What Martial Arts Does Captain America Use? Steve Rogers' Fighting Style Explained

Captain America (Chris Evans) uses almost a dozen different martial arts styles in his many fights throughout the Marvel Cinematic Universe. As America's first super soldier, Steve Rogers was granted enhanced strength, speed, and endurance but he also perfected multiple combat disciplines, as evidenced by his epic fights with the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan), Batroc (Georges St-Pierre), Crossbones (Frank Grillo), his other enemies, and even his fellow Avengers.

During Captain America: The First Avenger's World War II, Steve Rogers exhibited a more rough-and-tumble fighting style where he relied on his enhanced abilities. But as Steve acclimated to the 21st century as part of S.H.I.E.L.D. in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Rogers began learning modern fighting styles. Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) even joked that Steve should retire and take up ultimate fighting, but the Falcon wasn't far off because Captain America is one of the best hand-to-hand combatants in the MCU. Cap is incredibly adept with various forms of combat, both armed and unarmed. Of course, Steve is also the original master of throwing his Vibranium shield as a projectile, which is a variation of discus throwing he developed with his unique weapon.

In his various MCU movie fights, Captain America showed off 11 different martial arts and fighting styles: boxing, Taekwondo, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Muay Thai, judo, Krav Maga, savate, Wushu, shurikenjutsu, and even professional wrestling as well as discus throwing. Besides throwing his shield, where Cap turned discus throwing with his shield into a fighting style, Steve Rogers' favorite fighting move is actually using kicks. Rogers favors Taekwondo-style kicks like the push kick, which he uses multiple times to devastating effect, and he even kicks a car into an enemy in Captain America: Civil War. Cap also executes many flawless spin hook kicks, jump spin hook kicks, sweep kicks, roundhouse kicks, scissors kicks, crescent kicks, and spinning back kicks in Cap's fights in The Winter Soldier and Civil War. Steve also adds fanciful Wushu moves to many of his kicks, and his proficiency with doing these moves in his boots and uniform shows he also practices savate.

Steve is an excellent boxer, and he is even seen working on a heavy bag at the start of The Avengers. Steve expertly boxes, throws powerhouse uppercuts and hooks, and Cap's brawl with Crossbones in Civil War is actually a straight-up boxing match that he finishes with a spin kick. In close quarters, Rogers is excellent at disarming enemies, where he uses Krav Maga techniques to target joints and limbs. When he goes back on the offense, Cap throws Muay Thai-style knee strikes, which are even more devastating when he does a running knee strike enhanced by his super-soldier strength.

Cap also utilizes judo-style takedowns and mixed martial arts techniques, especially Brazilian jiu-jitsu. Rogers doesn't hesitate to take his enemies to the ground and subdue them with a rear-naked choke, which he used on the Winter Soldier and even when Cap fought the 2012 Captain America in Avengers: Endgame. But sometimes, Steve prefers to utilize flashier moves and he even throws pro-wrestling style dropkicks, hip tosses, and headlock takedowns. Rogers even delivers a WWE-style belly-to-back suplex on the Winter Soldier.

In addition to his expert marksmanship with his shield-throwing, Cap is also incredibly proficient at throwing knives, even blades that aren't aerodynamically made for throwing. This indicates Steve is versed in shurikenjitsu, a discipline focusing on hurling edged weapons like throwing stars. Given his vast range of fighting styles and expertise, plus the fact that he's a super soldier, Captain America has no real flaws that can be exploited by an enemy. It takes a much more powerful alien like Thanos (Josh Brolin) to overwhelm Steve Rogers in a fight. This is why when Cap fought himself in Avengers: Endgame, he had to play the mind game of evoking Bucky's name to knock his younger self out.

Next: What Captain America 4 With Sam Means For Steve Rogers' MCU Future