What's a martial art with the least possible contact?

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I was aggressed by two people the other day, they took my wallet and cell phone and nearly beat me up... No one tried to help me, I am so angry. I'm not very strong, I have a scoliosis and I don't have a muscle on my body but I want to change and be able to kick some butt. What's a good martial art where I can learn how to defend myself with the least possible risk or contact? (I can't stand touching people's bare sweaty skin as you have to in Judo etc...) I don't want it to be boxing or anything like that. Can anyone advise? Thanks!

PS: I also have some motion coordination issues.

T'ai chi is considered a martial art, it is very good for posture and balance.

Yeah but I want to kick some scumbag butt, not relax my body.....

You also mentioned an aversion to contact. T'ai chi could enhance your 'shoving' skills, enabling a follow-up run away. How are you with running? A fight against two people is something to avoid, no matter how well trained someone might be, in my opinion.

And it is awfully lousy of the other people in the area not to try and help.

How about karate, and a mix of individual lessons and group lessons?

"What's a martial art with the least possible contact?"

Answer: worthless.

Most martial arts schools are just belt factories intent on taking your money. Look into combat sports. For stand up, try: Muay Thai, (Kick)boxing, or varieties thereof. For grappling: Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, Wrestling, or Judo.

If you're a weak and small guy, the stand up systems aren't going to do much for you unless you dedicate a significant portion of your life to it and become very good at it.

Grappling is much better, but since you don't want to do that, I suggest you buy a can of pepperspray.

I'm OCD, I can't stand grappling.

So am I, albeit probably less than you. But oddly enough, it just seems to switch off, for lack of a better description, during my grappling classes. I'd say bite the bullet, try a class and see if you like it. Grappling is strangely therapeutic.

A statement that really depends on your current location. In most european countries, there are very little "bullshido" dojos, especially in Germany, we have many clubs that are non-profit organizations that have no interest in money, and membership costs you maybe 10 bucks a month. And while I agree that sports like Muay Thai or Kickboxing can be good for self-defence, pure grappling styles are far from it, and I say that as a long time practitioner of BJJ.

Karate is a good choice. Many styles focus on Kihon and Kata - basic training and forms, both practiced on your own. Even in during sparring, depending on the style, you do not make contact (which is detrimental for self-defence training, so I would always go for full-contact Karate styles like Kyokushin if that was my goal). For the beginning, you might wanna check out Filipino Martial Arts. You usually start out with training in weaponry, and that usually involved much contact only between two sticks of rattan.

Shooting guns

Kyokushin is not that great of a choice for self-defence, they omit the single most important and effective strike from their curriculum: the punch to the head. Not too mention there's no grappling at all. There's far less kata and kihon than in other styles, but it is still there and it takes up time that is better spent hitting the bag or sparring. I trained in it for 4 years, but that was only because there was nothing better around here at the time as far as stand up goes.

I'm sorry, but you're wrong on BJJ. It was developed for self-defence in one of the most violent countries on earth, and a scrawny little practitioner managed to win the early UFCs with it, beating all other styles. It has proven itself in countless (videotaped) fights, both with and without rules, and to this day it is a staple of any MMA practitioner who even thinks about stepping into the ring. It has served me extremely well during my time as a doorman, and I don't know anyone in real life who trains in it and who doesn't feel it makes them significantly more capable of defending themselves. Judo and Wrestling are lacking as stand-alone self-defence styles, BJJ is not.

The only weakness I can see is not in BJJ itself, but in the way it is taught in some schools. Some schools' classes are geared exclusively towards BJJ competitions, and the self-defense portion takes a backseat.




Edit: wrong no. of years, never mind.

Maybe we have a different definition of self-defence. Grappling is great if you are pitted in a 1 on 1 situation. It becomes next to useless if you face multiple opponents, or if someone has a bladed kind of weaponry. Without making this a style war, but BJJ did not defeat any style. It was a human who beat another human. You cannot pit a style against another style, only a human against a human. UFC has nothing to do with a real self-defence situation, it is a sport. While I agree that many schools that teach grappling styles tend to focus on competition aspects more than on self defence, it is because it is more a sport than a self-defence art. As for Kyokushin, I totally agree, it lacks defense against high punches, and it is something you have to make up for yourself. I recommended Karate in the first place because it does not involve too much phsyical contact. That said, you can only go so far simulating that. Putting gloves on your hands, whole different situation. You could go back to bare-knuckle boxing, but I guess you would not have that much fun simulating realistic situations.
If you really want to be able to defend yourself, you need to practice multiple styles, anyway. If you wanna bring UFC into it, there is a reason to it why almost all contestants train both striking and grappling. You can count me in on the people that feel that their self-defence capabilities has improved by training BJJ, no question, but just as an addition to what I already knew, not standalone. I am sure that grappling expertise helped you when working as a bouncer. I never did, but owed to the nature of our hobby, I know alot of people who do work in law enforcement or security, and the same holds true for almost any style. If you gathered enough expertise, it will empower you.

Damn! You beat me to it!

I'm honestly surprised the rather out of place idea of practicing the use of firearms (nothing against it in general, just is not a good substitute for martial arts or sports in general) idea came first from someone from the UK, which, to my knowledge, has very restrictive laws when it comes to owning a firearm.

It's a martial art (marksmanship). It involves the least amount of physical contact.

Highly logical.

Or perhaps archery?