Picking a Fighting Sports: Which Combat Sport is Best for You?

Martial arts, in addition to providing skills to defend yourself and your loved ones, provide a number of excellent health benefits besides instilling discipline and confidence within students. There are many benefits to training martial arts, not the least of which are physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual in nature. Besides improving one’s skills during practice, a student of martial arts will also be able to build a healthier body and, by extension, lifestyle. With martial arts, you can get in the best shape of your life very quickly because it is the most effective and intense workout available. In the present era, obesity and heart disease run rampant, everyone needs to lead a healthy lifestyle. Practicing martial arts regularly will save you from such kind of ailments and paves the way for you to reach your peak potential. If all these reasons are enough to convince you to learn a combat sport, here are some of the best disciplines based on the most common motivation.

Although all martial arts have abilities to teach you self-defense, keep you fit and instill discipline and spirituality in you, yet each martial art has some specialty.

Best Combat Sports for Self Defense

Violence should always be avoided but if you ever find yourself in a confronting situation, skillful martial arts may be the only solution. Defending your personal safety and the safety of your loved ones is very important that all styles of martial arts teach. Among the top self-defense, martial arts are BJJ and KravMaga.

Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu

BJJ is a martial art based on ground fighting and grappling and is one of the fastest-growing arts in the world. It broke off from Judo in the early 1900s and is also referred to as a “gentle art” that allows smaller and weaker opponents to use submission techniques such as chokes, armbars, ankle-locks, and holds to fight off a bigger, stronger, heavier assailant. BJJ, a ground-based grappling technique this style teaches you how to take your opponent down and keep them there. In this art, you learn what to do if you end up on the ground which is very important because it is where most fights end up. Unlike boxing or Muay Thai, Jiu-Jitsu does not allow strikes rather it is an amazing first martial art to learn because of the self-defense it provides.

Equipment needed for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu includes Elite Sports Gi shorts and Elite Sports rash guards, belt, and mouthguard.

Best Combat Sports for Fitness

Physical fitness, losing extra fats and toning muscles are some of the many benefits of any combat sport. To get great fitness activity, choose a sport like Muay Thai and boxing that combines strength training, cardiovascular endurance, flexibility, and agility.

Muay Thai

Muay is called the “art of eight limbs”, which include, punches, elbows, kicks, fists, shins, and knees. MuayThi training involves intense conditioning of these parts to become an efficient fighter which makes Muay Thai rigorous and intense workout. It was developed in Thailand is a combat system designed with a heavy emphasis on stand-up strikes, kicking, and clinching. Some consider Muay Thai as kickboxing but Muay Thai has a few distinct features. In addition to punches and kicks, it also involves knee and elbow strikes as well as a form of stand-up grappling called clinch.

Things needed for Muay Thai includes tracksuit or gym clothes, training gloves, hand wraps, shin guards, mouth guards, groin guard, and headgear.

Best Combat Sport for Discipline and Spirituality

Many people consider martial arts as a way to improve fighting skills and physical fitness but there are certain disciplines, specifically in the eastern styles, that also provide an element of spirituality, mindfulness, and religion. These disciplines include Aikido, Tai Chi, and Taekwondo that connect health, spirituality, and meditation to benefit the physical part of the training.

Aikido

Aikido, a Japanese Martial Art, is one of the most spiritual martial arts. Aikido actually means “the way of harmony of spirit”. It is an art that doesn’t look to treat violence with violence but rather with spherical movements through which an attacker’s aggressive force is turned against themselves. In aikido, you use an opponent’s momentum to resolve the conflict in a non-lethal, non-disruptive, yet effective manner. Aikido combines Jujutsu’s joint locks and throws with the body movements of sword and spear fighting. Moreover, aikido attempts to emphasize the importance of achieving complete mental calm and control of one’s body to master an attack learning how to deal with your own energy and an attacker’s. Unlike other combat sports, Aikido fighters consider the safety and well-being of their attacker as much as they do their own. They attempt to find a peaceful resolution.

Material required for practicing aikido includes aikido gi jacket, pants, belt, and hakama.