As a martial Artist and musician who has spent many, many nights in seedy bars, I've developed a self-defense technique which has, thus far, a 100% success rate! I've used it to least a dozen times and it has yet to fail. Step 1: When confronted by a belligerent bar patron, take a step back and put your hands up in a defensive posture with palms facing your aggressor. Step 2, Take a deep breath and swallow your ego because things are about to get real. Step 3. Apologize for the perceived offense. Even if you did nothing wrong. Step 4, Ask your aggressor what he's drinking and explained that you'd like to buy him a drink and talk. About what, you ask? Whatever they want... Step 5. If during your conversation, they don't seem to want to calm down, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and take a detour to the back door and go home.
PROUD BRIT actually no it’s not he’d calmed down the situation, before someone is on top of him beating on him, then he removed him self =100% win, once thing actually get pyshical to where blows are exchanged then you can make your argument.
Running away is fine. I’ve done it more than a few times in the past. But that sucks, you go out for a drink, or a meal, or a movie, maybe you’re with your wife. Then some arsehole who just doesn’t like the way you look starts a fight. So you bug out and go home? leaving an unpaid bill on the table? Your girl on her own? At the very least your giving up your right to be in a public place. What do you do if the guy demands your car keys? Or your woman? Or he just happens to be in your house, where do you go? Do you just abandon it?
Hi everyone. I joined a Muay Thai gym a year ago as part of my PTSD recovery. It's done wonders. I even enjoy light to moderate sparring now :) Never thought I'd say that. I can say that even though well aware that there's always a bigger fish, when I'm in public now I know at the very LEAST, I wont freeze up in a conflict situation, 90% of people are simply not threatening to me anymore. That was a MASSIVE step for me. 40 year old male. Australia. God bless.
Same here. Muay Thai had been my therapy for the past month (boxing, two months prior that). And I'm feeling wonderful despite it being S. A. D. season.
@BAZZA He didn't say he could beat everyone he passes on the street, he said 90 percent, there's no reason someone who's been practicing muay thai for a year shouldn't be capable of that unless they've got poor natural capabilities. 90 percent aren't fighters to begin with. Unfortunately that link to you provided goes to a private video and is unviewable, I was interested where you were going with that, sounded like you were going somewhere interesting. Would you be able to expand a bit more on where that was going?
Arahorn Probly not due to the fact that after 13 years of boxing and Muay Thai it would be muscle memorie as well as basic instinct, even in a street fight, I have seen it used several times in street fights. Does that alway mean the trained fighter alway won no, simply becuase no matter how trained or not a simple lucky blow or the shock of being attacked made the trained fighter forget which is common.
@@goblinsadhd431 Are you saying someone who's been practicing muay thai for a year wouldn't be able to handle 90% of the general male population? If they have been applying themselves seriously training in a dedicated fashion multiple times a week they should be able to. I don't know much about muay thai but have been around a lot of boxers and I'd assume it's about the same for muay thai. Maybe 1% are trained in something effective. It's really not until you get to the top 10% of untrained men that they start to be able fight properly.
Free running is more about fancy tricking, parkour is only to get over obstacles as fast as possible so it rarely includes any flips etc. Some don't make any difference between them but some others have been very strict about it.
Secret Agent Stupid Bomboclaat I come from a boxing family. My uncle was the golden child he was a really good undefeated pro in the late seventies..people talked about uncle Ed punching people like he shot them in the face .. boxing is definitely a great choice .. but just like everything you gotta be good at it
100% disagreeing. Great sport and all but boxing techniques are not meant to be thrown with unprotected knuckles. Same goes for guard, will you protect yourself with non existent gloves on the street? Self defense does not mean you hurt your hand in the process. Broke mine multiple times, always thought they are well conditioned. Well, no punching bag is nearly as hard as a human skull. There are mutliple pro boxer that knocked out people in the street but broke their hand in the process. They say Mike Tyson is one of them. Also don't start me on body shots. Yes - they are effective. No - you will not be able to adapt your style without actively practicing it. In other words, your guard won't work and almost certainly your muscle memory will make you throw punches to the head. Want proof? Look at Kyokoshin athletes and how one of the best stand ups styles in the world is crippled by the no head strikes rule. When cross training / fighting with other styles, there is always a problem with the head punches, either the other guy keeps throwing them accidentally, the karateka not being able to handle them because of a lack of conditioning (which is ironic because they are extremely well conditioned) or the Karateka simply forgetting to use head strikes... that's why so many of the famous one switch to Muay Thai. (Andy Hug, GSP, even Rico Verhoeven IIRC and many more) You will always fight the way you trained the most, so at the very least - as a boxer who wants to feel safer in the streets - I would do regular punching bag sessions with only bandages and emphasize hitting the knuckles (mid-and index) on the bag consistently and work on body combinations. You can hit the chin or jaw if you really want to but never, ever connect your hands full power to the forehead, cheeck bones or any other hard part - bad, bad, baaaaaaaad idea. Took me a year to fully recover and be able to throw my right again. A FULL YEAR. TWICE. stay safe
I've been around fighters and martial artists and military CQC combatants all my life. You, Ramsey Dewey, are a delight. Your spirit is right, your comments are true, and your mind is sensible. A true pleasure watching your vids. I am not a belt!
You know what made me be a good fighter as a kid? I played a brass instrument in a marching band (wind and breath power), I climbed trees a lot living next to woods (arm strength and fearlessness), and I built a small log cabin with a small hand axe (fist, arm and shoulder power), I delivered newspapers on a bicycle (leg strength and stamina), and I took a little bit of wrestling in Jr High as an elective (technique). Never would have guessed that all of these disparate things would have made me a good fighter as a kid..
The most enlightening book on the subject is the book of five rings, every fight is its own fighting style, running away, throwing a rock, tossing sand on the eyes, in fighting what resolves the situation at the moment is what should be done and the most important thing "the master swordsman is who that wins the battle without unsheathing its sword", master peace above all else.
My GOD, man ! You just encapsulated EVERYTHING I've learned, witnessed and taught in my lifetime of martial arts training! It's as if you read my mind! My late, great teacher told me many times to learn all I can, unlike most teachers who insist on exclusivity. I took his advice and it's paid off handsomely. You are so very right about martial arts training saving lives by making the body stronger and healthier. Eleven years ago I had a massive heart attack - a 95% blockage of my cardio-pulmanary artery due to a blood clot formed during shoulder surgery a few weeks before. I never lost consciousness, except when they put me under for surgery. Before the surgery ( stent implant) they were considering flying me to another hospital for open heart surgery. I was feeling no pain at this point and the doctors and technicians, four or five in all, were frantically pushing buttons and checking readings on the various machines they had me hooked up to. I felt fine, and frankly, a little embarrassed at the fuss they were making. I thought I just had a severe case of heart burn and now I'm hooked up to machines! Long story shortened a big-time they were dumbfounded that I was still alive much less calmly talking to them and not in any pain! The next morning I was visited five times by as many doctors, nurses and technicians all asking the same question, " were you ever s professional athlete?". I'd laugh, tell them no that I never played sports and they'd come back with, " are you sure?". " Pretty sure I would remember if I was.". " Well your physiology says differently. You're 53 years old and people your age don't usually survive heart attacks that massive! This was the BIG ONE! It should have ENDED you! We've been in a meeting for the past two hours, the subject of which is you! We can't figure out why you're still alive!" I told them they'd have to talk to the MAN UPSTAIRS about that! They agreed but we're still puzzled about the whole physiology thing. Finally I said, I started Kung Fu training when I was 14 and through the years have trained "old school" with emphasis on strengthening and conditioning. I would train 2-4 hours a day after work at least 5 days a week and even more on weekends. Did that for decades" "That would explain it!" They said. A few years later I found out from a retired nurse that in a professional athlete, their arteries grown tributaries around the blockage! I asked why that was true with pro athletes and not anyone else? Because pro athletes train hard, year round and the pain alone kills people before their bodies can adapt! Training people! Training!
*My Dad is paranoid of me going outside* and being robbed or killed. He experienced some of it, he told me his experiences but he is just WAY too protective. He also watches the negative stuff on the news murders, car accidents and etc which probably makes him MORE paranoid. If only he watches these kinds of videos instead of the ones that fills his mind with negativity. I can't get him to watch what I watch, he is a prideful man not letting other people tell him what to do.
*Thomas Bartoll,* I do my best to convince him to. But he doesn't want to. Going to a fitness gym instead of a Combat Sports gym is more his thing since he thinks it will help him more to lose his beer belly.
My best advice, promise him something in return ;) In the end you make a small concession but you'll probably convince him, and he'll maybe realised why you are passionate about martials arts and maybe star doing it with you. I think it worth giving it a shot. TO give you my short story, my dad is the one that made me start judo at age of 4 even though he was not found of martials arts, then when i was 16 he finally tried to do go to a a training with me, then he loved it and we spent on year training together
I totally agree with you about Krav Maga, I wanted to try it out to keep in shape and learn something new. After only two trainings... let's just say it was completely useless. Not even the warm-up was done right. We had a demonstration of two defense ''techniques'' against a club/baseball bat attack (seriously?) and then some practice in pairs before doing burpees and pushups as ''cool down''. The worst thing is that the instructor was constantly pointing out that those were women self-defense moves. Well, I don't think there's a high possibility of anyone jumping at me in the street and hitting me with a bat. Most KM schools have great marketing but are nothing more than a cash grab like you said. It's pretty much best to stay away from anything promoted as ''self-defence for women''. Sad, but turns out to be true.
Totally agree!!! I love krav maga, I had very good instructors but I see a lot who´s class are totally useless. I had the opportnity to participate in a Krav maga seminar where there were a lot of instructors from different schools and our instructor was just wondering what the f...ck they are doing. The seminar was stopped at least 4 times when the organizer instructor said tha what´s the hell are they doing, so it was not only our impression that something is wrong with them, they way they work... And yes, the" stay away from bulls...hit instructors and stay away from women only classes" is what I say, when someone asks how I have reached the level where I am.
I had a KM class in the beggining of he year and was a similar expirience. Some dull techniques and worse: in the training in doubles, when I was the atacker, the instructor kept telling me what to do so the technique work, cause I was able to avoid the "defenses".
I never done krav maga but just like you I went to check out one of those reality based self defense for the sake of having something to do I talked to the instrustor and i did not even take a single class but just from talking to the instructor I knew there school sucked and i was not going to get anything out of it.The instructor had the nerve to actually ask me what did I do for a living not to mention his additude seemed to suck I don't know about you but I think that by itself is grounds for a bad review.
Yeah it's definitely hit or miss. I am a Muay Thai and Krav Maga practitioner and I have been attacked violently twice and Krav saved my ass. That being said there are a ton of shit Krav schools out there so it's tough to know what you are getting.
