Does the Martial Arts Instruction Today Take into Account Self-defense?

Depends. In some sense it does yet a comment by Kris Wilder, Lawrence Kane, and Rory Miller in a Podcast I listened to today said something that resonated for me. In general, "martial arts, karate in particular, traditionally use "excessive force" in its combative applications." The expressed to my ear that this is due to the original traditional nature of karate - combat.

Then they made another statement, "The use of excessive force - nature of karate - does not take self-defense into account." [Note: I might have heard right and I might have not, listen to the podcast for yourself. Don't take my word for it.]

I feel, from my view of my system, this is true along with many other points they made in the podcast. I also believe that most martial arts training and practice do not take into account many, many aspects of self-defense into account in their instruction and training.

Made a lot of sense to me and prompted the question and MY answer.