"A 100% of fights start standing up."

2:00 Aikido

3:22 "If you were in a situation where your son were to attack you"

"The greatest victory is that which requires no battle"

I used to train in a mix of Eskrima and Kempo, and one of the first things we talked about going into armed fighting was that if you can arm yourself in a fight, do it, and if you show up unarmed to an armed conflict, you've made a mistake. The first thing we were taught explicitly about knife fighting was never get into a knife fight, because best case scenario is still a really bad day lol. Definitely was an eye-opening experience when compared to martial arts that are more formalized or competition oriented; Escrima was much more about being the guy who gets to go home under his own power, and using whatever techniques you could to make that happen.

Any popular martial art plus sparring/pressure testing will make the art very strong.

From what I read in the biography of Ueshiba (the founder of Aikido) , I conclude that the original version of Aikido was much more violent and useful for real and hard combat than today's version. It included swordfighting, punching, jiu jitsu, besides the other typical aikido moves. Today's Aikido is a result of Ueshiba's own personal and moral development, as he gradually kept removing all the elements of attack and violence from it. It was because of his war experience that he kept trying to make it more and more peaceful. The original purpose of Aikido is often misunderstood, as the wristlock, throws etc. were meant to be incorporated within swordfighting, street brawls and battles where groups of people run at each other, which is the exact situation when throws and wristlocks are particularly useful for throwing the running enemy off balance.

Coming in I thought you were those self-defence “experts” but no this was really good and realistic…

This guy has a rational approach to the martial art styles and their strengths and weaknesses. Something the martial arts-community in general could use more of. i would like to hear what he thinks of arts like Capoiera, Vale Tudo, Savate, Kurash, Ninjutsu, Hwa Rang Do, Pankration and Bok(Mongolian martial art).

Something you forgot the mention about karate is the punching, blocking, knuckle conditioning and in/out movement is designed for bare knuckles and no wrist wraps. Pretty useful for not breaking your wrists and hands ( at a legit dojo)

“You probably don’t have a knife on you right now” Looks down at the knife in my pocket