I would say go with boxing/kickboxing - most people that join MA has no clue about how it should look, however, boxing/kickboxing skips the bullshit that karate, taekwondo, Krav Maga have. Not saying any of those are bad, they are not, but there is a money printing machine with those 'styles'. Black belt at 11? FUCK NO! That's what I mean. Where I train you need 8-10years of training to get a black blet in "Karate" , but it's Kyokushing, and the club is legit, with fighers that fought in Championships in Barcelona or whatever. They hit you while you have the protection gear, and it feels like your bones are breaking.
Allen Gallegos That's some great advice. In 1977 I joined the HS wrestling team after training in TKD for 3 years. HS wrestling is very cost effective as well a foundational skill. Just a little background in wrestling makes a big difference. I would also suggest functional strength training ie powerlifting weight lifting as well.
The universe has an awesome way of bringing your videos into my life at the right moment! My girlfriend was catcalled and followed by a couple of punks just yesterday and I was talking to her about how situational awareness is more important than just skill in self defence and here you are, uploading just the video to tell her all she needs to know! Thank you!
peter pace like he said in the video, they wouldn't have picked her as a target if I'd been walking with her :) But maybe I'll walk with her next time just so I can meet these gentlemen and show them an episode of Magic Schoolbus on Inside the Human Body....without the episode of Magic Schoolbus ;)
I’ve read articles of older women who miss getting catcalled now that they are older and more unattractive. Oh and getting in a fight over is gay. You’ll just get beat up fighting 5 guys
Being cat-called and then /followed/ is just intimidating. If there's a bunch of guys making lewd comments, you feel like you're just meat in their opinion, and you don't know whether it will turn uglier. I know of a few of my female friends who have been followed and then the guys have tried to assault them. One of my friends just sprinted off as soon as they got close enough to really freak her out, one in the US pepper-sprayed a guy who was following her and then she ran off, and one who was on holiday at the time, had her dream holiday to turned into a nightmare because she was sexually assaulted by a guy who started off with cat-calls and lewd comments, then followed her, she tried to escape but got lost in a city she wasn't familiar with, and he did something pretty awful to her. Most guys cat-calling are just trying to look big in front of their mates by shouting stuff, but some are nasty people indeed, and you can't always know which one you're dealing with. On a very base level it's an acknowledgement that the woman is sexually attractive, but how rude it is tends to just make it feel creepy rather than flattering. There's plenty of ways to compliment an attractive women, but yelling obscenities about her bust or something is not one of them. I agree that learning to spot trouble and avoid it (situational awareness) is very important. Being able to run away is also important - which also means knowing your surroundings, where you are, etc. which I guess relates back to situational awareness. It is however, definitely pretty stupid to try and pick a fight with five guys.
I am a 16 years old MMA fighter ( in about 2 months I will fight my first MMA fight) who tried Krav Maga (and I live in israel and I went to a good school), Karate and Aikido, I have in my family few doctors and few athletes and I never thought about the fact that heart diseases are our worst enemy. Thank you very much for the other point of view that you give me and to other people about martial arts. To make sure that I am clear, I stopped training Krav Maga Aikido and Krate. I only train MMA now
I never really liked the term _self defense._ I prefer to say _self preservation._ In my opinion it seems to be a little more descriptive in summation about what the goal is and how it's being approached or regarded.
Where I live protection from midges is a priority and one is bound to lose the fight every time. But to varying degrees. And there's no permanent damage.
About posturing, I had a van almost hit me, because I was in its blind spot, I think. I honked and the guy got really angry at me. We got side by side on the next traffic light, so I chastised him on his stupid action and told him to buy better mirrors. And the guy started threatening me and told me to get out of the car, so we could fight, if I had anything against his driving expertise (him and his 2 adult friends, vs me and my child sister) I remained very calm, just told him he should drive more carefully. I didn't rise much my voice, but was firm, and didn't engaged in his violence spiral. The guy clearly suspected something, because I think he thought I should have been a scared or angry, but my being calm threw him off. He had like a computer freeze, because if I wasn't scared there was something he didn't know (was I a dangerous black belt? or had a weapon? or was I a cop?) His energy was all up, then down, and his friends started to tell him to calm down, and he stopped on the curb just a few meters after that.
I don't honk when a driver makes an honest mistake like that, I call that passive-aggressive posturing. People on the road these days are so self-entitled and need to calm down and learn patience.
Wow, Ramsey! You're a very nice person, a great guy and an awesome motivator and teacher. First time I stumbled in one of your videos I was a bit of perplexed, you know… “Who's this guy who speaks so much, ending lost in digressions and side confabulations…??”, I asked myself. Mmm… not very much time after I had produced such profound consideration, I found myself literally craving for your “digressions” (that, after all, are not digressions at all, rather being noteworthy developments and elaborations) and now I cannot let a day pass without spending some highly valuable time listening to your reflections and advices - always inspiring, always encouraging and instructing and truly stimulating. Thank you so much indeed! You're really great at what you do. I love it!
Best "martial art" to learn for self defense is parkour. It teaches you how to run away as quickly and efficiently as possible. it comes with fitness training and conditioning that will be more useful than what you'll learn from many combat-focused self-defense courses out there, so if you get caught in a situation where running away doesn't help, you will at least be fitter and stronger than you would be if you didn't do it. You learn a lot about movement, balance and body control which translates indirectly into a fight scenario as well. And you learn ways to exploit your environment which makes situations where you "have no choice" far less likely to happen, because you have more options for how and where to retreat.
1. It helps you to not get stuck in an alley that has a dead end in the first place. 2. It helps you find a path AROUND the person attacking if you do end up in an alley. 3. It helps you reach that retracted fire escape ladder and get out that way if there's no way around. It's still POSSIBLE to get yourself into a situation where you'll have to fight, but it's much less LIKELY. And you're still making yourself fitter, stronger, and faster which, while not directly related to fighting skills, willbenefit you in a fight.
@@73kimura Or are rather your sayings childish..? To think it would not ever help is silly, as well as I agree it is not the only answer. Can something that can't catch you hurt you? Would you just stay to fight a 180kg/400lb 2 meter strong fatto that would paint your brain unto the pavement, or run halfway around the block until he got a heart attack..? For it to succeed in the first place you got to have situational awareness, reaction time and agility, because as we know most muggers won't carry a warning sign. >IF< first tactic fails, then fighting it is. Most people can't run for shit [only sprint 100m/y], especially not jump up high walls, fences and take great falls. If some chasers are athletes [which drugged up or drunk street thugs seldomly are], you've weed out the rest and can take him on if push comes to shove. Whoever have the best stamina left and martial arts power & knowledge wins. A cheetah seldomly fear a lion.
Footstomps have their uses, but as a trap, not as a strike. You can use it to interfere with footwork. But you only do this to create an opening, to get the real work started. The stomp itself isn't going to end the fight.
About mid way through the video you say something about being attacked with a knife you should carry a weapon. Self defense is a multi-level thing. A serious martial artist trains to be fit. A serious martial artist trains stand-up and grappling. A serious martial artist trains with weapons. If you are truly serious about self defense you will carry a weapon and train with it regularly where legal. Spot on at 15:30. If you are attacked by multiple ppl you had better have a weapon or you are done. This is a reality that a lot of people for some reason don't want believe.
The PROBLEM is that in Europe and increasing here in America, the liberals keep making anti gun and anti knife laws that only hurt us law abiding citizens. Just having an unloaded gun in your car in NY can get you up to 10 years in prison but they do almost nothing against all the illegals committing violent crime over here.
Its the same in Australia. By law if you are attacked and your life is threatened your allowed to retaliate with force one level higher. So if your attacked with a knife you can defend yourself with a knife or a gun. Which looks good on paper but is actually BS. Because your not allowed to carry them and if you do you go to jail regardless. So your completely screwed if your attacked by anyone armed or better than you.
Fighting the ring and sports is about training, preparation, athleticism, dedication, but most of all objectively its about getting the win. Self defense is about mentality, pressure and stress situational training, but mostly survival. It's not about winning, it's about not losing, in the street, not even having to fight is already a win. Just like you always say, why the hell would you fight and put your body on the line if it's not getting you anything? And in most places of the world, you usually don't even have to worry about being part of that scary violence statistic. Here in Brazil theres 60 THOUSAND homicides a year. That's more then half of the rest of the world combined. It's normal to be paranoid, you gotta really hammer in that mentality that maaaan, it's WAY more important to FEEL safe then to think you're safe because you have a piece of wood in your car. And don't get me wrong, MOST people here are probably ready to hit a bad a guy across his head with a crowbar and wouldn't even have a second thought about it. That's how bad violence has gotten here and that mentality has gotten just as bad. but the truth is not acting like a potential victim probably gets you out of most victim situations. you don't have to be an athlete to develop that mentality. It's fucking scary to now the reality of violence over here. Keeps everyone awake at night. Once you're not scared out of your mind because you're afraid of being a victim, then get 'em to train like they MEAN it. Like they need it and want it. not because they think it's just fun. When people have this mentality, doesn't matter too much what they train, they'll find something that works. That's way more important then any style. Grind, lose, change, repeat, till you're good at whatever you have to be good at. No shortcut there.
Do you have gun control in Brazil? I was watching this RUclips video once I think somewhere in the Middle-East. It was some sort of event with a gathering, and one man was upset with another man so he went to his car, got a hammer, ran over and bashed this guy's skull in with the hammer until he was stone cold dead. He smashed this guy's skull to hell. Like a carpenter's hammer or ball pein hammer with the small metal head. It was actually sad to watch, but once the attacker got to the victim, he was dead within about 10 seconds after about 10 hits as hard as he could. Brutal, a very childish, very violent tantrum by the attacker. Some people are just very selfish.
man Ramsey you nailed it AGAIN! This is a deep topic that i feel you alliterated perfectly my friend. Its so refreshing having an honest and knowledgeable channel. Now if you could just move your gym to Seattle, that would be great.
Ramsey , i want to ask you , one day you told us about an amazing taichi master you met , what you described sounds fantastic . So why don't you learn from him? I mean , if i was lucky enough to meet such a master , i would beg him to teach me.
@@RamseyDewey Ah, I thought it was Chen Yu but he's much younger. He's also fat so I had wondered if you'd seen through that and respected his ability anyway. So maybe not!
Absolutely solid video. While I would like my martial art to be "effective", it would be a lie to say I need it for Self Defense. I'm a good talker, and I've talked my way out of every single possible fight for the last 15 years. I see no reason why I won't be able to continue to do that in 99.9% of situations.
On "posturing": what about walking angrily? Hunched, restless fingers, eyes darting to the sides, slight scowl... if we can project the aura of "im angry, try to rob, I wanna beat someone up", does that work as a deterrence?
Also that behavior is often interpreted as a challenge. So instead of deciding if your wallet is worth a fight, they're likely to decide that you want to fight them, and if you want to fight them and look threatening you can bet they're going to want the first shot. So that's a bad impression to give.
