RANT: Sick of Getting Attacked. What Martial Art Should I Learn?

[PNWbrit]

Rex Kwon Do?

[BurnHard]

The art itself is not solely defensive in nature, but definitely isn't the MMA meathead all offense style that the guys wearing tapout shirts love.

Way to generalize and judge a whole group of people - and not understand a single thing about MMA or fighting.

PS: "Guys wearing tapout shirts" don't even train much less fight...

[ArmadaBC]

Here's my opinion on martial arts and self defense. Consider that I've been training several martial arts for a long time and have a dozen Thai & MMA fights...

Your best bet for self defense is pepper spray or a tazer.
Your second best bet is Kali / Eskrima / Phillipino Martial arts and a baton:

This, also chill out, idiots are everywhere but they generally act like a mirror in that what ever you put into them you get back.

If all else fails open hand punch to the throat....brutal but almost never fails.

Edit: Batons are apparently illegal in SF so scratch that.

[BeanDip4All]

wow, okay everyone thanks for the replies!

i have a lot of reading and research to do- really appreciate all the thoughts and the material. i'm off to class now but will sit down and go through everything later.

in the meantime, i'm thinking of cultivating avoidance and pacifism to avoid bad situations... if someone's blocking the street, just u-turn and go around another block. don't indulge my righteousness or NY-er attitude and sit there and honk or yell at them.

one thing i've learned (and obviously didn't put into practice yesterday) since living here is "Never honk at a car full of Samoans." i actually know a girl and her boyfriend who were driving down bush street and the road was blocked, so they leaned on the horn at a car blocking, and these samoan dudes had an ax in the trunk and axed their windshield. (they got out of the car and ran away, the dudes chased them down the street with the ax...)

[bklyn]

Your response to what has happened to you, due in whole or part to your own inattention or instigation, is to devolve into racism and stereotyping?
Classic.

[splat]

Carrying any weapon other than spray will likely get you jail time in SF. If you start a martial art, you have a lot of training to do to gain enough proficiency to use what you learn in real life. But if you learn some basic 'wax on, wax off' parrying techniques, you can keep other people from grabbing you enough to discourage most of them from fuckin with you. I won't even suggest striking or kicking unless you have a propensity to fight or are willing to spend the time to sparring in class. You can wear down a lot of attackers just operating in a purely defensive mode.

And if the Samoans mess with you, just say 'Solay', the Moke equivalent of 'Yo, Bro.'

[BeanDip4All]

well, i am going to work on not honking at ANYONE, whoever it is... or being argumentative... irl and/or on the internet

what i was trying to say is leaning on the horn at a car full of any type of people is a bad idea. i didn't lean on the horn at those guys yesterday, i yelled out the window "get out of the road"

in the future i'll just chill

[grskier]

Here's my opinion on martial arts and self defense. Consider that I've been training several martial arts for a long time and have a dozen Thai & MMA fights...

Your best bet for self defense is pepper spray or a tazer.
Your second best bet is Kali / Eskrima / Phillipino Martial arts and a baton:



Forget Karate, Brazilian Jiu Jitsu (which is one of my primary fighting arts), Kung Fu, or any other 'typical' martial art. Any art, including Kali, will take serious dedication and CONSTANT training to reach a level of muscle memory that is usable in a real situation. Unless you're willing to spend at least an hour a day drilling techniques and at least once a week 'live sparring' various situations, you wouldn't get much benefit from learning a martial art. Pepper spray is the way to go. Alternatively, learning to fight with a weapon in a system like Kali would put you at an advantage over 99% of assailants, even if you don't train regularly - just knowing the basics of holding a baton, how to swing, how to block, where to aim for, is enough to maim a bad guy and get away, compared to trying to put him in a choke hold you can't quite remember how to finish. As you evolve your Kali skills you can start carrying a knife as self defense, but there's bigger complications with a knife, so I'd rather stick to a baton.

I have to very strongly agree with this...

Don't get yourself hurt or killed...

[Art Shirk]

Your response to what has happened to you, due in whole or part to your own inattention or instigation, is to devolve into racism and stereotyping?
Classic.

Having grown up in Hawaii, I can say that honking at Samoans is not usually a smart idea

[Danno]

x2=bklyn and mtngirl.

Agreed.

