18. Learn a martial art

I’ve found a weekly martial art class to go to which doesn’t require attendance each week and doesn’t have grades – Krav Maga.

It’s probably the most quickest and useful martial art to learn – very much a street style of fighting. It was taught to regular and special forces in Israel.

The general principles include:

• Counter attacking as soon as possible (or attacking pre-emptively).
• Targeting attacks to the body's most vulnerable points such as the eyes, jaw, throat, groin, knee etc.  (pretty dirty tactics)
• Neutralizing the opponent as quickly as possible by responding with an unbroken stream of counter attacks and if necessary a take down/joint break (yes that is breaking someone’s arm or leg whilst you’re at it)
• Maintaining awareness of surroundings while dealing with the threat in order to look for escape routes, further attackers, objects that could be used to defend or help attack and so on (but importantly, remember to run away!)

Since I’ve started classes there have been two times that I am glad I knew some basic skills. The first was when I was partially involved in a pub crawl and the second was when we were harassed by four guys in the dark narrow alleyways of Marrakesh.

You can see a video of some Krav Maga here