Man, thank you so much. Your vids are the most, if not only, grounded and realistic I've seen anywhere. And youre thorough and very well spoken, also a plus. Keep it up, pratical and genuine might catch on yet!
So dependant on who you are, your strength of spirit and your willigness to engage in violence of action. Beyond the art of fighting, practice and create quick action drills to get out of situations before they start. For example- In my practice I have developed the ability to do what I call 'Rewind', this means that I easily move backwards three to five steps in the exact motion I just walked forward. This allows me to extract myself from a situation without turning away and has saved me many times. Exampels : From being hit by a left turning car well crossing a street. A potenital mugging situation after turning a corner. As resent as yesterday at work, extracting myself from the fall area of a load I was stepping forward to rig. Rewinding also appears to mess with peoples spacial perception and does not trigger their preditor instincts. In the case of the potenital mugging, I turned the corner and came upon a couple of dirt bags moving to block my path. I hit rewind returning to the safe side of the corner, leaving them and their ambush space and not turning to sprint away until I was out of their line of sight. So give it a try and enjoy the movment play and spacial awarness of 'Rewinding'
My first instructor for Taekwondo was a Former Republic of Korea army officer. He was totally ripped at age 51 and extremely serious about what he did. His training consisted of hours of doing repetitious Basics over and over and over again. He used to emphasize weights and being physically fit. During one class he struck me in the face causing an enormous amount of blood to discolor my uniform from white to red. Knowing what he was like, I did not flinch nor say a word but carried on. The other people in my class looked on in horror thinking that they were next in line to be struck. After about an hour my teacher came over and said what happened? I said well Master Chang, you punched me in the face. He said me? No I don't think I did that. Then he said but you didn't say a word. I said no that's fine. His brother was of an even higher rank and wood drill us even longer hours. That was the kind of training that did me the most good and gave me the most physical fitness and abilities.
One can truelly feel your love and passion for martial arts, training and motivation flowing out of your eyes and the way you speak. Clear, concise and well articulated ideas with a calm and grounded voice. You just got a new subscriber!
love this guy! He came two words short of saying if you're worried about self defense buy a gun but if you want to beat the shit out of bullies learn how to fight.... So true! If someone pulls a weapon make sure you got a better one.
Great advice: if you plan on running, get good at it. If you plan on posturing, get good at it. If you plan on submitting, get good at it. If you plan on fighting, get good at it. Also be prepared if your initial plan doesn't work.
I'm binging these videos - so much great info. I started martial arts as a teenager... I was never big but I was in GREAT shape. I'm not saying I was unbeatable but if it was time to throw down, I wasn't going down without taking a piece of the other guy with me. Life happened and I got out of it. I was 240lbs of old, slow fat. About 4 months ago my 5 year old made me the happiest dude ever and wanted to take karate. I found a good TKD school that had a family class and started kind of casually. It didn't take long but I got that same passion as a teen again. I see far too many out of shape "fighters"
A Saying here in Germany is: _,,Der Klügere gibt nach."_ ,which means literally: *_"The wiser (person) gives in."_* You are totally correct: The smartest way to prevent a fight is not provoking it and being the wiser one.
Great video. Great message. Totally misused the word "exponentially" :P. One of the major reasons I tell people that I no longer consider myself a "martial artist" is not because I never earned my black belt (although I did have to leave my main school before I had), it isn't because I am out of practice or may have forgotten some techniques, nor is it because I've learned more and discovered the ineffectiveness of some of those techniques (or how I was applying them). That all goes into it, but the main reason I say I know and love martial arts but am not a fighter or martial artist anymore (and was never much of a fighter ever) is because I do not *feel* like a fighter or martial artist. And, while most of that is psychological, the main physical actual contributor to that feeling is that I am very out of shape in contrast to the shape I could be in. I know that if I immediately started training again, I would have a hard time socially, mentally and most of all physically. I know that if I were in a real combat situation, not only would I likely freeze in fear or be reluctant to fight at all out of fear of getting hurt or hurting others (the psychological part), but even *if* chose a proper response, my reaction time would be low (lack of current practice) and my execution would be poor (lack of physical ability due to being out of shape). I would either lose the fight immediately due to freezing or screwing up, or I would lose it over time due to exhaustion. If I did win it would either be because I prevented the fight altogether (avoided the situation, talked them down, other forms of posturing or diplomacy), or it would be a success due to strategy and tactics (they underestimated me, didn't know I had any training or speed, or I am simply careful and form a strategy that uses effective tactics to minimize my harm and allow me a way of escape or to end the fight quickly). If I were in great mental and physical shape, not only could I posture even better than I already do a pretty good job of, but I could handle the fights that I could not avoid better as well. Often I wish I were not so poor and so depressed.. I might return to training and getting in shape. But, like any training, serious martial arts training is a lot of work. I often wonder if it is even worth the time/money/effort/risk of accidental self-injury (which can happen even if one trains properly). You did make a great point about overall health and thus heart health being improved though. If I did ever return to martial arts and training my body it would be for that reason and to hopefully lose a small bit of weight (which would again help with the heart health among other things).
+Ramsey Dewey hey ramsey, as someone who wants to do self defense/fun in martial arts how do you go about brain damage in martial arts. I want to do self defense but brain damage scares me. Is there any martial art that is at LEAST suitable for self defense but doesnt have any negative consequences like brain damage/concussions?
Follow the howl wait hold on a sec but are you a martial artist? Just want to know because it seems to me that you DIDNT know getting hit in the head causes brain damage. That's a bit concerning. Not sure what you mean by significant strikes either as every (hard) punch to the head is considered damage.
Follow the howl thank you for the clarification. You mention that someone who isn't getting hit hard in the head wont have any problems. I just want to say that it doesnt really matter how frequent you are getting hit in the head. But rather how hard the strike is and a bunch of other factors like speed/etc. If someone can get a concussion after getting hit in the head (and I heard stories of people getting punched once and received a concussion) surely the possibility of brain damage is still present. There's also a thing called subconcussive hits where you have a concussion but dont have the symptoms of a normal concussion which makes it even scarier.
If your body is physically fragile and weak then it's not good idea to get hit at all. Get a gun. Don't gamble your health if you don't need to. Peace!
In fairness Marc Ortega has a point. The fact is there is a massive difference between full contact martial arts, semi contact martial arts and no contact martial arts. There is a massive difference in teaching quality. I would practice MMA with Ramsey because based on watching lots of his video's he is a damn good coach, he does not throw people into the deep end straight away full contact, his priority is your safety, I love the headgear video he made so true. But and here is the but from my experience good coaches are few and far between. I got a detached retina in my early martial art days from a semi contact martial art! the Sensei was bad, the students were wild, the gloves were for semi not full contact. If you want to play the relatively safe route try Shotokan Karate, it teaches control, I am biased as one of my arts I practice is Karate :)
Follow the howl interesting... I guess I was with a bad teacher. For some reason my teacher put me in hard sparring with 2 months of barely conditioning.
I don't like how you say Jujitsu when you mean BJJ. I see that a lot online, and I fear that this produces an incorrect expectation in people going to a regular Jujitsu class. I have a Dan in Japanese Jujitsu, and our school teaches maybe 80% standing, 20% grappling on the ground. We also don't do a lot of sparring on the ground, which is (as far as I've seen) the most important thing in BJJ.
Jiu-Jitsu, Jujitsu and Jujutsu are just different readings of the same word. My school is in central Europe, we have a network of small schools all over the continent.
In Germany and other countries, Jiu-Jitsu and Jujitsu are used interchangeably. For example, here is a Jiu Jitsu union from Austria that has no connection with Brasil: www.jjvoe.at/
HaHa! I agree with your view of cows! Not only everything that you said, but we are grabbing them by the private parts! Do we really think they are fond of that? :-)
Fonduman - Yes, for sure! I have a friend that runs a grass strip airport. A neighbor's cow wandered on the runway and my friend shot the cow! Didn't go over too well in the community. .
Good advice, but please don't tell people to waste time on useless dance (tai chi, arkido, etc). They are more dangerous than not learning at all, because they give a false sense to your ability to fight. May I also suggest judo is good for grappling too.
Gadfly , sure we do understood his point. but by saying "try them first", that's a waste of time if you try something useless, you will never learn how to fight. I believe a better advice would be: learn something that's proven functional first, like wrestling, bjj, boxing, muay thai. Only when you know how to fight properly, then learn something different.
GuitarsRockForever The problem is that "proven functional" is ill-defined. If proven functional you mean: can an athlete trained in the sport step in a ring and win fights? Than the answer is easy. But if you want to train at a local school, you will not be trained as an athlete. Your local mma school might be a mc-gym. Your local tai-chi quan trainer might be super hard-core about conditioning. It's not always about the art, but often about the specific trainer.
Dries van Oosten, that's why you have to see if the gym is credible first. But regardless, you will never learn how to fight if you only train with non functional art master, no matter how hardcore the master is. If one wants to learn how to fight, the "art" part does not matter at all. Only the "martial" part matters. That's where you draw the line, some "art" are BS, you can never make "martial" out of it by its own. I'm in no way against the teaching of non functional art, as long as they are honest about they are no where near any "martial". Some non functional art are great for health and well-being (eg. tai chi), I highly recommend them for health reason.
GuitarsRockForever The question is: why do you get to decide which art is functional. Just because there are a lot of people using tai chi as a standing meditation, doesn't mean there aren't masters that can teach the combative form.
He also said that practicing anything that gets you moving and exercising is effective at preventing the #1 killer of people: heart disease. It depends on your goals.
Hello Ramsey you are the only person on RUclips who has said the most intelligent answer about learning martial arts for 🥋. Any martial art(s) is good if you know how to fight with it
This is true, martial arts for me is fun. Thats one of the reason i train in traditional chinese martial arts. The other is it keeps me fit. All i do is practice my religion as best i can, it keep me in a good and relaxed frame of mind. I need the spiritual side along with the martial side. And i question everything i study. I do research, i research everything i can. The three styles i practice, work well together. Like Bruce Lee said, "Absorb whats useful, reject whats useless."
Ramsey, I didn't know what to expect from your first video. As some one who has had quite a bit of street fights, having training in martial arts and being a smaller guy, I agree with a lot of what you say. You are wise and knowledgeable. Keep up the good work.
Sir, I must say the way you break it down is impressive. Very eloquent. Great videos. Every day after I get home from work I watch a video or two. (Also make my kids and wife hear ya!) Very inspiring, insightful and entertaining as hell. Love what you do. New subscriber! Thanx for this. 👊✌🇨🇦
Very cool man! Your voice is very deep and calming. The pauses of speech are perfect to think about what you say. The face expressions are very funny in a good way. When you need it, you get serious. You seem to be having fun with what you say.
