The best self defense technique originated in Scottland. Yeah, it's called ***** You. It's mostly just head butting and then kicking people when they're on the ground.
So I Married an Axe Murderer (good flick) 1. If you're going to be attacked by a mugger, they will probably have a gun. Usually, if they have a gun, you're supposed to not resist and just give them your wallet. 2. I think the other primary need for self-defense is if another person picks a fight with you. In this case you may need to do self-defense 3. If you are attacked by someone with a gun and you are fairly certain that they intend to kill or violate you or a member of your part, you will need to do self defense. In instances 2 and 3, I must agree with others: krav maga is the way to go. This is a self defense technique that is not about tradition, it's not about style, it's not about self-fulfillment, it's not about self-discipline.... ... it's about winning the fight by any means necessary. Forget karate, or kung fu, or ju jitsu, or whatever.... krav maga is the answer.
I find it somehow untenable that anybody is going to be irresponsible enough to put themself in a barfight/streetfight situation while accompanied by their wives & children, but if so carry mace, a knife, gun etc. You really think you're going to defend your family via hand to hand combat? I took muay thai for a few years, and have since given up, but I could have trained for 10 years, i was never going to learn enough to allow me to get into a streetfight and have low kicks or knees from the clinch be a superior option to running/avoiding fighting in the first place. I got the "running" advice from Kru Phil Nurse, who was the instructor at the gym I belonged to. He's a former European champion at muay thai and trains Georges St. Pierre of the UFC, and a fantastic athlete to boot, even at age 40. He was about 10x stronger and faster than me despite being about 30 lbs lighter. He has forgotten more about fighitng than I will ever learn. If he tells me the best option in a fight is to not fight, I'm inclined to believe him.
I understand walking away from a fight. I also understand not putting my family in a dangerous situation, but my point is that you don't have to put them in this situation to get caught in this situation. I carry a gun, a knife, and mace, but I would also like to learn Krav Maga in the instance that I am in a situation where escaping is not an option.
You carry a gun, knife, and mace? So if the gun jams, your knifeblade will not cut true, and your mace can is empty - you will then resort to krav maga (which is not so much a martial art so much as it is learning to kick people in the nuts really hard, as far as I can tell). I sense you may be a bit overprepared, you may as well fly on an airplane with a parachute in your carry on bag.
Overprepared? Maybe. Do you drive with a seatbelt, have an airbag in your car, and drive defensively? What makes you think that attacks will come with enough warning to take out the mace or gun? The knife is for utitlity purposes. Most repsonsible people that carry a weapon have some hand to hand training.
Getting in a fight in a foreign country is never a good idea. A high roller like the original poster should not be frequenting sketchy neighbourhoods. If you feel unsafe....hire a car. There should be no need to mix with the riff raff if you're not comfortable doing so. Do all you can to blend.
Take a look at what I'm wearing, people. You think anybody wants a roundhouse kick to the face while I'm wearing these bad boys?
yeah, and that example shows what I mean. My chances of getting into an autoaccident are MUCH higher than my chances of getting into an unavoidable streetfight. Furthermore, it essentially is ZERO marginal cost for me to use a seatbelt or an airbag - in fact they're mandatory at this point. Likewise, driving safely involves little to no marginal cost (i suppose you could factor in a D-driving class fee, though you'd have to amortize it via insurance benefits). Compare that with Krav Maga. It would take years and years of training for you to be as good at Krav Maga so as to be able to generate an outcome superior to simply avoidign a fight in the first place - and in fact, given the attendant legal difficulties of deploying a lethal martial art like Krav Maga, it's more than arguable that you would never attain an economically better result than avoiding a fight in the first place. Of course that brigns us to the principles of Krav Maga - the second of which, even for Israeli soldiers paid to kill people on a battlefield - is to escape the situation as quickly as possible. Seriously - where do you live? Bartertown?
Now you are comparing cost to overpreparation. The cost is not the argument. It's what you consider being overprepared. It's not about having mandatory seatbelts and airbags. Would you wear a seatbelt if it were not mandatory? Do you drive defensively, even though it is not required? The question I am asking you is: WHAT IF A FIGHT CANNOT BE AVOIDED? What is the only way to escape is to incapacitate the attacker. Amidst all the pseudo-intelligent babbling, you've avoided the question. Is it really that hard for you to understand what I'm asking?
That's a silly way of framing the question. If a fight is uavoidable, yes it would be advantageous to know fighting as opposed to not knowing it. Of course, it would also be advantageous to carry around Gaboon Viper anti-venom if an encounter with a deadly West African Gaboon Viper were unavoidable - however such encounters are eminently avoidable, as are most fights. I live in the real world, not an abstract unavoidable fight world, where I am cornered against a brick wall and my gun jams and my mace canister nozzle malfunctions and my throwing knife does not strike home.
