What martial arts does Tom Cruise know?

When it comes to Hollywood, Tom Cruise is often known for getting physical during his roles. Unlike many A-Listers, he will often do his own stunts and has even picked up some pretty big injuries over the years because of his physicality.

As well as this, he’s often portrayed as an action hero which means lots of fights and combat. Due to a combination of his physical presence and fight scenes – this has led fans to ask whether he knows martial arts, or whether it’s just shown for the big screen.

One thing worth noting is that Tom Cruise is also known for really going hard into his acting roles. In other words, if he has a character that is a known fighter, then Cruise will devote hours of research and practice to learning the fighting techniques required. As his characters often use fighting, this means that he’s picked up a few moves over the years. Read on to find out more.

Wrestling

One of the first martial arts that Tom Cruise was involved with was high school wrestling. It turns out that Cruise was pretty good at this without being a prodigy or anything. In fact, Cruise would go on to claim that this gave him a strong athletic base for him to work from in later life.

This is often the case with wrestling, as its movements can be very explosive and require a great deal of athleticism. So, this may have helped Cruise perform certain stunts in movies without getting hurt. Although Cruise’s wrestling days are now long behind him, you can never rule out a wrestler in a fight. Not only are they stronger than they look but they also have great mental resilience and discipline and aren’t afraid of scrapping.

Keysi Method

For his Mission Impossible movies, Tom Cruise trained the Keysi method which was very popular at the time. This is a self-defense martial art that was adapted for movies due to its stylish image. It has also been used by Christian Bale in Batman and is known for getting viewers on the edge of their seats. The Keysi method is perhaps best known for blocking strikes with an unusual elbow system that also allows elbows from the clinch as well.

As Cruise has used this method in quite a few of these films, we can fairly say that he knows how to use its techniques during combat. This means that if you did fight Tom Cruise, it would be wise to pick a distance and not get in close where he could elbow you. Remember, due to his 5’5 feet height, it would be foolish to engage close with Cruise who could also wrestle.

Krav Maga

Returning to Mission Impossible, Tom Cruise also trained Krav Maga whilst filming the movie franchise. In the bathroom scene in Mission Impossible Fallout, his character gets into trouble when attacked and has to think fast.

He combines the likes of Keysi and Muay Thai elbows to defend himself before finishing the fight with a brutal strike to the throat. Generally, most martial arts don’t condone throat strikes due to the dangers involved. Nonetheless, if you’re fighting for your life then this becomes a possibility. Over the years, Cruise has trained Krav Maga sporadically in the build-up for various movies and did so for Collateral as well. So, even though he’s not exactly an expert – he still knows the basics of Krav Maga.

Kendo

When Tom Cruise starred in The Last Samurai, he had to yield a katana and make it look realistic. To do this, he would have trained Kendo which is the closest thing. It’s no secret that Kendo is a descendant of the Samurai and the wooden sticks are meant to mimic the sharp Katana swords without any of the danger. In short, it’s a good way to improve your sword skills in a safe environment.

Although learning Kendo has very few practical implications for real life, it’s still considered a martial art and if ever you got into a fight with a long pole or weapon then Kendo training could come in handy. This probably won’t be the case for Tom Cruise though.

Who would win, Tom Cruise vs. Justin Bieber?

Back in 2019, Justin Bieber bizarrely called out Tom Cruise for an MMA fight. He said, “I wanna challenge Tom Cruise to a fight in the octagon. Tom if you don’t take this fight your’e scared and you will never live it down. Who is willing to put on the fight?”

Obviously, this bout never happened and now Cruise is in his 60s, it looks very unlikely. In fairness to Cruise, at the time he was 57 and Bieber was 25 years old. With this said, it wasn’t really a fair matchup. Nonetheless, this would be a close call and seriously, Cruise may have been the favorite.

Obviously, he couldn’t use Krav Maga in MMA as it’s mostly banned – but due to his wrestling years and other striking disciplines, he’d have stood a chance. On the other hand, Bieber has trained some BJJ and boxing – but this is quite minimal. In summary, you may fancy Cruise to just edge it, despite being older than Bieber’s father at the time.

Summary

Tom Cruise knows quite a few martial arts with wrestling being his most dominant. This is because he was a solid wrestler during his younger years which has aided his physicality in later life. Aside from wrestling, he’s also decent at using the Keysi method and elements of Krav Maga.

Overall, it would be unfair to really call Tom Cruise a martial artist though. Whilst he’s certainly in good shape and has dabbled in martial arts – he’s not exactly an expert either. Still, he should be commended for learning fighting styles which is more than what can be said for other actors.