During my 30+ years of teaching various martial arts, I have been asked more times than I can remember whether practical self-defense courses are worthwhile and which martial arts style is best overall for self-defense. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers to this question. Let me explain.

During a typical self-defense course, participants are usually given tips on how to avoid becoming a victim, and are shown a series of "tricks" (self-defenses moves) that can, hopefully, be employed to defend against a street attack. The "tricks" that are taught normally include blocking methods to keep from being struck, escapes from grabbing or holding attempts, strikes to vulnerable areas of an attacker's body and, occasionally, take-downs and throws.

I recall vividly my early days of teaching what I dubbed "practical" self-defense. During my eight week programs, I would show children, middle-aged house wives and senior citizens, among others, how to perform outrageously elaborate techniques that would take most practicing martial artists years to learn. Fortunately, through extensive readings and interactions with instructors far wiser than myself, I came to the realization that much of what I was teaching was anything but practical!

I ultimately shifted the emphasis of my programs to awareness and prevention. Moreover, I greatly reduced the number and complexity of the skills taught during the program and focused only on those that I believed had the greatest chance for success in a life and death situation. The bottom line is, self-defense is designed to save your life not win a fight. With this in mind, I emphasized only three target zones; the groin, nose and eyes and multiple methods of striking to these areas. My reasoning for this is that all three target areas, when struck, can result in immediate incapacitation of the attacker. Moreover, unlike some other areas of the body, you do not need a great deal of strength and power to inflict the necessary damage to incapacitate the attacker long enough for you to get away.

One of the major disadvantages of self-defense courses is that the participants have limited time and opportunity to learn the techniques to the point where their application becomes almost a natural reaction. Conversely, martial arts practitioners not only develop those natural reactions through constant practice and repetition, but they also develop the necessary flexibility, speed, timing, focus and power to effectively apply

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