Unfortunately, most of the training that's available is worse than useless. It's fantastical, unrealistic and informed by neither research nor practical experience. It teaches physical techniques that are demonstrably ineffective, it fails to teach the core mental skills of self defence and it gives a completely false sense of confidence. Bay Area Model Mugging seems to be far more serious than most, but their website copy does seem a little concerning in places.

de Becker's The Gift of Fear is such an important work because it emphasises everything that happens before a violent confrontation. By the time most people realise that they might get hurt, they've already missed a dozen opportunities to recognise the situation and act to protect themselves. It applies not merely to the random acts of violence by strangers that many people fear, but the far more prevalent and insidious forms of violence that develop within relationships of all kinds.

Any meaningful self-defence training must include real fear, real violence and real pain. It must start with the essential skills of situational awareness, threat perception and decision-making under acute stress. It must be rooted in the understanding that skill and technique are nearly always trumped by size and strength, and that most violent confrontations have the possibility of suddenly and unpredictably becoming catastrophic.