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I was a very good high school wrestler, walk on at a major top 3 NCAA school (got in for my athletics).

After college I took a series of nightly lessons from one of the ten original Japanese Akido teachers.

After the lesson each night, the black belts and myself would go at it.

I crushed them. They simply didn't have a whisper of hope. None of them.

It just goes to show that we were as highy trained as the most advanced martial arts. If you waited, you could get behind them and hogtie them. I could have broken their necks any time I wanted.

There is no ‘one answer’ or ‘one discipline’ that works in every situation. There is no DRUNK TIGER or KICKASS DRAGON ‘move’ that will solve every situation.

The basics are the most important. Balance and being able to take a fall being the first two. I started water skiing when I was 5 years old and you quickly learn to balance and you quickly learn how to deal with falling and tumbling while moving at 30-35 mph. Classes in Judo also taught me how to deal with falling on land (which is a little different than falling on water at high speed).

The next important thing is also one of the concepts of many disciplines, and a favorite of the TV show KUNG FU, and that is ... Don’t be where you can be hit.

MMA fighters know this well. STAY OUT OF RANGE. Most people that get into ‘fights’ on the street, don’t know or use this technique.

The author comparing MMA and street fighting is simply ignorance. MMA and Street fighting have totally different goals. MMA has rules whereas street fighting doesn’t. You know all that anyway.

I’ll put it this way. A person who has had some kind of self-defense training or even sports training (I wrestled too) is much more likely to win(survive) than someone who hasn’t.

I’m not claiming to be Bruce Lee or Mike Tyson, but having those skills does help. Maybe you won’t win, but you at least will be able to walk away after the fight.

If you kick them in the kneecap, they probably won’t be able to walk away. : )