Good martial arts places in Chicago?

I'm gonna be honest with you man. I had some problems in the past when I was in high school. The school I went to was good. But then both the principle and Vice principle left for political reasons. The school got really bad after that, and the school got really dangerous. A lot of thugs from the bad parts of town started coming and hanging out at the school. I was constantly harassed and beaten down. I got in fist fights constantly. This gave me a view that the world was unsafe and I was always more likely to believe that a situation would get violent after this. It took quite a while to get over this. I started to view the world as a dangerous place.

That fear started to go away for a while, but then in June of this year I had just moved into a new apartment. It looked like a decent place on the inside. But then, as we started living there more, we started to hear complaints about the neighbors moving out because it was a lousy neighborhood. We heard this but I tried to ignore it because I was locked into a lease.

Long story short, one day I was walking out of my apartment and I was just robbed at gunpoint in broad daylight. They punched me in face, pushed a gun barrel into my stomach, took my wallet, but luckily they didn't take my car. After that, I went to a shrink and they told me I had PTSD. I've been to counseling as they told me I should do. However, that is like putting a band-aid on a gun shot wound. I really am looking for something that can show me how to defend myself in dangerous situations such as these and just feel safe again. After things like this happen to you, you just don't ever feel safe anymore. I have a firearm, but there are so many places that you can't carry it, and so many situations and go to jail for years if you use it incorrectly. So that doesn't make me feel very great. Advice? I really just want to feel safe again.

 

I get that man. I really do. To tell the truth, I've thought about taking a decent Krav Maga program for this very reason. I realize (especially after posting here for a while) that the Jason-Bourne style fight scenes where you have 3 guys with guns all coming at you at the same time, and you beat them all down is fictitious and completely unrealistic.

However, it would be awesome to find a decent program that could teach you

1) Situational awareness and how things like muggings, robberies, murders, etc usually go down.

2) How to avoid these types of situations.

3) If someone did come at you with a knife, gun, or whathave you, what your options are and situations where you could disarm them, beat down, or God forbid, even kill them to save your own life.

4) How realistic it would be to do those things like perform weapon disarms, or take on multiple opponents, and then how likely you would be to be beaten down or killed if you tried these things.

5) Yes, I realize that a lot of these things the martial arts can't help me with, but I feel like if I could find a program like this, and take it, it would do wonders for my sense of personal safety and my mental health.

6) Please realize this is not a pride thing, where it's like, "Oh I'm a man! I should have been able to wrestle these guys off!" No, see after they robbed me, they had me get on the ground and had a gun barrel to the back of my head. I had no clue whether they were going to pull the trigger or not. I could ever hear them saying, "Should we shoot em?" Luckily a car drove by and they would have witnessed me being killed. I just can't stop going over in my head, "What if that car hadn't have driven by? Would I still be here?" It messes with your head man.

 

(M)idwest (A)ikido (C)enter

 

really? simon lives in england, and you're asking him about legit martial arts places in chicago?

this whole thread is becoming a serious waste of time. why don't you just go train somewhere.

 

Simon,
I have not had any contact with Izzo, but knowing several people who I trained with and who have trained with Izzo in the Chicago area, I think he puts it on the line with what works in the street and what is dojo/kwoon/dojang fantasy.. I am a retired police officer and can understand the point of view of what Izzo puts out and also originally being from Chicago,the ability to put your training in a real world perspective is one of the foremost things I can relate to..

Just my opinion,

 

(Note, it may appear as my first post, but I've been here awhile. I just stopped posting and just read others posts. And when I did post, I really didn't post all that much. Of course, I forgot either my ID or my password or both, so I started this new account.)

To the OP, I've done MA in Chicago the past 25 years, so I have some knowledge of the scene. I don't know where you are moving from, but understand driving 8 miles in Chicago can take over an hour depending where you're going and what time. Also, public transportation, while extremely better than other cities, can suck at times.

