Best fighting style for a pacifist

Question

I am looking for a fighting style a semi pacifist could use; someone who hates violence but has no problem defending himself and putting someone down. He has no problem HURTING the infected, but he refuses to KILL them.

To clarify: This is not a question of what fighting style should he use. this is a question of what real-life fighting style has the least amount of physical harm to the opponent that's not wrestling.

The setting: A zombie-creating infection has spread throughout the population, but the "zombies" are still alive and so the pacifist refuses to kill them. He's a scout for the group so it's more effective to throw or knock the Infected away when they try to grab him instead of carrying a weapon.

Answer 1

The ancient and noble art of Running Away.

Lots of martial arts have maneuvers which minimize harm to their opponents -- but almost all of these consist of chokes, joint locks, pressure points, etc -- all of which are singularly useless against zombies! And many of them tend to expose the martial artist to vectors of zombie infection.

If you really think shattering their zombie kneecaps fits in with the whole pacifist outlook, you could possibly go with that, as a complement to running away, but it feels like a stretch.

Answer 2

When your opponent is a zombie, there's a risk that the slightest bite, scratch or splash of bodily fluid is enough to infect you with an incurable and rapidly fatal disease. If you're not going to shoot them, you sure as hell shouldn't be grappling with them because there's just too much risk of infection. Sure, you could wear a load of riot gear, but that's gonna slow you down, heat you up and spoil your vision and hearing, and what kind of scout would you be then? Forget martial arts. Waste of your time, probably get you killed.

No, there's only one choice: parkour. Its all about moving around freely and quickly, ideal for a scout and it looks pretty badass too. What's not to like?

Answer 3

Aikido

It's a Japanese martial arts form based on the idea of deflecting and redirecting the energy of the attacker. It was developed with the goal of protecting the attacker from injury while defending one's self. The style makes use of throws, pins, and joint locks to subdue the attacker.

Answer 4

Spit sock hood.

Your characters carries these hoods with him. Or maybe they are just denim bags he has made. They close with a zip tie. He pulls one over the zombie's head and pulls the cord to tighten it around its neck.

Its head in the spit sock hood, the zombie cannot bite him. Probably it cannot see him. Getting the hood off is going to keep the zombie busy for a long time because the material is tough and the zip tie must be cut with something sharp. The zombie will need help to get it off, but the other zombies are not that helpful.

You can tell where this guy has been because he leaves a trail of zombies with their heads in bags stumbling around and bumping into things.

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An easy way to make these hoods would be to use pants, and have the zip tie thru the belt loops.

Answer 5

Judo

It's currently practiced martial art (and Olympic sport) that focuses on throws and take downs. It's also well enough known for your character to have learned it locally.

Answer 6

While I agree with Starfish's and Rodger's assessments of avoidance of unarmed combat with zombies is best, it does not quite answer the question.

IF you are going to engage a zombie in non-lethal unarmed combat, I would suggest Capoeira. Most "non-violent" martial arts styles such as Judo focus on holds, throws, arms locks, etc. which are exactly what you don't want to do against a zombie.

The advantage of Capoeira vs other non-grapply martial arts is that Capoeira is designed to be able to be done with hands bound. This means that a practitioner is trained specifically to be able to avoid a grapple and fight without ever exposing his hands to his opponent (great ideology when fighting a zombie.)

This also results in a greater emphasis on wide arcing motions vs the more directed strikes like you would expect in something like karate. Depending on what zombie lore you go with, a straight kick/punch may be more likely to get you infected. If the zombie can infect with a scratch, a straight-kick to the chest may put the zombie on its arse quite efficiently, but also put your foot right in its ideal scratch zone. If the zombie has superhuman strength, this also puts your foot at extra risk of being caught, and your foot subsequently going straight into the zombie's mouth. If the zombie is of the "runner" variety, this could be a disadvantage though because it does not offer the ideal form for countering its momentum.

Capoeira is also very popular in choreography and dance which gives your protagonist a good reason to have this skill set in his repertoire while also begin a pacifist.

Answer 7

Already some good suggestions for fighting styles, but if he refuses to kill them, then perhaps you're looking for less of a fighting style and more of an avoidance technique?

Perhaps they use fishing nets to tangle up the zombies and immobilize them. They could use a whip, Indiana-Jones-style, to both knock down zombies and rappel between obstacles to avoid the zombies.

Not sure how your zombies sense things, but perhaps they use a strobe light or something to blind them. Or a speaker with heavy bass like a thumper (ie. Dune) so they can't sense vibrations or hear as well. If your zombies detect via sense of smell, they could use smoke bombs with strong odors to disrupt their smell (and vision).

