Not all self defense lessons are the same. As economies decline worldwide, street crimes including robbery, theft, rape and kidnappings are escalating quickly in developed as well as third-world countries. Because of the growing number of street crimes, more and more people are asking about self defense lessons. However, most self-defense seminars available are of little practical value.

There are a lot of people out there proclaiming to be "experts", showing many styles of martial arts and self defense lessons. The fact is, most of them haven’t got a clue what they’re doing. These people clearly have NO firsthand knowledge in dealing with actual attacks and the methods they’re teaching simply WILL NOT work against an honest-to-goodness criminal. In fact, it would most likely get you killed if you were to ever try such nonsense.

So, how do you know that any particular program is teaching realistic self defense? Ask!

The best method to be sure you will be receiving useful self defense lessons is to ask a lot of questions. Ask questions about the instructor's history. Ask if a little person will actually be able to make the techniques work against a much larger attacker. And, inquire if it includes all types of situations such as being attacked from behind, attacks while on the ground, weapon attacks and multiple attackers. If you ask enough questions, you will either get the feeling it is a good program, or they're just leading you on.

The most important question you should ask is, how much time is spent on the subject of crime prevention; you know, things like, keep your car doors locked and don’t go to unfamiliar areas alone. Contrary to popular presumption, self defense lessons should spend less than 10% of the time discussing crime prevention. All that is common sense and you’ve probably already heard it before anyway. Fact is, there are plenty of resources out there for that kind of information, if you want it. You might contact your local police department and I'm sure they can provide you with an excellent brochure on the subject.

You see, crime prevention and self defense are NOT the same thing. The truth is that no matter how much you attempt to evade trouble, trouble can still find you. Sensible self defense lessons must be based on the assumption that you’ve already tried everything you know how to do to avert an unwanted confrontation. It's a big clue that they don't really understand self defense, when they try to fill the schedule with unrelated material. Unfortunately, most people don't recognize the fraud.

You need to learn how to deal with confrontations quickly, intelligently and with total confidence in your capability to protect yourself. Practical self defense lessons will teach you highly successful techniques that have been proven to work in many different scenarios. It doesn’t matter if it is another person’s inappropriate touch, or a violent attack from a criminal who really wants to do serious harm. The skills must be simple, easy to learn and easy to recall. With a little bit of practice, these movements can become automatic reactions to an attack. That way you can get yourself quickly out of danger in just a matter of seconds.