Table of Contents
- 1. What Is Self-Defense?
- 2. Why It Is Important To Learn Self-Defense Techniques?
- 3. Does MMA Is Effective For Self-Defense?
- 4. How Mixed Martial Arts Help You For Impregnable Self-Defense?
- 4.1. MMA Builds Mental Toughness
- 4.2. MMA Teaches You Self-Confidence
- 4.3. You Learn Different Fighting Techniques In MMA
- 4.4. MMA Strengthen Your Muscles And Body To Fight
- 5. Best Martial Arts For Self-Defense
- 5.1. Mixed Martial Arts
- 5.2. Boxing
- 5.3. Kickboxing And Muay Thai
- 5.4. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
- 5.5. Krav Maga
- 6. Takeaway
Facing bullies on the streets is one of the most harassing things that can happen to anyone. But, if you know how to self-defense, no one will try to mess with you. However, for impregnable self-defense, training in mixed martial arts (MMA) is one of the best ways.
In this post, you will learn what is self-defense, why you need MMA for self-defense, and how it is better than other combat disciplines.
1. What Is Self-Defense?
The act of defending yourself against any sort of bullying, intended attacks to harm, and threats to you, your family, and your property by using reasonable force is called self-defense. Everyone wants to stay safe from all kinds of harm and takes countermeasures to protect their interests. There are self-defense laws as well that permit people to defend themselves against violence.
2. Why It is Important to Learn Self-Defense Techniques?
From the definition of self-defense, you can easily understand why you should learn self-defense techniques. Learning defense techniques makes it easy for you to counter the attack of any person who wants to harm you.
If you do not know how to react or what tactic to use to defend yourself in critical situations, you may get severe injuries or harm from the opponents. For example, if a person attacks you in the street with a knife, if you do not know how to dodge or block such attacks, you may receive severe cuts that can end up in life-threatening injury.
However, if you know how to tackle a person attacking with a knife, you can prevent yourself from any harm as well as make them pay for what they were going to do.
These aspects make it essential for everyone to learn some self-defense techniques to remain safe in unfavorable conditions.
3. Does MMA Is Effective for Self-Defense?
There is a limitless range of self-defense techniques including different martial arts. However, mixed martial arts (MMA) is one of the most popular ones. A lot of people question whether MMA is effective when it comes to self-defense or not. The answer is “Yes”. MMA is not only effective for impregnable self-defense, but it is also remarkable for gaining fitness, mental health, and increasing self-confidence.
MMA combines techniques from different traditional and modern martial arts including boxing, judo, wrestling, kickboxing, BJJ, and many others. In MMA, fighting techniques are designed in such a way that with the right and precise application, you can easily defend yourself in street fights and other self-defense-related situations.
4. How Mixed Martial Arts Help You For Impregnable Self-Defense?
Self-defense is one of the primary components of MMA training. In many street fights where armors are not involved, MMA techniques work wonders and help you get out of trouble. Here are ways in which mixed martial arts help you in impregnable self-defense.
4.1. MMA Builds Mental Toughness
Mental toughness is one of the most essential factors that enable you to defend yourself. If you are mentally weaker, you cannot make the right decision in critical situations. In making you mentally strong, MMA can play a vital role.
According to recent studies about MMA, this sport is effective in increasing mental toughness. Mixed martial arts training exercises are designed to push trainees to their maximum limits. This helps them in developing endurance, persistence, and determination. These are the skills that always help not only in competitions but to deal with real-life situations as well.
Related Reading: What are the Health Benefits of Mixed Martial Arts Training?
4.2. MMA Teaches You Self-Confidence
Even if you know all techniques and fighting tactics, if you don’t have self-confidence, you can do nothing when it comes to self-defense. Training MMA gives you the confidence to use your techniques and tactics to protect yourself in fights and real-life situations. In addition, MMA also teaches you how to avoid unnecessary confrontations and to act in a humbler way.
When you are confident to protect yourself and your beloved ones, half of the battle you have won already. Seeing you staying strong, your opponent will definitely find the way to run.
