Self Defense Tip - Always Expect to Be at a Disadvantage!

A major problem with sport fighting as training to survive a real self defense situation is the fairness that is inherent in such systems.

Training in boxing will get you sucker punched because you are accustomed to keeping your hands at your sides and staring-down your opponent before the fight begins, knowing that he won't punch you until the bell rings.

Training in Tae Kwon Do will get you stomped in a bar because you always have enough space between you and your opponent before every match, Truly tasteless jokes otherwise you wouldn't have enough room to use the long-range kicks that you almost solely depend upon.

Training in Karate will get you stabbed by a knife you didn't see because you're accustomed to spending the first 20 minutes warming up and the next 20 minutes on forms before you practice "self defense" and even then, the knife isn't hidden and your instructor announces beforehand that you are going to start practicing "weapon disarming."

But it doesn't have to be like that! Training with a cop, soldier or bouncer will teach you when to use a preemptive strike to sucker punch the sucker puncher, how to deal with multiple attackers, that you always need to expect a knife to come into play, how to know when someone is armed and everything else that makes the difference between combat sports and street combat.

Why is that? Simple-if you want to survive reality, you need to train for it. A sport is a sport and supposed to be fair. On the streets, its all about survival.

You don't believe me? Ok, can you imagine a boxing trainer telling his fighter "Listen, I want you to win at all costs. Your opponent is in his locker room right now, getting ready. I want you to break in there and beat him and his trainer to death with a baseball bat."

How about this, can you imagine a gang leader telling his thugs "I don't care if you guys win or loose, as long as you fight fair."

Listen, martial arts and martial sports are great things, but not what you want or need, if you want to learn to defend yourself or your loved ones. To survive an attack from a human predator, you need someone who is capable and willing to teach you to fight and win, even when your attacker or attackers use every unfair advantage against you.

Christopher "Bob" Roberts is an ex-soldier who relocated to Europe and now earns his living as a tactics and close-combat instructor for military, police and private security companies.

For more information about armed and unarmed self-protection, subscribe to his free newsletters at www.extreme-measures-institute.com and receive access to an exclusive video interview series, where he explains the fundamentals of truly effective self defense.