Over at SurvivalBlog.com, “Brick” submitted his thoughts on good martial art choices for the survivalist.

It’s not a bad piece. It appears his effort was to speak in some generalized terms about your popular choices, because not every town has accesss to more esoteric arts. So he examines popular/common arts such as Karate, Taekwondo, BJJ, Boxing, etc. and how applicable they could be to survival/defensive use. I’d also throw in Krav Maga as that is geared as a “no-nonsense self-defense” style, but you have to be careful as some Krav studios tend to be nothing more than “martial aerobics”. “Brick” wrote up a decent piece and I don’t disagree with what he wrote.

What I would like to do is add to what he wrote.

The trouble with studying these arts is they take time and dedication to gain proficiency. If you’re taking this from the angle of “survivalist” you may not have years to dedicate in study to get you where you need to be. Plus if your desire is to just deal with an “unarmed” situation quickly enough to escape or perhaps transition to a firearm or other weapon, you may not need years of study in some traditional sort of martial art to get you there.

There are groups out there such as InSights Training Center, Blauer Tactical Systems, special classes from Rangemaster. There are certainly others. These are more focused courses that aim to provide some sort of empty hand skills to help you survive an encounter (or avoid one before it ever begins) but not necessarily be caught up in kata and rituals and so on. Of course, the downside of these groups is it may be difficult to obtain that training as they aren’t as available. Nevertheless, look around and see what is around, and don’t discount having to travel some to get that training.

I would also add that if you have to go the “traditional” route but find time to be short, consider focusing on something. Often a martial art has some degree of breadth in what is offered. They might provide kata/forms, some striking with hands and feet, maybe weaponry, maybe other things offered too. When you have only a certain amount of time to train, if your training is divided across many things it will take you longer to gain proficiency in all of those things or any one thing. If however your training is focused, you’ll get up to speed in that one thing much faster but of course the trade-off is that you’re only trained in that one thing. In a survivalist sort of situation, something like western boxing could be very useful as it is very focused (hand-based striking primarily, tho of course there’s physical conditioning (good thing!), footwork, and other things).

In the end, it all depends upon your goals. In my own martial arts study, my goals have changed. Because my goals changed, I’m taking a different approach. You just have to determine what you want and what’s available around you that will be best towards helping you achieve your goals.