All Pro Mai techniques have 2 things in common - practicality and effectiveness. Quite simply if a technique can't be used in a real situation then it has no place in the Pro Mai syllabus. Your personal safety is too important for you to be learning techniques that look flash but do not work in real life situations. On the street there are no rules, an assailant may try to punch you, grab you, kick you, sneak up behind you, wrestle you to the floor, come at you with a weapon - all eventualities have to be considered. Although there are potentially hundreds of different ways you could be attacked, research has shown that most aggressive encounters follow predictable patterns and it is these that beginners are taught to deal with first. But remember although your training will equip you with the most practical and decisive self-defence techniques, the first skill you will learn in Pro Mai is how to reduce the risk of you getting attacked in the first place.