You are looking to take martial art basic and want to know where to start. You have seen movies with people doing incredible martial art moves to stop an attacker or fight off bad guys.
What is the best martial art basic for beginners? This depends on why you want to take martial arts. If you are taking for self-defense we recommend Jiu-Jitsu. Yet if you want to learn katas or maybe awesome flying kicks then taking a TaeKwonDo may be more your style.
Congratulations! You have made the first part of one of the best decisions you will ever make as a parent –deciding your child should start training in the martial art basic. This was the easy part – the hard part is deciding what is the best martial art for your child as a beginner! The answer to this question depends on why you want your child to take martial arts. If you want your child to take martial arts for just self defence the choice maybe different to if they want to compete or learn awesome flying kicks or improve their focus in solitary patterns (kata) practice. Some martial arts specialize in just one of these areas while others allow kids to experience all of these different aspects and more. Read on to find out more about what different styles of martial arts may have to offer your kids as they begin their martial arts journey.
The discipline known as martial art basic has spread at an incredible speed in the West since its introduction in the 20th century from its historic roots in East Asia. Martial arts can be classified as either armed combat (including fencing and archery) or unarmed combat (such as hapkido, taekwondo, aikido, judo and karate). Awareness, strength and skill make a student in training exceptional in the discipline.
We will need to look at what is your objective for taking martial art basic to see which one fits you as a beginner
So you wanna start studying a martial art basic, but don’t know where to start. This might sound stupid to some people, however a true martial artist can understand the difficulty in choosing your first martial art. Picking the right martial art to study is crucial if you’re going to enjoy yourself and ultimately stick with it. Joining a martial art can be extremely rewarding for your fitness and overall well being. You might like your first martial art so much that you start studying another one, and another. There are countless stories of people who take their first kickboxing class and fall in love with it, and suddenly years later they are living in Thailand. Whether you want to practice a martial art because your goal is to become a professional MMA fighter, or if you’re just trying to lose some weight with MMA, this guide will help you.
First Things First
There are many downsides to studying martial art basic. First off, it’s usually going to cost you a lot of time and money. Depending on which classes you take, martial arts can start getting expensive with the various equipment required (gloves, shin guards, mouthpiece, etc). There are going to be times when you want to give up, or at minimum take a couple of days off. Your body will be sore, and there will be times that you question “is this even worth all the trouble?” The answer will be different for everyone. Only a true martial artist keeps their mind strong through the best and worst of times. If your goal from learning martial arts is to win a street fight, you’re probably learning martial arts for the wrong reasons.
Types of Martial Art Basic
So you’ve decided you want to learn a martial art, this is great news. There are so many different styles of martial arts that a person could learn, and they are available to learn at any age. Whether you’re 7 years old in a karate class, or 60 years old starting Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, there is no age limit on learning. There are self-defense martial arts you can learn like Krav Maga, or more traditional arts like Tae Kwon Do. The martial arts world is yours to explore, however, this guide will give you a better idea on where to start. Don’t have time to join a gym? There are still ways to get a good MMA style workout at home.
Boxing
Many martial artists would be surprised to see boxing on this list. However, boxing is one of the purest forms of martial arts in history. It is highly effective in MMA as well, teaching fighters head movement and footwork technique. It is also extremely effective in self-defense situations, as most fights start standing up. Boxing is a sport that has been celebrated by the masses throughout history. It’s also not that hard to become a better boxer with practice.
Jiu-Jitsu
This was our number one pick because it is a very effective martial art for self-defense.
What do you learn in Jiu-Jitsu?
- Ground fighting techniques
- How to take any size opponent to the ground
- Position yourself to gain control of the attacker
Techniques to choke in a fight include:
- Rear naked choke
- Cross collar choke
- Triangle choke
- Bow and arrow choke
- Guillotine
- Side choke
Techniques to lock joints such as:
- Wristlock
- Ankle lock
- Armlock
- Armbar
- Reverse armbar
- Takedowns to get the opponent to the ground
- Punch defense
- Mount positions
Most people usually do not know how to fight. When you train in Jiu-Jitsu you will quickly learn some of the techniques above.
These techniques do not take a really long time to learn. They do take time to master but to use these techniques on an attacker you do not need to have them mastered.
Why is Jiu-Jitsu the best martial art basic for beginners?
