Defend Yourself - How to Choose the Best Self Defense Program For You!

Are you serious about learning effective self defense tactics, techniques, and strategies - skills that will work against today's committed attackers? Then, it's important to know several things "before" you ever start looking for a program, teacher, or school.

Within the realm of self-defense, there are 4 general categories, or defender-types. This means that no one self defense program will be a best fit for all four. This article will help you learn to ask the right questions to be able to find the right self defense program for you.

Unfortunately, the average person decides on a martial art or self defense program more from a sense of convenience, than whether or not the program can provide exactly what the student needs to be safe and survive the kind of attacks that he or she is most likely to encounter.

The truth is that there are 4 general "types" of students who seek out self defense training. And, each student-type, because of his or her background and/or occupation, has very specific needs from a training program.

These student types are:

1) Law enforcement professionals (LEOs)

2) Military personnel

3) Close-personal security (Body guards), and...

4) Everyday citizens

I have personal experience in each of these realms, which means that I can speak about the unique needs of each. This is one of the first requirements, when you are looking for the best self defense program "for YOU" - the instructor's background, knowledge, and qualifications.

It's important to remember that, just because a person wears a black belt, or has some self defense certification... doesn't mean that they can teach you how to defend yourself or keep you out of trouble for doing so.

To better illustrate what I mean, here's a brief outline of the needs and limits for each of the four student-types:

1) Law enforcement professionals - Police officers must be able to deal with a wide variety of situations, but must also be acutely aware of use-of-force doctrine. But the biggest factor is that they cannot back down and must stay and deal with an encounter until they have controlled the situation or until backup arrives.

2) Military professionals - The soldier or professional combatant has but one goal - to survive. In warfare, it is either "the enemy or me." In this context, there is very little that is off-limits, but in today's world of warfare, most combat takes the form of firefights and not being "blown-up" rather than the hand-to-hand variety of a few centuries ago. Still, the modern military combatant must be prepared.

3) Body guards - These professionals operate in a realm almost exactly opposite the LEO. What this means is that he or she has a duty to the protection of the principle - the person paying for protection - not to subduing a potential threat. In this light, the body guard's objective in an encounter is to spend as little time dealing with the threat as possible. If possible, any threat is passed off to secondary or uniformed security so that the agent(s) can evacuate the principle from the area.

4) Private citizens - Like the military combatant, the private citizen has the most options. But, unlike the soldier, the private citizen has to be in compliance with the law of "self defense." This means that as long as you limit your actions to the "minimum necessary to escape or defend against the attack," you're fine. If, however, you continue to kick the guy after he's down, or chase him down so you can "teach him a lesson," then you might find yourself taking his place behind bars!

So, to find the best program for you, you need to have:

Clarity of purpose (i.e. what do you need your training for?) -
Awareness of threat (i.e. what are the most common threats or attacks that you'll need to be able to handle?)
Self Defense restrictions (i.e. what are the laws, limitations, or policies that govern your actions?) When you know the answers to these questions, and take into account the other points that I've outlined, you'll be much better prepared to find the best self defense program for you.

Effective self defense requires more than just a few "karate moves." It involves the ability to think strategically, and understand how to defend yourself with as little wear-and-tear on you as possible.

For more information on what you MUST know to survive a real street attack, read my newest self defense book: "Fight Smarter - Not Harder!" It's available free at: http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com/street-fighting-self-defense-book.html

Jeffrey M. Miller is an internationally-known self defense expert. Each month he teaches literally thousands of indivduals, business managers and employees, LEOs, and others, through live seminars, corporate training events, and his in-demand Self Defense Success Secrets Home Study Courses, how to survive danger in today's often dangerous world. Jeff says, "Regardless of the reason you need self defense training, I can teach you what you need to know to survive any attacker - guaranteed!"