Answer 8

it's more effective to throw or knock the Infected away when they try to grab him instead of carrying a weapon

No. No it isn't. Just no. All the nope. Even if he's a scout crawling down a cave that's barely wide enough for his body, that's a big hell no.

The martial arts we're familiar with today are simply variations on the duel. The combatants compete under a strict set of rules, and the intention is that both are alive at the end of it. "What about MMA/vale tudo/whatever backyard brawler?" I hear someone ask. They still have rules, most notably that neither person is wearing body armour or carrying a weapon.

This is very different to the kind of fighting where you're actually aiming to kill someone, or at least to prevent yourself being killed by another someone who's actively trying to kill you. One of the more effective martial arts is jiu jitsu; and every jiu jitsu practitioner will tell you that it was intended as a backup skill for when the samurai had lost his sword on the battlefield or was attacked by surprise.

So, back to the zombies. They don't play by any kind of rules - they want to kill you and eat you. So the scout has a weapon for self-protection. He just does, because if he doesn't have a weapon then going anywhere near a zombie is straight-up suicide. He does have the choice of what weapon to use though, and being a pacifist he doesn't take the obvious options of swords or axes to cut heads off.

The obvious choice is a boar spear. This may sound pretty damaging, but these are zombies, right? You can kill them by cutting off their heads, but damage to their body doesn't signify. So a boar spear is perfect - the zombie walks into the spear and impales themselves on it, and the lugs stop the zombie working its way down the spear to get to you. Flip a rope round the zombie (a weight on the end of a line will loop the line round the zombie nicely if you throw it right), attach the ends to cleats mounted on the side of the spear, and you've got the zombie securely attached to the spear. Now you have leverage on your side, so you can control the zombie whilst your friends tie its arms and legs.

Oh, rope skills for achieving that. You did want an unarmed martial art. I give you Hojōjutsu, the Japanese martial art of tying up people (especially resisting people) quickly and effectively. Like most unarmed martial arts, subduing the opponent relies on pain submission which clearly won't work on zombies; but we've dealt with that with the boar spear, and the basic concepts of restraining limbs will still work perfectly well.

Unarmed combat against a zombie though, did I say no enough times? No. Not enough times. It's a no.

Answer 9

I can't imagine how someone could think of a pacifist martial art style against a zombie. Come on man! we are dealing with zombies. How dare you use judo techniques to fight a zombie?

My alternate suggestion for a pacifist, (of course if running away is not an option) is to develop some kind of poisonous/anesthetic gas that knocks them unconscious and doesn't kill them. But discovering that kind of gas or spray is another issue that I have no idea about.

Answer 10

Ecky Thump

The ancient Lancastrian martial art focuses on mainly the use of clubs and in generally effective whilst non fatal

Your hero could club the zombies, knocking them down, quickly and quietly.

Answer 11

What about pole weapons (spears etc), like very long, metal stick ?

They could be cut from right to left, hoping that one of them will fall over and block the way for the others.

Alternatively, you could use it as a javelin …

Answer 12

Aikido Yoshinkan

Aikido Yoshinkan is a style of Aikido developed by Gozo Shioda sensei aimed to improve the capabilities of Aikido for self-defense. Aikido's way is based on bringing peaceful resolutions to situations involving conflics some of which can include phisical violence. Yoshinkan is considered the hardest and more aggresive Aikido path because it puts special attention in the atemis or "blows and strikes to the body" launched by the guardian or defender. That means in most of the movements of Aikido Yoshinkan the defender will launch one or two blows to the arms, wrists, chins or ribs of the attacker. That's why Aikido Yoshinkan has been the martial art of choice to form the agents of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police. This extra punch is what makes -IMHO- Yoshinkan as one of the best martial arts to train if you are not into more physical martial arts like taekwondo. Having said that I have taken myself yoshinkan classes for three years and it has helped me a lot in my daily life. During the time I had classes I used to have my arms and body covered in bruises and that was more exaggerated after long Yoshinkan sessions, from this I now know what physical pain feels like. These can be rewarding in other ways, for example into life outside of the dojo, helping to gain confidence in regular life situations.

Take into account that we are talking about a martial art, so in mosts of the dojos commitment is a must.

The problem with Yoshinkan is that is hard to find an official Aikido Yoshinkan dojo.

Good Luck with your choice.

Answer 13

I'd recommend a martial art which focuses on joint locks. There are several out there, so take your pick from them.

