In the plush floors and temperature-controlled environment of your typical martial arts dojo or studio, you won’t train or prepare for the real world of high intensity fighting violence. Before continuing one more day wherever you have signed up, you should ask yourself and be very clear about what exactly your goal is to study martial arts.

Are you studying for fitness? For sports? Or for reality-based self-protection? If your answer is reality-based self-protection, then you need to find a place where your training area is set up to give you the experience of fighting in the real world. There are 4 very good reasons for this.

The 4 reasons why you should have your training area set up as a real world experience:

Reason # 1: You will be able to experience a true adrenaline rush like fighting in the real world: And why is this so important? Most people are not used to the rush of adrenaline right before a real fight. The untrained person wants to get away from him, that is, go into “flight mode”. the trained person enjoy the adrenaline rush, and even looks for it when there is no real opportunity or need to fight by becoming a Mixed Martial Arts competitor where “the rush” can be experienced on a regular basis.

Reason # 2 – You really learn to fight only in simulated environments where fights can occur – If I train and fight outdoors on a slippery snow surface of a sidewalk, and all you do is practice kata on a rubber floor while your sensei calls out the measured commands in Japanese while practicing each step with perfect mechanical precision, do you? who does it? Do you think he’ll be able to kick butt better in the snow? Yes, I thought you would say that.

Reason # 3 – You shorten your learning curve – If you train in realistic settings and environments: alleys, simulated apartment settings, stairwells, indoors with furniture, you can learn what you need to know to defend yourself in a weekend while training in the typical traditional martial arts dojo. It can and will take months and years before you begin to feel like you are an expert in your own protection.

Reason # 4 – You Learn to Overcome Your Fear of Fighting Faster – I am often asked what is the best way to overcome the fear of real street fights and by far this is the answer. If you train in a reality-based self-defense school that places you in real-world settings, absolutely decimate and dissipate, very quickly, all the fear you thought you had – of fighting in a real world situation.