1. Fear management: An understanding and acceptance of fear as part of any confrontation must be imbued in students. Exposure to anxiety inducing activities during training will provide the student the opportunity to terms with fear and allow them to devise mechanisms for managing their own fears.

2. Scenario practice:role playing scenarios will give the student the opportunity to experience the dynamics of a confrontation in a controlled setting. Such role plays must within reason and safety include all elements of a real confrontation such as (bad) language, volume and tone of voice, hand and body actions, environmental factors etc. Such role plays will allow the student the opportunity to practice situation awareness and assessment skills as well as tactical decision making in a situation of controlled stress.

3. Stress inoculation: Training 'realistically' (not stylized martial arts sparring) will accustom the student to the pain and confusion of combat on the street and give rise to a sense of familiarity and hence comfort - inoculating the student to some extent against mental confusion.

4. Verbal and body language skills: It is the nature of confrontations that what is said and especially how it is said combined with body language can escalate or de-escalate a confrontation. These are therefore fundamental skills (especially verbal skills) in learning to manage a confrontational situation.

5. Awareness: A confrontation can be prevented or at least managed to advantage if the student is an alert state. Methods of awareness and confrontation management should be part of the system. The development of situation awareness is especially critical.

6. Pain management: Part of the stress inoculation process is familiarization with pain (as a result of being struck and grabbed in specific ways) and management of the psychological and physiological response to this.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PSYCHOMOTOR SKILL (TECHNIQUE) TRAINING

1. Techniques to cover full spectrum of confrontations: As physical street confrontations may cover the full spectrum of inter-person combat, the technique arsenal of the system must match this breadth. Any defensive tactics system must incorporate standing striking, standing grappling, ground defence (them up you down), groundfighting (you are both on the ground), weapon threat, weapon attack, multiple opponent, control and restraint techniques, and use of common objects as weapons.

2. Simple actions: The heightened emotional state, despite our best efforts to control it, will impact our physiology and hence it is a risky strategy to incorporate techniques into our system that depend on complex co-ordination, balance and/or fine motor control. Movements must be simple and comprise gross motor actions.

3. Minimal number of techniques: Time for responding to an attack is brief so minimize choice (as choice increases reaction time). Concurrently the time available for training students is also constrained so to maximize the training effect the number of techniques should be kept to a minimum (the more techniques the less training time can be spent on each as there are more to cover in a set training period). A well thought out system will therefore have a single solution that apply to many problems rather than a unique solution for every situation.

4. Utilize body's natural reactions: Given the likelihood of emotional stress and mental confusion, in initial stages of training students should be taught techniques that are based on and take account of the body's natural responses to particular attacks. For example, we lean forward slightly, send the hips back and close the legs when someone tries to kick us in the groin.

5. Weapon and multiple opponent awareness: Weapons and multiple opponents are not necessarily present at the beginning of a confrontation. So all training and most especially any on the ground must be trained to accommodate the possible introduction of a weapon or other opponents mid-fight. Participants in close range grappling and ground fighting are particularly vulnerable to this possibility. Additionally, in conditions of poor visibility (due to poor lighting or physical chaos) all hand attacks should be treated as though they are weapon attacks (knife specifically). It is too much to ask a defender to discern an empty hand from one holding a knife (especially a small one) under such conditions.

6. Response to low-level threats: As these are far more common, the system must contain responses appropriate to (low threat) situations that do not warrant a striking response. Verbal skills, the ability to read body language and skills to nullify a sudden close range attack (at conversation distance) are required.

REQUIREMENTS FOR PHYSICAL TRAINING

1. Anaerobic fitness: The student's fitness must be attuned to the physical demands of a confrontation that goes to the physical (fight) stage. As most fights this means a good base level of anaerobic fitness is required, more so than aerobic fitness (on the street you do not go formal rounds with rest periods in between).

2. Combat fitness: The adaptation of the body to training is very specific to the actions practised (see Principle of Specificity). The energy systems and muscular actions required in combat must therefore be specifically trained for through the use of appropriate and relevant drills and exercises. To be relevant these must closely mimic the actions and effort required in combat. Generalized fitness and gymnasium type exercises do not meet this requirement.

3. Pain management: Pain is a part of any physical confrontation. The system must inoculate students to the adverse impact of pain as far as is reasonable.

4. Contact shock: Aligned with pain management, inoculating students against the adverse impact of physical contact (striking or strong holds) is crucial to their ability to continue to function whilst on the receiving end of impact. It is generally true that most people with no previous involvement in any contact sport or activity are prone to 'shock' when first struck of grabbed tightly. This can be overcome with training.

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