The reason I recommend such arts is because of the nature of the opponent. Martial arts which focus on stopping others by hurting them are going to be very surprised when they run into a zombie. Police officers have to deal with this: opponents hopped up on PCP don't care about what damage they do to their own bodies. A lot of techniques which strive to cause submission via pain don't work on these individuals. While the definition of "zombie" can vary from story to story, typically they are rather oblivious to pain.

The advantage of joint locks is that they use physics to stop an opponent. If I can put your joints in a configuration that prevents your fist from reaching my body, you simply cannot punch me. It doesn't matter how zombie-ish you might be. Physics is physics. You need your body to do things. If I own your body, you can't do things.

As one practices joint locks, one starts to become aware of how exposed a joint can be once you get it out there. We, as humans, instinctively protect our joints using our muscles. We don't let them get into the really bad positions. Once you get a zombie's elbow or shoulder into the right position, they are just a few pounds of force away from a dislocation. Dislocation will affect zombies. It affects the physics of how our joints and muscles work together to move our limbs. So as the fight escalates, your hero can start taking out limbs in order to keep the fight under control.

To escalate beyond that, I would recommend they practice in a bladed weapon of some sort: knife, sword, etc. This is a bit odd, given that the purpose of these weapons is often to kill, but I think it works with the zombie theme. Assuming the zombies are not as dependent on a circulatory system as we are, there's less risk of them dying of blood loss. And there's plenty of things that you can cut with a sword that aren't arteries. In the same vein as the joint locks disabling joints, its impossible for the body to operate if you cut the tendons linking the muscles to the bones.

For an excellent example, in my martial art's sword form there's a wonderful little down-up hack which has been described as trying to reach around the guard of the opponent's sword to sever the tendons in the thumb. Lose those tendons, and you cannot meaningfully hold a sword. Perhaps more on point, there's several tendons in the leg, such as the Achilles which, when severed, prevents walking. It's much easier to escape a zombie horde when they can't walk after you. And even if the zombies do bleed like we do, many of these can be reached with a blade without having to sever major veins or arteries at the same time.

Answer 14

Ninjutsu

The way of the Ninja is first to go undetected, perfect for a scout, second to run away from unwinnable battles, great for a pacifist and third to disable foes with the minimal effort, ideal for someone who doesn't know when their next meal is coming.

Your scout uses disguises, camouflage, deception, silence, shadows, patience and the environment around themselves to avoid conflict while still achieving their goals.

Answer 15

You are not going to take this answer seriously but whatever. In handgun self defense the #1 goal is to not use the gun. The gun is the absolute last answer to your problem. It levels the playing field so that say an elderly person who cannot tune and practice their physic still has a chance. It requires practice but that practice is against a target not a human of equal or greater strength. Think about it, if you are training to fight against a human you are not a pacifist. If you are at target practice it does not have violence in mind but instead is a fun skill based activity.

Answer 16

Have a look at Stickfighting - somewhat popularized by Sherlock Holmes in the Elementary TV series. The sticks are blunt and easy to come by, it offers enough force to incapacitate but also a tool to just push the infected away. And it requires no touching, which in case of infections I'd avoid...

Answer 17

Many martial arts carries a philosophy of peace and the real masters always teach that one should not engage in combat if not for self defence or a third-person defence. Because of that, I don't see as a problem a pacifist who knows how to fight.

Krav Maga is known for its focus on real-world situations and its extreme efficiency. Because it is a military self-defence and fighting system, a few techniques are for killing; but many are not.

As a civilian who practiced, along with other related martial arts like Kombato and Kali Silat, you learn a lot how to defend yourself and your beloveds.

Answer 18

Running away is lame, touching the zombies doesn't fit. There needs to be a middleground:

He could have been a police dog trainer. They usually wear a vest and gloves, baiting the attacker to bite into them. People that do such a job are usually also heavy and strong enough to withstand a zombie's hits. Still he'd have to ask himself if he could take the bigger ones or if he should rather run away. He'd probably regularly spray his equipment with some bitter chemicals, so the zombies would let go of him after the first bite. The need to get new spray, could be used as a plot point. He would respect the zombies the same way he respects dogs and also treat them the same way...

It makes so much sense that I wonder if it was used before.

Answer 19

This isn't a style, more a weapon, but ideas.

I don't remember the name, but I saw an old japanese commercial for a netgun, but lets ignore the netgun for now.

What caught my eye were these interesting sticks that the police( in the commercial) used. They had the length of a short spear, and had a cresent shape pointing outwards instead of sharp point. They used that cresent shape to hold human limbs at a distance, or on the ground.

I don't know what they are called, but sound like a good idea?