As a 5’2″, 100-ish pound woman, I can honestly say I’m not much of a threat to anyone. In lieu of that, I recently made the decision to go into martial arts so that I could, at the very least, protect myself in the midst of a fight. Sure I’ll never be Lara Croft Tomb Raider, but I figured that I may develop a good defense system in case someone tries to mess with me in the future. During my research, I discovered what styles of martial arts are, arguably, the best out there for women. Here are my top picks.
Wing Chun has been studied by countless martial artists in the past, and even Bruce Lee himself learned Wing Chun before establishing his own set of martial arts, Jeet Kun Do. Wing Chun was created specifically for a woman (for which the art is named) as a way to end a marriage proposal she did not want to go through. The only way the man who proposed would back off was if she could beat him in martial arts. She sought the help of Ng Mui who established a very simplistic but effective style of self defense for her. Using this, Yim Wing Chun was in fact able to defeat her prospective partner and go off to marry the man she actually wanted. Because this art was established for a woman, the moves easily reflect the natural ways that women think, move, and respond, and the movements themselves deliver the maximum impact with minimal efforts.
Kali Eskrima
Kali Eskrima (sometimes just called Eskrima) is a version of Filipino martial arts that deals with weapons, namely sticks, knives and swords. Eskrima, like most Filipino martial arts, has a set of simple moves that can be linked together to create very powerful fighting techniques. Students are taught key locations to slice or hit along the body, and through repetitive training, they learn just what they would need to aim for in a battle. Practice is usually conducted with bamboo sticks that can still hurt under the right impact. Although this art may not seem practical because most people don’t walk around with blunt weapons all the time, it can teach women to be prepared when that situation does arise, or when someone else has a blunt weapon to take and use. The knife fighting in Eskrima is likely the best link to real life situations.
Jeet Kun Do
As mentioned before, Jeet Kun Do is a style of martial arts established by the great Bruce Lee. Lee wanted to develop a system of martial arts that wasn’t a system at all. In fact, he didn’t even want to name his martial arts because by giving it a name, he knew that he would be establishing rules to follow. There are no rules in Jeet Kun Do though. It is quite literally a hodge podge of a ton of different martial art systems that truly allow the student to become a versatile fighter who is both quick thinking and unpredictable. This art borrows the footing from fencing, hand jesters from boxing, primary concepts from Wing Chun, and countless other influences from other arts, all of which come together to create the “style without style” that Bruce Lee was famous for.
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu
Brazilian Jiu Jitsu is a grappling style martial art that deals with a lot of pins, takedowns, escapes and holds that may resemble wrestling if you don’t know what you’re looking at. As a woman, you have to come to the realization that you will most likely be fighting on the ground. One good blow from a big man is all it takes to get you on the floor. Rather than ignoring that, embrace it and learn an art that teaches you how to fight on the ground and how to use your body in ways that will help you take down any opponent, no matter the size. You can use the person’s own weight to roll themselves over, drag themselves to the ground, etc, or you can simply contort certain parts of the body in ways that will force them to tap out or break something. With limited pressure, you can deliver big blows.
Final Thoughts
Overall, if you are woman planning to study martial art, you just have to put your all into it and allow for some flexibility. I strongly encourage you to take more than one art so you can be prepared for different situations. Mixed martial artists fair the best in fights because they can do just about anything to anyone at any time. Never limit your own abilities by closing your mind off to certain arts. Instead, embrace everything that you can and figure out how it could be applied to a real life situation.
