Fact: 2% of the population has psychopathic tendencies. They can kill, maim, injure and inflict pain without any conscience, guilt or remorse. The rest of the populace has to be taught. When you are training are you really being taught to kill, maim and injure? If you are currently practicing the martial arts, when was the last time you had to defend yourself? How many eyes have you gouged? How many scars do you have from being stabbed? Ever been shot at or hit with a Jim Beam bottle? They don't shatter like in the movies. Do you have what it takes to stick a knife up under the rib cage and push real hard? For all you knife fighters who are now carrying a blade around, it's going to be harder than you think. How many knife moves are practical? Have you ever been to prison or seen prison knife fights on a documentary? Not too much trap, slice, counter, trap, slice going on there. You must spend hours of repetitive drilling and live go's with a resisting opponent.

After your hard training, put what you have learned to the test by competing. You must compete. If you practice a traditional form of karate, do not participate in point tournaments. That is the quickest way to false confidence.

For every martial art the core is essentially self defense. So I suggest Mixed Martial Arts. It is also called No Holds Barred or Ultimate Fighting. It is the closest thing to the real deal. There are rules, but it is the closest thing to a street fight.

A few months back I talked to a couple of guys who said grappling was tailored for the ring because you were giving your opponent the chance to submit. One of them said, "When you're street fighting five guys, you have to snap and go on to the next one. All that ring fighting isn't realistic." After that ignorant remark, I told him to get into the ring and "snap and go." There was nothing stopping him, you're allowed to do that. He didn't have a response. It made me think about the times I have fought multiple people, which has happened more than once. I've never won, I've always lost badly. This guy was living in theory, which is fine, but he was an instructor passing along theory and speculation without testing what he teaches.

If you are training in Kali, Escrima, Arnis, Balintawak or any other Filipino Martial Art you should compete at one of the Dog Brothers Gathering of the Pack for some full contact stick fighting.

You must compete in MMA, grappling tournaments, boxing, Thai boxing, as many things as you can do with full contact. Grappling tournaments are good because you can go hard against a resisting opponent. Although it is not full contact, it is full resistance. If you go to a karate point tournament it resembles gymnastics with hockey helmets.

I would like to quote the Dog Brothers: "Higher consciousness through harder contact."

Win, lose or draw... train hard. -Eric