I want to begin taking one or the other. I have no prior martial arts experience but I see these as my 2 choices because they seem to be the most applicable to real world situations. So which would be the best starting point?
how many commandos do you plan on attacking in your near future?
Krav Maga for self-defense (and I'm a BJJ/SW/MT/MMA guy)
As many commandos as possible.
I am going to become a police officer when I finish my degree. I also hang out in a lot of bars where it seems that even if a fight starts one on one it always ends with someone else jumping in.
In my experience unless you are training with live resistance going full force the training is useless. For law enforcement go with jiujitsu for sure. Make sure you work a lot on wrestling (upper body clinch) takedowns.
Definately Brazilian Jiujitsu because you may not have the choice and end up on your back! But try and incorporate some wrestling/judo in your training to supplement the standing clinch!
if you dont know, you dont go....
heres a nugget of advice from a guy that's been screwed by barfighting, stay home, find a nice bar to go to!!!!
best answer by far
wrestling/kickboxing/muay thai/boxing/brazilian jiu-jitsu/arnis-kali-eskrima/judo/krav maga .......... dude learn it all. it'll take a lifetime. have fun : )
As a Police Officer and Defensive Tactics instructor, I would definately say that just as in MMA, you cannot limit your training. Learn BJJ, but stick to gross motor skills in grappling and not over-complex submissions, etc. Stick to baisc control and escape from bottom. Krav Maga is great for weapon retention and for gross motor skill striking and "closest weapon, closest target" mindset.
If possible, just find a good JKD school in your area that offers standup, weapons training, and bjj. Our bjj club was located inside of a Krav school for 1 year and although the Krav guys were nice and it looked like they were getting a good workout, they weren't impressive as martial artist or fighters. This is not to say that all Krav schools are the same but Krav to me seems like Kenpo with a makeover. For law enforcement I would definately go with BJJ mixed with a heavy judo or wrestling influence. It never hurts to work on your striking but many times kicking and punching are not an option for cops. Closing the distance, getting the takedown, and dominatnt body positioning seems like the common police strategy against bad guys.
judo.
Not a big fan of Krav Maga myself. I'd go with Jits. And yes, I've studied both.
I've never been to Krav class, but I bet their integrating jew-jits moves now.
If the Krav class is any good (and the quality of those classes is more uneven, from what I've gathered, than the case with BJJ), you might want to take it, but even if that is going to be your main focus, you need to learn enough jiu-jitsu to handle things if they end up on the ground. If the Krav teacher is at least a blue belt in BJJ and incorporates it into the class, great, otherwise, I recommend you spend some time in the BJJ class as well.
BJJ.
I've worked for years creating & perfecting "Krav-Jitsu" as the BEST possible answer to this very important question.>
Shalom my fren,
Shen
Take BJJ and buy the Krav Maga instructional DVDs. Practice what you learned on the DVDs with some friends.
However, I would reccomend looking into SD instructionals from guys like Marc Denny, Luis Guitterez, Jerry Wetzel, and Karl Tanswell. They stress aliveness and fundamentals instead of mechanical movements. Their stuff shits all over Krav Maga,IMO.
Krav Maga=Jew Jitsu