You are open minded and sincere. I wish I could train in your gym. I have only one small objection: first of all learn how to take a hit and not panic. There was a time when I could take punches, elbows, kicks to the head, without flinching. I could keep my eyes open and defend or counter attack. Nowadays I am trying to get back at it after years of absence. But for me:learn how to take hits, then learn how to grapple. I want to learn how to grapple eventually (aside from Thai clinch of course), I hope it is not too late (31 years old).
Excellent content there! My instructor started learning Southern Praying Mantis before learning Yang Style Tai Ji. My journey started at Tai Ji and after I have established some fundamentals in Tai Ji, the instructor started integrating Praying Mantis to the curriculum. He had said to us in class "Dedication, Devotion, Discipline!" and it is so true. It is hard to excel by being absent from the training. I know as I had reaped the results of being too slack.
Excellent video. Ramsey, as I listen to you, you say things that resonate with me a lot. Yes, Health is the most important, yes, running away is an option if you can outrun your oponent. I did it but at that point I had to first push away the attacker and then through him. I was in Joburg at that time. Readiing a book when a woman screamed. I saw a guy with a knife preparing for attack. I was lucky. I was warned. I put the book in the bag. He was too close now. I only had one thing .. I pushed him back. Then ran through him/ I was in my prime. Tiny bitof wrestling, karate and whatever I had behind me helped me to do that. In self defence you have sometimes 1 or maybe 2 seconds. If you sustain any damage you may not have a chance to move again at speed and power. You loose time to recover. The more time you lose the more power you have to deliver.later ..Submission works if done early. Later you can only play dead .. so you stay alive. Tai ji is good for two reasons. It is good at helping your mobility and is less likely you will stop practicing because it is too tough. Its combat application and training is mostly lost or hidden. First, TaiJi and some yoga for health and little bit of fitness and strength. Then some aikido for grappling and for delicate opnent handling. Next punching and kicking for some basic direct damage linfliction capability. Next, BJJ for more advanced grappling and sparring .. Next Krav Maga for situational combat. Next ... Generally study and train what you can In self defence important is if youcan move, think and then if you can do some basic offensive and defensive techinques well, fast and naturally ... You see , you feel and you act. You cannot think then.. Because you will not have time for that. Opportunity lost or you will not be there any more.
Ramsey you are the best. You give great analysis about,styles and living a healthy life. I started martial arts at 10 and and I am 64. Very healthy from and my movement. I have trained I Kuntao, Boxing, Tai Chi, jujitsu, dumong,, Thai Boxing, Flow Grappling. It's been the best things in my life. But your analysis ,bur I had to learn what works for me. I competed in amateur combat sports as well as street fights. Martial art hs taught avoid if you can but if you can't you have to be ready for controlled Kaos. And to damage learning position, stand up striking, cliche fighting, ground Grappling. How to go to the ground and get back up. Finish the conflict by doing damage. But it has also taught me that fighting should be avoided as much as one can. There can be legal consequences. But if it's go time you go all the way. And my art has evolved from the ages of 18 to now. I can't box like I did in my 20s the body ages. One must be able you evolve with it. In sparringmy youger student they wonder why I can hang with them . . Keeping my self physically fit but not try to fight like I did in my 20s. From evolution I have a better grasp of distance, Grappling standing or ground, and cut out all the flowery stuff and use what is affective for myself. You have great understanding of combat I wish that I had a chance to train with you. You are a wealth of knowledge. And at 64 I never stop learning adaptingand growing g in a Holistic manner. The arts have help me manage my bi polar, PTSD challenges and finish school with a Masters degree. Coundnot have done it without the arts and helps me live a great life. But watching your commentary is very enlightening and contribute to my grow as a Martial artist and a better human being. Thank you so much for keeping it real and dispelling myths. Keep doing what do much appreciation and gratitude Your are a great gift to all who watch your posts with your wisdom. Thank you and keep training.
if you are half as good as a coach as you are an orrator and narrator, you are world class. love your videos. you should definitely be an actor. great charisma. love the way how you present the truth in a hilarious and honest package. thanks. much respect!
No better way to defuse a potentially violent situation than to feed the other persons ego, it makes them feel good and saves you from getting damaged. Once you understand that your ego isn’t hurt
Additional to your training, you can also practice the noble art. "How to win a fight, by not to begin a fight." Being neither victim nor offender, but a peaceful guardian and defender. Or in other words: "A real sword master defeats his opponents without using the sword. And if he does not use the sword, it gives life to man." This is the deeper meaning which I have learned about martial-arts. And I go safe with it, for more than 14 years by now. It helped me to solve many tricky situations peacefully. Situations that could have escalated easily into a brutal fight, against opponents much stronger than me.
I want to start some kind of martial art by January. I'm trying to research what kind I should do and where to do it. I've been binge-watching your channel all day. I just want to say, thank you for being like, the Carl Sagan of martial arts.
Hello Ramsey, I wish to tell you something: HUGE HUGE THANKS!!! I've been watching your videos from few months, almost every say for hours, and man you opend my eyes about so much things, you changed my life in positive direction, and i thank you for that from all of my heart and from the depts of my soul. I was practising Wing Chun in a total mcdojo for 6 years, the instructors was teaching us such a crappy self defence and Wing Chun. They told us that this is verry dangerous technics, and that we are complete killers, and im so ashamed that i was stupid to belive it for many many years. And this falce confidance could kill me or someone i care about trying to protect them. My dream from little kid is to do my living from martial arts and to be good fighter, to help other people thru martial arts, and my ex-instructors used my zero experience in martial arts, and my dreams to fill theyr pockets and feed theyr ego's. But thanks to you this is no longer happening, and for that i love and respect you and what you are doing. God bless you, you and your family, your students and friends, I wish you nothing but the best. I wish with all my heart one day i can come to your gym and thank you in person, spend some time training with you and your fighters. Sorry for my bad english and that this is so long. THANK YOU!!!!
Right on, brother! I totally agree especially about being healthy. The biggest training deficit I've seen in most schools is the lack of dynamic and realistic attacks. Defending against a frozen zombie is not realistic.
I tend to switch from damage focus to pain compliance when it appears clear I have control of the fight. I don’t like the idea of causing lasting harm, even on an aggressor. This is why I would be ill-equipped to fight professionally. I can only let go of that hesitancy when my own bodily well-being can’t be secured in another way.
Imho, if we are talking about self defense, there are 2 basic steps: 1st is avoidance/escaping/de-escalation. You must avoid bad places, you must escape from bad situations and you must de-escalate when something happens. Why put yourself in a dangerous situation if you can just avoid it? 2nd, it is the ability to fight. But you fight to create an opening to escape and stay there as little time as possible. You don't fight to win. The reason for this is that the law permits the usage of violence in order to escape but not the extended fighting (which is illegal) because then, you are now the attacker and not the defender. Also, if you choose to stay and fight, then you increase the possibility of getting hurt (hidden weapons, multiple attackers).
I have been saying much of this for years- particularly the stuff about having multiple friends and weapons as the best self defense, dying from heart disease long before you get beaten to death on the street and being honest about enjoying the martial arts. I was starting to think I was the only person who thought that. Thank you
As a martial Artist and musician who has spent many, many nights in seedy bars, I've developed a self-defense technique which has, thus far, a 100% success rate! I've used it to least a dozen times and it has yet to fail.
Step 1:
When confronted by a belligerent bar patron, take a step back and put your hands up in a defensive posture with palms facing your aggressor.
Step 2,
Take a deep breath and swallow your ego because things are about to get real.
Step 3.
Apologize for the perceived offense. Even if you did nothing wrong.
Step 4, Ask your aggressor what he's drinking and explained that you'd like to buy him a drink and talk. About what, you ask? Whatever they want...
Step 5.
If during your conversation, they don't seem to want to calm down, excuse yourself to go to the bathroom and take a detour to the back door and go home.
best self defence advice ever:)
Solid strategy!
That's one of the smartest things I've read in a long time.
PROUD BRIT actually no it’s not he’d calmed down the situation, before someone is on top of him beating on him, then he removed him self =100% win, once thing actually get pyshical to where blows are exchanged then you can make your argument.
Running away is fine. I’ve done it more than a few times in the past. But that sucks, you go out for a drink, or a meal, or a movie, maybe you’re with your wife. Then some arsehole who just doesn’t like the way you look starts a fight. So you bug out and go home? leaving an unpaid bill on the table? Your girl on her own? At the very least your giving up your right to be in a public place.
What do you do if the guy demands your car keys? Or your woman? Or he just happens to be in your house, where do you go? Do you just abandon it?
Hi everyone. I joined a Muay Thai gym a year ago as part of my PTSD recovery. It's done wonders. I even enjoy light to moderate sparring now :) Never thought I'd say that. I can say that even though well aware that there's always a bigger fish, when I'm in public now I know at the very LEAST, I wont freeze up in a conflict situation, 90% of people are simply not threatening to me anymore. That was a MASSIVE step for me. 40 year old male. Australia. God bless.
Same here. Muay Thai had been my therapy for the past month (boxing, two months prior that). And I'm feeling wonderful despite it being S. A. D. season.
@BAZZA
He didn't say he could beat everyone he passes on the street, he said 90 percent, there's no reason someone who's been practicing muay thai for a year shouldn't be capable of that unless they've got poor natural capabilities. 90 percent aren't fighters to begin with.
Unfortunately that link to you provided goes to a private video and is unviewable, I was interested where you were going with that, sounded like you were going somewhere interesting. Would you be able to expand a bit more on where that was going?
Arahorn Probly not due to the fact that after 13 years of boxing and Muay Thai it would be muscle memorie as well as basic instinct, even in a street fight, I have seen it used several times in street fights. Does that alway mean the trained fighter alway won no, simply becuase no matter how trained or not a simple lucky blow or the shock of being attacked made the trained fighter forget which is common.
@@goblinsadhd431
Are you saying someone who's been practicing muay thai for a year wouldn't be able to handle 90% of the general male population?
If they have been applying themselves seriously training in a dedicated fashion multiple times a week they should be able to. I don't know much about muay thai but have been around a lot of boxers and I'd assume it's about the same for muay thai.
Maybe 1% are trained in something effective. It's really not until you get to the top 10% of untrained men that they start to be able fight properly.
Arahorn no
I’m saying proud Brit doesn’t know what he is talking about and agreeing with you
A wise man once said "Ramsey Dewey is a wise man" .
Albert Einstein once said "Not every quote you read on the Internet is true".
He does have that cool, zen master like attitude.
"I love tacos"- Jesus 1789
That man was...Ramsey Dewey
If your plan is to run away, learn free running 😂
Some Guy parkor
0 1 Nah, free running. Backflip your way out the situation.
(I didn't actually know those words weren't synonyms until I googled it just now)
So difference between free running and parkor?
Free running is more about fancy tricking, parkour is only to get over obstacles as fast as possible so it rarely includes any flips etc. Some don't make any difference between them but some others have been very strict about it.
