Top 10 Best Martial Arts
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There has long been a debate as to what is the best martial arts form. Needless to say, there are a lot of them out there. In addition, a lot of those ones are quite ineffective. In fact, you might practice some of them for more than 20 years and still be easily beaten by someone with no training. Some of them are no more than sport and don’t have any real world fighting use. With that in mind, check out the top 10 best martial arts in the world.
#10. Taekwondo
Taekwondo is the Korean martial art. It has been developed over the last 5,000 years. Originally, there were 9 kwans or schools of Taekwondo. However, in 1955, they united and formed a single style that is the one commonly taught today.
You have probably seen Taekwondo moves in the movies. Especially if you have seen flashy, high, and fast spinning kicks. In fact, it is these moves that make it one of the best martial arts in the world. The power that Taekwondo fighters can develop with their kicks is so great that it can knock you out with one hit.
Interestingly, while Taekwondo is mainly known for its amazing kicks, it actually translates loosely to the “way of the hand and fist”.[1]Mantelligence – The Best Martial Art Styles for Self Defense
#9. Karate
Karate is one of the native martial arts of Japan.[2]The Self Disciple Expert – The 10 Best Martial Art for Self Defence While there are many forms of it, full contact karate is actually one of the best martial arts styles in the world. One of the reasons that Karate is such a good fighting system is that it has an overall solid system. It includes everything such as grappling, blocks, punches, and kicks. In addition, unlike many other martial arts, it focuses on a very quick back and forth movement. This helps develop the quick reflexes necessary to jump it quick, hit your opponent, and move away before they have a chance to hit you back.
#8. Kickboxing
Kickboxing is hands down one of the best martial arts, especially for self defense. It incorporates the best of the kicking styles of other martial arts such as karate and Taekwondo, with the hand techniques of western martial arts such as boxing.[3]MMA Life – Should I Take Kickboxing or Muay Thai? While you might not develop the same leg dexterity or hand fluidity as these other martial arts, the mix of skills makes for a formidable fighter.
#7. Sambo
Sambo is one of the best martial arts in the world. This is mainly due to the fact that it incorporates a lot of different effective elements from other martial arts. For example, it uses many different types of throws, submissions, and even striking.
Sambo is most popular in Russia. In fact, it is the the martial art that the Russian Special Forces uses to train its soldiers![4]Stack – Ranking Martial Arts for the Real World
#6. Krav Maga
Krav Maga is one of the best martial arts for self defense due to the fact that it focuses only on the most useful techniques. For example, rather than focusing on wasting time with solo drills, it focuses on brutality, efficiency of movement, and threat neutralization. It includes kicking, punching, gun disarming, and multiple opponent techniques that can help you when on the streets.
The Israeli military originally developed Krav Maga in order to train their soldiers.[5]Maxim – 3 NO-NONSENSE MARTIAL ARTS THAT WILL KEEP YOU ALIVE ON THE STREET There is no wonder that the Israeli military is universally known as one of the most hardcore military units in the world.
#5. Boxing
Boxing is not only one of the most popular martial arts in the world, it also happens to be one of the best martial arts as well. It focuses solely on using your hands to fight. In fact, there are only really 4 different kinds of punches you can do in boxing: uppercut, hook, cross, and jab.[6]MMA Life – How to Become a Better Boxer However, the sweet science teaches you the best ways to mix these up to make you a fearsome foe. In addition, you learn how to best distribute you weight so as to both not get hit as well as deliver the maximum amount of power with each punch.
When combining these things, it can help give almost anyone knock out power. However, one of the downsides of boxing is that you have to be relatively close to your opponent in order to hit them. This gives even the inexperienced boxer and “puncher’s chance” to hit you and possibly knock you out as well. In addition, when practicing and competing, you tend to use large gloves to protect your hands from damage. However, in a real life situations you don’t have these. Therefore, you might find that you can’t do some of the things that you would do with gloves on when fighting on the streets.
#4. Judo
Judo is another martial art developed in Japan. It is one of the best martial arts in the world and is known mostly for its takedowns and throws. In fact, in competition Judo, such as in the Olympics, the main objective is to subdue the other person with a choke, joint lock, or pin.[7]Book Martial Arts – Top 10 Martial Arts Disciplines for Self-Defense and Survival
Judo practices focus on tug of war type drills in order to get your opponent off balance in order to make it easier to take them to the ground. This type of training is great, especially if you find yourself in a real life fight.
#3. Muay Thai
Muay Thai is perhaps one of the best martial arts that focuses on striking techniques. Originally it was developed in countries such as Thailand. It might very well be the most complete striking system ever. In fact, it is actually known as the “art of eight limbs” as it teach practitioners to use not only kicks and punches but elbows and knees as well.[8]MMA Life – How to Get Better at Muay Thai This helps for making a great all around striker in a fight.
#2. Wrestling
Wrestling is not only one of the oldest martial arts in existence, it also happens to be one of the best. The takedowns, aggression, and physical conditioning that you gain from wrestling are invaluable as a fighter.[9]The Top Tens – Best Types of Martial Arts
Amatuer wrestling does not use striking techniques, chokes or holds. However, it gives you one of the best techniques in fighting. Learning how to take someone down, get on top of them, and control them. By being able to do this, you are able to choose where you want to take the fight. As such, you may never even need to hit someone in order to win the fight.
#1. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
If you think that wrestlers are dangerous, then a Brazilian jiu jitsu fighter is deadly. While BJJ doesn’t focus as much as wrestling on taking some one down, it excels at controlling and submitting that person once there are there.[10]MMA Life – 10 Most Effective Martial Arts for Self Defense This can include things such as chokes and joint locks.
One of the big knocks on other martial arts is that they don’t really focus on what to do if a fight goes to the ground. However, in reality, most fights tend to end up there. Therefore, if you know what you are doing once it gets to the ground you already have a big advantage against most other people. In fact, with only as little as one year of training BJJ, you can be quite confident to defeat most other not BJJ practitioners if a fight goes to the ground.
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