BD4A, sorry that you're facing this. And please don't take this as blame, because you are NOT to blame for these assholes acting like degenerate violent assholes. But what you are responsible for is escalating. You did have a hand in turning some of those situations worse. I am not a woman, so obviously there's an element of your experience that I can't identify with, but I grew up in NYC, rode the subway an hour each way to school for 6 years, and never had one violent confrontation. You need to work on a better "radar" for trouble, you should have a 6th sense of when you are in a potentially compromising spot or there's a potentially dangerous person. And you need to learn how to diffuse and avoid trouble.

One of the things I love about having left the big city is that my "radar" is mostly defunct now. I hate living my life that way. But it is how you must if you want to survive there.

[DasBlunt]

Agreed.

BD4A, sorry that you're facing this. And please don't take this as blame, because you are NOT to blame for these assholes acting like degenerate violent assholes. But what you are responsible for is escalating. You did have a hand in turning some of those situations worse. I am not a woman, so obviously there's an element of your experience that I can't identify with, but I grew up in NYC, rode the subway an hour each way to school for 6 years, and never had one violent confrontation. You need to work on a better "radar" for trouble, you should have a 6th sense of when you are in a potentially compromising spot or there's a potentially dangerous person. And you need to learn how to diffuse and avoid trouble.

One of the things I love about having left the big city is that my "radar" is mostly defunct now. I hate living my life that way. But it is how you must if you want to survive there.

end of thread. The weapons talk is absurd.

[hutash]

Good to hear you are keeping a good attitude about this, because what has happened to you, and all women in similar situations really sucks.

I agree with Brklyn, a don't fuck with me attitude is important, but does not mean to be confrontation, just confident, i.e. don't honk at Samoans.

My advice is to enroll in a good, simple woman's self defense class. Learn the basic knee to groin, heel if hand to throat type defenses that give you enough time to get the hell out of there. While learning martial arts is a good thing, unless you are proficient, which takes a lot of time and practice, you are a lot smaller then most dudes, and while you might get a shot or two in, if you stand toe to toe you are going to lose.

Most of all quit being so nice. I don't think I have ever seen you with out a smile on your face. Learn to sneer a little, it will go a long way in a shitty neighborhood.

If you do want to take a martial arts, I would recommend taekwondo. It is a style developed for short people (not that I'm calling you short ) and is a good exercise and very mindful style. A good instructor teaches more about the mind and avoidance and less about going around and kicking peoples asses. It is a great mind/body art form.

[haydukelives]

Get a large black dog. My dog kept all of this trash 50 feet away in San Fran. He was not mean,but he knew who to keep at bay.I just didnt like him getting his paws dirty in that filthy hole.
Get a stick. A cane is good.I have ,among others,an Indian police model.Its very light and unbreakable knotty pine. Even a ski pole will do. You dont really need to learn much to use it,but a little kendo would not hurt.
Pepper spray if they get beyond 1 and 2.

I finally quit going to that once-beautiful now shit-hole city. Calcutta is cleaner.

[leroy jenkins]

I really am amazed there are this many scumbags around, and will posture that they only gain this kind of confidence in a city in which they know almost for sure that none of their victims will be allowed by law to be armed.

People dont act like that in MT or UT, or even CO from what I have seen.

[Danno]

I really am amazed there are this many scumbags around, and will posture that they only gain this kind of confidence in a city in which they know almost for sure that none of their victims will be allowed by law to be armed.

People dont act like that in MT or UT, or even CO from what I have seen.

yes, it's all because they know people won't be armed.

[marshalolson]

here is a suggestion from a former black belt that spent years and years teaching 20's->40's women to protect themselves:

1. learn how to make a first, and punch with your wrist straight. always make a fist. always tuck your thumb, always punch with a rigid/straight wrist.
2. learn how to kick with both the heal and instep

aim all aggression with hands at groin and throat/collarbone.
aim all aggression with feet at groin (instep), top of knee (heel), side of knee (instep), top of foot (heel).

do not punch in the face. do not slap. do not stand there yelling and waving your arms, do not let them grab your hair. you have a right to defend not only your body but your personal space. if they encroach into your personal space, you have the right to kick out their knee and punch them in the collar bone and walk away, situation over.

also, scream really really loud.

really all you need to scare/harm someone to the point of diffusing the situation.


if you went to any sort of self defense class, even once a month to practice the above (not really for practice sake, but to feel confident in using these tools), then really, you will feel much more empowered walking around town. and people really don't mess with folks that are confident and empowered. they mess with people that are weaker in appearance than they are.

don't get weapons (club, knife, tazer, pepper spray, etc). brandishing a weapon antagonizes the situation. using a weapon without proper escalation is a felony. trying to use a weapon without adequate skill will mean they can justifiably use YOUR weapon again you.

