totallyfrozen

I'm definitely no martial arts expert! Let me start by putting that up here first. The only thing that I want to add to the discussion is to keep in mind that things like the UFC are ONE-ON-ONE fights. REAL fights (and I have been in some...even though I'm not a martial artist) are not always one-on-one. Whatever you learn needs to teach you how to deal with one, two, three, or however many attackers you may face. I'm not talking about Hollywood, Jackie Chan looking stuff. An example is, I remember once my Ryu Te sensei was teaching us how to deal with being semi-surrounded by and attacked by 3 people. What did he teach? He taught us how to block and deflect just enough to break through the little 3-person "wall" and run the hell out of there. Nothing fancy. The only place you usually find heros are the movies and the cemetary. My opinion is: If you are training for serious self-defense, make sure whatever you study answers more questions than it raises. If you are studying to "learn about yourself spiritually" or to find a religion then this doesn't apply. You aren't going to remember 1,000 techniques. For me, it was best to learn a few movements that apply in all situations (no matter whether the attack came from the left or the right, etc.) There are thousands (maybe millions) of people out there who could devastate me...and a few who can even run fast enough to catch me. I don't claim to be an expert. What I do claim to be is a guy who doesn't like to waste time on time-consuming non-sense. So my opinion is to find something simple and don't be ashamed to try to escape a fight if you can.