As totally the UN-expert, I think one of the mismatches in the thread is people have different perspectives of the threat or the risk they are preparing for. I'll toss my view out there and then everyone can tear it down.

Humor me with an analogy. I view the the problem as similar to wrestling in High School. A wrestler that practices religiously, but has mediocre athletic ability, will probably never beat the four time state champion. It doesn't matter how much heart the mediocre wrestler has. On the other hand, if that same mediocre wrestler has just a few foundational skills that he practices regularly (single leg take down, double leg takedown, arm bar, etc.), he will most likely out wrestle a better athlete with limited wrestling experience. Keep the analogy in mind for a second.

I'm not a cop. I'm not serving warrants or chasing down bad guys. I'm 60+ years old. I'm in decent shape, but there's no way I'm going to out fight or out run a professional street fighter/MMA fighter/Spetsnaz Green Beret Crip knife wielding assassin. No matter how much I train.


My self defense goal is to give me as much of an advantage as I can by using a layered defense (nothing unique to me). My layers are:

1. I don't go to stupid places or hang around with people that do really stupid things.

2. I try not to go to OK places at stupid hours.

3. I try to be situationally aware of what's going on around me.

4. My first line of active defense, if possible, is to diffuse the situation verbally.

5. Haven't had to use it, but my second line of defense is to use my old man version of runfu. Obviously only works if you're not protecting your family.

6. Also haven't had to use it, but my last line of defense is to have a few really simple tools that I can practice regularly in different scenarios and use to either give me a chance to create some distance from an attacker or give them a good reason to find something else to do. My goal is to use the tools without injuring my family or bystanders in the process (like shooting bystanders).

If I'm attacked by a professional street fighter/MMA fighter/Spetsnaz Green Beret Crip knife wielding assassin, I'm not going to win that one. At my age, no matter how much I train, nothing other than luck will get me out of that alive.

So, back to the wresting analogy. Risk wise, I see myself like the wrestler with mediocre athletic ability (age), but that has a few basic skills that I practice frequently. If I'm attacked, it most likely will be random chance at the ATM, grocery store, movie theater, getting gas at the local "stop and rob," or by a road ragger. If I'm attacked, attacker won't likely be the professional street fighter. It'll be a couple 16 year old wanna be gangsters, a drug addict (probably meth around here) or a whack job in his car. I feel like the my few basic skills will work with that crowd.

That's how I see it anyway.