- You can quickly learn techniques that can be used in a real fight
- Everyone can train online or train in a local gym
- Anyone no matter size can train and use these techniques
- Trained in Jiu-Jitsu you can beat bigger and stronger opponents
- Many fights go to the ground so knowing ground fighting helps tremendously
- Downside to Jiu-Jitsu
- The training mostly focuses on ground fighting so fighting multiple attackers you need stand up training
Krav Maga
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This martial art basic originates from Israel, where it is taught in the army and Mossad (Israel’s national intelligence service), and many believe that it is the most effective way of defending yourself against an attacker. The name “Krav Maga” comes from a Hebrew phrase meaning “contact combat.” And it does what it says on the tin — practitioners engage in hands-on, close-up combat and aren’t afraid of attacking each other in the face or between the legs. What matters most is keeping the upper hand over your attacker. If you find yourself in a scary situation and need to defend yourself, you’ll be at a huge advantage if you know exactly how best to react to your opponent — whether or not your moves are fair.
Krav Maga borrows heavily from other martial arts, such as boxing, wrestling, karate (in particular the kicks) and Jiu-Jitsu (the throws, levers, and ground fighting). It also incorporates natural reflexes and reactions. This means that Israeli martial art is relatively easy to learn. After just six months, you’ll have mastered the basics sufficiently well that you can defend yourself against an attacker. Even if they have a weapon.
- Difficulty: the techniques are easy and relatively quick to learn
- Suitability: men and women of any age, only a moderate level of fitness required
- Mental training: yes
- Competitions: no
Mixed Martial Arts (MMA)
Mixed martial arts originated as mixed combat sports in Ancient China and Ancient Greece.
The Chinese combat sport of Leitai is one of the first mixed combat sports and utilized elements of different kung fu styles, boxing, and wrestling.
In Ancient Greece, such an example can be found in the art of pankration, a very specific martial art that combined boxing – which was very popular in Ancient Greece – and wrestling – which probably originated in Mesopotamia or Ancient Egypt.
Pankration was extremely popular (even the most popular sport, according to some historians) in Ancient Greece and there is vague evidence that similar mixed combat sports were practiced in Ancient Japan, Egypt, and India.
Different hybrid martial arts developed as centuries passed, but despite a large number of historical influences, modern MMA is considered to stem from Brazilian jiujitsu and vale tudo; the latter is yet another full-contact hybrid combat sport that originated in Brazil.
Vale tudo events date back to the 1920s. MMA events continued to develop as decades passed until 1993, when the first official global MMA event – the UFC 1 – was held in Denver, Colorado.
This is the official “birth year” of MMA and one of the most important events in the evolution of mixed and hybrid combat sports. UFC 1 was televised and it was in a review by critic Howard Rosenberg that the term “mixed martial arts” appeared for the first time.
MMA training builds you from outside as well as inside.
You will gain confidence, a lot of it, just make sure to use it the right way, and not to look for a fight around every corner.
MMA training sessions have a lot of benefits.
One of the biggest benefits of MMA training is a significant increase in strength. This is due to the different styles and techniques that are associated with MMA training and require full bodywork.
Strong fitness training is also included in MMA training. By gradually increasing endurance, your heart, lungs, and other body systems will be at much higher levels.
MMA definitely is good for all three elements. Unlike some other martial arts, which focus more on one element or the other, MMA gives you a complete package that focuses on all elements – strength, cardio, and weight loss.
Due to the fact, MMA is really demanding and physically straining, it is a good cardio exercise and we all know that cardio exercises are good for losing weight, but it will also increase your strength, which is an essential element for MMA fights.
Wrestling
Wrestling is a modern combat sport that involves grappling techniques such as clinch fighting, throws and takedowns, joint locks, pins, and other grappling holds; the aim of wrestling is to pin your opponent down on the mat, thereby winning the match.
The sport can either be theatrical for entertainment purposes (professional wrestling) or genuinely competitive; competitive wrestling has several styles such as folkstyle, freestyle, Greco-Roman, judo, sambo, and others, although some of them are now distinct martial arts and/or combat sports.
A wrestling bout is a physical competition, between two (occasionally more, although seldom) competitors or sparring partners, who attempt to gain and maintain a superior position.
There is a wide range of styles with varying rules with both traditional historic and modern styles.
Wrestling techniques have been incorporated into other martial arts (especially judo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, and MMA) as well as military hand-to-hand combat systems.
Due to the fact that it’s focused on grappling and throwing, wrestling is a martial art that is best suited for strength.
In the process, you will also improve your cardio a lot.
Regarding the weight loss, as it is known, first thing you have to master is a diet. Wrestling will just help you in that process, i.e. help you burn more calories.
Strength, cardio, and weight loss are not the only benefits of wrestling. Here are other benefits of wrestling.
Wrestling, although useful, should not be your first choice when it comes to self-defense.
Although you’ll certainly know how to defend yourself and how to react, wrestling defense is limited to very specific situations and cannot be applied to a variety of potential situations.
Why? In a street fight you want to knockout your attacker as soon as possible and get out of the place.
