What is/are the best martial arts for urban environments?

In general, I suggest you look at K1 or MMA fights on YouTube to get a sense of strengths and weaknesses of each martial art. From my personal experience, I’d suggest Muay Thai. It has the best value on the street and takes only 3–5 years to get really good at. If you combine it with Brazilian Jiu Jitsu you’ll have solid ground fighting skills as well (and any serious street fight often ends on the ground). Aikido takes about 30–40 years to be suitable for street fights. Sorry, I haven’t tried Krav Maga so can’t say anything about it.

I once heard Jeet Kune Do was the best in urban environments.

I suggest Danzan-Ryu Jujitsu. No gimmics or wasted movement, it is streamlined and effective. Their kicks are only below the kneee, throws are quick, effective, and balanced. There also are tons of sweet locks.

Ninjutsu. But I seriously doubt your going to find a real ninjutsu school unless you live in japan, haha! Yeah but it seriously depends on the dojo you find, and the situation you’re in. Judo can be extremely handy for close combat, and brutally effective. However it lacks long range, so if you distance yourself but cannot run, all you can really do is defend. Karate is fairly balanced, as it does not focus in on one area. Instead it utilizes momentum along side powerful strikes from hand, elbow, knee or foot. But there’s alot of bullshit in karate and they teach you alot of unnecessary techniques that will fail in actual combat. Muay thai and kickboxing can come in handy, but as far as talented fighting standards go, it’s nothing that would surprise your attacker, and be something they’ve never seen/dealt with before. But really the best thing you could do is a combination of some selected martial arts. It would be extremely time consuming and physically exhausting, but if you have the time. Judo, karate and gymnastics would be a perfect combo. gymnastics to help with the harder higher level fancy moves

@grim: ninjutsu is for anime fan boys now a days. It focuses on stealth and very quick movements, now a days you would be completely over powered….

@ asker
you may wanna stay with muai thai or maybe look into varja boxing. other good ones would be judo or kempo. outside of that you really dont stand much of a chance with the amount of shear strength people have today on the streets.
There is one thing you must always keep in mind Skill > strength > skill

with some skill you can be over powered but with great skill you will out maneuver the other fighter.

I just started Muay Thai. It is serious shit. Very hardcore. You can’t really go wrong with an 8 points of contact system. I tried kung fu for about 3 months and miss the detailed technique that comes along with it (I had to stop because it was too expensive, not cuz I didn’t like it). So, if you want good cardio, get you into kick-ass shape, Muay Thai is great for that. If you want something more ‘arty’, elegant, chose something like kung fu – it is beautiful!

personally
id go karate/mt with sanbo

quick full extension strikes with a ground game…. put in the time and youll be very well off in any situation

I learnt Muay Thai for 5 months and I really love it. Elbows are so deadly and they could be unexpected blows if you are in disadvantage situation on the street. But then again, who wants to get into a fight, just walk away, unless you have to fight.

But I would say Chinese Kung Fu would be more suitable for me, Muay Thai is plainly brute force vs brute force, I can’t bring down a 200 pound guy using Muay Thai. Taiji Quan or Yung Chun will be good.

Krav Maga might be the easiest art to find and learn specifically for this purpose. Unlike the other MA traditions, it’s been designed with urban survival as a key component. Most importantly, I don’t think a Krav Maga instructor would have any issue with you declaring your focus and tailoring techniques to the self-defense applications you have in mind.

i would definitely say that Jiu jitsu would be best. Jiu jitsu deals with disarmament, throws, effective point strikes, and has no baring on size because it, simmilarly to aikido, uses your opponent’s size and movements against them. I’m about 5’ 8” and 145lbs, and i can just as easily throw someone who is 6’ 6” and 200 or 300 lbs as i can someone who is smaller than me. Also part of it is to practice falling properly so you dont’ get hurt if you are say….pushed down or shoved around. There are grappeling disaplines of it as well (once you get them o nthe ground with the throw you can finish them off on the ground). it’s good against multiple adversaries to because it is based around from escaping from holds others may put you in (one holds your arms and the other goes to punch you in the face). the throws do a lot of damage particularly if they aren’t thinking about it, i practice on mats in a monitored environment and i’ve still gotten hurt, minor injuries to both shoulders.

i would also recommend looking into taijutsu. it’s a martial art that is based on multiple persons attacks, and deals with linking attacks together. Basically using your momentum from each move, strike, punch, and kick you make to lead into and power your next move, strike, punch or kick. it’s very effective, and the relentless attacking really takes the wind out of the guys who are attacking’s sails.

two more things, sorry for the long response. the first if you do end up in a fight one of the keys to winning any fight is that you have to be willing to truly hurt the other person. no pulling punches or letting them go until they are subdued. if you have to fight you fight to win at all costs. the second thing is that fights should not be sought after. they should not be started, they should be in defense only. with any martial art you can kill people, and thus it should be respected as much if not more than any other weapon gun, knife, etc. good luck

You could try Jiu Jitso from Korea, I prefer a crowbar from Sears & Roebuck.