As a current practitioner of Krav Maga, and I would have to recommend it as one of the best systems for self defense or any real fighting. I lived in Japan for 10 years, 7 of which were on Okinawa where I studied Uechi Ryu heavily and some GoJu Ryu and some familiarity with Shorin Ryu. Krav Maga has been great for me, fast easy to learn and focused on what the goal is and doing it in a stressed, tired environment often with mulitple attackers. No Katas. It is not an "art" per se. It is a mixed martial art taking elements from Boxing, Muay Thai, Jiu Jitsu, Karate and other styles. The systems builds on itself from day one and is very very well thought out. There is a large focus on intensity and aggression because most people you will have to defend yourself from cannot fight for more than 30-45 seconds without tiring so they will insure that you can direct punches, kicks and other attacks at 100% power and aggression for at least 1 minute. I would recommend taking at good look at it.