When it comes to "Survival", one of the most important skills you can have is Self-Defense.

In many situations where a person could find themselves in danger, the one and the only person you will be able to depend on is yourself, and if you are unable to defend yourself effectively then you will always be at greater risk.

Real-Life Self-Defense Example

When I was in high school, a friend of mine liked a girl. Pretty normal you might think, and even though he never dated this girl, at that time there was another guy who was upset at my friend over this issue.

One night we attended a local movie theater to see a movie, I forget what it was as that was in 1988.

After the movie though a "situation" took place where three people began to harass me and my friend.

A few sharp words were exchanged, after all, we were teenagers, and my friend and I continued to walk home. As the walk was only a few miles, we never felt worried about walking home at night.

A few minutes later a car pulls up and out jumps three people, the same three kids that were upset with my friend.

At this point, the situation had changed. They proceeded to pick on my friend and me, to which I stood up to them. I don't like bullies.

A few moments later I found myself in a full-fledged three-on-one fight against people I never even had a problem with.

I'm a decent-sized person as I stand 6 foot 4 inches and even in high school was over 250 pounds. The person I was now faced withstood a few inches taller than myself and even heavier, and now I was outnumbered three to one.

My friend was pretty useless in a fight, but I was not about to stand there and get beaten up three one one, (side note that happened once before when I was in middle school).

I'd been down this road before with a three-on-one situation. As the two smaller guys stood behind me I knew that someone was going to get hurt that night. I needed o make sure it wasn't me.

I managed to survive the night relatively unscathed, but the three aggressors did not.

I did not work to beat them up, but I defended myself to the point of being able to free myself from this situation. One well-placed punch to the largest of the three who stood directly in front of me confused.

A well-placed back-roundhouse kick tagged the one behind me square on the jaw and knocked him to the ground.

The third one decided against direct attack to regroup as I continued to walk in the direction I needed to go to get home.

I'm sure these three bullies never expected someone to stand their ground and defend themselves. Bullies often count on people to be weak.

I don't condone fighting, and believe it should be avoided at all costs, but I also do not believe a person should be beaten up just because others want to hurt them.

A Super Brief History of Martial Arts

Many people have a bit of a misunderstanding when it comes to martial arts.

If one were to study the history of many martial arts across the world, one would find that these are forms of self-defense that had been created during times of history where being able to defend yourself was illegal.

Many ancient historical texts often refer to farmers defending themselves with farm equipment against feudal lords who had weapons.

Tyranny, war, strife, and constant fear from the ruling classes who could take your life any time they wanted to force people to train themselves. This training often took time, practice, and trial and error. Over time those who managed to survive their encounters learned to train others.

This is but the smallest of a long-storied, historical past of many martial arts.

Over the years I have studied three very different martial arts and have read many books that cover their philosophical viewpoints, as well as their history.

If you are considering learning a martial art, which I would suggest is a good practice for everyone, consider carefully the reasons you desire to train.

Martial arts are often a "Way of life", and are meant to train, the mind, body, and soul.

In the case of self-defense, we often look to those skills that can easily work wonders to keep a person alive during any number of adverse situations, that of Martial Arts or Combat Training.

Anyone in the military took at least basic hand-to-hand fighting skills.

These skills often include, at the minimum, Boxing, basic knife handling and defense, personal safety, and basic hand-to-hand skills.

Those with interests such as fitness, running, and other sports will often excel in these endeavors, which is why physical fitness is so important.

The best overall option would be enrolling in a personal combat skill, such as Krav Maga - a fighting style that is designed to cause sufficient damage to an opponent to escape the situation altogether.

If you do not have access to an instructor for this art, consider other arts such as Tae Kwan Do, Kung Fu, Uechi-Ryu, or Karate depending on your local area of skills trainers.