Amongst people that I respect there seems to be two contrasting camps amongst practitioners of real world defensive tactics:
Camp 1) practice your wrestling/boxing/jits/shooting and occasionally audit your abilities with an integrated, real-world, weapons-based environment test of abilities and reality check (such as taking a Shivworks course). Camp 1 has a fair bit of faith that their jiu-jitsu, etc. will serve them well "on the street" because there is already a strong streak of oppositional training in their arts of choice. In my view there is a bias of technique over context i.e. occasional intense contextual work will give the practitioner of Camp 1 enough of a worldview shift/ reality check to allow them to use their arts appropriately. The very significant majority of their training efforts are focused on technique and straight forward training in BJJ/boxing/MMA/shooting or whatever.
Camp 2) practice your martial arts of choice (see above list) and frequently practice how to apply these in an integrated format (weekly, monthly, as often as possible with the addition of "reality check" courses). Camp 2 often trains in much the same range of oppositionally-tested arts but remains skeptical that the base arts which they study are strategically and tactically appropriate for real-life encounters without a great deal of regularized and specialized training.
I am making generalizations here, for the purpose of discussion. And, let me be clear that though I do have a bit of a bias I am the first to admit that there are very skillful, seasoned, and successful individuals in both "camps" and either side can make some great arguments.
I would be interested to read about and discuss how you folks who frequent this sub-forum manage your own training time, what you think is ideal, the problems you encounter, etc.
A few points that I will throw out there:
-As a guy with family and work responsibilities my training time is very limited. A lot of my own energies go into physical development and not enough goes into martial skill development of [I]any[I] sort these days. Obviously strength & conditioning has pay-off in many areas, including combatives, but it is not enough when one faces situations of dominance, control, and danger regularly.
-Training in judo, boxing, jiu-jitsu and the like is very accessible in many locations these days. It does not require a lot of organization on the part of the practitioner as long as an established group is nearby.
-Specialized strategic and tactical training (I will just call it CQC for ease of discussion) pretty much relies on the interested practitioner to put their own training group together. In exceptional circumstances there may already be an established group in your area. There may be groups that practice some brand of combatives (Krav Maga for example) but that is not is not what I am getting at.
-I have tried to put a CQC study group together and have found it very difficult to find people of a)the proper demeanour b)a matching work/life schedule c) appropriate commitment. We have managed an occasional training session which has been great when it happens and certainly better than not doing this training/research at all. With my previous expectations no longer intact I will continue to sort through this problem and keep my eyes open to future opportunities.
Kit, I know that you have had a lot of experience with doing a CQC study group. I am not sure about others who frequent this sub-forum. What kinds of successes and failures have you folks had with this kind of idea? Have you ended up training with a small group of friends? Or one partner? People from your agency/team if you are LEO?
Looking forward to reading what you all have to say.