I have been a Martial Arts practitioner for over 30 years, an instructor for over 25 years certified in three different forms of martial arts, and a Martial Arts school owner now for a decade.

The best martial art form for self defense is a very misleading question because the answer is actually two fold.

There is no question that there are many self defense systems with different philosophies and emphasis on different techniques. But the other half of the self defense equation is YOU.

I have seen many martial arts practitioners that were involved in very traditional and thorough systems that were weak in their application of their systems. I have also seen practitioners that were involved in very limited systems with only a fraction of the knowledge that many Black Belts in other arts possess, that were able to put ANYONE down that was standing in front of them, if they chose to do that. My martial arts instructor always taught me to never underestimate anyone, including the untrained street fighter. Some of those guys are very dangerous. Why? Not because of the small knowledge or fighting skills they have, but rather because of the individual wielding the knowledge.

My advice to anyone seeking to learn self defense is to do some due diligence, i.e find a good martial arts school to get involved in. And then PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. The only way you will get good at handling a situation is to go over that particular situation OVER and OVER and OVER again until you feel a degree of comfort and proficiency in that situation. Some people will feel good after 100 times, some will feel good after 1000. And one of the magical things that might happen to you is that all of a sudden somewhere down the road you will not need a particular system of self defense because you will learn to express yourself in ANY situation with the right answer ALL OF THE TIME based on the experience of learning techniques with the application provided by YOU, with all of your strengths and challenges. You might also develop the skill of avoiding situations all together, the art of deflating a potential disaster or even the art of changing your attackers mind before a situation even starts, which is actually the emphasis of many character building based martial arts systems.

The system that I teach is very self defense oriented, and I personally have been taught and gone over all of the different ways someone can attack me and I have years of experience in practicing and training for moments that might arise with those situations and attacks. I can honestly tell you that it feels good walking down the street with this the levels of knowledge and personal development that I achieved. My training has changed the way I move, the way I feel about the world and the way I think. I went from being bullied to receiving a certain amount of "respect" just from the way I carry myself.

I hope that you are successful in your quest for some quality self defense and wish you the best of luck.

Learn more about this author, David Medina.
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