Quote Originally Posted by Heavy D
Completely agree with Van on this one. Judo by FAR over BJJ for the street. Grappling gets VERY risky in a street situation, because you're never guaranteed a fair fight. While you maye be able to pull guard and guillotine him, he may also just pull a knife while you do that and stab you in the neck. Or maybe when you pull guard, his buddy you didn't notice does the Mexican Hat Dance on your face. The Judo throws will generally end a fight or give you the time to exit stage left quickly.

But your buddy also definately need to pick up some sort of striking art, and preferably boxing or muay thai (kicks require too much room...the punching in boxing or knees/elbows in MT don't). The biggest benefit of these is that they REALLY give you a chance to end a fight quickly before bad things can happen, and they keep you off the floor, where bad things can happen.

One thing to remember....the average guy on the street has NO formal training, and even a one week class in any martial art is going to give you the upper hand. That doesn't mean that you should trust your life to a one week course, but any legitimate martial art school will most likely give you the skills you need to handle yourself in the street.

And on a side note...the absolute best method of self defense? A good mouth and quick brain. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS try to talk your way out of it. NEVER NEVER NEVER fight unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. Sure, maybe you can beat the guy up, but you just never know what's going through his brain. Maybe you kick his a**. Maybe you knock him out. And maybe he has a gun in his car, gets it, and comes back and shoot you. Maybe when some guy grabs your wallet, you can throw him and snap his arm. Maybe you can drop him in one punch. And maybe he has a knife, and stabs your neck.

Can you HONESTLY think of ONE THING that is worth getting killed over if there was another way? The best way to protect yourself from a mugger is to just give him your wallet. It's only money...maybe you can kick his a**, but you better hope that there's a vending machine in heaven where you can spend those 23 dollars you potentially gave your life for.
CC mate. Can't really add any more than that. Fantastic advice..especially the last two paragraphs. Ive studied self protection now for years and ive trained for the physical respose but most of the stuff is 'soft skills' using dissuasion techniques, loop holing, understanding body language and attack indicators. Target hardening, how to make yourself less of a target. As heavy D says, if some chap comes up and asks for your wallett then give him it, ego's are very dangerous things and your natural reaction (as a male) may be to try and fight back, F*** that mate..give him your wallet..is $50 really worth getting stabbed or shot for. However if you are with your wife/ girlfriend and kids and the attacker wants to add rape to his booty...this is another scenario altogether.

Bottom line is dont go risking your neck for the sake of your ego or $50. If some guy stares at you from across the bar and asks you "what the F*** you looking at?" politely explain that youve mistaken him for someone else. Dont get involved. The physical response is a LAST RESORT. Also you are within the law to attack 'pre emptively' providing you had the honest belief you were in danger. A lot of people after they walk away suddenly feel like S*** that they, i suppose 'capitulated' like a wimp when they should have stood up to the guy. This is called the black dog. The black dog of your mind questioning you. What you should do is kick the black dog up the a***, give yourself a pat on the back and sit back and enjoy the fact you did a good job. No one is hurt or in jail, in my mind thats coming out a winner.Let the guy in the bar go home and jerk himself in self gratification about his little 'victory', he's most probably one of lifes losers!

Now getting back to the original question between the two styles. Myself being a Judoka i am going to be biased toward Judo BUT i truly believe (as do a lot of others) that Judo is one of the best support systems for self defence going. As a close quarter combat system its fantastic. As mentioned above to be truly prepared for the physical response you need to add striking to your mix. I would class this as primary tools. So seek some instruction in kickboxing, boxing or muay thai. IF your primary tools don't work and the strike gets shaken off and suddenly you are in grappling range, this is where Judo suddenly becomes your best friend. No fancy stuff..no spinning tricks just good, solid tried and tested throws that will slam the guy into the deck and give you a window of escape (a thrown on to hard flooring will take the fight out of them 9 times out of 10 anyway). Judo throws are not easy to learn and you have to learn them against fully resisting opponents, also the throw (for a judoka) is instinctive when in this range. If for some reason it goes wrong and you end up on the deck. There are more than enough chokes and submissions in the judo arsenal to put the assailant away. If you decide to take judo ansure they focus on newaza (groundwork) aswell. I train 60% standup and 40% groundwork and i have done for years. Judo also teaches you body mechanics, weight displacement. When a chap grabs hold of you this is your arena, it doesn't matter what the fuck he does to you..pulls you, pushes you, tries to slam you against a wall. You would have seen it/felt it all before in the dojo or in competition and your body instinctively deals with it. Suddenly this guy is thinking 'hang on a minute'..midway through the word 'minute' going through his mind he finds himself flying through the air and hurtling toward the deck with force.
Problem with BJJ is all their work is done on the deck, BJJers dont like standup, in a street situation the floor is THE LAST place you want to be. Rolling around in dogshit and broken bottles with no doubt one of his pals ready to play football with your head. KEEPOFF THE DECK in the street...itd hardly ever one on one.

I'll say what ive always said about the whole BJJ vs Judo argumet. In the octagon BJJ is great but on a cold night outside a burger joint facing up to a drunk thug and his mates who have decided you just dont 'look right'..well BJJ will be left wanting and most likely get you seriously hurt. Judo on the other hand will step up to the plate and offer you a solid support system and (in my mind) keep you much safer on the streets and more readliy prepared for the physical response.

Sorry for droning on