You are right that no one system is perfect. I have a fair amount of training in Jiu Jitsu and I got my butt handed to me on a silver platter by my friend who was a Systema trainer for many years.

That being said, with my knowledge of Jiu Jitsu, I can combine what I know with what I am learning.

I live in Boston, which overall is a somewhat safe city. With that said, I have been attacked on several occasions. I was mugged late at night in the Commons the first time I came to Boston when I was in High School. I was also mugged another time and walked away with a black eye and no wallet because I fought back (I got to keep my backpack.)

On top of that, I have been harassed by crazies many times, 3 of which turned physical.

The first time, I was near a soup kitchen near China Town when a homeless man asked me for a sip of my drink. When I declined, he grabbed my shirt and tried to pull me back. I turned around and cocked my arm and he ran away.

Another time, I was walking to work down a side street in Downtown Crossing when I met a crazy guy. We were the only two people on the street and he was yelling gibberish to no one in particular. He started to walk towards me, yelling at me to give him money. When I declined, he started following me and yelling stuff like "I'm gonna get you white boy" and "I'm going to tear your A$$ off to get to that money." Eventually I turned around and asked him to stop following me. This is when he attacked. I was able to deflect his attack and put him in a hold. I asked again for him to stop following me and he started screaming that he was going to pop a cap in me. At that point, I started running. He didnt follow me.

Recently, I was waiting for a bus near my new job, when a guy who was about 50 feet away started fastly jogging towards me. When he got near, he started yelling about how I was giving him a look. He ran at me and swung at my face. I maneuvered so that he missed and with his momentum, I was able to take him to the ground head first. At this point, I had my hand on my 0560, ready to knock him in the temple with the butt if he got up and attacked. He got up and ran until he was about 50 ft away. He just stayed there staring at me and pacing back and forth until my bus came. The crazy part is that there were plenty of people around and cops inside the train station just across the street . People just sort of watched as it went down and then went back to reading their phones and kindles when the guy left. Some people are just nuts. I certainly didn't give him any look.

The whole point to my rant here is that there are people out there that wish to do others harm. I think learning self defense is something that everyone should do so that you can protect you and your loved ones.