[St. Jerry]

Get a large black dog. My dog kept all of this trash 50 feet away in San Fran. He was not mean,but he knew who to keep at bay.I just didnt like him getting his paws dirty in that filthy hole.
Get a stick. A cane is good.I have ,among others,an Indian police model.Its very light and unbreakable knotty pine. Even a ski pole will do. You dont really need to learn much to use it,but a little kendo would not hurt.
Pepper spray if they get beyond 1 and 2.

I finally quit going to that once-beautiful now shit-hole city. Calcutta is cleaner.

Why does the dog have to be black? Are black dogs somehow scarier? What's wrong with a white dog or say a yellow dog, huh?

[sftc]

As many people have mentioned being aware of your surroundings is key. Many street thugs are looking for people who are distracted or not paying attention. It's generally not a good idea to look people straight in the eye since that can lead to a confrontation, but an obvious glance can show that you aware of their existence. Practice describing and assessing potential threats to yourself when you see them- "skinny white guy, about 2" taller then me, but 20 lbs. less weight so most likely a tweaker, purple t-shirt, dirty faded jeans and a large tattoo on his left forearm- check. Good chance I can take this fucker if he wants to mess with me."

Maybe this is just a guy thing, but just like when a dog's hair goes up on the back of it's neck when threatened many of us become hyper-alert and are constantly re-assessing our current situation and were we stand as an individual in our current "pack" when things start to get sketchy. "Do I have any allies/friends around? What's the best way to GTFO of here? Is this guy really gonna try and fuck with me? I am not the droid you are looking for..."

Potential threats often pick up on this attitude and will move on to an easier target. And finally make a plan for when/if shit goes down. A friend who teaches self-defense and martial arts (Krav maga is his specialty) once helped me work on identifying a person's weak spots and how to strike them effectively. His philosophy is to quickly and viciously attack 1 or 2 of these spots and then GTFO. This is not a game, fight with everything you have and don't be afraid to fight "dirty." Stomping on the top of the foot, a strong kick to the knee, a hit to the nuts, an unexpected shot to the throat or an open palm to the nose are all ways to temporarily stun a person and hopefully give you enough time to get out of the situation. I worked on getting down some effective single strikes on a dummy and now I think about how I would deal with every individual I come across that could be a potential threat.

Thankfully I've only had use any of this stuff once, but it worked well enough. A few years ago I was on the road for work at a local bar in a small town and I noticed one guy was giving me the evil eye from the moment we walked in the door, just a weird vibe. Eventually I had to take a piss and sure enough the fucker followed me into the bathroom. I was waiting for him, just messing around at the sink rather then peeing. He did the seething drunk guy stare down thing and as I started to head to the door he stepped sideways into my path. Now we were standing nose to nose and with confidence I said "what's up man?" He didn't reply but he did take a deep breath and as soon as he started to move his hands I was ready with my response- I quickly stomped on the top of his foot with my left foot and then hit him in the face with the heel of my right hand with everything I had. It knocked him off balance enough that I was able to run out of the room and back to my friends at the bar. I told them what was up and thankfully we had size and numbers versus idiot boy and his buddies so we were able to peacefully finish our drinks and leave.

That's just my personal experience, and looking back it was probably stupid of me to go to the bathroom solo when I had a feeling this guy was gonna try and fuck with me. The better solution would have been to never give the guy the opportunity to act on his fucked-up thoughts. I never did figure out why that guy had an issue with me.

[hutash]

here is a suggestion from a former black belt that spent years and years teaching 20's->40's women to protect themselves:

1. learn how to make a first, and punch with your wrist straight. always make a fist. always tuck your thumb, always punch with a rigid/straight wrist.
2. learn how to kick with both the heal and instep

aim all aggression with hands at groin and throat/collarbone.
aim all aggression with feet at groin (instep), top of knee (heel), side of knee (instep), top of foot (heel).

do not punch in the face. do not slap. do not stand there yelling and waving your arms, do not let them grab your hair. you have a right to defend not only your body but your personal space. if they encroach into your personal space, you have the right to kick out their knee and punch them in the collar bone and walk away, situation over.

also, scream really really loud.

really all you need to scare/harm someone to the point of diffusing the situation.


if you went to any sort of self defense class, even once a month to practice the above (not really for practice sake, but to feel confident in using these tools), then really, you will feel much more empowered walking around town. and people really don't mess with folks that are confident and empowered. they mess with people that are weaker in appearance than they are.

don't get weapons (club, knife, tazer, pepper spray, etc). brandishing a weapon antagonizes the situation. using a weapon without proper escalation is a felony. trying to use a weapon without adequate skill will mean they can justifiably use YOUR weapon again you.

