[QUOTE="DivergeUnify"]Well to be honest if someone knows how to fight, Aikido isn't going to do s*** so you're better off going with a martial art that isn't so purely defensive. Not sure what Wing chun is Zensword
You don't know Wing chun ? I'm sure you know Bruce Lee, he's a disciple of the legendary Ip Man, master of Wing Chun.While it's true that Bruce Lee studied under (Y)ip Man, he outright rejected most of the training methods, techniques and theory behind Wing Chun. He was one of the first to embrace what is now called a Mixed Martial Arts mindset -- taking the best methods and techniques from all available styles, and discarding everything else.
If you are interested in Bruce Lee's training, read the Tao of Jeet Kune Do, and you will get a sense for what he advocated. That said, he did not actually learn the full Wing Chun curriculum before rejecting it.
As for effectiveness, neither Wing Chun or Aikido have had success in modern Mixed Martial Arts competition, or the No Holds Barred/Vale Tudo (anything goes) fighting that preceded the sport we see today. If you consider the ring to be like a laboratory for testing fighting techniques and training methods, neither Aikido and Wing Chun appear to not be very effective.
The most important factor that make a martial art effective seems to be training against freely-moving, fully resisting opponents (called "aliveness" by Matt Thornton, a famous Jeet Kune Do Instructor), a training style which is not typical in Aikido or Wing Chun. Sound technique develops in styles that train with aliveness, evolving in a way similar to natural selection. Better technique will continually beat inferior technique, and will become the norm taught in that style.
Styles that have been successful in full contact competition (including early, unregulated contests complete with eye gouges, groin strikes, headbuts, etc.) also tend to be those styles that train with aliveness: wrestling, brazilian jiu-jitsu, submission wrestling, judo, boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, and to a lesser extend tae kwon do and kyokushin karate.
To answer your question more directly, I would think 1 year of Wing Chun training would prepare you for self defense slightly better than 1 year of Aikido would, but not by much. A wrestling, kickboxer, or BJJ player with one year of training would eat you for breakfast either way.
Log in to comment