Shane,
If I may take a stab at this, I personally believe that MMA training while it does have a lot of relevant places in Self Defense also lacks a lot. Clench, Ground Work and striking are great but won?t stand up to the brutal reality of what we need when faced with a situation where we need to defend ourselves. Take your GNP (ground and pound) defense for instance. Are you working in the essentials? Including but not limited to genital manipulation, biting, scratching, pinching, eye gouging, or are you simply working it from a MMA stand point of working to get guard and then up to your feet? Yes this is a very hard area to ?practice? but it can be drilled simply by putting it into your head when you?re drilling (and I can do this hear, bite here, etc). One will give up their mount position of GNP quite quickly to get their opponents hands of their balls. Let us not forget about the femoral artery that is at biting reach also. The same thing goes for other positions with the SD essentials. This however is only in reference to EH situations; working in weapons is a whole other story. I guess in short, think of what your goals are and adapt your training to meet them. Think about the area you live in, what situations you could encounter, and what your goal would be if met with someone you would need to defend yourself against.
Gruhn