If you can take them down with your wrestling skills fast and leave, it is ok. But don’t spend any time on the ground; there is a possibility you can get jumped.
So, to conclude, it’s not actually useless, but you will certainly have to take additional classes (or martial arts) to improve and upgrade your self-defense techniques.
Muay Thai
Muay Thai (Kickboxing) is a great starting point for a beginner martial artist basic. Muay Thai is a kickboxing style sport that started in Thailand. Believe it or not, children in Thailand start having Muay Thai fights at the young age of 5. Thai people celebrate Muay Thai in the same way Americans do Baseball. Muay Thai is the “Art of eight limbs”, which include, punches, elbows, kicks, and knees. Muay Thai also focuses on the clinch technique which is useful for many other martial arts such as judo and wrestling.
There are many professional MMA fighters that focus solely on Muay Thai techniques to help them win fights. Edson Barboza is a good example of a traditional Muay Thai fighter.
Other fighters include practitioner TJ Dillashaw, he studies “Bang Muay Thai”, which is actually a hybrid form of Muay Thai created by Duane Ludwig and inspired by Bas Rutten. Max Holloway is another example of a Muay Thai style fighter, he is very successful in the UFC.
Muay Thai is also popular with celebrities that want to both learn to fight and get in shape. Wiz Khalifa for example is obsessed with Muay Thai and you can see him on his Instagram stories training at all hours of the day.
Karate
Karate is a traditional martial art basic hailing from the Ryukyu Kingdom (which is now apart of Japan). Karate is one of the most popular martial arts, and also one of the more prominent fighting styles seen in movies from the 60s and 70s. Not only is Karate popular in movies, but it is also going to be seen in the 2020 summer olympics.
he most successful MMA karate style fighter is Stephen “Wonderboy” Thompson. He has been able to translate his karate style of fighting in MMA successfully well. Another popular fighter with a “karate-style” stance is Conor McGregor. Although he doesn’t use many traditional karate style kicks (mostly focusing on boxing technique), he still imitates the wide stance of a traditional karate practitioner.
A normal training day in Karate is similar to the traditional training of Tae Kwon Do. There is sometimes contact, but not as much as Muay Thai or Boxing. There are many benefits of karate, these include: gaining balance, finding peace within yourself, various strikes in a traditional art-form. Karate is very popular among young children, they are able to make new friends and live healthier lives through karate.
Kickboxing
Kickboxing (Japanese: キックボクシング) is a relatively new combat sport that developed in Japan somewhere in the 1950s.
It was created by Osamu Noguchi and Tatsuo Yamada somewhere during 1959, when Yamada, a karateka, wanted to establish a form of full-contact karate; at the time, competitors did not hit each other in karate matches.
Yamada soon acquainted Noguchi, who was the manager of Thai fighter Nak Muay and found out that both shared an interest in Muay Thai.
They decided to pursue that even further and so – kickboxing was established.
But it wasn’t until the 1970s, when kickboxing came to the United States, that the sport truly became popular.
Today, it is considered to be a hybrid or mixed combat sport, as it combines elements from several other sports and martial arts.
As is Muay Thai, kickboxing is today practiced throughout the globe, but unlike its main influence, it does not have a single governing body.
Modern kickboxing is much more reliant on Western boxing and is, today, considered to be more of a Western fighting style, despite its Oriental roots (due to rapid development in the States from the 70s onwards).
Kickboxers could stand on their own in a boxing match since they rely more on kicks and leg techniques than kickboxers.
Kickboxing also uses a lot of punch combos, includes more headwork (just like boxing) and its footwork is similar to regular boxing.
Typical kickboxing kicks rely heavily on bending and withdrawing the foot after the kick and rely more on the use of kicks.
Kickboxing also demands faster, more aggressive footwork that is aimed at attacking the opponent, so it’s a lot more fast paced than other similar sports.
Kickboxing’s emphasis on boxing techniques requires good headwork in order to successfully evade an opponent’s shot.
Because cardio exercises rely so strongly on oxygen, they have a plethora of health benefits for the trainee so it is generally advised to do them more than not.
The first set of benefits is related to the upper body and the cardiovascular system.
Cardio exercises strengthen the respiratory muscles and generally benefit the respiratory tract, bettering your breathing.
They also have a very strong influence on the heart, enlarging it and generally allowing it to function better and longer.
The total amount of erythrocytes (red blood cells) in the blood is also increased and due to trainees burning a lot of calories, the vascular system gets a lot cleaner as cholesterol is also destroyed during the process of working out.
The exercises can also stimulate bone growth and can significantly decrease the risk of osteoporosis. The risk of cardiovascular diseases is generally reduced.
The second set of benefits is related to the neurological system. Science has proven that cardio exercises generally benefit the brain as well as the heart.
