From Jackie Chan to Chuck Norris, the big screen has already painted the characteristics of the martial arts scene–one of heavy training, undeniable skill, discipline, and if you’re lucky, romance. We see tensions between the “bad guy,” the antagonist that wrongs the innocent, and the “good guy,” the perpetually better fighter that after countless fight scenes and bad ass music-backed montage, saves the day.
However, in real life, it is not everyday that an evil wrongdoer tries to kidnap a beautiful princess or take over the world. Still, we can still see martial artists around the world training to hone their own skills (maybe or maybe not to bad ass montage music). Martial artists come from a variety of backgrounds, experiences, and purposes. Most importantly, martial artists train within a variety of styles. Here, I am not referencing different training methods, such as Mr. Miyagi’s famously unorthodox “wax on, wax off” exercise from The Karate Kid.
In fact, there are hundreds of martial arts styles that exist, ranging from the familiar Japanese Karate to the obscure Brazilian Maculele. In a fashion similar to racial tensions between ethnicities, students of opposing styles of martial arts tend to fight over the traditions, practices, and techniques of other styles, most preemptively over the idea that “My style is better than yours.”
As opposed to violent bickering, this blog serves as platform for project of objective analysis of several well-established fighting styles to effectively answer which style is best for combat. Realistically speaking, it would be impossible to analyze every type of martial arts around the world due to the ever-growing branches of fighting styles, many of which may be obscured. Taking this as well a the constraint of time into consideration, it would be most realistic to analyze the most common styles of martial arts available. This mainly includes Karate, Taekwondo, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, and most obscurely, Muay Thai.
To see the conclusion of my analysis, click here.
FIGHTCEPTION 