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Top 10 Fighting Styles

I was doing my own top ten lists before (but not in this site), and sites like toptenz, cracked, and
listverse inspired me to start doing my own top ten lists again. This time in this site.
Before I start on these series of top ten lists, let me say that my ranking is not dependent on any
criteria. The only criterion is what I prefer or what my opinion is. So, sometimes, in your
perspective, it might not make sense. So, lets go on with my first top ten list in this blog
I am very fascinated with martial arts and self-defense. Probably because of me growing up
watching too much films with such action sequences. Nonetheless, in my fascination, I had
researched, read articles or books, watched documentaries about different martial art disciplines.
I can say, I have a store of theoretical martial art knowledge in my head. I know some things
about what to do in a given combat situation or how to take out an opponent the quickest and
most efficient way possible. Sure, plenty of theoretical knowledge, but, actually having minimal
training at all or conditioning or practice. Thus, in the end, I am almost worthless in a fight.
(sigh)
Here we go then, my top ten fighting styles.
10.) PROFESSIONAL WRESTLING

This is what Im talking about when I said that what I may put in these top ten lists will
sometimes not make any sense. Were you expecting that this list would be made up entirely of
real-life martial arts?
The trade of wrestling entertainment has a deep collection of entertaining moves and tricks that
creates an illusion of a semi-realistic explosive fight, while minimizing the risk of pain or injury
to the person the move is being performed on. Consider that the spinebuster, suplexes, piledriver
or RKO can really injure someone if not delivered properly or when actually delivered as it
is! The ankle lock or crippler crossface can be actually pretty painful. Wrestling is not fake.
Yes, it is scripted, but the dangers are real. Scripted but not fake. People get hurt, injured, even

die. Of course, since it is scripted, the fights can be choreographed. Thus, we get entertaining
fighting styles or concepts. And, boy such great entertainment they bring.
A simple straight kick to the chin can become so cool and lethal when its given the name of
Sweet Chin Music.

Theatrics can make an ordinary move seems like explosive and fatal. E.g. The Peoples Elbow

And lets not forget the top rope flashiness.

The Shooting Star is my favorite.

Forget that its scripted for a while, the moves of pro-wrestling totally rocks. And to totally
appreciate it, one should put it into context of it being hypothetically real. Play Smackdown!

in

console

to

see

my

point.

9.) SIKARAN

Sikaran is a martial art that is very similar with taekwondo, in which kicking is the only way to
attack and the hands and arms are used for deflecting blows. In its early days, it has been a
gladiator-like game by farmers. There are some variations with Taekwondo and Sikaran, such as
in Sikaran, one can make a sweeping motion kick against an opponents feet to make him fall off
balance, or in Taekwondo, one can punch downwards against an opponents chest to create
space. Its a generally unknown martial art even in its home country, the Philippines. I add this
to the list because its the only martial art I got trained on (about several months of weekly
sessions).
The biakid a kick executed by pivoting to the back in a complete turn, much like a spinning
hook kick or a reverse round house in other martial arts styles and targets the side or back of the
head while the practitioner is in mid to punching range is the deadliest move of Sikaran. This
technique was ripped off by the Koreans and added it to Taekwondo when they saw its
effectiveness.
Filipinos actually have several badass traditional martial arts. Heck, Filipino fighting disciplines
are taught on Spetnatz trainees! And even Bruce Lee found inspiration and ideas from Filipino
martial arts. Its ironic that Filipino martial arts are endangered because Filipinos want to learn
more mainstream martial arts (e.g. karate, taekwondo) rather than their own traditional fighting
styles.
8.) TAIJUTSU

There is actually a real life Taijutsu from Japan, but what I'm referring to is that of the variation
in Naruto. In the anime/manga Naruto, the ninja skills are ninjutsu, genjutsu, and taijutsu.
Taijutsu is the martial art aspect, or the close combat fighting technique a ninja uses.
Taijutsu is mostly dependent on a ninjas stamina, physical strength and speed rather than
chakra the energy needed to project or use jutsus. It is mostly physical attacks but can be
enforced or strengthened by chakra. Taijutsu incorporates the stereotype martial art disciplines
we know of. Heck, theres even a drunken style technique, in reference to the popular Drunken
Master Jackie Chan movie.
Taijutsu is such fun to watch, especially when those ninjas who concentrate mostly on it (almost
ignoring the other two aspects genjutsu and ninjutsu) like Might Guy and Rock Lee whose
appearances are patterned with Bruce Lee do it.
7.) MIXED MARTIAL ARTS

