antifainternational:

We’ve been getting a bunch of these questions. Luckily for you peeps, some of our admins have martial arts experience ánd have opinions!

What martial art should I practice?

I would say, most importantly, choose a martial art you like, that way, you will be more motivated to keep practicing it. Ofcourse, some of them are more effective in a streetfight than others. A lot of different cities and countries have different streetfighting ‘cultures’ so it’s impossible to write a text that covers it all. Wich didn’t stop this admin from doing exactly that.

What martial arts are useful for self-defense?

Good question! If you want to learn unarmed self-defense, the most sensible seems to be a combination of something like Krav Maga, combined with a grappling martial art and a striking martial art. With muay thai, boxing, kickboxing, BJJ, you can’t go wrong. Make sure you get enough full-contact sparring, after you’ve learned the basics.
If you are more interested in weapons and tools for self-defense, look up the laws in your country. Don’t break the laws, kids, mmmkay?

What martial arts should I stay away from?

There is no single truth when it comes to this and lots of people will disagree endlessley about these things, but there are some simple tips and tricks. Most ancient martial arts, with a lot of focus on stances and katas, will not be very useful against a dedicated attacker, more modern styles tend to be more effective (see above).
Of course there will always be charlatans and McDojos. If your trainer claims they can knock someone out with their pinky, leave and never come back. A decent trainer will also have you full-contact sparring at some point.
(Also, ‘martial arts’ like aikido and systema are a scam.)

On a personal note.

Martial arts can be great fun and really boost your self-confidence, unfortunately there’s a lot of cops and macho bullshit at a lot of gyms. Look around, maybe the gym closest to you isn’t the nicest, I spent two years taking a 1 hour train ride to go thaiboxing, because the gym was so much better then the ones close to me.

If you have built up some experience and you have friends with experience, why not start your own little boxing club? A club with good values like mutual aid, being against discrimination and ‘don’t be a dick’.
You would join a growing group of antifascist fighting clubs that are changing sports and maybe make some new friends along the way!