want to go to the ground? Well, the way to avoid being taken down is by being the better wrestler. And unlike Brazilian jiu-jitsu, wrestling is a grappling art in which being flat on the ground is never okay.

Keeping a skilled wrestler down is incredibly difficult. If any art is going to prepare you to stay on your feet, it's wrestling. Matches even consist of a round where competitors start on their hands and knees in referees position, which ensures that every wrestler gets the chance for extensive experience in getting off the ground and resetting.

Compounded on this is the fact that wrestling is an ideal base for weapon defense. Rate the best martial arts sport knife defense. Wrestling.

It's wrestling. If your opponent has a weapon, your goal is to control their weapon arm and eventually force them into a position where they can no longer bring their to bear. It's pretty easy to see how wrestling would excel at this.

Well, what if you actually want to make space so you can draw your firearm? Well, I think Craig Douglas has a pretty good explanation, so I'm just going to let him say it. What does it require for you to break space and get the gun? Control. Which comes from? Position.

Which comes from? Wrestling. Yeah, wrestling. If you're going to have a successful strategy of staying engaged and drawing the pistol, you have to have wrestling.

But you know what? One of the biggest reasons that American wrestling is the best martial art for self-defense has nothing to do with weapons, lawyers, or even what wrestling teaches you. The advantage that wrestling has over every other martial art in the country and most martial arts in the world is that, at least here in the US, it's practically three. Nearly every public school system in the country has a wrestling program.

And the cost for a student to enroll in four to six months of training is about $100, depending on the program. That's like $20 a month, which is a fraction of what other martial arts cost. And wrestling practice being at your kid's school means getting them to and from practice is really convenient.

There's no additional driving, and practice always works around their school schedule. Almost every kid in the country could be an excellent fighter by the time they graduate high school. Plus, how many martial arts can get you college scholarships? If you're in middle school, high school, or college, and you're interested in self-defense, why aren't you in wrestling? Also note that while American wrestling has some small advantages over other wrestling styles, they're all pretty close.

Greco-Roman, freestyle, or even other folk wrestling traditions that you have in your area are probably going to be better for self-defense than most other martial arts. To summarize, wrestling gives practitioners better intensity, better athleticism, better weapon defense, a better legal defense, a low barrier to entry, and even college scholarships. Wrestling is so good, there are in fact only two downsides.

Number one, it's really hard to find a good wrestling place after you graduate school. And you might have to seek out a wrestling club at the nearest public university. And number two, the singlets do look pretty dumb.

Let's all be honest about that, come on. But you'll be able to suplex anyone that makes fun of you, so worth it.



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