There is no Judo or Taekwondo here in this list, because as graceful they appear in competitions,
they are impractical martial arts. It is because they are very limited by rules of the discipline. In
real life, in a combat, nobody is limited by rules or formalities. In Taekwondo, close range
attacks are difficult because punches are generally not allowed. Judo concentrates on throws.
Limited. They only look good on competitions.
Now, we have mixed martial arts. Thanks to UFC, it is now very popular. Principles of already
deadly and practical fighting styles like boxing (Ill explain later why boxing is better than
taekwondo), Jiu-Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, and Muay Thai (the first two already hybrids
themselves) are combined together with the toughness and street-smarts of freestyle street
fighting and holds and grappling of wrestling. With all these disciplines combined, a dangerous
and deeper fighting style is created.
Mixed martial knows how to take out an opponent, to knock him out with lethal blows or make
him tap out with a submission hold (or in a real fight, until he passes out from pain). Moreover,
the style incorporates an environment on how a real-life fight goes: no limitations by a martial
arts rules, anything goes.

6.) JEET KUNE DO

This is the martial art that Bruce Lee invented. The foundation of it is found in Wing Chun
Kung Fu, the discipline Lee learned from his master Yip Man. He created a better version of
Wing Chun because he thinks it is too formal and too slow to be used in an actual fight.
He called it a style without a style. What does he mean? Ad libbing in a fight. In a real fight,
there are no rules. An opponent is not limited by any rule of a martial art (e.g. taekwondo only
uses kicks to attack). Thus, it is necessary to be able to, as Lee puts it, not to be thinking of
anything but his [opponent] attack and your response. Clear all other thoughts from your head, or
they will slow you down. To be able to instinctively respond, almost without thinking, to the
opponents moves.
Bruce Lee is a student of martial arts. He tried to learn most of the martial arts possible to serve
as reference for his magnum opus of a martial art. Along with Wing Chun, it has the principles
of fencing (using the en garde stance as the basic stance, bouncing on the toes to be able to
switch with either foot, kick with either foot, to advance or retreat), Jiu-Jitsu, and miscellaneous
kung-fu disciplines. It is actually not the ultimate (real) fighting style, but the philosophy of it is
practical.
5.) BOXING

So, I criticized limited martial arts like taekwondo. Then why is a limited style like boxing,
which only uses punches, rank high in this list? Because punching is more accurate and can be
made faster than a kick. A kicking discipline has the advantage of the long range, but a kick is
designed to hit a broader area hoping to hit a general area of the body and not a specific part.
But the punch can hit that vulnerable part more easily.
Example, why a punch is used when hitting the solar plexus instead of a kick? Because the
punch is more comfortable to use when targeting the solar plexus since a punch can bring the
most concentrated force in that area, while a kicks (front or side kick) force would be generally
distributed in that area. Thus, a punch can do more damage on the solar plexus. Hitting the
solar plexus with much force will render an opponent doubling up in pain, immobilizing the
enemy. The only other attack on the solar plexus that is more lethal than a punch that I can think
of is a Muay Thai knee strike.
The chin another vulnerable part of the body is also more easily accessible by a punch rather
than a kick. A punch also can hit the chin faster and with more concentrated force. Hitting the
chin will make the opponent unconscious if the punch is done properly, in which the opponents
head will be thrown sideways, shutting off the brain by pinching the spinal cord in the neck. The
chance of doing this with a kick only becomes highly probable if one knows how to do a Sweet
Chin Music like Shawn Michaels does.

Boxing punches has the strongest, fastest, and most accurate punch in any discipline since
boxing concentrates on using the fist 100%. I saw on a documentary that a boxers punch is as
lethal as a sledgehammers swing. That is lethal indeed.
Boxers also have tough bodies to take on the heavy pounding. And their basic stance hands
staying on both sides of the head is designed to be able to have optimum protection against
attacks above the belt. They also have excellent rhythm and quick reaction time, both very
invaluable in an actual fight.
Moreover, boxing seems to have more science in it than taekwondo.
Therefore, between a boxer and a taekwondoer fight and my moneys on the boxer.
4.) GUN KATA

Gun Kata is the coolest fighting style in my book. In the first place, in real life, guns are the best
and most efficient tools for killing or self-defense. Regardless of what this guy, Mr. "GunsHave-Limited-Range-of-Effectiveness", thinks:

Most of the time, fancy martial arts are inutile with someone with guns. Add the grace and
fluidity of a martial art discipline to the already efficient weapon of killing and it would be the
most lethal fighting style we will ever see.
I would definitely put Gun Kata as number one if its real, or even at least feasible. But Gun Kata
is not a workable martial art or science at all.

