I train on a punching bag quite often. While it's fine to stay in shape, it's not worth much in a bad situation, Well it can't be bad, but I would not rely on boxing talents to stay alive in a real danger situation.

Commando Krav Maga is a self defense/combat system derived from Krav Maga. I had a client who was instructor for this technique in the army.

According to him it's the best self defense system one can learn. I took his word from granted because of his life experience, which is piratically impossible to describe without sounding like someone who's making it up.. so I won't even try.

But to have some background, here's an excerpt of his instructor profile on commandokravmaga.com:

JIM BERGERON has spent 10 years in the United States Marine Corps. He began as an Enlisted Infantry Marine with various units, and in 2000 Jim received a Commission and became a Military Police Officer. Since leaving the USMC, Jim has worked and trained with numerous Government Agencies in various countries including the U.S. and Afghanistan. Throughout his career, Jim trained in numerous styles of Combative, Defensive Tactics and Martial Arts. Now living in the Montreal area, Jim is proud to be the FIRST COMMANDO KRAV MAGA INSTRUCTOR IN QUEBEC. He is available for Private and/or Group lessons throughout Quebec. Please feel free to contact him at any time for further information.

• http://www.commandokravmaga.com/html/locations/quebec.html

To be honest I would not argue with him on anything, just in case you know. I'm kidding, he's a really nice guy and don't believe I say that because he has the ability to snap my neck with his thumb if he wants to. I had the chance to have a very basic training with my ex-coworker, it was fun and really instructive.

If you are interested here's a bit of history on Krav Maga

What I like about Commando Krav Maga is the real life nature of the system, it makes as little assumptions as possible on how you will get attacked or the size of your agressor.

The rules are simple: you avoid confrontation at all costs or end it as fast as possible. By ending it I mean disarming and or disabling (temporarly preferably) an agressor and get away.

I found some nice animations on Youtube that gives a good idea of what it looks like:

• pistol disarm
• choke defense
• bursting
• 360 defense
• buttstroke (only usefull if you happen to have a M16 on hands)