One great thing about street-fighting self defense and martial arts is that the single most effective training "tool" you can get is also the cheapest and easiest to find. Now, I am not talking about sparring gloves, punching bags, training knives or anything like that. No, what I am talking about is, quite simply, a training partner. Why do I say this? Because if you are training yourself to deal with "real life" altercations, then you should always train how you would fight. And using boxing bags and training dummies just doesn't cut it. They don't think and they don't move like a regular human being does. In fact, you should not only find a training partner right away to practice your skills with...but you should also try to find a variety of training partners that are all different -- big, small, strong, unskilled, savvy -- get them all in there. You should also find people who train in karate, boxing, wrestling, and other fighting arts. And you should especially train with people who don't have any training at all -- and won't know about or care about any of the "rules" that people are forced to observe in a formal training situation. And finally, you should also train in different terrains. Like small rooms, tight hallways, parking lots, in the snow and even in enclosed areas like bathrooms and closets. Reason why is because you just never know if, when and where you are going to be attacked. And since most violent crimes occur at night by people who don't want to be seen or heard, you will probably not be attacked in a wide open space with lots of room and good visibility. Instead, if you ever are attacked on the street some day, there's a good chance it could be in a dark alley, a public restroom, inside your car or even in something as cramped as a phone booth. Bottom line: If you start to train with all different kinds of people in all different kinds of environments over the next several months...you'll start to gain an almost "sixth sense" type of awareness that'll make you way more prepared for a fight than just about anyone dumb enough to attack you. |
