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Combat Martial Arts vs Competitive Martial Arts

What’s The Difference?

Your reason for studying martial arts (whether it be for competition, fitness, or combat) influences what style of training you choose. In competitive martial arts, training is often focused on perfecting your fighting form, increasing your speed, and honing your delivery. Sparring is not fought with full force and most tournament martial arts do not allow blows to the head or groin.

If you are training for combat on the other hand, there is an emphasis on real-life fighting techniques, learning how to deal with situations that could occur on the street, and sparring is usually practiced at full-force with the fighters wearing protective gear.

Here at FightFast we train for real-world self-defense and combat, but before deciding which martial art you want to learn you need to be clear on what YOUR goals are.

Are you interested in learning how to fight to defend yourself in a street fight or do you want to enter into competitive tournaments?

Are you more interested in physical exercise, spiritual improvement, or improving your mental health?

These are the types of questions you must ask yourself before diving headfirst into any martial art.

Tournament Arts

If you’re looking for a martial art that will give you decent self-defense skills and also train your mind without putting your body on the line too much, then a tournament sport might be the right choice for you. Tournament arts are considered to be safer than combative arts because you are required to follow tight rules and regulations.

In a competition you are awarded points based on criteria such as best form, the number of hits you land, where you hit your opponent, and how you respond to your opponent’s attacks or defenses. The atmosphere of a tournament is generally relaxed and supportive.

Of course, if you opt for a sport martial art, it is not essential for you to compete in tournaments. However, doing so can enhance your response time and can help you learn which techniques work and which don’t.

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Combat Arts

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However, if you want to defend yourself in real-life situations, you will want to practice a combat martial art. In combat-oriented training tensions are high. Your adrenaline is pumping and you are hopefully learning techniques that will save your life in a full-on fighting situation.

If you choose to practice combat arts, most styles do not even offer competitions. For example, Krav Maga, a brutal street fighting style created for the Israeli army, is designed solely for self-defense.

In contrast, Muay Thai, a full-on contact sport, is traditionally centered around the goal of winning competitions. However, I do find it effective for self-defense, too. Learning this combat sport will give you plenty of self-defense techniques, and it will also enable you to step into the ring!

Final Thoughts

In some cases the difference between combat and tournament martial arts can be unclear. For instance, Judo was originally created for sport as a derivative of Jiu Jitsu, but it was also used as a method of defense in combat situations by the Japanese police. While Judo tournaments are held throughout the world, it can still be an effective form of self-defense.

Basically, before you decide which martial art you want to spend your time and hard-earned money studying, figure out how you want to use your martial art skills. Once you know that you can choose the most effective art to meet your individual goals.

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66 thoughts on “Combat Martial Arts vs Competitive Martial Arts”

  2. Tho I never had the chance to really test what I’ve learned i’ll put Hagan ah up against most combat arts. Mike Lee Kanarak too Krav an injected it with rods figuratively. I still practice the engagement drill among other things.

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  5. In a true combat situation, I feel there are two goals. First is to survive at all costs and the second is to eliminate the threat permanently.

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  8. I don’t really have the time or cash to take a martial art, but this is quite helpful in narrowing down what to choose, and I thank you for that.

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  9. Judo’s Self-Defense after the 5th Dan is one of the best you will find. But you have to pass all the belts, which means you will have to dedicate most of your life to the discipline. Nowadays, who will do that? Very few. Military Self-Defense and Close Combat will give most, if one enlists and specializes in the SF will learn great technics. Judo, Taichi, Jiu Jitsu will give within 5 years, great knowledge. Savate, learned with a good teacher, will give a few attacks only Savate possesses. But all those Arts will require many years of practice. MANY YEARS.

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  11. So far I enjoyed all of your instructions. I was mostly interested in self defence and boy did I learn a lot. Although I am not a fighter, with what I learned from you I am not afraid of anyone trying to attack me.Past on some of my new knowledge to my family and they are impressed as well. Thanks for all the info and videos.
    Heinz, BCHeinz

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  13. I am the Giant Killer! How? Very, very easy! I have defeated 3 300 lbs+ monsters at different times in my life when I was in my teens! I did it by landing first, landing hard and striking quickly! There is no such thing as “fighting fair” in a street fight!

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  16. Very helpful and I thank you! I am interested in self protection for myself and family! I appreciate all the tips, and again, I thank you!

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  19. good evening. i work in the security field. the sites I work are pretty rough. people with weapons such as guns knives. I do wear a tactical vest but this does make things a little difficult to execute things in a quick manner.
    is there some instructions or tips on how to better execute cqc with a tactical vest.