The brain’s structural connections are improved and there is a significant increase in grey matter density.
Cardio exercises also stimulate the growth of new neurons, which is vitally important for your neurological health.
Improvement is also noted with general cognitive functions and mental health, especially because such exercise significantly reduces the level of stress and frustration of a person.
The third set is a set of general corporal benefits. Your body becomes more flexible and you can increase your speed and agility.
If you are considering starting kickboxing to get in shape, check out a type of kickboxing training called cardio kickboxing which emphasis getting in shape mainly without sparring.
All I said about Muay Thai and self-defense, I can repeat with kickboxing, with the difference between them being the approach – kickboxing has a more offensive approach, compared to Muay Thai’s balanced approach.
Kickboxing utilizes all extremities, meaning that the disadvantages other sports and arts have when legs are concerned are annulled in kickboxing, which does rely more on punching but has the advantage of using legs as well.
Kickboxing is also specific because it requires patience, meaning that it will teach you endurance, which can be essential when defending yourself.
Although it has a more boxing-like, offensive approach, kickboxing still relies on waiting for the right moment to attack and that can prove to be essential in a tight spot.
To conclude, kickboxing will certainly help you with self-defense, but the fact is that its overly-specific approach to fighting might influence your techniques and your approach to a real-life threat.
Thus, some other sports and arts (such as boxing, for example) might be better if you want to learn the basics of self-defense and practice it short-term, but if you have any long-term goals and wish to improve on what you have already learned, there is absolutely no doubt that kickboxing is a good choice for you.
Tae Kwon Do
Hailing from Korea, Tae Kwon Do is one of the broadest forms of study. Statistically speaking, Tae Kwon Do has more followers than any other martial art, it’s even an Olympic sport. Attacks include quick punches, elaborate kicks, and basic throws. Tae Kwon Do is great for kids as well, it allows them to make friends and stay healthy.
There are many MMA fighters today that study Tae Kwon Do and use unique kicks in competition. Arguable one of the best MMA fighters ever, Anderson Silva, uses many Tae Kwon Do style kicks during his fights. Another great Bellator fighter, Benson Henderson, uses Tae Kwon Do style techniques during his fights as well. Anthony Pettis is also credits his MMA fighting career to starting out in Tae Kwon Do as a young child.
A normal training day in Tae Kwon Do is much more traditional than the other martial arts on this list. You’ll do many balance type drills, and some days you’ll be able to use your punches and kicks in light sparring. There are many relaxation type techniques in Tae Kwon Do believe it or not. This is because Tae Kwon Do uses the technique of staying calm while under pressure. Keeping your emotions in check is important for any martial art.
It really depends on the type of Tae Kwon Do gym you choose. Some gyms will favor sparring more, while others might not have any type of sparring. Some Tae Kwon Do gyms are actually targeted for children, and wouldn’t be too beneficial for an Adult to join. The great part about Tae Kwon Do is that there are many options, there is bound to be at least one gym in your town.
Judo
Judo (柔道, jūdō, lit. gentle way) is modern martial art, which has since evolved into a combat and Olympic sport.
The sport was created in 1882 by Jigoro Kano (嘉納治五郎) as a physical, mental, and moral pedagogy in Japan.
With its origins coming from jujutsu, judo’s most prominent feature is its competitive element, where the objective is to either throw or takedown an opponent to the ground, immobilize or otherwise subdue an opponent with a pin, or force an opponent to submit with a joint lock or a choke.
Strikes and thrusts by hands and feet as well as weapons defenses are a part of judo, but only in pre-arranged forms (kata, 形) and are not allowed in judo competition or free practice (randori, 乱 取り).
It was also referred to as Kanō Jiu-Jitsu until the introduction to the Olympic Games. A judo practitioner is called a judoka and the judo uniform is called judogi.
The philosophy and subsequent pedagogy developed for judo became the model for other modern Japanese martial arts that developed from koryū (古流, traditional schools).
One of the most famous women’s martial artist studied Judo from a young age, any guesses? Her name is Ronda Rousey, and she was very successful in Olympic Judo, as well as translating her Judo game into MMA. Another MMA fighter that practices Judo is Fedor Emilianenko. He uses many Judo style throws and take downs during his fights to dominate his opponents.
Because of its focus on grappling and throwing, judo’s self-defence is somewhat similar to that in wrestling.
Still, because of the philosophical nature of judo, this martial will prepare you for real-life situations a bit better than wrestling.
Judo has a wider and more varied approach to the technique, so it will prepare you to defend yourself against a wider variety of situations, certainly more than wrestling, which is why judo is a good martial art for self-defense, although not the best.
Read more The Best Martial Arts For Self Defence for Beginner
