5 Tips for Finding the Best Self Defense Schools and 2 Easy Ways to Spot the Bad Ones

Choosing the right self defense school is a big decision, one that should not be taken lightly. When it comes to your personal safety, the stakes are high. The problem is that many people don’t know what to look for in a self defense school.

For this, you need an expert who has insider knowledge of the self defense industry and can tell you who to trust and who is just looking to take your money and teach you worthless moves.

I’ve been working in the self defense industry for two decades, so I know self defense pretty well. I know exactly what to look for and what to look out for when you’re researching self defense schools.

Here is a list of things to look for in self defense schools:

1. An experienced instructor: Look for an instructor who has military, police, or bar experience. These guys have a lot of experience dealing with violent and angry people, just the kind of experience you need.
2. Small class sizes where combat is emphasized: Huge classes where you spend hours punching the air and staring at yourself in a mirror will do little to train you for real-life conflict.
3. A focus on real-world scenarios, not useless rituals and formalities: The rituals and formalities of many martial arts are great if you’re looking for a hobby, not if you’re interested in defending yourself.
4. A focus on taking aggressive action: Blocking does not win conflicts. Self-defense really should be called self-offensive. You must train yourself to recognize the signs of a coming conflict and how to avoid it or end it as quickly as possible.
5. A focus on techniques that are short and simple: Complex joint locks and flying kicks rarely work outside of the dojo (which is why Bruce Lee reduced his martial art to simple, direct, and brutally effective moves).

What to avoid when you are researching Self Defense Schools:

1. Avoid programs that take years to complete: It takes no more than a few months to learn the basics of self defense. Don’t get sucked into a program where you spend months doing constant reps of simple blocks, etc. If you’re not training within a month, look at other self defense schools.
2. Avoid instructors whose only experience is learning martial arts from another teacher: These guys may be masters of an art, but unless they’ve put the rubber on the road in real-life combat situations, their art will be of little use to you.

Of course, you don’t need to go to self-defense school to learn how to defend yourself. If you live in a rural area without access to a self defense or martial arts studio or if you just can’t bear to spend hundreds of dollars on training, you can still learn self defense with a DVD training course.

A DVD training course gives you access to the leaders of the self-defense industry (whose private lessons can cost thousands of dollars) and allows you to train at your own pace.

For some, these advantages make DVD training programs more practical than a traditional self-defense school.

For some free fighting tips and tricks, check out my blog at Fightfast.com/blog.

Stay smart and safe,
Bob Pierce
Chief Honcho, Fightfast.com