This is a question that often comes up and look, to be honest with you, I don’t believe there’s any one single martial art perfect for self-defence. I think what you need to look at when you’re starting to investigate what potential martial art might be suitable for you are a number of things.
One, what’s the experience level of the teacher? Two, what’s the class environment like? And three, can the person leading the classes demonstrate their ability to defend themselves? And I’ve got to be honest with you, if you’re not training in a class or at a school that regularly focuses on full speed combat training or sparring practice, albeit with safety equipment and done in a safe environment, if you’re not regularly sparring and testing your skills in a practical environment, I don’t believe you’re learning a correct martial art or a traditional self-defence practice.
Self-defence requires you to have the ability to react spontaneously and autonomously without thinking. If you can’t react to an immediately threatening situation and and immediately switch on your self-defence instincts, then unfortunately, I don’t think that you will do very well in a real combat environment.
All of the instructors here at Wu Xing Dao have some level of combat experience, whether it be competition in the cage environment or in full contact karate tournaments or kung fu martial arts tournaments. I’m very confident that everyone here can demonstrate real self-defence skills and defend themselves in the event of attack.