I have spent the greater part of my life training in the martial arts. For the past nearly twenty years I have come across many styles, instructors, schools, and philosophies associated with the martial arts. I have been instructing for nearly ten years now and have heard many of the same questions come from students or potential students. Most commonly, the questions tend to be about which martial art is the "Best", and which is the right one for them. Generally, I answer these question with my own question. I ask my students or potential students, what they are looking for specifically within a martial art. Almost unanimously, I get the standard answers of "Self-defense, work-out, discipline, competition, and confidence." In no way do I mean that these are not important aspects of your own martial arts training, but unless your potential instructor is just awful, you will get all of these regardless of where you go. So what becomes the important thing to ask yourself?

I always give my students or potential students the following phrase to ponder over. "If the worst possible situation confronted you right now, which of the five things you told me you're looking for in a martial arts is going to really save your butt?"

Take some time and think about that.

The obvious and correct answer should stand out right away, it's "Self-defense." So the next logical question becomes, "which self-defense?" With the hundreds of martial arts hybrids out there today, it is impossible to choose a best. No single martial art is the best, and I strongly believe that any instructor telling you otherwise is not one you should train under, but rather it is how you learn the martial arts that is most important. Simply put, I mean if you train stand-up fighting, then you will be proficient on your feet. If you on the other hand train on the ground only, then your realm becomes the ground. So again, the concern should be on how you are learning the martial arts.

The way I teach my students I have come to term as, "4 Zone Self-Defense." What is 4 Zone? To answer this question, I want you to consider this. That worst possible situation I mentioned earlier, how many situational areas on confrontation are there? The answer is 4. In Any situation, you have a stand up while apart area of confrontation (zone-1), you have a stand up within reach area of confrontation (zone-2), you have a stand up grab and tackle area of confrontation (zone-3), and you have a ground area of confrontation

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