Thanks for the education
I just signied up to a spanish school of bull fighting, soon I'll become the most complete martial artist
Those deadly cows will think twice before they mess with you!
Hahahahaha best comment ever
Just training to become vega from street fighter.
Best martial arts for cow defense?
hhhhhhhhhh good one
mossberg
Moo jitsu
Ian McAbee nice
Stay away from stock yards.
You have a golden voice mate! I can listen to you talking for hours and will not be bored.
Yeah, true, really nice to listen to!
It's because every word he says sounds really important.
sounds like he's trying really hard to put on a voice
@@DevinDTV Yeh but it doesn't matter it's still very cool.
I like Boxing, myself. Practical, straightforward, and a good base if mixing with other methods.
Secret Agent Stupid Bomboclaat I come from a boxing family. My uncle was the golden child he was a really good undefeated pro in the late seventies..people talked about uncle Ed punching people like he shot them in the face .. boxing is definitely a great choice .. but just like everything you gotta be good at it
da1onlynickvicious you think 21 is too late to go pro?
@@Bluemann023 how much experience do you have
Joohga Loohga like 2 months lol
100% disagreeing. Great sport and all but boxing techniques are not meant to be thrown with unprotected knuckles. Same goes for guard, will you protect yourself with non existent gloves on the street?
Self defense does not mean you hurt your hand in the process. Broke mine multiple times, always thought they are well conditioned. Well, no punching bag is nearly as hard as a human skull. There are mutliple pro boxer that knocked out people in the street but broke their hand in the process. They say Mike Tyson is one of them.
Also don't start me on body shots. Yes - they are effective. No - you will not be able to adapt your style without actively practicing it. In other words, your guard won't work and almost certainly your muscle memory will make you throw punches to the head. Want proof? Look at Kyokoshin athletes and how one of the best stand ups styles in the world is crippled by the no head strikes rule. When cross training / fighting with other styles, there is always a problem with the head punches, either the other guy keeps throwing them accidentally, the karateka not being able to handle them because of a lack of conditioning (which is ironic because they are extremely well conditioned) or the Karateka simply forgetting to use head strikes... that's why so many of the famous one switch to Muay Thai. (Andy Hug, GSP, even Rico Verhoeven IIRC and many more)
You will always fight the way you trained the most, so at the very least - as a boxer who wants to feel safer in the streets - I would do regular punching bag sessions with only bandages and emphasize hitting the knuckles (mid-and index) on the bag consistently and work on body combinations. You can hit the chin or jaw if you really want to but never, ever connect your hands full power to the forehead, cheeck bones or any other hard part - bad, bad, baaaaaaaad idea. Took me a year to fully recover and be able to throw my right again. A FULL YEAR. TWICE.
stay safe
Maybe we should look into what martial art cows are using then.
Tae Cowon Do
Spanish Bull Fighting
Moo Thai
Bovinedo
I've been around fighters and martial artists and military CQC combatants all my life. You, Ramsey Dewey, are a delight. Your spirit is right, your comments are true, and your mind is sensible. A true pleasure watching your vids. I am not a belt!
You know what made me be a good fighter as a kid? I played a brass instrument in a marching band (wind and breath power), I climbed trees a lot living next to woods (arm strength and fearlessness), and I built a small log cabin with a small hand axe (fist, arm and shoulder power), I delivered newspapers on a bicycle (leg strength and stamina), and I took a little bit of wrestling in Jr High as an elective (technique). Never would have guessed that all of these disparate things would have made me a good fighter as a kid..
I just jerked off a lot and i don't know why my left forearm is so much more toned.
@@zachm6832 now that's funny!
The most enlightening book on the subject is the book of five rings, every fight is its own fighting style, running away, throwing a rock, tossing sand on the eyes, in fighting what resolves the situation at the moment is what should be done and the most important thing "the master swordsman is who that wins the battle without unsheathing its sword", master peace above all else.
My GOD, man ! You just encapsulated EVERYTHING I've learned, witnessed and taught in my lifetime of martial arts training! It's as if you read my mind!
My late, great teacher told me many times to learn all I can, unlike most teachers who insist on exclusivity. I took his advice and it's paid off handsomely.
You are so very right about martial arts training saving lives by making the body stronger and healthier. Eleven years ago I had a massive heart attack - a 95% blockage of my cardio-pulmanary artery due to a blood clot formed during shoulder surgery a few weeks before. I never lost consciousness, except when they put me under for surgery.
Before the surgery ( stent implant) they were considering flying me to another hospital for open heart surgery. I was feeling no pain at this point and the doctors and technicians, four or five in all, were frantically pushing buttons and checking readings on the various machines they had me hooked up to. I felt fine, and frankly, a little embarrassed at the fuss they were making. I thought I just had a severe case of heart burn and now I'm hooked up to machines!
Long story shortened a big-time they were dumbfounded that I was still alive much less calmly talking to them and not in any pain!
The next morning I was visited five times by as many doctors, nurses and technicians all asking the same question, " were you ever s professional athlete?". I'd laugh, tell them no that I never played sports and they'd come back with, " are you sure?". " Pretty sure I would remember if I was.".
" Well your physiology says differently. You're 53 years old and people your age don't usually survive heart attacks that massive! This was the BIG ONE! It should have ENDED you! We've been in a meeting for the past two hours, the subject of which is you! We can't figure out why you're still alive!"
I told them they'd have to talk to the MAN UPSTAIRS about that!
They agreed but we're still puzzled about the whole physiology thing. Finally I said, I started Kung Fu training when I was 14 and through the years have trained "old school" with emphasis on strengthening and conditioning. I would train 2-4 hours a day after work at least 5 days a week and even more on weekends. Did that for decades"
"That would explain it!" They said.
A few years later I found out from a retired nurse that in a professional athlete, their arteries grown tributaries around the blockage! I asked why that was true with pro athletes and not anyone else?
Because pro athletes train hard, year round and the pain alone kills people before their bodies can adapt!
Training people! Training!
That’s awesome!
*My Dad is paranoid of me going outside* and being robbed or killed. He experienced some of it, he told me his experiences but he is just WAY too protective. He also watches the negative stuff on the news murders, car accidents and etc which probably makes him MORE paranoid.
If only he watches these kinds of videos instead of the ones that fills his mind with negativity. I can't get him to watch what I watch, he is a prideful man not letting other people tell him what to do.
Dean Natuno enjoy it now. No other time in your life will you have someone that loves you like that.
Maybe you should convince him to go to a training with you, it will be positive for both of you :)
*Thomas Bartoll,* I do my best to convince him to. But he doesn't want to. Going to a fitness gym instead of a Combat Sports gym is more his thing since he thinks it will help him more to lose his beer belly.
My best advice, promise him something in return ;) In the end you make a small concession but you'll probably convince him, and he'll maybe realised why you are passionate about martials arts and maybe star doing it with you. I think it worth giving it a shot.
TO give you my short story, my dad is the one that made me start judo at age of 4 even though he was not found of martials arts, then when i was 16 he finally tried to do go to a a training with me, then he loved it and we spent on year training together
You described my dad right there! 😲
I totally agree with you about Krav Maga, I wanted to try it out to keep in shape and learn something new. After only two trainings... let's just say it was completely useless. Not even the warm-up was done right. We had a demonstration of two defense ''techniques'' against a club/baseball bat attack (seriously?) and then some practice in pairs before doing burpees and pushups as ''cool down''. The worst thing is that the instructor was constantly pointing out that those were women self-defense moves. Well, I don't think there's a high possibility of anyone jumping at me in the street and hitting me with a bat. Most KM schools have great marketing but are nothing more than a cash grab like you said. It's pretty much best to stay away from anything promoted as ''self-defence for women''. Sad, but turns out to be true.
Totally agree!!! I love krav maga, I had very good instructors but I see a lot who´s class are totally useless. I had the opportnity to participate in a Krav maga seminar where there were a lot of instructors from different schools and our instructor was just wondering what the f...ck they are doing. The seminar was stopped at least 4 times when the organizer instructor said tha what´s the hell are they doing, so it was not only our impression that something is wrong with them, they way they work... And yes, the" stay away from bulls...hit instructors and stay away from women only classes" is what I say, when someone asks how I have reached the level where I am.
I had a KM class in the beggining of he year and was a similar expirience. Some dull techniques and worse: in the training in doubles, when I was the atacker, the instructor kept telling me what to do so the technique work, cause I was able to avoid the "defenses".
I never done krav maga but just like you I went to check out one of those reality based self defense for the sake of having something to do I talked to the instrustor and i did not even take a single class but just from talking to the instructor I knew there school sucked and i was not going to get anything out of it.The instructor had the nerve to actually ask me what did I do for a living not to mention his additude seemed to suck I don't know about you but I think that by itself is grounds for a bad review.
Yeah it's definitely hit or miss. I am a Muay Thai and Krav Maga practitioner and I have been attacked violently twice and Krav saved my ass. That being said there are a ton of shit Krav schools out there so it's tough to know what you are getting.
stephen glazer if I’m interested in learning useful Krav Maga at some point, what are some qualities I should look for in a good school?
If your still in high school, join the wrestling team. Also take a striking art like taekwondo, karate, or boxing.
I would say go with boxing/kickboxing - most people that join MA has no clue about how it should look, however, boxing/kickboxing skips the bullshit that karate, taekwondo, Krav Maga have.
Not saying any of those are bad, they are not, but there is a money printing machine with those 'styles'. Black belt at 11? FUCK NO!
That's what I mean.
Where I train you need 8-10years of training to get a black blet in "Karate" , but it's Kyokushing, and the club is legit, with fighers that fought in Championships in Barcelona or whatever.
They hit you while you have the protection gear, and it feels like your bones are breaking.
Allen Gallegos That's some great advice. In 1977 I joined the HS wrestling team after training in TKD for 3 years. HS wrestling is very cost effective as well a foundational skill. Just a little background in wrestling makes a big difference. I would also suggest functional strength training ie powerlifting weight lifting as well.
I boxed in NY at a gym that had many Olympic boxers, and a Kyokushin school. That Kykushin is LEGIT because they SPAR FULL CONTACT, its no joke
@@engine2truck6 Whats the name of the kyokushin school?
If you wanna be good at street fighting then just train in boxing and wrestling.
OK, you convinced me. I'm off to look for cow defense class. ;-)
Moo at them
*Very intense stare*
Me: "He's gonna mention Krav Maga isn't he?"
Ramsey: "...Krav Maga"
I don’t think he likes it
The universe has an awesome way of bringing your videos into my life at the right moment!
My girlfriend was catcalled and followed by a couple of punks just yesterday and I was talking to her about how situational awareness is more important than just skill in self defence and here you are, uploading just the video to tell her all she needs to know!
Thank you!
