Confidence to succeed?

You have to engage every opponent confident that you've done the work and your tools are sharp.

(Hard) Sparring helps.  I know I know, everyone and his dog tells you it's not relevant to the mythical 'street', but if you can learn to think on your feet and not give up - even in comparative 'safety' -  I honestly think you're 80% there regardless of the specific skillset you might be using.  After a few battles you'll start to catch people and your self-belief grows.

Keep turning up and keep trying, it's the only way.

Gary

Paul Anderson wrote:

I wonder how this applies to self defence?  My guess if you're not confident in your abilities to strike and then withdraw you'll avoid/ignore the best chances in the hope that the confrontation will bleed away to nothing, thereby potentially missing the chance to escape when you can.

I agree.  This is why training should always include solid impact training, including impact training against moving targets so you learn to adjust to different distances.  Furthermore having the confidence to strike preemptively (based on sound legal knowledge and practise) is essential.  Personally I believe that for high quality self defence training role playing scenarios with a full contact element are essential.

Although my students don't spar (they do the type of dynamic and alive full contact training and mobile padwork outlined above instead) I agree with Gary that hard sparring can help develop the right combative mindset and confidence necessary.

As Winston Churchill said, "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference."