Most complex martial arts ???

quasar44

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TKD - due to insane flexibility and complex kicks

Judo - war of grips and balance and it takes many things to align to throw someone

BJJ- even the guard position has dozens of vary different ones and each has dozens of sweeps and attacks

Kung Fu - just looks weird to me with the so many animal positions
 

Tez3

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I don't think having a lot of techniques makes a style 'complex', it just makes it a style with a lot of techniques.
 

skribs

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I don't think having a lot of techniques makes a style 'complex', it just makes it a style with a lot of techniques.

I think that's the only measure of complexity. I just don't think it's much of a measurement.

The real answer is MMA, because it includes all the complexities of every martial art.
 

Tez3

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I think that's the only measure of complexity. I just don't think it's much of a measurement.

The real answer is MMA, because it includes all the complexities of every martial art.


It depends on what you think the word 'complex' means, I don't think any martial art is complex as none are complicated. No styles kicks are complex or complicated, they may be more difficult than some to do for various reasons such as fitness but they aren't complex.
 

drop bear

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I think that's the only measure of complexity. I just don't think it's much of a measurement.

The real answer is MMA, because it includes all the complexities of every martial art.

When we do a 12 week fighters course the Mma is the hardest for people to technically understand for that reason.
 
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quasar44

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My BJJ coach is a master of BJJ and world class champ ;yet , he has zero understanding or inte
 
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quasar44

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My BJJ coach is a master of BJJ and world class champ ;yet , he has zero understanding or just no interest in td

thank god for ytube
 

Tez3

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When we do a 12 week fighters course the Mma is the hardest for people to technically understand for that reason.


It would be hard understand a lot of martial arts in just 12 weeks though.
 

skribs

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It would be hard understand a lot of martial arts in just 12 weeks though.

I think for a lot of arts, you could pare down the material into specific bytes that are usable in a 12-week program. For example, if I were to teach a 12-month program of Taekwondo, I could either:
  1. Teach the forms and only the forms, and probably get you through the intermediate forms
  2. Teach only the kicks and sparring strategies. You would probably have a decent front kick, roundhouse kick, and some footwork. You'd have a basic understanding of axe kick and back kick, but wouldn't likely be able to execute them yet due to not having the flexibility with the axe kick or the timing with the back kick.
  3. Teach only the one-steps and self-defense concepts. I would take out any that are concept-building to be used later and focus on what is effective with a beginner understanding of the techniques.
However, trying to teach all 3 in 3 months would be futile. Trying to teach Hapkido in 3 months would be asinine, as it takes longer than that for most of our students to even get a firm grasp of the basics.
 

Headhunter

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My BJJ coach is a master of BJJ and world class champ ;yet , he has zero understanding or just no interest in td

thank god for ytube
Don't waste your time with YouTube you won't learn anything from it especially bjj you need to practice on a body. He's a master of bjj? Says who? Him? Well if he can't do takedowns then he's no master
 

marques

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TKD - due to insane flexibility and complex kicks

Judo - war of grips and balance and it takes many things to align to throw someone

BJJ- even the guard position has dozens of vary different ones and each has dozens of sweeps and attacks

Kung Fu - just looks weird to me with the so many animal positions
I would think of Aikido, Tai Jitsu and the like, specially if you want it working without hitting for ‘softening’ or as plan B.

Second though, Chinese martial arts in general. Lovely principles and concepts and theories... but then they struggle to translate it into effectiveness, perhaps due to its complexity...

For Judo you mostly need to understand and have balance, plus a handful of techniques to be effective. The same for BJJ; you understand leverage and you can apply a 1000 techniques, even before seeing them.

Not saying those are simple arts, but it seems to me they are simpler to understand than stand up joint looks and Chinese concepts that require 10-20 years training...
 

Flying Crane

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I would think of Aikido, Tai Jitsu and the like, specially if you want it working without hitting for ‘softening’ or as plan B.

Second though, Chinese martial arts in general. Lovely principles and concepts and theories... but then they struggle to translate it into effectiveness, perhaps due to its complexity...

For Judo you mostly need to understand and have balance, plus a handful of techniques to be effective. The same for BJJ; you understand leverage and you can apply a 1000 techniques, even before seeing them.

Not saying those are simple arts, but it seems to me they are simpler to understand than stand up joint looks and Chinese concepts that require 10-20 years training...
I disagree with your comments regarding the Chinese methods. From my experience, they are pretty straight forward and similar to your comment on judo in that you can be quite effective with just a handful of techniques, if you understand them properly.

I do agree that sometimes the concepts are not explained clearly which can leave the student struggling to figure out what his goals should be. But when explained clearly, it isnt terribly complicated.

Chinese forms can be fairly complex when compared to Korean and Japanese kata. But that is just one aspect of the training, and those forms are really just one way of reinforcing the concepts and principles, which shouldn’t be too difficult to comprehend.
 

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