What martial art does John Rambo know?

John Rambo is the star of the Rambo movie franchise. From First Blood to Last Blood, he racks up hundreds of kills along the way and shows that he’s a killing machine. Whilst many of these deaths are done by shooting, it’s also fair to say that Rambo is also a very skilled martial artist in other, lesser-known areas. So, if you’re not aware of the techniques that Rambo employs, then read on for more information.

For instance, it would be easy to label him as a gun expert which is true. However, there’s much more to him than that and it turns out he’s just as deadly during unarmed combat. Here’s a comprehensive list of John Rambo’s main martial arts skillset. Some of them may surprise you.

Tactical shooting

It goes without saying that John Rambo’s biggest skill is his tactical shooting. If you put him with any kind of gun, the chances are that he will successfully kill his enemies. It’s no secret that the Rambo movies literally have hundreds of deaths, and the majority of these are done by guns. Especially machine guns. Rambo is also very handy with shooting arrows and other firearms such as rocket launchers too.

Arguably, he is one of the greatest firearms experts in movie history. Although it’s debatable whether shooting is technically a martial art, make no doubt about it – learning how to shoot properly is a skill that needs to be practiced and it seems that John Rambo is the very best at this. You would assume he learned this skill during his US military training.

Eskrima

In Rambo III, John Rambo famously has a stick fighting scene in Thailand. This takes place in some kind of martial arts dojo in front of a big crowd with lots of betting on the line. Here, he is armed with two wooden sticks as you will often see in Eskrima and Kali. He fights his opponent and both his blocking and striking skills with these sticks is at expert level. Eventually, his technique prevails which sees him put his opponent to the floor. Although the crowd are baying for blood at this point, he decides to spare him.

Obviously, this shows that Rambo has trained stick fighting martial arts at some point. Although he’s not fighting in a war at this point, you can see how such a skill would come in handy which is probably why he’s always armed with his machete, which is where his Eskrima skills come in handy if needed.

Ninjutsu

You could argue that John Rambo represents a lot of modern day Ninjutsu tactics. He is a master of stealth, deception and often outwits his enemies. Whilst these are some of the mental aspects of Ninjutsu, he also excels at physical tasks too. For instance, in Rambo II he covers his body in mud for camouflage and swims through a swamp armed with his bow and arrow.

It turns out that the bow and arrow features heavily in Ninjutsu, as does swimming training and learning how to blend in. With this said, it’s not too big a stretch to claim that Rambo is a modern day Ninja and this explains how he’s managed to stay alive for so long. On the face of it, he’s a Vietnam war veteran with a good aim. However, dig deeper and you’ll understand that his skill set reaches far beyond using firearms.

Taekwondo

In Rambo III, he is seen doing a Spinning Roundhouse kick on his enemy (before hanging him with a live grenade exploding inside a cave). During the earlier parts of this fight scene, Rambo manages to pull off the impressive kick which helps turn the tide of the fight. It’s not an easy fight by any means and at one point he nearly gets beat by a bearhug.

Realizing he’s struggling to grapple against his enemy, he eventually uses his smarts and begins picking off his opponent with long-range kicks such as the Spinning Roundhouse. This move is not easy by any means and many Taekwondo black belts would struggle to pull it off. Nonetheless, Rambo does this with relative ease and shows off more martial arts skills in the process.

Brazilian Jiu Jitsu

In fact, this fight scene shows us quite a lot about Rambos fighting style. At one point, he also uses Brazilian Jiu Jitsu skills to help defeat the enemy. At one point, he has a rear naked choke hold on his opponent. Although his opponent is too big and eventually bursts out, Rambo does manage to wrap a rope around his neck during the melee, which eventually kills the bad guy.

This shows that Rambo also knows how to grapple and fight on the ground. Although he can’t quite finish off the job with the choke, it does allow him to apply the finishing noose to kill his enemy before Rambo eventually switches to Taekwondo. Whilst Rambo may not have the finishing skills of a black belt, he does show serious BJJ skills in the process which probably saved his life.

Krav Maga

During one scene in the Rambo series, he is seen literally eye gouging his opponent to save himself from near-certain death. In this exchange, it shows that Rambo is willing to do anything to survive and isn’t afraid of fighting dirty. This is exactly what Krav Maga was designed for and is not meant to win you any friends.

When Rambo is completely unarmed, he has to call upon his Krav Maga skills which are one of his last lines of defense. Nonetheless, the unexpectedly dirty tricks come in very handy and show that he can mix up his fighting style.

Conclusion

It’s safe to say that John Rambo is a highly skilled martial artist who is very comfortable with various disciplines. His fighting style involves modern military arts such as tactical shooting and Krav Maga, alongside traditional arts such as Eskrima and Ninjutsu. This may be a surprise to some as well, but Rambo isn’t always reliant on guns and can win by using other methods if necessary.

Overall, it’s quite interesting to note that other than Ninjutsu, Rambo uses mostly modern martial arts that are only 100 years old or so. Usually, movies are happy to throw in more traditional martial arts, but this isn’t the case where John Rambo is concerned.