Chandrasekar Venkataramanan I hope you intimidated those goons.
peter pace like he said in the video, they wouldn't have picked her as a target if I'd been walking with her :)
But maybe I'll walk with her next time just so I can meet these gentlemen and show them an episode of Magic Schoolbus on Inside the Human Body....without the episode of Magic Schoolbus ;)
I’ve read articles of older women who miss getting catcalled now that they are older and more unattractive. Oh and getting in a fight over is gay. You’ll just get beat up fighting 5 guys
Smash YUP! You’re a Fucking idiot if you try to fight somebody over that
Being cat-called and then /followed/ is just intimidating. If there's a bunch of guys making lewd comments, you feel like you're just meat in their opinion, and you don't know whether it will turn uglier. I know of a few of my female friends who have been followed and then the guys have tried to assault them. One of my friends just sprinted off as soon as they got close enough to really freak her out, one in the US pepper-sprayed a guy who was following her and then she ran off, and one who was on holiday at the time, had her dream holiday to turned into a nightmare because she was sexually assaulted by a guy who started off with cat-calls and lewd comments, then followed her, she tried to escape but got lost in a city she wasn't familiar with, and he did something pretty awful to her. Most guys cat-calling are just trying to look big in front of their mates by shouting stuff, but some are nasty people indeed, and you can't always know which one you're dealing with. On a very base level it's an acknowledgement that the woman is sexually attractive, but how rude it is tends to just make it feel creepy rather than flattering. There's plenty of ways to compliment an attractive women, but yelling obscenities about her bust or something is not one of them.
I agree that learning to spot trouble and avoid it (situational awareness) is very important. Being able to run away is also important - which also means knowing your surroundings, where you are, etc. which I guess relates back to situational awareness.
It is however, definitely pretty stupid to try and pick a fight with five guys.
Am I the only one that after watching this video is now paranoid of ninja cows?
This might be the best martial arts channel on RUclips. Definitely among them, everything here is so spot on it's scary.
Cobra kai was bad ass, not gonna lie I related to what u said there
I am a 16 years old MMA fighter ( in about 2 months I will fight my first MMA fight) who tried Krav Maga (and I live in israel and I went to a good school), Karate and Aikido, I have in my family few doctors and few athletes and I never thought about the fact that heart diseases are our worst enemy. Thank you very much for the other point of view that you give me and to other people about martial arts. To make sure that I am clear, I stopped training Krav Maga Aikido and Krate. I only train MMA now
Follow the howl I stoped training in those martial arts, now I only train MMA
boogie נס ציונה
What is wrong with krav mega?
@@Bradley9967 Nothing if you like gouging peoples eyes out and spearing people in the throat.
I never really liked the term _self defense._ I prefer to say _self preservation._ In my opinion it seems to be a little more descriptive in summation about what the goal is and how it's being approached or regarded.
Where I live protection from midges is a priority and one is bound to lose the fight every time. But to varying degrees. And there's no permanent damage.
About posturing, I had a van almost hit me, because I was in its blind spot, I think. I honked and the guy got really angry at me. We got side by side on the next traffic light, so I chastised him on his stupid action and told him to buy better mirrors. And the guy started threatening me and told me to get out of the car, so we could fight, if I had anything against his driving expertise (him and his 2 adult friends, vs me and my child sister) I remained very calm, just told him he should drive more carefully. I didn't rise much my voice, but was firm, and didn't engaged in his violence spiral. The guy clearly suspected something, because I think he thought I should have been a scared or angry, but my being calm threw him off. He had like a computer freeze, because if I wasn't scared there was something he didn't know (was I a dangerous black belt? or had a weapon? or was I a cop?) His energy was all up, then down, and his friends started to tell him to calm down, and he stopped on the curb just a few meters after that.
That is a fantastic story. It really throws people off when someone is calm in the face of rage and anger.
I don't honk when a driver makes an honest mistake like that, I call that passive-aggressive posturing. People on the road these days are so self-entitled and need to calm down and learn patience.
Wow, Ramsey! You're a very nice person, a great guy and an awesome motivator and teacher. First time I stumbled in one of your videos I was a bit of perplexed, you know… “Who's this guy who speaks so much, ending lost in digressions and side confabulations…??”, I asked myself. Mmm… not very much time after I had produced such profound consideration, I found myself literally craving for your “digressions” (that, after all, are not digressions at all, rather being noteworthy developments and elaborations) and now I cannot let a day pass without spending some highly valuable time listening to your reflections and advices - always inspiring, always encouraging and instructing and truly stimulating. Thank you so much indeed! You're really great at what you do. I love it!
Best "martial art" to learn for self defense is parkour. It teaches you how to run away as quickly and efficiently as possible. it comes with fitness training and conditioning that will be more useful than what you'll learn from many combat-focused self-defense courses out there, so if you get caught in a situation where running away doesn't help, you will at least be fitter and stronger than you would be if you didn't do it. You learn a lot about movement, balance and body control which translates indirectly into a fight scenario as well. And you learn ways to exploit your environment which makes situations where you "have no choice" far less likely to happen, because you have more options for how and where to retreat.
blivvy doesn't help you in an alley
1. It helps you to not get stuck in an alley that has a dead end in the first place.
2. It helps you find a path AROUND the person attacking if you do end up in an alley.
3. It helps you reach that retracted fire escape ladder and get out that way if there's no way around.
It's still POSSIBLE to get yourself into a situation where you'll have to fight, but it's much less LIKELY. And you're still making yourself fitter, stronger, and faster which, while not directly related to fighting skills, willbenefit you in a fight.
@@73kimura Or are rather your sayings childish..? To think it would not ever help is silly, as well as I agree it is not the only answer. Can something that can't catch you hurt you? Would you just stay to fight a 180kg/400lb 2 meter strong fatto that would paint your brain unto the pavement, or run halfway around the block until he got a heart attack..? For it to succeed in the first place you got to have situational awareness, reaction time and agility, because as we know most muggers won't carry a warning sign. >IF< first tactic fails, then fighting it is. Most people can't run for shit [only sprint 100m/y], especially not jump up high walls, fences and take great falls. If some chasers are athletes [which drugged up or drunk street thugs seldomly are], you've weed out the rest and can take him on if push comes to shove. Whoever have the best stamina left and martial arts power & knowledge wins. A cheetah seldomly fear a lion.
Footstomps have their uses, but as a trap, not as a strike. You can use it to interfere with footwork. But you only do this to create an opening, to get the real work started. The stomp itself isn't going to end the fight.
“Cows kill a lot of people every year!” *gets real close to the camera with a serious face*
I died
"Damage works against everybody" - I like that tip, it has a certain ring to it.
About mid way through the video you say something about being attacked with a knife you should carry a weapon. Self defense is a multi-level thing. A serious martial artist trains to be fit. A serious martial artist trains stand-up and grappling. A serious martial artist trains with weapons. If you are truly serious about self defense you will carry a weapon and train with it regularly where legal. Spot on at 15:30. If you are attacked by multiple ppl you had better have a weapon or you are done. This is a reality that a lot of people for some reason don't want believe.
The PROBLEM is that in Europe and increasing here in America, the liberals keep making anti gun and anti knife laws that only hurt us law abiding citizens. Just having an unloaded gun in your car in NY can get you up to 10 years in prison but they do almost nothing against all the illegals committing violent crime over here.
Its the same in Australia. By law if you are attacked and your life is threatened your allowed to retaliate with force one level higher. So if your attacked with a knife you can defend yourself with a knife or a gun. Which looks good on paper but is actually BS. Because your not allowed to carry them and if you do you go to jail regardless. So your completely screwed if your attacked by anyone armed or better than you.
@@python27auat that point Fuk the law.they needa fix they shi up
Fighting the ring and sports is about training, preparation, athleticism, dedication, but most of all objectively its about getting the win.
Self defense is about mentality, pressure and stress situational training, but mostly survival. It's not about winning, it's about not losing, in the street, not even having to fight is already a win. Just like you always say, why the hell would you fight and put your body on the line if it's not getting you anything? And in most places of the world, you usually don't even have to worry about being part of that scary violence statistic.
Here in Brazil theres 60 THOUSAND homicides a year. That's more then half of the rest of the world combined. It's normal to be paranoid, you gotta really hammer in that mentality that maaaan, it's WAY more important to FEEL safe then to think you're safe because you have a piece of wood in your car. And don't get me wrong, MOST people here are probably ready to hit a bad a guy across his head with a crowbar and wouldn't even have a second thought about it. That's how bad violence has gotten here and that mentality has gotten just as bad.
but the truth is not acting like a potential victim probably gets you out of most victim situations. you don't have to be an athlete to develop that mentality. It's fucking scary to now the reality of violence over here. Keeps everyone awake at night. Once you're not scared out of your mind because you're afraid of being a victim, then get 'em to train like they MEAN it. Like they need it and want it. not because they think it's just fun. When people have this mentality, doesn't matter too much what they train, they'll find something that works. That's way more important then any style. Grind, lose, change, repeat, till you're good at whatever you have to be good at. No shortcut there.
Do you have gun control in Brazil? I was watching this RUclips video once I think somewhere in the Middle-East. It was some sort of event with a gathering, and one man was upset with another man so he went to his car, got a hammer, ran over and bashed this guy's skull in with the hammer until he was stone cold dead. He smashed this guy's skull to hell. Like a carpenter's hammer or ball pein hammer with the small metal head. It was actually sad to watch, but once the attacker got to the victim, he was dead within about 10 seconds after about 10 hits as hard as he could. Brutal, a very childish, very violent tantrum by the attacker. Some people are just very selfish.
I would personally recommend a good boxing coach and a good Jiu-Jitsu coach with full on sparring after you have trained.
For street I say boxing and wrestling before bjj.
man Ramsey you nailed it AGAIN! This is a deep topic that i feel you alliterated perfectly my friend. Its so refreshing having an honest and knowledgeable channel. Now if you could just move your gym to Seattle, that would be great.
Ramsey , i want to ask you , one day you told us about an amazing taichi master you met , what you described sounds fantastic . So why don't you learn from him? I mean , if i was lucky enough to meet such a master , i would beg him to teach me.
Ramsey Dewey ah ok , thanks for your answer.
Ip Chun is in his 90s and practiced into his 80s, but I have not seen recent clips of him. Some of those guys do well in later years.
;-)
mike davis do you know any video on RUclips of this master ? By chance...
@@RamseyDewey Ah, I thought it was Chen Yu but he's much younger. He's also fat so I had wondered if you'd seen through that and respected his ability anyway. So maybe not!
Absolutely solid video.
While I would like my martial art to be "effective", it would be a lie to say I need it for Self Defense. I'm a good talker, and I've talked my way out of every single possible fight for the last 15 years. I see no reason why I won't be able to continue to do that in 99.9% of situations.
On "posturing": what about walking angrily? Hunched, restless fingers, eyes darting to the sides, slight scowl... if we can project the aura of "im angry, try to rob, I wanna beat someone up", does that work as a deterrence?
texteel I don't know, walking angry can attract other unwanted attention from police or security
Also that behavior is often interpreted as a challenge. So instead of deciding if your wallet is worth a fight, they're likely to decide that you want to fight them, and if you want to fight them and look threatening you can bet they're going to want the first shot. So that's a bad impression to give.
