If you are worried about knife and firearms being used against you - my best advice is for you to move to somewhere else. The defense techniques against weapons all focus on controlling the hand, wrist and extended arm up to the shoulder. Speed, reflexes and correct judgement of opportunity and the situation is paramount. It is extremely dangerous to try and use unarmed techniques against an armed opponent. Unless your work involves this type of defense and your survival, I would rather discourage you thinking that you can overcome someone with a weapon. Krav Maga focuses on quick brutal techniques, and is eclectic as pointed out - but it is stupid for normal people because they think they are super-heroes. It is ok for bodyguards, security people etc, but Krav Maga is very incomplete as a fighting style for unarmed combat. Also, a big part of TMA is about your inner personal motivation and integrity; Krav Maga and some other modern styles lack this aspect totally. What makes you survive a lethal situation is many times your character, not your fighting skills. Therefore I find Krav Maga mostly useless. When you want to learn combat techniques as a soldier, you might look into a number of efficient styles like combat Sambo, combat Jiu Jitsu, Hapkido and maybe Systema or Krav Maga. Actually, Vladimir Putin is an accomplished black belt Judo practitioner and released a book last year. He also hold a "master of sports" title in Sambo. Here in Brazil you would be dead pretty quickly if you go to some neighbourhood or stroll alone at times where you know you will be robbed - while thinking you can defend against armed thugs. Self defense means surviving... you don't want to "blow up your account" with a gun in your face. Money management rules!
Gringinho, life threatening situations can occur irrespective of time or location. I want to increase my chances of survival if - God forbid- I ever find myself entangled in just such a situation. I see it as an insurance policy.
Gringinho i didnt know u lived in Brazil..... arent Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro like the most dangerous cities on the planet???
God I hate delusion stupid idiots. The guy is a BOXER dipshit. He clearly used BOXING not japanese jiu jitsu, learn to read IDIOT... jesus. And you sir are a complete moron if you think a single video that shows an amateur boxer running from a bunch of idiots with their chins straight out and arms sticking straight out proves anything. Do you make all your life decisions based on the exceptions or shall I show you 100 videos of someone getting their ass kicked by a group of people for every one exception where the guy defends long enough to run??? I said you cannot defend against multiple aggressive attackers, not a bunch of business men in shirts and suits
It still works great on its own, except against guys who know BJJ+Real_Striking_Art = AKA MMA guy = 0.00001 of the population
Ive heard this line of argument 1000 times and its simply wrong. Yes the fighter matters, but the STYLE matters greatly and is very easy to prove. Take 100 typical Karate guys from 100 random schools. Take 100 typical BJJ guys from 100 random schools. Sort them into weight/age classes and have a full contact anything goes mma style fight BJJ guys will win 95% of the fights. This proves beyond and doubt that STYLE matters greatly. A "great fighter"(potentially) who learns a shitty style will get his ass kicked, period.
MA's that claim they work against a knife are BS No MA has ever proven effective against knives in any quantifiable way. Get a black magic marker and go against any MA guy who claims he can handle a knife and ill show you a guy full of black marks that represent him bleeding to death after you spar a little.
U have to first ask the question: what is the goal? MMA and all the UFC stuff will teach you how to be a ufc mma fighter. That training compaired to most alternatives is great. However it is not combat/survival fighting, which is what one may learn in a military training and are the only techniques that give a much smaller person even a prayer of a chance against a larger attacker. Eye gouging, nut shots, crush the throat, vagus nerve shots and various kill shots are not part of sport fighting, but they are what is most effective in survival/combat fighting. I am not aware of any civilian school that trains the public in these techniques.
yo all just want to say very interesting thread there is only one thing I would like to add about all the fighting styles spoken about here: in real life confrontations (not the ring), you actually really do NOT want to end up grappling or wrestling your opponent (although its key that you know how to do it should you end up grappling / wrestling) Why no grappling / wrestling? 2 bad things can happen 1) you get knifed, or similar, and don't see it coming at all because of your now limited visibility because you are so close in wrestling / grappling.. 2) you get trapped on the floor and get your head kicked in by the accomplices of the guy who your are fighting (and again you don't see it coming, or cant release and get on your feet and flee in time) I was a swat officer in africa of all places, so yes I do qualify for the realistic end of combat experience IMO.
Jiujitsu was used to compliment the sword, in the classical training they always think of a trike hand as a sword and the movements were mostly designed to go side ways against an attack and use joint lock to neutralize, same way as would a Kendo practitioner use his sword and strike at the hand of an attacker. There are a few good martial arts specialized in training with or against weapons, most famous are the Phillipines but if you ask the Japanese and Chinese how many went to battle and came back alive they will tell you how successful they are against weapons. It's about the training and readiness against potential adversaries, the out come sometime go towards the guy that's trained but on a bad day he's not so lucky.