When it comes to the various forms of security and how you secure it, none is more important than your personal security. You can lose all of the stuff in your home or in your business, but at the end of the day, you still get to sleep in a bed, even if it means staying in a motel for a couple of days while you get the security in your home improved, but if you get threatened by an acquaintance or get attacked in the street, your actual safety is at risk.

Wealthier people get the benefit of being able to pay for private security when they know a risk is present, but most ordinary people have to rely upon whatever protection the police are prepared to provide, which is often inadequate. For these people, and everybody else too, learning some basic martial arts techniques can be incredibly useful. It doesn’t even have to be high-level stuff; practising one or two moves that you can use to catch an attacker unawares is often enough to fight people off to give you enough room to run away.

Learning martial arts can be done in a number of ways:

• You can learn through online videos; This has significant limitations, not least of all that you don’t necessarily have someone to practice with effectively and safely, but also because there isn’t an expert to say where you’re going wrong.
• Attending standard martial arts classes; These can be great for getting a broad understanding of martial arts and for maintaining a high level of physical fitness. On the downside, it requires a lot of dedication and what you’re learning may not have as much practical value as you expect, such as it could be training you in competitive martial arts rather than how to fight somebody armed with a knife and so on.
• Attending a self-defence workshop; These are often provided for people who are considered at risk, such as victims of domestic abuse and stalking. They usually offer you some basic, but very specific training in a few techniques that can help you fight off an attacker, such as how to target weak points (the eyes, testicles, etc.), and deal with armed assailants. These are incredibly useful, but are also limited in the respect that they don’t teach you about how to deal with somebody who is very determined and/or trained.