Best Martial Arts for Fighting?

I’ve trained in Krav maga and Systema. Both would suffice in your particular situation.

The one good thing about Krav maga is they teach you to stay off of the ground, unlike BJJ.

Here’s a Systema clip with the instructor I trained with:

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.[/quote]

Well, after that very uncalledfor asshole reply made by yourself. Might I suggest you take up Tai Chi or maybe Tae Kwon Do. I’m sure you’ll do just fine with one of these outstanding martial arts. Better yet, rent the movie Gymkata and see if you can pick up some pointers from Bart Conner.

Krav maga clip:

[quote]BarneyFife wrote:
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.[/quote]

He was a corrections officer at a high security facility in Illinois. Lots of ‘gents’ from Chicago, real gang bangers in there. He was resting his hand on part of the cell.

Two cons outside pushed him forward against the cell while the guy inside grabbed his hand and hacked off his ring finger. His screams brought the other corrections officers and (according to my uncle) they nearly beat the perps to death.

This was years ago, when you didn’t have to be too nice to shitbags.

Sorry about calling you guys ‘guards’. I didn’t know the proper term.

Good luck in your career. I’ve been in corrections for over 20 years as an Officer and Manager of differing classification units. My best advice is to not put yourself in dangerous situations without sufficient back-up.

Patience and ability to size up a situation quickly will carry you through most difficult encounters.

Also, your people skills, especially humor will deter more dangerous situations than bravado or ability to “fight.”

If you do find yourself in a dangerous situation all bets are off. You will revert to what is instinctual if your training is not automatically what you would do.

In 20 years I have had to restrain many inmates and with proper procedures in place I’ve only been involved in a handful of situations that escalated into knock-down-drag-out situations.

[quote]Scrappy wrote:
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.[/quote]

Yes. It’s an interesting position the OP is in. His goal is to not win a fight. It’s to survive long enough to not get hurt. With multiple attackers. It’s like being in a bar fight that you don’t want to win. You just want to get out of the bar.

So take downs aren’t the way to go, because that gets you on the ground.

In such a case, knowing how to control and guy and do some trips would be best. So you are spot-on with you recommendation that he learn clinch work. Greco would be great here. Get head or arm control, trip the guy, back the fuck up and get his bearings.

[quote]CaliforniaLaw wrote:
Scrappy wrote:
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.

Yes. It’s an interesting position the OP is in. His goal is to not win a fight. It’s to survive long enough to not get hurt. With multiple attackers. It’s like being in a bar fight that you don’t want to win. You just want to get out of the bar.

So take downs aren’t the way to go, because that gets you on the ground.

In such a case, knowing how to control and guy and do some trips would be best. So you are spot-on with you recommendation that he learn clinch work. Greco would be great here. Get head or arm control, trip the guy, back the fuck up and get his bearings.[/quote]

I agree with these guys and most of the posts in this thread. The idea in a correctional facility is to restrain rather than beat the hell out of the guy, even though he probably deserves it. It seems that prisoners have more rights than law abiding citizens, so you have to be careful not to go too far.

A good friend of mine works at a minimum security prison and benches well over 500 lbs (he demonstrated this for the inmates). He gets respect but that may be partially due to the fact that it’s not a maximum security facility. That being said, I’d opt for boxing, muay thai and definitely some grappling/jiu jitsu.

You know, a prison guard bitching about being called a guard is about the same as a custodian bitching about being called a janitor…

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

Bushy[/quote]

Drunken monkey anyone? Couldn’t resist because one of our BJJ brownbelts is also an akido blackbelt and he catches hell from all the guys about it…I think he’s a blackbelt in four different arts(judo, kempo) and can tapout/beat up pretty much all of us, but its still fun to poke fun at him.

[quote]TornadoTommy wrote:
I agree with these guys and most of the posts in this thread. The idea in a correctional facility is to restrain rather than beat the hell out of the guy, even though he probably deserves it. It seems that prisoners have more rights than law abiding citizens, so you have to be careful not to go too far.[/quote]

That may be the idea of other people, but the idea that I keep in my mind while I’m on duty, is if someone starts a fight with me, and I feel that I’m in any danger at all, I’m going to end that threat as fast as possible.