It's also a lousy way to go thru life...
Sounds exhausting!
texteel Not woeth it, may evoke unnecessary attention.
Man, thank you so much. Your vids are the most, if not only, grounded and realistic I've seen anywhere. And youre thorough and very well spoken, also a plus. Keep it up, pratical and genuine might catch on yet!
Smart training vs Smartass training
So dependant on who you are, your strength of spirit and your willigness to engage in violence of action. Beyond the art of fighting, practice and create quick action drills to get out of situations before they start. For example- In my practice I have developed the ability to do what I call 'Rewind', this means that I easily move backwards three to five steps in the exact motion I just walked forward. This allows me to extract myself from a situation without turning away and has saved me many times. Exampels : From being hit by a left turning car well crossing a street. A potenital mugging situation after turning a corner. As resent as yesterday at work, extracting myself from the fall area of a load I was stepping forward to rig. Rewinding also appears to mess with peoples spacial perception and does not trigger their preditor instincts. In the case of the potenital mugging, I turned the corner and came upon a couple of dirt bags moving to block my path. I hit rewind returning to the safe side of the corner, leaving them and their ambush space and not turning to sprint away until I was out of their line of sight. So give it a try and enjoy the movment play and spacial awarness of 'Rewinding'
My first instructor for Taekwondo was a Former Republic of Korea army officer. He was totally ripped at age 51 and extremely serious about what he did. His training consisted of hours of doing repetitious Basics over and over and over again. He used to emphasize weights and being physically fit. During one class he struck me in the face causing an enormous amount of blood to discolor my uniform from white to red. Knowing what he was like, I did not flinch nor say a word but carried on. The other people in my class looked on in horror thinking that they were next in line to be struck. After about an hour my teacher came over and said what happened? I said well Master Chang, you punched me in the face. He said me? No I don't think I did that. Then he said but you didn't say a word. I said no that's fine. His brother was of an even higher rank and wood drill us even longer hours. That was the kind of training that did me the most good and gave me the most physical fitness and abilities.
One can truelly feel your love and passion for martial arts, training and motivation flowing out of your eyes and the way you speak. Clear, concise and well articulated ideas with a calm and grounded voice. You just got a new subscriber!
you heard it here first: buy a COW for self defense
You just gave a ton of great advice in 21 minutes...excellent!
Can you make a video of the wristlocks that you use?
I'll put it on the list
awesome can't wait to see it
Also thank you for not speed talking and giving me time to think about what you are saying. This is important.
Ramsey's like a prophet of fighting. He speaks with so much wisdom.
love this guy! He came two words short of saying if you're worried about self defense buy a gun but if you want to beat the shit out of bullies learn how to fight.... So true! If someone pulls a weapon make sure you got a better one.
How did you end up in China
He ran from Idaho to the West coast and swam through the Pacific Ocean and eventually wound up in Shanghai.
He teleported
The aliens who abducted him lost the piece of paper with his address on
Great advice: if you plan on running, get good at it. If you plan on posturing, get good at it. If you plan on submitting, get good at it. If you plan on fighting, get good at it. Also be prepared if your initial plan doesn't work.
On the subject of foot stomps...I just think about Jon Jones' visibly broken toe. He didn't notice until after he won.
That happened to me once mid fight. It didn't even phase me till about an hour after the fight.
Exactly, that's the way it really works.
My 2 year old son jumped on my mother toes and broke her two toes, she put some ice and only two days later she realized they were broken.
I'm binging these videos - so much great info.
I started martial arts as a teenager... I was never big but I was in GREAT shape. I'm not saying I was unbeatable but if it was time to throw down, I wasn't going down without taking a piece of the other guy with me.
Life happened and I got out of it. I was 240lbs of old, slow fat. About 4 months ago my 5 year old made me the happiest dude ever and wanted to take karate. I found a good TKD school that had a family class and started kind of casually. It didn't take long but I got that same passion as a teen again.
I see far too many out of shape "fighters"
A lot of martial artists DO carry guns.
I personally am a former "martial Arts guy" who is big into guns who wants to get into real martial arts
I like videos like these because I listen to them on the way to work like a podcast
*i am soaked with information*
You hit the nail on the head when you said, first learn to fight, then you can take and adapt from the esoteric to add to your style.
You explain this so much better than Joe Rogan ever could
A Saying here in Germany is: _,,Der Klügere gibt nach."_ ,which means literally: *_"The wiser (person) gives in."_*
You are totally correct: The smartest way to prevent a fight is not provoking it and being the wiser one.
we kill a lot of cows every year too. LOL #jussaying
Ahimsa42 ❤️
Great video. Great message. Totally misused the word "exponentially" :P.
One of the major reasons I tell people that I no longer consider myself a "martial artist" is not because I never earned my black belt (although I did have to leave my main school before I had), it isn't because I am out of practice or may have forgotten some techniques, nor is it because I've learned more and discovered the ineffectiveness of some of those techniques (or how I was applying them). That all goes into it, but the main reason I say I know and love martial arts but am not a fighter or martial artist anymore (and was never much of a fighter ever) is because I do not *feel* like a fighter or martial artist. And, while most of that is psychological, the main physical actual contributor to that feeling is that I am very out of shape in contrast to the shape I could be in.
I know that if I immediately started training again, I would have a hard time socially, mentally and most of all physically. I know that if I were in a real combat situation, not only would I likely freeze in fear or be reluctant to fight at all out of fear of getting hurt or hurting others (the psychological part), but even *if* chose a proper response, my reaction time would be low (lack of current practice) and my execution would be poor (lack of physical ability due to being out of shape). I would either lose the fight immediately due to freezing or screwing up, or I would lose it over time due to exhaustion. If I did win it would either be because I prevented the fight altogether (avoided the situation, talked them down, other forms of posturing or diplomacy), or it would be a success due to strategy and tactics (they underestimated me, didn't know I had any training or speed, or I am simply careful and form a strategy that uses effective tactics to minimize my harm and allow me a way of escape or to end the fight quickly).
If I were in great mental and physical shape, not only could I posture even better than I already do a pretty good job of, but I could handle the fights that I could not avoid better as well. Often I wish I were not so poor and so depressed.. I might return to training and getting in shape. But, like any training, serious martial arts training is a lot of work. I often wonder if it is even worth the time/money/effort/risk of accidental self-injury (which can happen even if one trains properly). You did make a great point about overall health and thus heart health being improved though. If I did ever return to martial arts and training my body it would be for that reason and to hopefully lose a small bit of weight (which would again help with the heart health among other things).
+Ramsey Dewey hey ramsey, as someone who wants to do self defense/fun in martial arts how do you go about brain damage in martial arts. I want to do self defense but brain damage scares me. Is there any martial art that is at LEAST suitable for self defense but doesnt have any negative consequences like brain damage/concussions?
Follow the howl wait hold on a sec but are you a martial artist?
Just want to know because it seems to me that you DIDNT know getting hit in the head causes brain damage. That's a bit concerning. Not sure what you mean by significant strikes either as every (hard) punch to the head is considered damage.
Follow the howl thank you for the clarification.
You mention that someone who isn't getting hit hard in the head wont have any problems.
I just want to say that it doesnt really matter how frequent you are getting hit in the head. But rather how hard the strike is and a bunch of other factors like speed/etc.
If someone can get a concussion after getting hit in the head (and I heard stories of people getting punched once and received a concussion) surely the possibility of brain damage is still present.
There's also a thing called subconcussive hits where you have a concussion but dont have the symptoms of a normal concussion which makes it even scarier.
If your body is physically fragile and weak then it's not good idea to get hit at all. Get a gun. Don't gamble your health if you don't need to. Peace!
In fairness Marc Ortega has a point. The fact is there is a massive difference between full contact martial arts, semi contact martial arts and no contact martial arts. There is a massive difference in teaching quality. I would practice MMA with Ramsey because based on watching lots of his video's he is a damn good coach, he does not throw people into the deep end straight away full contact, his priority is your safety, I love the headgear video he made so true. But and here is the but from my experience good coaches are few and far between. I got a detached retina in my early martial art days from a semi contact martial art! the Sensei was bad, the students were wild, the gloves were for semi not full contact. If you want to play the relatively safe route try Shotokan Karate, it teaches control, I am biased as one of my arts I practice is Karate :)
Follow the howl interesting... I guess I was with a bad teacher. For some reason my teacher put me in hard sparring with 2 months of barely conditioning.
You’ve earned yourself a new subscriber, coach. Thank you for your honest, level headed responses.
Can you go against master wong
If Master Wong wants to travel 10,000 km to have a go, sure. Why not?
I've had a heart murmur and a high blood pressure condition in the past, and now I do Karate for moral and physical self improvement.
I don't like how you say Jujitsu when you mean BJJ. I see that a lot online, and I fear that this produces an incorrect expectation in people going to a regular Jujitsu class. I have a Dan in Japanese Jujitsu, and our school teaches maybe 80% standing, 20% grappling on the ground. We also don't do a lot of sparring on the ground, which is (as far as I've seen) the most important thing in BJJ.
No, I’m saying Jiu-Jitsu, not jujutsu. Where in the world do you even find Nihon Jujutsu schools anymore?
Jiu-Jitsu, Jujitsu and Jujutsu are just different readings of the same word. My school is in central Europe, we have a network of small schools all over the continent.
In Germany and other countries, Jiu-Jitsu and Jujitsu are used interchangeably. For example, here is a Jiu Jitsu union from Austria that has no connection with Brasil: www.jjvoe.at/
Yes, that's a crossover event. Also notice the Jiu Jitsu guy (non-Brasil) on the top right from Canada.
Oh ok, didn't know that. Then there's still the name of the union itself, which I definitely know is not Brasilian, because my club is a member there.
Used to do Karate. Us karate dudes were scared of boxers and grapplers. Decided to go to a few lessons of both. That was fun
HaHa! I agree with your view of cows! Not only everything that you said, but we are grabbing them by the private parts! Do we really think they are fond of that? :-)
To be fair, much more cows are probably killed by humans than vice versa, so we're winning there
Fonduman - Yes, for sure! I have a friend that runs a grass strip airport. A neighbor's cow wandered on the runway and my friend shot the cow! Didn't go over too well in the community. .
Docinaplane as someone who grew up on a farm, I would want to put bullets through an airplane engine
Michael Harder
Take that up with my friend, I like cows, my grandparents had a farm.
Docinaplane im just saying its like destroying someone's car. Cows are expensive.
Bro you should be in radio or voice acting...you got the deep vocals for it
Good advice, but please don't tell people to waste time on useless dance (tai chi, arkido, etc). They are more dangerous than not learning at all, because they give a false sense to your ability to fight.
