Training for self-defense is a process of attribute development which takes time. Some of the old traditional mindsets, for many many decades have created this mentality that memorizing and or knowing techniques and practicing them is all you need for basic self-defense, but the reality of a fight is that under “fight and flight” thought/memory for the most part goes out the door and only the acquired instinct and automatic patterns of muscle memory which you would have developed during many many hours of realistic conversion-training to realistic sparring-focused sessions would remain, and that’s the only practical and essential residual substance that would respond reflexively to different pressures and circumstances. Repeated natural pressures in training/sparring are what’s going to provide you with acquired instinctual response necessary for self-defense. There are no other secrets—-there are no other biological and psychological paths. Learning process in martial arts goes from knowledge to —->>> insights produced by the oscillating process of pattern-finding, and finally to —->>> the development of the Essential Residual Acquired Instincts (ERAI).
So, what are you supposed to do? You must show up to training, utilize the training environment including your training partners, and you must be patient during the process. Without patience you will not be able to pass beyond the first valley (stage). This is how you can begin learning about the process of the reality of self-defense.