What martial arts does Captain America use?

Over the years, various comic book fans have speculated on the martial arts capabilities of numerous superheroes. Today’s turn we shall be looking at the skills of Captain America. Otherwise known as Steve Rogers, Captain America is a US superhero who was popular during World War 2. He is also known as the super soldier due to his strength both physically and mentally and is a firm fan favorite within the Marvel universe. Here’s a list of what martial arts Captain America uses.

Boxing

Captain America’s main martial art is traditional boxing. Put simply, he uses his great power to punch his opponents in the face and body and can deal great damage in doing so. However, his boxing is far from basic and it’s also just as useful from a defensive perspective as it is offensive. Presumably, one would imagine he picked up these skills whilst training in the US army.

For instance, in some situations, he has been surrounded by multiple attackers and uses his superior footwork to dodge strikes and come out unscathed. Although Captain America is in great physical condition due to the super soldier serum, he isn’t immortal so it’s important that he can use defensive boxing to dodge both punches as well as attacks by weapons. Over the years, boxing has definitely been his main martial art that he often relies upon.

Judo

Less is known about Captain America’s Judo skills, but he has used them on occasion. In one situation, he is surrounded in an elevator and is caught in a rear naked choke from a man on his back. Once he has fought off the other attackers, Captain America uses a Seoi Nage throw to put the man on his back to the floor.

This is performed smoothly and shows that he’s well versed in Judo. It should also be noted that if he has to rely on close combat within a setting such as an elevator, then relying solely on his boxing may simply not be enough. This is where grappling and stuff like Judo plays its part. It also shows that he is a well rounded martial artist who is good at both grappling and striking.

Taekwondo

Interestingly, Captain America is also skilled in Taekwondo and shows this off when he performs a spinning back kick to shoot his shield at Ultron. If you’ve followed Captain America from the comic books, then you’ll know that he’s a master at acrobatics. This was incorporated into the movies and you’d need to be incredibly athletic to pull off such a move. Thankfully for Captain America, he is incredibly athletic which is from his acrobatics training.

With his acrobatics skills combined with his Taekwondo kicks, it’s fair to say that he’s dangerous at hitting targets with his kicks and can generate great power by spinning and creating speed with technique. Of course, to make the shield fly so quickly also requires strength which is where his super soldier serum comes in handy.

Military combatives

As well, Captain America is trained in military combatives. This goes back to his WW2 days where he’s learned how to fight during warfare. This would have been taught by the US army and involves stuff like using guns and disarming firearms, as well as formulating a strategy during combat. In short, you could claim he has trained arts similar to Israeli Krav Maga.

Part of the many skills of Captain America is his ability to think on the spot and solve problems. This is important in martial arts as having physical skills is great, but they mean nothing if you can’t improvise and defeat enemies through smarts as well as muscle.

Is Captain America’s greatest martial art his mind?

One thing that you’ll hear over and over in martial arts is how it can develop mental strength as well as physical skills. Whilst this is cliche, it’s also true and if you’ve trained martial arts then you’ll understand this. By suffering in training regularly, you’ll eventually grow as a person and become stronger. This is kind of true for Captain America, but he is aided yet again by his serum.

Basically, he is incredibly smart and can think around 10 times quicker than your average human. As you can imagine, this is a great skill to have when fighting. Imagine someone trying to punch you, but you can anticipate it before they’ve even begun to think about their attack. Combined with his other physical skills, he’s able to use his mind and body in unison to be a ridiculously talented and dangerous martial artist.

Conclusion

Overall, it’s fair to say that Captain America is a very capable martial artist. As demonstrated, his abilities rely mostly on boxing, as well as his physical athleticism and speed of thought. As well as this, he has complemented his main abilities with Judo, Taekwondo, and military combative training. Whilst he may not be invincible like Deadpool, he’s still a very tough opponent for anyone to fight against.

You could also argue that Steve Rogers is one of the better martial artist superheroes. Although he may not know as many different martial arts as Batman for instance, he’s still incredibly good at what he does know. This is a select group of martial arts that he has mastered over the years and uses this knowledge to his advantage.