The Gun Kata martial art is found in the movie Equilibrium mediocre story, but awesome
Gun Kata fight scenes. The principle of it is that in a given position of a gunslinger and his
opponent/s, the trajectories of the bullet fire is statistically predicted. By taking into
consideration all the positions, and perfectly analyzing it, the gunslinger can fire to the probable
location the opponent will move towards. At the same time, he can predict where the incoming
bullets fired at him would go, thus he can react to avoid it. With knowledge like this, one can do
the most impractical thing to do in a fight when one has a gun: fight by close range. Thus, two
combatants of gun kata, analyzing and predicting, could fight aiming at each other in close range
and knocking each others wrist to deflect the fire fired at them. Until one makes the mistake of
predicting
it
wrongly
or
reacting
slowly,
thus,
getting
himself
shot.

3.) BARTITSU

Immortalized by Sherlock Holmes (baritsu), Bartitsu is a Victorian England eclectic martial


art. It has the elements of Jujutsu, Schwingen, Savate, Canne de combat, Judo, and Boxing. The
founder of this martial art, Edward William Barton-Wright, intended it as self-defense in all its
forms. In 1899, Barton-Wright summarized the essential principles of Bartitsu as:
1.) To disturb the equilibrium of your assailant.
2.) To surprise him before he has time to regain his balance and use his strength.
3.) If necessary, to subject the joints of any parts of his body, whether neck, shoulder, elbow,
wrist, back, knee, ankle, etc. to strains that they are anatomically and mechanically unable to
resist.

Bartitsu has the appropriate techniques on both long and short range. In long range, it is more
dependent on the use of the walking stick (a popular weapon in the 19th century), while in shortrange, it is dependent primarily to jiu-jitsu grappling. Boxing is used in the middle of the two
ranges. It is emphasized in this discipline that one should be able to have smooth transition when
alternating between the ranges.

Bartitsu is one of the most diverse fighting style in the world, and almost perfect. There is just
something classy about it. Probably because the Victorian charm. Some glimpse of bartitsu can
be found in the Sherlock Holmes (2009) movie, where both Holmes and Dr. Watson used it in
their fight scenes.
2.) KEYSI FIGHTING METHOD

Ever saw a movie where the hero is surrounded by a mob of opponents and take them all
down? Totally badass right? It only happens in the movies, though? Wrong. This is what the
Keysi Fighting Method can do. The discipline is developed by Justo Dieguez and Andy
Norman, heavily basing it on Dieguezs street fighting experiences (I kid you not!).
Keysi Fighting Method is a fast-paced, brutal, and efficient close-combat style that can take on
ten or twenty opponents as they routinely attack. It also has minimal usage of kicks (again, in
real life, kicks are impractical, even dangerous for one to use. I read somewhere that in military
training, it is often advised to not use a kick as much as possible), and is instead consisted of
close-quarters moves like head butts, variation of punches, and knee and elbow strikes.
It is also a hybrid style like mixed martial arts since it also uses the principles of several practical
and lethal martial arts like Jiu-Jitsu, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, street fighting, Aikido, and even Bruce
Lees Jeet Kune Do. It also has the same philosophy of Jeet Kune Do: to be able to think on
ones feet, to improvise and react on what is the current situation or movement of the
opponent.
To be able to master it, it takes nearly a decade of training. Yes, its a long time of hard work
but the rewards are worth it. You would become an ultimate efficient fighting machine, a la
Batman.

Again, I kid you not. This is the fighting discipline that the Christian Bale Batman of the
Christopher Nolan films (Batman Begins, The Dark Knight) is using.
1.) KRAV MAGA

The epitome of a practical no-holds barred, deadly fighting style is Israels national martial art
which was developed by Imi Lichtenfeld. Just like Mixed Martial Art, Keysi, and Bartitsu, Krav
Maga is also a hybrid of martial arts. The best principle Krav Maga has is the philosophy of
being able to attack and defend at the same time. Something that is also applicable in boxing by
the use of the Dempsey Roll.

Krav Magas moves and techniques carry military precision and efficiency, as well as the
toughness of the mentality of the streets. Attacks on vulnerable parts of the body eyes, solar

plexus, throat, groin knees, etc. are given importance. Hand-eye coordination is heavily
emphasized, until ones movements became instinctive and would not require thinking any
more. As if the body is trained to automatically defend itself. The concept of disarming
someone with a gun or knife is also somehow unique in Krav Maga, as not only is the disarming
is stressed, but actually using the opponents own weapons against himself.
Like Keysi Fighting Method, Krav Maga will turn someone into an ultimate fighting
machine. But unlike Keysi, the best thing about Krav Maga (that is why its number one) is it
can be learned, regardless of athletic prowess, in three to six months.
Dont mess with Israel. They have the Mossad. They have the Shayetet 13. And they have the
most badass fighting style in the world.

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