Popular Fighting Styles

• There are many different fighting styles popular in the United States.Silhouette of a man kicking in the Air practicing martial arts image by Angel-Photos from Fotolia.com
  
  Martial arts styles have gained tremendous awareness with the general population through public figures such as Bruce Lee and Chuck Norris, while films like "The Karate Kid" helped keep self-defense classes filled with students eager to learn various fighting techniques. There are various fighting styles now commonly taught in the United States that can be used for conditioning, self defense or competition.
  
  

Tae Kwon Do

• Tae Kwon Do is a form of Korean karate and it frequently utilizes both punches and long-range kicks to score on an opponent.Tae Kwon Do is both a self defense system as well as a sport that is now featured in the summer Olympics. Many Tae Kwon Do kicks utilize either the heel or the ball of the foot as a striking surface and it targets the solar plexus as a frequent point of contact. Hammer fists and palm heel strikes are also taught at close distance to do damage to an attacker.
  
  

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

• Brazilian Jiu Jitsu first became popular in the United States through the exploits of Royce Gracie in the early 1990s when he won three of the first four Ultimate Fighting Championship tournaments by submitting men that were usually much bigger than him. Jiu Jitsu is a grappling art that specializes in defensive posturing off the practitioner's back. The legs are used to isolate the neck, arm or leg of an attacker in order to execute a bone-breaking joint lock or a choke hold that puts the attacker to sleep temporarily.
  
  

Muay Thai

• Muay Thai is a striking-based style that originated in Thailand and is also frequently practiced in Brazil. Professional mixed martial artists Wanderlei Silva, Mauricio Rua and Anderson Silva have each used the style as their main base to great success. Unlike Tae Kwon Do, Muay Thai utilizes the shin bone as its main kicking weapon and the elbow and forearm as a common strike when in close. Muay Thai specialists frequently use a "Thai clinch" which pulls the head of an opponent down so that knees can be brought up into the face.