Originally Posted by Mister X

Considering the odds of being involved in a defensive shooting and the fact that people with absolutely no training very often successfully defend themselves with firearms everyday in this country, I think most people interested only in self-defense would question the need for such extensive training that some are advocating.

You are much more likely to need to use unarmed skills in self-defense throughout your life and such skills are much harder to learn and effectively apply, but how many people put in the time and training or have the physical ability to do so.

I had exceptional natural ability in martial arts and trained at least 4 hours a day all through high school, so it wasn't a surprise to anyone when I was recruited for Olympic competition and then asked to participate in the UFC.

Self-defense was my stated primary goal and I loved to train and couldn't understand anyone not feeling the same way. I remember I lost a lot of students in the early days who viewed me as a fanatic and looking back they were absolutely right. These were everyday people coming to me wanting to learn some basic self-defense skills in a safe environment just in case and I didn't provide that for them. Looking back, I wasn't even really teaching self-defense, I was teaching street-fighting. There is a very big difference.

I think many defensive shooting instructors take things too far as well and are teaching from a military combat or law enforcement perspective rather than true self-defense. Again, there is a huge difference. Since we are talking security, I think law enforcement lessons apply to a much greater degree, but it is still very easy to carry things too far and lose perspective. An enthusiast loves to train, practice, shoot and compete all the time, but that doesn't mean everybody does or that it is necessary.