Now keep in mind, I said if I feel I’m in danger. If I’m doing a cell extraction, I’m not going to go in there beating the hell out of the guy, there’s a team of multiple officers, even if I get hit, I’m in no real danger. If I’m walking down a cell block and an inmate jumps out to attack me, I’m going to do what I can to end it as fast as possible, and not worry about whether

I hurt him or if I can restrain him. I might be trying to restrain him, and might find another inmate trying to help him out. Who knows. If it comes down to them believing that I used excessive force, then I’ll take my life over my job anyday.

In my experience alot of assaults were usually a inmate sucker punching an officer when they least expect it…and then just backing off and laying on the ground…“I give up,boss.”

Someone mentioned the inmates having more rights,which is no joke. In the above mentioned you wouldnt be able to do a damn thing except “write” the inmate up and possible getting “free-world” charges for assault.

If you will be fighting off multiple people at once, look in to krav maga.

the style basically centers around doing as much damage as quickly as possible to end fights fast. no rules, no boundaries, everything including surroundings is fair game. this will extrapolate best to a real world fighting situation.

if you want something more disciplined, look in to grappling/submission style fighting. taking a guy down and keeping him there would be beneficial to a jailer i would imagine.

For what it’s worth many of the judoka at my dojo are police officers, and the two instructors are retired officers. They all seem to find that a good knowledge of judo and some dirty boxing skills (ie MMA style striking, hitting in the clinch, etc.) very valuable to their jobs. Most of them end scuffles very quickly with a sharp hard throw onto the concrete. Those pretty little judo throws performed on seasoned judoka on padded mats can become crippling weapons out on the street.

Stay safe Barney. Watch your back and those of your coworkers.

Due to the fact that you’re in Kansas, I’d have to also agree with Scrappy and others who have suggested a grappling art (JJ, Greco, Freestyle, Judo) and it would also probably be a wise idea to do some kickboxing (or muay thai and boxing if you don’t have a decent kickboxing school nearby).

If you had the option, I’d honestly suggest that you train in Lysak’s Sento Method, but seeing as there are only 3 schools and all of them are on the east coast, I don’t really think that’s an option.

However, if you want some good supplementary training information (i.e. dvds), then Lysak’s stuff is top notch (JJ, kickboxing, “street effective techniques”, weapons, basically everything you’d want to learn for real world combat). I’d also recommend Joe Lewis’s dvds (Lewis is one of the best kickboxers as well as kickboxing coaches alive, and his dvds are also top notch), and Tony Blauer’s dvds (Blauer has a lot of dvds on the cerebral side of combat, something that a correctional officer would probably do well to study).

Good luck and good training,

Sentoguy

There are a few things I could recommend for what you are doing. One good system that is good to learn is the Phillipino art known as Arnis. They have a lot of good joint locking that is useful for controlling people. Also they do a lot of stick fighting that is also a form of knife fighting.

This would work well (OP) for you because you learn how to use a billyclub and also get a handle on fighting with a knife or against one.

Against multiple opponents I would avoid grappling arts because you can easily get tied up on one guy while his freinds have fun.

[quote]Sifu wrote:
There are a few things I could recommend for what you are doing. One good system that is good to learn is the Phillipino art known as Arnis. They have a lot of good joint locking that is useful for controlling people. Also they do a lot of stick fighting that is also a form of knife fighting.

This would work well (OP) for you because you learn how to use a billyclub and also get a handle on fighting with a knife or against one.
[/quote]

Modern Arnis is a good art (Shihan Lysak has trained with Remy Presas and holds a high rank), but honestly I don’t think their knife fighting tactics are very practical. Richard Ryan’s Dynamic Combat Method has the best real world knife fighting that I’ve seen.

[quote]
Against multiple opponents I would avoid grappling arts because you can easily get tied up on one guy while his freinds have fun. [/quote]

But, no other arts will teach you how to avoid getting tied up and taken to the ground better than grappling arts.

Take a look at Chuck Liddell for example. The reason why he was able to keep so many of his fights on his feet (where he wanted to be) was because of his wrestling skills/background.

[quote]slimjim wrote:
You know, a prison guard bitching about being called a guard is about the same as a custodian bitching about being called a janitor…[/quote]

LOL. I was thinking the same thing. There’s something being lectured about terminology by someone who is about to devote his life to working around sweaty, stinky men who regularly gang rape each other in what’s basically a zoo that motivates a guy to say: “Spare me.”

I have to wonder why people are recommending Muay Thai, BJJ, boxing, and other sporting arts to this man. That’s one of the reasons I don’t care too much for MMA–people think it’s real fighting.

“I am a master of the custodial arts…or a janitor if you wanna be a dick about it.”