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  21. Great write-up. My experience with tournament arts, Tae Kwon Do, were positive in the fact that learning techniques and trying to perfect them gave me an understanding of how my body most efficiently and quickly produced the most power while keeping good form and improving until proficient. I can’t say that it didn’t help me at least a little bit when I had to defend myself in “real life.” While I didn’t use forms or flamboyant techniques, I did have some speed and power behind the techniques I was able to deliver. Now my law enforcement training was more combat or “real life” oriented. Allbeit, the training was short term and only annual refreshers so it is definitely better than not having training but not consistent and I have never used it for self defense. The times I’ve had to defend myself I basically resorted back to “grappling and ‘wrestling’ ” with my cousins and friends growing up while adding some techniques, mostly punches and few kicks learned from Tae Kwon Do. I grew up having to fight over stupid reasons because walking away wasn’t an option. For me, those many encounters instilled a foundation for self defense in my case. I think that people would be horribly wrong to judge a person by looks or size nowadays. In the past you could kind of size someone up by looks or behavior but now with MMA so popular, you never know if the 125 pound nerdy kids will wrap you up like a pretzel while breaking your arm before choking you out with his outstanding Jiu Jitsu skills. It’s always good to have some basis of self defense. I think that we can’t always rely on weapons because if we can’t access the weapon it’s worthless. Being able to at least defend yourself from not being totally destroyed is better than ending up in a come. You don’t have to win every fight but you definitely can take steps to not get killed. Multiple combatants is another story for another day. Thanks for writing this and thank you for the opportunity to give my two cents.

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  23. I have been reading your post for a while. I have trained many different styles and my focus has always been combat. When I joined my HS wrestling team, I totally confused my coach because I only really worked on combat effective techniques. I was a takedown and standup expert. But I couldn’t really wrestle. If I took you down in a pinning position, I pinned you or else I let you up and did it again. If you took me down, I stood up and escaped. My favorite style strangely enough is Tae Kwon Do. I won’t get into the reasons but the style if taught correctly (in most cases it is not) is very effective. forget all the flash if I can properly maintain distance and setup and land a kick, usually after repeatedly punching you in the face (you have to be able to punch in the face no hands to the face is stupid), it is pretty much over. Most style forget the setup. The problem I see with most quick study programs is they are not designed for fighters. My second favorite style is wing chung, It is a great style if your opponent has no idea what he is doing. A little training beats 90% of the people on earth…but the other 10% will kill you. I have spent most of my early life (8-28) training for the 10%. You have to spar, you just have to; and you have to spar against the 10%, there is just no way around it. But out side of a war zone the 10% of people who really know what they are doing are not going to be jumping out of a bush going stick-em up. I still say sparring is essential, I used to work a model mugging class. I was the guy in the padded suit and my job was to scare and intimidate but at the same time give an opening for every technique they were taught. My point being it is very difficult to simulate a combat situation and you train to make that situation normal. In the model mugging class the main point we tried to make clear was that if you are in a life or death situation, here is what you do but a the same time you really never ever want to be in this situation and to avoid it at all cost. Also we cannot make you a martial arts master in a couple of hours. We didn’t mention the 10% but it is the 10% that I trained for and leading strong-side-strong (A kill shot) is countered with strong-side-strong (A kill shot) you must figure out who you have in front of you first (preferably at distance). If it is the 10% and you don’t know it first, they will kill you. Fighting is not a bunch of techniques. You are always fighting a person and you must solve the puzzle of who that person is (preferably very quickly). just going in an trying to hit something big is a very dangerous tactic. For example the 10% will leave open the attack to their best counter and they will never show you their weapon until after they have killed you with it

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  26. Having taken instruction from a local detective who taught combat-oriented martial art, after taking defensive style from a local art teacher, one notices the difference. Not only is there a physical difference, there is a mental difference as well. Totally different mindset. No, the bad-guy attitude from ‘Karate Kid’ is not present, however, one learns to spot trouble before it happens instead of waiting for it to happen to you.
    Learned good things from both. If I were to recommend one style, especially in the current enviornment of the U.S., I’d recommend combat.

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  27. This info is true, but I would like to point out that there is another path or goal… one that probably includes most people who are attracted to FightFast.. These are ordinary working people, who may have no interest in winning a kata or kumite competition, but who just want to increase their chances of prevailing in a street or sexual assault. These people may be older,or not necessarily gifted athletes, who are not training to be in the Navy Seals or IDF., but who just want to make it back home to their families. A paradox of “realistic” combat training is that, if it’s too realistic, you end up killing or maiming most of your students! I mention this because it seems to me that the FightFast lessons and videos are tailored to the possibly overweight office workers or housewives who may not be interested in becoming “black-op killers”, but who can with techniques and attitude, take out an arrogant punk who may well underestimate them.

