I think that this is pretty good advice if you want to be a martial artist:
1. You have to train constantly, and consistently.
2. You have to be in shape.
I think it is pretty far from the absolutes for self-defense though. I see this from a lot of people that are still invested in their martial art – they assume that the self-defense fight is going to look like a match. They assume that the end states are the same. Additionally, there is usually a lot of styles debate or stack ranking. I have never met anyone who ever admits studying the worst style for self-defense.
More important than practice or fitness is decisiveness. Do the most first. Knock them right off of their mental map sheet. It sounds cliche, but you want to finish them before they are sure they are in a fight. There aren’t rounds, breaks, or referees. I have no interest finding out who is the better fighter, I have every interest in not finding out what loosing is going to be like.
Practice is certainly important, but I would say the major value of practice is the confidence that you know what you are doing – making you decisive. In the last year there was a story of an old WWII paratrooper who defeated an assailant 50 years his junior that was armed with a knife. I am guessing this guy didn’t practice his combatives drills on a daily basis anymore or keep up with his airborne PT. I don’t think he would have won a foot race against his assailant and he probably didn’t have a full round in him. What he did have was the confidence of a few years of Nazi killing and decided he had a plan to deal with it. He started fighting before his assailant knew he was going to be in a fight.
I have argued the importance of fitness for self-defense in other venues for years, and I have not changed my position on that. I will say that it is much lower on my list of priorities than being aware or being decisive.
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