4.3. You Learn Different Fighting Techniques in MMA
The thing that makes MMA training exceptional for self-defense is the large number of fighting techniques it teaches you. Being a blend of different martial arts, it does not keep trainees limited to a single discipline or a few specific techniques.
In MMA training, you learn all possible techniques so you can punch, kick, or choke opponents unexpectedly. Having such techniques in your arsenal always helps you defend yourself against any sort of assault in real life. Even body movements also benefit in dodging opponent’s attacks and placing counters.
4.4. MMA Strengthen Your Muscles and Body to Fight
MMA not only teaches you to strengthen your mental toughness and improve self-confidence, but it also helps you strengthen your muscles and body. If you have an athlete’s body, normally no one will try to mess with you.
But, in critical situations, stronger muscles and body help you make impactful strikes and destroy opponents in no time. Specifically, devastating head hits or abdominal punches require a stronger body to cause real harm to opponents.
There are multiple other benefits of choosing mixed martial arts as a self-defense discipline. Therefore, if you are keen on learning self-defense techniques, going for MMA training is what you need to be impregnable in self-defense.
5. Best Martial Arts for Self-Defense
Though all of the martial arts are effective for self-defense, here are some of the top ones that are incredibly beneficial for you to learn.
5.1. Mixed Martial Arts
Mixed martial arts are a comprehensive package of techniques that are used for self-defense. MMA is a blend of multiple martial arts and covers all techniques ranging from chokes to punching, elbows, and knees to explosive takedowns and kicks.
Training MMA enables you to improve your strength in all areas to leave your opponents behind in street fights. Training MMA is impressively beneficial when it comes to combating hand to hand in real-life situations. However, MMA trainers do not teach you about tackling groups of attackers with armors. Combining MMA with Krav Maga will be a realistic approach to defend yourself well in all kinds of circumstances.
When we talk about self-defense, we cannot ignore the effectiveness of boxing. Boxing is one of the essential components of mixed martial arts. Boxing not just helps you beat opponents in street fights but also enables you to win your MMA fights.
More importantly, besides different punching combinations, head movement and footwork techniques enable you to dodge opponents with ease and prevent yourself from getting hits. In real-life scenarios, when you do not give your opponent any room to hit you, in frustration, they will give you the opportunities to strike hard.
Learning boxing is one of the quickest ways to be proficient in self-defense. You can learn it in just 6 months of training time. For learning this martial art, you only need a pair of boxing gloves and hand wraps.
5.3. Kickboxing and Muay Thai
For self-defense, learning kickboxing and Muay Thai is a great way. Kickboxing and Muay Thai include the usage of kicks, punches, elbows, and knees. While learning Muay Thai and kickboxing, you also learn clinching techniques that are quite useful in other martial arts such as wrestling and judo.
If you are aiming to learn cardio kickboxing just for self-defense, it is better to learn Muay Thai. As cardio boxing is more focused on fitness. However, if you want to enjoy both perks (self-defense skills and fitness) then cardio kickboxing is effective.
Related Reading: The Best Self-Defense Martial Art Style for You?
5.4. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is another important martial art that is used for self-defense. In one-on-one fights, BJJ is the best way of self-defense. This martial art discipline is famous for its chokes and locks that can make the attacker helpless in a very short time. The right application of BJJ techniques can help you easily dislocate the joints of an attacker.
However, this is not very effective when it comes to facing a group of attackers or attackers with weapons. But, combined with other martial arts, BJJ can be your exceptional tool for self-defense.
5.5. Krav Maga
If you are looking for a discipline that can mainly help you in real-life scenarios like the involvement of weapons or knives during street fights, krav maga is the best martial art to train for self-defense. This art teaches you how to disarm your opponent in addition to other techniques like punching and kicking.
Krav Maga was initially developed by Israeli Defense Force to enable soldiers to deal with real-life combats without weapons. This is also counted as one of the deadliest forms of martial arts.
Self-defense is an important perspective for learning martial arts. Considering the benefits training mixed martial arts offer when it comes to self-defense, you can easily understand why you should be training MMA. Among all martial arts, MMA is found incredibly beneficial in increasing the self-defense capabilities of trainees.