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  28. Thanks for the write-up. I’d like to add Krav Maga is also an art which can be effectively used for street combat as the moves are so synchronized in to neutralizing enemy. Thanks again for your hard work.

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  29. Personally I feel you should know it all.I believe having those skills make you a stronger person,mind and body.I mean you stated all the facts.If I could I would learn all of it but I don’t have the mind or money to learn that.

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  30. I’m David Bowman. From the time that I was 4 I had to lear n to fight for what was mine! I Grew up on the Mean dangerous and deadly streets, of Indianapolis, INDY.!! Streets in all black neighborhoods with me and my older brother the only white kids for miles in every direction! At 4-6 years old ate out of heavy gage steel garbage cans!! I sprinted and hit those suckers as hard as I could with my tiny upper body I was starvin! During this time in my very early brutal childhood, from all the black bigger kids I got hit by rocks and cut with knives got dragged out of the can I was eating rotten garbage from by my filthy feet swung around like a rag doll and thrown back, head, side, face first into many garage doors, other garbage cans, I had broke nosescountless times! Broken limbs all of them but I fought back with aspeed using those lids! I’d break the shins, in2arm bones under chins, thighs as hard as I could swing a completion is a controlled environment mine wasn’t!! I was being hurt and badly at TAT age more than I had time to eat spoiled d meat, rotten apples blackbanana peels everything that was edible in those cans I tried to eat! There are rules in martial arts comp. Out there in the jungle I learned to show no fear and to be very feared in those alleys!! Master JUNG style TAEKWON- Do! ITF! Studided

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  33. I’m 73 now. And started learning Judo,T St Albans Judo Club, Hertfordshire, England UK under the direction of Sensei M. Otani 9th. Dan and was personalllly graded to 1st. Dan And Instructor by him.
    This article is a good first step but follow it up I recommend this site.

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  35. I’ll endorse that. As a black belt in both Judo, & Karate (Wado Ryu, & Freestyle) I can say Judo has saved my life twice. Karate I have used in the real world too. However, grappling goes a long way.

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  36. I trained Hapkido and Tae Keon Do and learned that the two form a good marriage, one being more linear in motion and the other being more circular in motion. While I believe that a good set of self defense skills can prevent someone from hurting me I have become more interested in offensive skills in order to win a fight and do it quickly. I’m always open to learning something new that could help me out with this. I prefer to avoid trouble and not have to fight at all as I have no desire to hurt or kill anyone, but I also want to have the necessary skills in the event that I may have to do some quick damage, especially if I’m up against multiple attackers. I drive an 18-wheeler for a living and frequently park on the shoulder of an exit or on-ramp to take a break or even to try and get a short nap if I get sleepy driving. There’s always the possibility that someone could pull up behind me and present a problem such as robbery. Thank you for your input on tournament martial arts vs combat martial art. I enjoyed reading it and it makes perfect sense. In a street fight I won’t be trying to score points and win a trophy.

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  38. Love ya movies (very cool)! I did zen do kai about 15 years ago,for 5 years & got my black belt!(From BOB JONES karate- traditional & street fighting,but didn’t keep it up unfortunately) anyway just got your email about the knife,but I deleted it by mistake.Could you resend please ! Thanks !

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  39. Hello, and a very good morning to You!

    I am interested in a number of the DVD’s that you have endorsed on this site in the past but would first like to know if they would play on U.K. devices?

    Yours, respectfully……..

    Barry.

    Reply

  40. They say the First tenet of Karate is be last person standing at end of fight,,,,,,, the Second tenet is learn first tenet properly……. I have always felt that in a combat situation, that was always the correct attitude, and I have always stuck to it !!!!! But Confucius said if you have to fight try and make it on a ground of your choice, with out it looking obvious, this can give you a considerable advantage………..

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  41. Thank you for the info. I’m an older man and want to stay in shape mentally and physically with fighting techniques should I ever need to.

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  44. Hey thx for all the vids wut if ur not fast enough to apply them how can I gain speed just for my senses and reflexes so wen I do fight I can stop the fist. Also wut is that hand thing where a guy crushes the other guys hand after he catches the punch

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  49. Interesting that you use the same formatt for selling your product as other companies selling theirs. “Special Insider”, Premium Member. Can you list comments from people who have bought the products? You are correct about Tournament arts vs. Combat Arts.

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  50. I took Judo from a Korean instructor for a while back in the 1960’s when I was about 19. Do not know if I would be able to execute any of it now I am 70 years old. Any ideas?

    Reply