May I also suggest judo is good for grappling too.
Gadfly
, sure we do understood his point. but by saying "try them first", that's a waste of time if you try something useless, you will never learn how to fight. I believe a better advice would be: learn something that's proven functional first, like wrestling, bjj, boxing, muay thai. Only when you know how to fight properly, then learn something different.
GuitarsRockForever The problem is that "proven functional" is ill-defined. If proven functional you mean: can an athlete trained in the sport step in a ring and win fights? Than the answer is easy. But if you want to train at a local school, you will not be trained as an athlete. Your local mma school might be a mc-gym. Your local tai-chi quan trainer might be super hard-core about conditioning. It's not always about the art, but often about the specific trainer.
Dries van Oosten, that's why you have to see if the gym is credible first. But regardless, you will never learn how to fight if you only train with non functional art master, no matter how hardcore the master is.
If one wants to learn how to fight, the "art" part does not matter at all. Only the "martial" part matters. That's where you draw the line, some "art" are BS, you can never make "martial" out of it by its own.
I'm in no way against the teaching of non functional art, as long as they are honest about they are no where near any "martial". Some non functional art are great for health and well-being (eg. tai chi), I highly recommend them for health reason.
GuitarsRockForever The question is: why do you get to decide which art is functional. Just because there are a lot of people using tai chi as a standing meditation, doesn't mean there aren't masters that can teach the combative form.
He also said that practicing anything that gets you moving and exercising is effective at preventing the #1 killer of people: heart disease. It depends on your goals.
Very accurate and a very good video! You hit the nail right on the head!
Best self defense = a gun! ;)
Really depends on the situation
Jocko
Hello Ramsey you are the only person on RUclips who has said the most intelligent answer about learning martial arts for 🥋. Any martial art(s) is good if you know how to fight with it
Thanks again. You make so much sense about combat and being or getting shape.
This is true, martial arts for me is fun. Thats one of the reason i train in traditional chinese martial arts.
The other is it keeps me fit. All i do is practice my religion as best i can, it keep me in a good and relaxed frame of mind. I need the spiritual side along with the martial side.
And i question everything i study. I do research, i research everything i can. The three styles i practice, work well together. Like Bruce Lee said, "Absorb whats useful, reject whats useless."
Best advice walk around with confidence (not cocky) and respect yourself and others great way of staying out of trouble.
Ramsey, I didn't know what to expect from your first video. As some one who has had quite a bit of street fights, having training in martial arts and being a smaller guy, I agree with a lot of what you say. You are wise and knowledgeable. Keep up the good work.
Very truthful video. A must watch to anyone with this question of should I learn martial arts for self-defense.
So many nuggets of great information in this. Thank you!
I love what you’re doing with these videos. There are way too many people out there giving out bad advice and even worse instruction.
Haven't watched you for a while your so inspirational top man keep the videos flowing like fine wine sir
Sir, I must say the way you break it down is impressive. Very eloquent. Great videos. Every day after I get home from work I watch a video or two. (Also make my kids and wife hear ya!) Very inspiring, insightful and entertaining as hell. Love what you do. New subscriber! Thanx for this. 👊✌🇨🇦
Very cool man!
Your voice is very deep and calming.
The pauses of speech are perfect to think about what you say.
The face expressions are very funny in a good way.
When you need it, you get serious.
You seem to be having fun with what you say.
You are open minded and sincere. I wish I could train in your gym. I have only one small objection: first of all learn how to take a hit and not panic. There was a time when I could take punches, elbows, kicks to the head, without flinching. I could keep my eyes open and defend or counter attack. Nowadays I am trying to get back at it after years of absence. But for me:learn how to take hits, then learn how to grapple. I want to learn how to grapple eventually (aside from Thai clinch of course), I hope it is not too late (31 years old).
Excellent content there! My instructor started learning Southern Praying Mantis before learning Yang Style Tai Ji. My journey started at Tai Ji and after I have established some fundamentals in Tai Ji, the instructor started integrating Praying Mantis to the curriculum. He had said to us in class "Dedication, Devotion, Discipline!" and it is so true. It is hard to excel by being absent from the training. I know as I had reaped the results of being too slack.
You rule, Dewey! I love listening to you talk! I think you would be an amazing actor.
Excellent video. Ramsey, as I listen to you, you say things that resonate with me a lot. Yes, Health is the most important, yes, running away is an option if you can outrun your oponent. I did it but at that point I had to first push away the attacker and then through him. I was in Joburg at that time. Readiing a book when a woman screamed. I saw a guy with a knife preparing for attack. I was lucky. I was warned. I put the book in the bag. He was too close now. I only had one thing .. I pushed him back. Then ran through him/ I was in my prime. Tiny bitof wrestling, karate and whatever I had behind me helped me to do that. In self defence you have sometimes 1 or maybe 2 seconds. If you sustain any damage you may not have a chance to move again at speed and power. You loose time to recover. The more time you lose the more power you have to deliver.later ..Submission works if done early. Later you can only play dead .. so you stay alive. Tai ji is good for two reasons. It is good at helping your mobility and is less likely you will stop practicing because it is too tough. Its combat application and training is mostly lost or hidden.
First, TaiJi and some yoga for health and little bit of fitness and strength. Then some aikido for grappling and for delicate opnent handling.
Next punching and kicking for some basic direct damage linfliction capability. Next, BJJ for more advanced grappling and sparring .. Next Krav Maga for situational combat. Next ... Generally study and train what you can In self defence important is if youcan move, think and then if you can do some basic offensive and defensive techinques well, fast and naturally ... You see , you feel and you act. You cannot think then.. Because you will not have time for that. Opportunity lost or you will not be there any more.
Ramsey you are the best. You give great analysis about,styles and living a healthy life. I started martial arts at 10 and and I am 64. Very healthy from and my movement. I have trained I Kuntao, Boxing, Tai Chi, jujitsu, dumong,, Thai Boxing, Flow Grappling. It's been the best things in my life. But your analysis ,bur I had to learn what works for me. I competed in amateur combat sports as well as street fights. Martial art hs taught avoid if you can but if you can't you have to be ready for controlled Kaos. And to damage learning position, stand up striking, cliche fighting, ground Grappling. How to go to the ground and get back up. Finish the conflict by doing damage. But it has also taught me that fighting should be avoided as much as one can. There can be legal consequences. But if it's go time you go all the way. And my art has evolved from the ages of 18 to now. I can't box like I did in my 20s the body ages. One must be able you evolve with it. In sparringmy youger student they wonder why I can hang with them . . Keeping my self physically fit but not try to fight like I did in my 20s. From evolution I have a better grasp of distance, Grappling standing or ground, and cut out all the flowery stuff and use what is affective for myself. You have great understanding of combat I wish that I had a chance to train with you. You are a wealth of knowledge. And at 64 I never stop learning adaptingand growing g in a Holistic manner. The arts have help me manage my bi polar, PTSD challenges and finish school with a Masters degree. Coundnot have done it without the arts and helps me live a great life. But watching your commentary is very enlightening and contribute to my grow as a Martial artist and a better human being. Thank you so much for keeping it real and dispelling myths. Keep doing what do much appreciation and gratitude Your are a great gift to all who watch your posts with your wisdom. Thank you and keep training.
love these blogs coach. it makes a difference to alot of us who look up to you.
Thank goodness I found your videos. Sir you are an inspiration. Thank you
if you are half as good as a coach as you are an orrator and narrator, you are world class. love your videos. you should definitely be an actor. great charisma. love the way how you present the truth in a hilarious and honest package. thanks. much respect!
No better way to defuse a potentially violent situation than to feed the other persons ego, it makes them feel good and saves you from getting damaged. Once you understand that your ego isn’t hurt
Best advice on self defense(preservation) is as you mentioned defusing and de-escalating.
Additional to your training, you can also practice the noble art. "How to win a fight, by not to begin a fight." Being neither victim nor offender, but a peaceful guardian and defender.
Or in other words: "A real sword master defeats his opponents without using the sword. And if he does not use the sword, it gives life to man."
This is the deeper meaning which I have learned about martial-arts. And I go safe with it, for more than 14 years by now. It helped me to solve many tricky situations peacefully.
Situations that could have escalated easily into a brutal fight, against opponents much stronger than me.
I want to start some kind of martial art by January. I'm trying to research what kind I should do and where to do it. I've been binge-watching your channel all day.
I just want to say, thank you for being like, the Carl Sagan of martial arts.
Hey Ramsey first thing I was taught in self defence was to run a mile in 8 mins, then box, then wrestle and then run again.
Hello Ramsey, I wish to tell you something: HUGE HUGE THANKS!!! I've been watching your videos from few months, almost every say for hours, and man you opend my eyes about so much things, you changed my life in positive direction, and i thank you for that from all of my heart and from the depts of my soul. I was practising Wing Chun in a total mcdojo for 6 years, the instructors was teaching us such a crappy self defence and Wing Chun. They told us that this is verry dangerous technics, and that we are complete killers, and im so ashamed that i was stupid to belive it for many many years. And this falce confidance could kill me or someone i care about trying to protect them. My dream from little kid is to do my living from martial arts and to be good fighter, to help other people thru martial arts, and my ex-instructors used my zero experience in martial arts, and my dreams to fill theyr pockets and feed theyr ego's. But thanks to you this is no longer happening, and for that i love and respect you and what you are doing. God bless you, you and your family, your students and friends, I wish you nothing but the best. I wish with all my heart one day i can come to your gym and thank you in person, spend some time training with you and your fighters. Sorry for my bad english and that this is so long. THANK YOU!!!!
Thanks so much for your kind words! That means a lot to me!
Right on, brother! I totally agree especially about being healthy. The biggest training deficit I've seen in most schools is the lack of dynamic and realistic attacks. Defending against a frozen zombie is not realistic.
I tend to switch from damage focus to pain compliance when it appears clear I have control of the fight.
I don’t like the idea of causing lasting harm, even on an aggressor. This is why I would be ill-equipped to fight professionally. I can only let go of that hesitancy when my own bodily well-being can’t be secured in another way.
Imho, if we are talking about self defense, there are 2 basic steps: 1st is avoidance/escaping/de-escalation. You must avoid bad places, you must escape from bad situations and you must de-escalate when something happens. Why put yourself in a dangerous situation if you can just avoid it? 2nd, it is the ability to fight. But you fight to create an opening to escape and stay there as little time as possible. You don't fight to win. The reason for this is that the law permits the usage of violence in order to escape but not the extended fighting (which is illegal) because then, you are now the attacker and not the defender. Also, if you choose to stay and fight, then you increase the possibility of getting hurt (hidden weapons, multiple attackers).
I have been saying much of this for years- particularly the stuff about having multiple friends and weapons as the best self defense, dying from heart disease long before you get beaten to death on the street and being honest about enjoying the martial arts. I was starting to think I was the only person who thought that. Thank you