Hot Suggestions For Firing Up Your Self Defense Training And Increasing Your Chances Of Winning!

Any police officer, security expert, or special forces operative can tell you that the key to success in a combat situation is "options." Every one of them will tell you: "It's not about "winning," it's about "surviving." And, "It's not about "style", it's about "going home in one piece!"

Regardless of the martial art or self-defense system that you currently study, you can increase your chances of survival by adjusting the training to give you more options, perspectives, and greater skill in assessing a situation and choosing the best tactics for that, unique and particular situation.

This article offers exactly that - ideas and suggestions for getting the most out of your self-defense techniques and training so that you will have the decided advantage to survive an actual, life-threatening self-defense or street-fighting attack!

It's been said that success is born of options. And the more options you have in any given situation, the greater your chances of being successful and getting the results you want.

But, to look around at most martial arts and self-defense systems, it appears that they believe just the opposite. Instead of looking for more and better ways to accomplish things, everyone seems to be Hell-bent on limiting themselves to only the skills, techniques, and "ways" of their particular "style."

And that's fine - for them!

But, my belief about this is that... you will die doing your "style!"

If you're limited to only doing a set of "official" moves, and you're not flexible and adaptable, and able to change what you're doing in an instant - you'll lose.

Here are some suggestions for getting the most out of your training, and taking even a system with a limited number of "official" techniques, and creating the kind of options and ability that will give you the greatest chance of survival in an actual attack situation.

1) Partner up with as many different body types, builds, and personality types as possible. This way, you'll get to learn what is "typical" and common for different "types."

2) Have a training partner (or many of them - see #1 above), throw as many different kinds of punches, kicks, and grabs as possible. Instead of always doing your kata or technique examples against the same attack, replace the attack so that you can learn how your techniques can (and SHOULD) be adapted to accommodate and beat each "type."

3) Get out of the classroom or dojo and train in a parking lot, park, alley, or other unconventional place for self-defense training. This will teach you what to look for and how to adapt to different types of surfaces and environments.

4) Create variations of each one of your techniques. Get to the core idea or concept being conveyed by the technique and then start substituting a left punch or kick for one from the right - change the level of the punch or kick, and alter the type of lock, hold, or throw being done. In fact, do this to make 8 variations of each of your technique models or kata. And then make 8 variations of each of the eight that you just made!

5) Train with your eyes closed to "sense" the action, or start with your eyes closed so that your partner can choose his or her starting position - and then attack as soon as they see your eyes "start" to open. This kind of training simulates times when you can't see well, as in a dark alley or when something has been thrown into your eyes. It also helps to develop the kind of ability where you move correctly from an instinctive sense, rather than from a position where you know exactly what's happening!

The idea with this kind of training is to increase your options, while at the same time REDUCING the chances of your encountering an attack, attacker-type, or situation that you have not prepared for!