Self-Defense
Self-defense is about being able to protect yourself in real-life situations. One important thing to understand is that there are no rules in such confrontations. This means that attacks to the eyes and groin, as well as biting and hair-pulling, must be expected. Weapons such as sticks, knives, and firearms may also be involved. In addition, other people may join the confrontation.
Such situations create extreme stress, which significantly impairs logical thinking. For this reason, self-defense training focuses mainly on tactics and only a small number of simple techniques. These techniques are practiced repeatedly, often through realistic stress-based simulations.
=> The goal is to be able to defend yourself on the street.
Combat Sports
Combat sports are about competing against others in sparring sessions or tournaments. However, these fights take place under a defined set of rules. The exact rules vary between different combat sports and competition organizations. One of the main reasons for these rules is, of course, to protect the health of the participants as much as possible.
Athletes who train for competition limit themselves to the techniques allowed under the rules in order to avoid accidentally using an illegal technique and being disqualified. While this restricts the range of techniques that are practiced, it ensures that those techniques can be applied successfully against an opponent who is actively resisting.
=> The goal is to win against other competitors.
Martial Arts
Martial arts, as the name suggests, place a strong emphasis on the artistic aspect of fighting. This includes learning a wide variety of techniques and elaborate movement patterns (kata). Many of these techniques can be difficult or even impossible to apply against an opponent offering realistic resistance.
Many practitioners never receive this kind of feedback because practical testing of techniques through sparring is absent in many schools. As a result, however, the risk of injury is generally quite low. Martial arts also place great importance on tradition and etiquette. In some cases, there is so much etiquette that dedicated classes are held to teach it.
=> The goal is to life tradition and perfect techniques.
It is worth noting that many martial systems cannot be neatly categorized into just one of these groups. Take Judo as an example. Many people immediately think of it as a combat sport because it is an Olympic discipline with a strict competition ruleset. However, there are also many schools that teach kata and techniques that are prohibited in competition, which places them closer to the martial arts category.
In many dojos, both approaches are offered at different training times, providing practitioners a greater variety.