Best Martial Arts for Fighting?

I am in my final week of academy at the dept of corrections. We only had a 3 hour course on pressure points, and they showed us a couple of fighting manuvers. I will be working in max security cell-houses, as the corrections officer 1. They run to any alarms, and the sergeants stay in the cell houses.

I may or may not fight frequently, but I will have to fight, mabybe only a couple times a month, maybe a couple times a day, depending on how many alarms there are. In kansas, we don’t have mace or nightsticks. The riot squad has mace, but regular officers like me will be the ones to respond first.

I know how to hit people, but I was wondering if someone could recommend the best martial art to learn to break up a fight, and what the best martial art for fighting multiple attackers would be. I have considered just taking boxing lessons, but I am not sure if there would be a better tool to learn.

I’m no expert, but in a corrections facility, in which you are responsible for the residents, I would recommend learning, in addition to “standard” self-defense fare, a wide variety of restraining techniques.

Though your own safety is of course of paramount importance, you don’t want to have to hurt anybody more than you have to. These “come-along” type techniques would likely be the best choice in your situation. Off the top of my head, something like Chin Na might be good (this is not the only one, but is a good example a joint-manipulation/restraint-type art).

Krav Maga would be a safe bet as well. As a strictly military art, it deals with a lot of common defense situations and focuses on efficiency. The practices are frequently worst-case scenario, too, which will teach you to cope with a disadvantageous situation, as well as the attending stress. You’ll deal a lot with defense against weapons, as well.

In addition, though this is really common sense, make sure you know the geography of your area better than you know own house. Take note of any potential choke points, blind areas, alternate routes, hiding spots, etc. Practice sweeping these areas, decide the best way to secure them.

To win without fighting is best. Get swolled and the inmates will think twice about messing with you.

My vote would be judo.

[quote]BackInAction wrote:
My vote would be judo.[/quote]

Matters what your fighting against!

:slight_smile:

Sounds like they’re not preparing you adequately for your job.

Re your ?, I’d ask the veterans their advice.

Best of luck

[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
I am in my final week of academy at the dept of corrections. We only had a 3 hour course on pressure points, and they showed us a couple of fighting manuvers. I will be working in max security cell-houses, as the corrections officer 1. They run to any alarms, and the sergeants stay in the cell houses.

I may or may not fight frequently, but I will have to fight, mabybe only a couple times a month, maybe a couple times a day, depending on how many alarms there are. In kansas, we don’t have mace or nightsticks. The riot squad has mace, but regular officers like me will be the ones to respond first.

I know how to hit people, but I was wondering if someone could recommend the best martial art to learn to break up a fight, and what the best martial art for fighting multiple attackers would be. I have considered just taking boxing lessons, but I am not sure if there would be a better tool to learn.[/quote]

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
To win without fighting is best. Get swolled and the inmates will think twice about messing with you.

[/quote]

Come on California Law…Is that the best advice you can give?

Getting “swolled” can help with your own confidence…which is important in that environment,but most inmates don’t give a fuck. Besides in prison there always be somebody more swole than you…trust me.

Just being aware of whats going on around you will help with keeping a lot of situations from happening in the first place. It just depends on the situation…if you have no choice to defend yourself so be it…but if possible try to get some back up…use some quick good judgement.

I think Krav Maga would be a good choice to practice…i started out in Combat Hapkido which helped me a lot along with Muay Thai…just make sure you practice alot with whatever you choose.

A strong base in any grappling would be good. Greco, BJJ, Judo all help in defending yourself or breaking up a fight.

I vote American Kenpo.

If you can find a good AKKI school, I think it would be a very good choice. That’s my opinion from personal experience. People will say jujitsu, and it’s a great thing to know, but you don’t want to go to the ground with multiple attackers. And Kenpo has ground fighting in the system, but the goal is to be able to get back up onto your feet, and not wrestle around on the ground.

I personally would recommend any small circle jujitsu… good for multiple attackers and very good for restraints but IMHO its not the art its the artist… someone has already said practice a lot… I would recommend two different arts a predominantly striking art and a grappling art…
anyway I would never recommend getting too focused on one art as there are inherent weaknesses in all …

also if you think Im full of shit I probably am but I have been training for 30 years now and still count myself as a student.

[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Aikido for restraining single attackers.

Psychology of fear for dissuading multiple wannabe attackers.

Anything with low to medium height powerful kicks for repelling multiple actual attackers.

A big fuck off sword?

Bushy[/quote]

I would never, ever try to kick in a “real fight”.

kicking means standing on 1 leg, which means lying on the ground shortly afterwards

maybe some knee techniques for close combat, but your best bet is boxing for learning to actually defend against strikes and some sort of Judo/BJJ for fighting on the ground

I tend to crosstrain with JJJ and Muay Thai. Its best you do an immobilisation/grappling art, but i believe that touching up on strikes will prove well.

[quote]counterfeitsoda wrote:
I vote American Kenpo.

[/quote]

you know, jeff speakman (main actor in 'perfect weapon) has gone about and revamped american kempo, to include much more elements from bjj and other grappling arts, that would definatly be something to think about.

i go to a military school, and we have an organazation that has cross trained with 20th special operations memebers, local police depts, and instructors certified in lvl III army combatives.

i feel it would be to diffucult to restrain someone with pressure points. the application of them would require excellent timing, along with almost perfect placement of a finger or knuckle into a very small area. i feel pressure points are hard to pull off when you’re sparring with someone, and nearly impossiable against a real-attacker.

bjj and judo would give you an excellent base for grappling/restraint/and groundfighting, while kempo or boxing would help improve your striking.

btw, i’ve got a video in my profile of us practicing for a combatives demo we were going to put on. now granted, i’m not saying i’d use all of those techniques in a fight, but i figured it’d appeal to the members in this topic.

You do NOT want to be on the ground in that type of fight, but even worse would be finding yourself on the ground with no idea what to do, so I’d look for either a BJJ school that practices a lot of takedowns and takedown defense or a Judo school that doesn’t neglect their groundwork (at this point, the two arts are practically interchangeable.)

Mix in some boxing or Muay Thai (I wouldn’t recommend kicking either, but knowing the clinch would be helpful) and you should have a pretty good base of skills.

Good luck and stay safe.

If that’s you in the pic (Avatar), then get a different job. Seriously.

My uncle (a guard) was 6’0" and 245 and inmates held him down and chopped off his finger. They couldn’t reattach it.

Alright, I looked at ALL your photos. My mistake.

As for martial art, Kina Mutai and BJJ.
That, and carry a big fucking cattle prod! :smiley:

One of the first things that they taught us is never, ever go to the ground, and if you do go to the ground, do everything you can to get back up, no matter how bad it hurts, because they say that that’s the easiest way to get hurt.

Our main strategy is fight for 30 seconds to a minute, and by then there will be a swarm of officers. The main thing is I will have to at least keep from getting shanked and get my panic button pressed. Were not there to fight, we basically just hold out until the calvary shows up.

I am sorry to hear about your uncle, did he guard a bank or a mall, or what? We don’t have any “guards” at the prison, we have correctional officers. Guards watch over inatimate objects, Correctional Officers protect the public by keeping those that would do them harm incarcerated.

Some good points here. You do not look to end up on the ground but that is exactly why you need to know grappling. When I say grappling I mean bjj but I also mean clinch and hit. Best trained with Greco, thai and boxing or just mma classes. I think the clinch (standing grappling w/hitting) is the thing to train for ‘street’ fighting.