Your Instructor teaches Self-defense, right?

In the United States there are thousands of martial arts schools currently teaching the martial arts. While it is easy to assume that the instructors are skilled at teaching self-defense are knowledgeable, it is sadly rarely ever the truth. Many instructors teach techniques that they say are designed to do, this or that to an attacker. The question is how do they know? Have they ever used the techniques themselves? Most likely they were told by their instructor what these techniques are supposed to do. In turn they were most likely told that same thing by their instructor as well. Bottom line is this. Many years ago I was reading some statistics about martial arts instructors in the U.S.A. According to the statistics, less than 1% of the professional martial arts instructors have ever had so much as a bloody nose confrontation, much less a real fight. Kinda makes you stop and think doesn't it? There are a lot of techniques that are taught that are questionable methods of self-defense. So when you are in class and the instructor is teaching a so-called deadly fighting technique, you might want to ask yourself a few questions. Is the technique practical? Is is easy to do? Would you be willing to bet your life on it? Can it be done in a small space? Do you need to be flexible, strong, or fast to do it? Depending on your answers to these questions, you may or may not want to practice this technique..... Remember, it is unlikely that your instructor has had much realistic fighting experience with what he is teaching.