Originally Posted by
bu-kusa
If you want to protect yourself from street violence there are easier, cheaper and faster options then learning a martial art. The main ones being your lifetyle and home/work address.
I agree with my E-Budo colleague here. This is a debate that is always topical! If you want to learn to be safer and "defend yourself" then why not do a Self-defence course or if you want a better, deeper level of skill then look at a combatives practice.
It isnt about which martial art; pick one that suits you and you feel comfortable with; ethically and physically. The dojo and the teacher are extremely important also.
If you are naturally thick set and prefer "hands on" then why not consider Judo or another grappling art? The martial Art is in some ways not important. Any art, properly taught and properly practised will be of great benefit when you have acquired a reasonable level of skill through years of dilligent study. A "traditional" martial art doesn't teach you how to fight, it teaches you how not to.
You need the skills and tactics and the knowledge, calmness and discipline how to use them. A budo will develop these but you will (or should) make any "fighting method" your own.
Enough of my ramblings...
Jeffrey W. Goodwin.
"It is easy to kill someone with a slash of a sword. It is hard to be impossible for others to cut down".
Yagyu Munenori (1571 - 1646)
Samurai & bodyguard to the Shogun.