There's two main types of self defense situations. Criminal assaults and brawls. Each has a different focus and requires different things. IMO, when most people walk into an MA school and say "I want to be able to defend myself" they mean in a brawl. They mean when a bully at the bar or carnival or in school or wherever gets in their face and shoves them they want to be able to kick that guy.
That's simple. You learn to fight. Best place to learn to fight? Sport combat schools. MMA or a solid grappling or striking art. You learn how to take getting pounded, fighting fundementals like movement, timing, distance, how to hit hard, takedown and avoid takedowns, clinch, etc. Everything you need to kick that bully's butt.
Criminal assaults are another matter, however. They are more serious, and surviving one actually has very little to do with individual fighting prowess. For this kind of self defense the first and most important thing needed is knowledge. How do criminal assaults happen? What do attackers look for? Where and when do assaults most often take place? You find the answers to those questions (most local LE offer free classes on that stuff) and then YOU DO THE OPPOSITE. You don't act like a likely victim. You avoid putting yourself in situations where assaults are likely to happen. Next you follow some simple steps at trying to become more aware of your surroundings. Don't insulate yourself from the world by jamming to your ipod and shoving your nose in a newspaper.
After that I'd say a basic level of physical fitness is most helpful. So you can run or resist if you have to. And only then, after all that, should you consider the fighting aspect of self defense (for an assault). And the first aspect to fighting off an assualt in a SHTF situation is being approprately armed.
Despite what people claim, you can't learn to disable any attacker with your barehands in a 4 hour seminar. But you can learn how to pepper spray someone or deploy a stun gun. And it is a lot easier for a 95 pound woman to learn to shoot a gun that will stop a 250 lb man than it is for her to train MA to a level where she can defeat that same guy.
Only after all that do you train unarmed fighting. And that's simple. You learn to fight. Best place to learn to fight? Sport combat schools. MMA...
This message has been edited. Last edited by: kim g,