Thread over...no need to read any other posts.

[funkendrenchman]

Move to a lesser shithole?

Seriously... 5 times in 2 years?

[sftc]

I really am amazed there are this many scumbags around, and will posture that they only gain this kind of confidence in a city in which they know almost for sure that none of their victims will be allowed by law to be armed....

Huh? Keep up the pro-gun rhetoric but you're way off base on that one.
Even though out of state CCW licenses aren't recognized in CA that doesn't stop the thousands of people in the state with licenses from carrying a weapon in the city. The issue is that if you actually live in S.F. county the sheriff will not issue a license and that's been the county's policy for decades. The policy varies county by county since the local sheriff basically has final say regarding what license applications are approved if you can clear the background check. Out here in the Calitucky I've heard our county's sheriff will give you a permit if you have a ranch and want to carry a sidearm to deal with rattlesnakes and that's a full 180 degrees away from the S.F. sheriff's policy.

[DJSapp]

Way to generalize and judge a whole group of people - and not understand a single thing about MMA or fighting.

PS: "Guys wearing tapout shirts" don't even train much less fight...

Just calling it the way I see it. I've been to a couple MMA gyms and have some friends who are training. Around my home, most of the MMA gyms cater to people who go looking for barroom brawls; your typical tapout meathead who isn't seriously training but wants to be a tough guy. The one gym in town that I have some respect for actually teaches Gracie jiu-jitsu. Sorry if this offends you, but there are far more gyms trying to cash in on the popularity of UFC that are providing bad training for all the wrong reasons than legitimate MMA schools. If this isn't clear, just ask the students why they are here and what their goals are. The differences between a good school and a bad school will be quite clear in their responses. (Yes, I know there are plenty of other martial arts schools that you could say the same thing. There are plenty of non-teaching belt factories as well just cashing in. Good training can be hard to find)

Back on point, BD4A does NOT need to know how to put a wino flashing his junk into a submission hold. The goal is self defense, to deflect, stun and escape, not strike, grapple and subdue. MMA is not the right art for this purpose.

edit: and exactly what marshal said. Nothing ends a fight faster than a strike to the throat.

[MTT]

In most cities there are cretain areas that are No mans land and you just would not be on there street alone, we all know about that.

But in most big cites there are areas where you are basicly safe all the time.

San Fran does not have many Safe areas, the dregs pretty much hang out everywhere and they know that the police and citizens are for the most part very passive.

Being harrased and getting jacked up is very common in San Fran, I think most Sanfransicans encounter it so much that they don't even mention it?

The situaltional awareness stuff is very valid, and a lone female would still need a weapon to thwart an attact.

She does need to change her behaivior to get around in San Fran. Wonder how often 666's wife goes anywhere after dark in San Francisco alone?

And how many parts of town are avoided at all times.

Every time I go there I remember what a sketcy place it is

[Chainsaw_Willie]

...

2. Tazers are a great way to land yourself in a involuntary manslaughter situation. The assailants are mostly homeless, drugged, liquored and god knows what other health issues they have.
...

While I don't disagree with your post as a whole, this point makes me go "AARRRRRGGGGGHHHH!!!" It is one of the biggest things wrong with our fucked up society. Some asshole can totally fuck up his own life, and because he's a loser scumbag piece of shit who might have a heart attack if he's tazed, you're not allowed to taze him if he attacks you? That is so fucked up it enrages me. Fuck him. He made the choices he made, he should get to deal with the consequences. That means if he puts his hands on a woman and she tazes him and he dies or has a stroke or whatever because of it, too fucking bad for him. I've always believed that the rights of one individual end where the rights of another begin. He shouldn't have messed with someone else, period. If he wants to fuck himself up, that's fine, more power to him but when he starts in on other people all bets should be off. Good grief, can we please put all the lawyers who argue for this kind of shitty law on a big boat and send them off to somewhere else?


Oh, and yes, black dogs are scarier than white dogs. My black dog with his shiny white teeth scares people on a regular basis, even though he's the happiest, friendliest dog you'll ever meet. I don't see that kind of reaction as often to white/brown/tan dogs.

[Tye 1on]

Looks like there's some resources in that area.