I personally feel that this section is area of defense is probably the most important out of the three areas of defense.  The other two areas in my opinion are just an outgrowth of this particular skill.  Once you know how to defend yourself, by extension, you have a better idea of how to protect others.  As an example, if you need to protect someone from an aggressive person, after exhausting every other method and it’s come down to physical confrontation, knowing how to handle and defend yourself might be what allows you to defend that person and getting severely injured by the aggressive person.

  I’m not going to say that this martial art or that martial art is good or bad if I haven’t had experience in it.  That’s for you to determine after taking what I say here and thinking over how the style you’re studying relates to what I’m discussing.

  What I’ve always looked for in a martial art is:

1. Does this style show you an effective way to attack and defend yourself while standing up.  With proper training and awareness, knowing how to deny the other person a way to hurt you (either by blocking, dodging, redirecting, or something similar to the aggressor’s attack), while knowing how to attack weaknesses in the other person’s defense could very well mean ending the confrontation quickly with minimal injury to yourself.  Don’t kid yourself.  In a real fight, you’re going to get hurt unless you’re either very skilled (which means you’re going to probably be bored with this section), or you’re really lucky, most likely the latter.... which brings me to...
2. Does this style have any realism integrated into it.  The style I currently am studying is called Systema.  I’ll go into further description of this style because I feel it’s probably one of the top 5 styles for a person to learn to defend themselves, but that’s for another section.  The reason I bring up this style is because every class, I’m learning to take different types of strikes.  Granted, they’re not full blown strikes, but they’re enough (and as time progresses and I learn to absorb them, they’ll get harder and directed to more sensitive areas) to let me know where my defense is weak, and how to keep my cool after getting dinged.  Most people have never been in a fight. That being said, most people have a tendency to freeze up, which makes you an easier target.  Any style that you take, in order to be really effective, should have a portion of the class that subjects you to being hit.  That gets you prepared for a time, heaven forbid, you get into a fight, you’ll be able to keep your head better, which might be what saves your life.
3. Does the style you take teach you how to fight on the ground?  Best case scenario, the altercation stays upright from start to finish.  Worst case scenario, you get blind-sided when you’re not expecting it and get taken down, will you know how to defend yourself?  Being on the ground is probably THE most dangerous place to be in a fight.  If they’re on top, then they have gravity assisting them with every strike, while you’re having to fight gravity to strike back along with having to fight against their weight to try and get free.  If your style doesn’t do some type of ground fighting, then you’re leaving a huge gap in your “armor”.
4. Does the style have any training to defend against multiple opponents.  Who ever said the other person is going to fight fair.  What if you do a number on the guy and his buddies decide it’s time to teach you a lesson?  If your style doesn’t address this eventuality, then you’re going to be at a severe disadvantage in such a situation.
5. Finally, does it have any type of weapons training.  No, I don’t mean how to use a bullwhip, or a Samurai sword.  I’m talking about how to use a knife and how to defend against it.  How about a baseball bat?  Again, if you don’t know how to defend against it, you’re more likely to get hurt.

  If your martial art cover these areas, then it’s probably a good style.  By the same token, you need to ask yourself, is it the style or the instructor that makes or breaks the style?  I took Shaolin Kempo when I was a teenager.  After about a year of training, I could easily handle myself in a fight.  Being the oddball in school, had several opportunities to use what I learned.  The instructor I had focused on how to use the style as an effective self-defense style.  We had controlled free-for-alls in class at least one to two times a month, plus sparring at least two times a week. Most areas of the body were valid targets.  Had my nose broke by the instructor while sparring.  Point being, I learned where the holes in my defense were, how to get the timing to hit a moving target, how to apply force effectively, and how to adequately defend myself.

  Jump forward about 15 years. Found another studio that taught the same exact style.  They even knew my former instructor.  This studio, in my opinion, did absolutely nothing to teach me how to defend myself, which I learned the hard way when I started studying Systema.  The way we sparred in class was very light contact, no shots to the face, no take downs, etc.  Basically, the sparring session turned into what I would call sissy fighting.  You basically rushed up on the other person and just started hitting the other person without any concern with if they were hitting you. With the adrenaline running, you weren’t even aware of where they were hitting you, or even that they WERE hitting you.  When I brought that mindset to Systema, I got my butt handed to me.  I kept pulling punches, left myself wide open to shots, and was just a big target for everyone else to hit.  Let me tell you, that’s not fun.  So be safe, look into something that teaches you how to defend yourself, make sure it’s realistic, and above all, be aware of your surroundings.