That said, you'll be in the Illinois Medical District area so you need to plan accordingly. You didn't say which MA you were interested in, just any? Chicago is one of the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu centers in the US. It's not my personal MA, but if you're looking for that, you'll find about half a dozen REALLY good schools in the Loop alone, a short train ride. the late Carlson Gracie moved to Chicago a couple decades ago and started up BJJ here. Most (though not all) of the BJJ schools in Chicago are direct descendants of his teachings.

There's phenomenal Judo taught at The Jiu-Jitsu Institute in the Loop, and also at Tohkon Judo much further north in the Uptown neighborhood. You mentioned Aikido and Wing Chun in a follow up response so I'll tell give some feedback. Wing Chun is like BJJ here in that there are a lot of places to learn it and pretty much all seem legit. The consensus seems to be the best Wing Chun is taught by Philip Nearing over in West Town. Aikido I can't speak for but I haven't heard of anyone being taught crappy Aikido. After all, you have one organization HQ'd here. You'd get laughed out of business if you taught crappy Aikido in the Chicago area. If you any questions on a specific school or MA, just message me. I'd be happy to help you find the right place to train, meaning the right place to train for YOU.

 

Yes. Yes. I know, I know. I survived and that is the important part. However, it just messes with your head. I have encountered so much violence and have lived in some awful areas. I really just want to feel safe again. That's all.

I am very sorry about your friend though. May he rest in peace

 

Well I have checked some of these places out. I first went to the chicago avenue aikido center. I saw them doing aikido there. The place was absolutely gorgeous and looked like a traditional japanese aikido place. The instructors seemed on point as well. But idk aikido just seemed to be way too much of a soft form of budo for me.

I also stopped by at Carlson Gracie Jr's bjj place. It actually suprised me because carlson jr himself was teaching the class. He ran a good class but bjj really isnt my bag.

What I am looking for is a self defense class that also allows to spar regularly. I dont care if its traditional MA either. But something that teaches you to deal with multiple attackers, something realistic, preferably something that shows you a few joint locks, and maybe they dont teach gun defense but at least teach knife defense

 

I think Simons advice is really good, I also feel for your situation.

My opion is that if you train in martial arts or combat sport that trains athletically and gives you a training model where you can actually develop functional skill in one or more areas then you will a) have the catharsis of hard training which is great for body and mind b) be more empowered to deal with physical aggression of a certain kind. certainly social violence. c) have the confidence (and have that confidence seen by others) to deal with aggression and to either walk away or de-esculate.

You seem like you are into the muay thai training you have been doing. I'd just stick with that for a while and see how it changes you.

 

[ame="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGpDVCkhtD4"]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGpDVCkhtD4[/ame]

some things to contemplate there.

 

Yes. This video is good. Good post.

But to touch on what he said...

-Guns. Yes guns are great self defense but what I hate is that there are so many places you can't carry them. Bars, clubs, concerts, subways, amusement parks, planes, etc.

Not only that but if there are no witnesses and you shoot someone, you could go to jail for the rest of your life. Plus there are all these crazy laws. Like in Florida if you fire a warning shot straight in the air, they call that using deadly force. Thats automatically 20 years.

But yeah I keep hearing bjj, wrestling, MT, and boxing is best for sd. So is karate, kung fu, aikido useless?

 

I think you'll connect with that type of training more and I think speaking generally they have a far higher track record for training that works (you have experienced that yourself).

The largest part of self defence doesnt really have anything to do with fighting but for the parts of self defence that do... I think it's a no brainer.

I agree with Simon's comment on training for the benefits of the training itself. While I understand your need for physical backup given your life history, your longest most consumming battles are likely to be emotional/psychological and relate to your masculinity, sense of vulnerability and your relationship with violence. Fortunately there are arts out there that will address all that and make you a better fighter

edit - cant comment on the gun stuff as I'm an ignorant brit.

 

1) I wish though, that there was a program that WOULD teach you what you are capable of when it comes to multiple attackers, knives, guns, etc.

2) So your advice is to train in a martial art I love the most then?