Rex, the OP is in luck, living as he does in the city that hosts the Straight Blast Gym, which is probably the most well-rounded program anywhere, including stick training with live sparring with rattan: too hardcore for me! But again, one picks and chooses...as a judoka I'd like to think it's my opponent, not me, who will end up on the ground with all that entails, including a chance to get back on the bike and use the adrenaline to MOVE.

The most important thing is that the training be alive, that it be done at close to full speed and strength with unscripted reaction on a regular basis. This is the way boxing, wrestling, bjj, muay thai, judo and a few others work, it is the way MMA works; it is not how the majority of martial arts work, including almost all 'survival training' or 'reality-based martial arts'. If you have not studied your art under adrenaline-filled, semi-random situations where you apply at correct speed and power, you will not be able to do so under the even more stressful and random circumstances of everyday life.