Below is a great post by Synergy Martial Arts that addresses this very question. For those of us who may not participate in competitions and prefer to pursue a different path, this becomes a serious question. The initial work flow of questions to ask would look something like this:

a) Why do I want to participate in an art?
b) Sport (competition), self-defense, martial art or balance of everything?
c) Choice in question b) will determine how I choose my dojo/instructor

Remember, you are making a huge investment of your life so do not proceed lightly. Take advantage of the free trial class so you see first hand how the instructors interact with the community. If the instructor happens to be out that day or is traveling, wait for them to come back before you sign up. A student-instructor may not always be a great representative during their absence.

Head instructor at Synergy Martial Arts, Mr. Shawn Kitzman provides some insight on their blog.

Continues Below

Self-Defense and Martial Arts: What’s the Difference?

At Synergy Martial Arts we are often asked the above question. Our response is simple. We are not trying to create champion tournament competitors or preserve an art or a Lineage; we are giving you the tools you need to protect yourself, and your loved ones, in case you are attacked.

Can you learn self-defense from a martial arts program? Sure, but it will take you many years to put together the skills that you need to defend yourself. Martial arts programs are designed to teach you stylistic versions of combat; when someone studies them, he or she spends a lot of time on refinement and self-perfection—the sense of reality, and the threat of injury, is lost.

Can you learn self-defense from mixed martial arts (MMA) or another martial sport? Again, the answer is very similar to the one above. Yes, you can. The problem lies again in the training method of the sport. Many people look at MMA and think that it looks very brutal; in reality, there are many rules in place to keep the participants safe. Participants cannot strike the eyes, groin, throat, base of the head, spine, and many other places that any self-defense program worth its salt should teach.

So in our opinion, when you evaluate a self-defense program, you should hold certain principles to be mandatory:

· The program must be comprised of methods that can be applied by a majority of the population, i.e. a kick to the groin is painful to most people, male or female, and the groin is located anatomically in the same place for everyone: Between the legs.

· Escaping should be the most emphasized component of the program. The last thing that anyone wants to do is to engage an attacker. If you have a choice, you must get out of the situation in the quickest, safest manner possible.

· The instructor must not have you performing one, lone technique to try to end an attack. You need to be able to hit an attacker many times, in rapid succession, in order to stun him so that you can escape.

· Weapon training must be taught but taught in a very pragmatic manner. You need to understand that, if the attacker has a bat or a knife, you are going to get cut or hit. Once you understand this, you are working to reduce your chances of injury: learning to cover a knife attack with your forearms, instead of your wrists, reduces your chances of getting cut across parts of your anatomy that will bleed profusely.

· The instructor must teach you the tools that will do the most amount of damage, in the shortest amount of time, so that you will be able to escape in the quickest manner possible. These tools are elbows, knees, head-butts, finger-jabs to soft areas, and palm-strikes. These tools take a very short amount of time to learn and require very little time to practice so that they stay familiar.

We are teaching you to be able to preserve your own life if you are attacked. In this month’s Men’s Health, they ranked the most dangerous places for men to live: unfortunately, Detroit was high on the list. If this is true for men, you can bet that it is true for women as well. Even though we live in a suburb of Detroit, and violent crime is a low incident in our area, many of the people in Livingston County commute to Detroit and the areas surrounding it.

Bruce Lee was quoted as saying, when someone asked him why he practiced Martial Arts:

BL: Do you have car insurance?

Q: Yes.

BL: Why?

Q : In case someone hits me?

BL: That is one of the reasons I practice martial arts. In case some hits me.

Also if you are looking for a Martial Arts or Self Defense Instructor please read the previous blog. How to choose a Martial Arts Instructor

Click here to see the post on their site.