With the rise of violent episodes surrounding the Internet, one could ask to himself. Should I learn some Self-defense system to be able to protect myself in case of any unexpected attack? The simplest answer, Yes, of course you must. But first you should look for the market you are going to search if you want to truly understand and develop the right mindset for the street fighting.
The term “Self-defense” is so generic that you can hardly recognize if the base is a martial art, or a modern training system, and the market is crowded with so many different offers, that maybe you could end in a wrong place to learn what you may need.
Self-defense programs are a large market niche, being nowadays the solution for the lack of interest of people in the traditional martial arts, but, this is not a good idea if you are a teacher and you want to go for a different market focus.
To explain this subject in a better way, I must tell you about the combat mindset.
When you train a combat system, the goal may vary a lot; for example, if you train Muay Thai, you are going to be trained in a sport system, designed for the ring and you have to condition yourself in body, mind, and intention. The body conditioning is great; you will become way a stronger person than just jogging or making exercise at the gym. the mind will become stronger too; you are going to feel really tired must of the trainings and you have to put your mind over your pain in order to become better; so you are going to train your will, this is very important. When I talk about the intention, I mean it’s not the same to be in a ring than being on the street. If you train for sportive competition, don’t expect to perform well in the real fighting (I talked about it in another article: https://www.muaythai.it/the-breach-between-sport-and-real-life/ ).

If you make a traditional Martial Art, you will learn techniques created for the military combat, but in most of the cases, the system has evolution to become an educative system more than a combat system. So maybe you will know how to perform in a risk situation, but you don’t have the drive or the intention required to come out relatively clean from a dangerous situation.
If I told you I am going to make you a chicken soup and I just put a chicken leg for 2 seconds in hot water and I give you this, you know this is not a soup; this is hot water with maybe some flavor. The same happens with the market offer.
In order to make Self-defense programs attractive, teachers tend to take out all the martial elements from the martial practice. Well, you don’t have to wear a uniform to learn how to fight in the street, the traditional protocol can be out too. But if you are not told on how to stand, where you can gather the energy to strike, how to breathe, or how to make the right defensive moves. You are getting the chicken flavored water.
So what should you be looking for if you want to learn how to defend yourself. First of all, if you want to be free of bullying or just want to be self-confident, you can learn any sportive or martial style without any issue. Why? Because you basically need to build your self-caring concept in your mind.

But if you want to learn how to get away from a dangerous situation, you need to look for a system with martial base, and focused on the real combat. The mindset you have to develop is very far from the sportive or martial; you need to learn how to become the aggressor.
Let’s look the other edge of the plate; when you watch action movies, you can see the performers making such amazing stunts and maybe you can think this is the optimal way of fighting in a real bout. But this is very far from the truth. If you learn too complicated moves to fight, you are not going to remember anything at the time you have to use your skills. In the real fighting there is not such a thing as combinations, or elaborated moves. You have to be fast, effective and overwhelming.

Grand Master Marco has developed and structured the IMBA Muay Lert Rit Style, a particular system organized to teach on how to become the aggressor in a real danger situation and how to get away alive of a fight that has become out of control. How is this? The system has 7 different principles or pillars explaining vital elements of the fighting art, and 8 different energy development techniques. From this, there is a group of resulting techniques or Look Mai techniques, that you can learn without previous knowledge, and being very efficient at the time of use.
It is based on an ancient manuscript written to understand the war in times where Siam was just forming and struggle was a natural part of everyday. You could say times are different now, and you don’t have to learn a devastating system as IMBA Muay Lert Rit, but let keep it clear and simple; there is not such a thing as a delinquent with regrets or compassion towards its victim. If you want to get rid of a monster, you have to turn yourself into a monster too. I know this sounds horrible, but if you fight in a ring, or with a drunk guy maybe the result of the fight will not be that bad; if you are attacked by someone who really wants to hurt you, at the end of the fight you will get maybe more than a few stiches on your record. So everything on its right place.
Resuming, the sport training is for sport, the martial training is for your education or to be safe from a bully, but for real danger you need real training. And if you are training body combat, dancing boxing, executive kickboxing or something like this, keep out of danger situations my friend.