Completely agree with Van on this one. Judo by FAR over BJJ for the street. Grappling gets VERY risky in a street situation, because you're never guaranteed a fair fight. While you maye be able to pull guard and guillotine him, he may also just pull a knife while you do that and stab you in the neck. Or maybe when you pull guard, his buddy you didn't notice does the Mexican Hat Dance on your face. The Judo throws will generally end a fight or give you the time to exit stage left quickly.

But your buddy also definately need to pick up some sort of striking art, and preferably boxing or muay thai (kicks require too much room...the punching in boxing or knees/elbows in MT don't). The biggest benefit of these is that they REALLY give you a chance to end a fight quickly before bad things can happen, and they keep you off the floor, where bad things can happen.

One thing to remember....the average guy on the street has NO formal training, and even a one week class in any martial art is going to give you the upper hand. That doesn't mean that you should trust your life to a one week course, but any legitimate martial art school will most likely give you the skills you need to handle yourself in the street.

And on a side note...the absolute best method of self defense? A good mouth and quick brain. ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS try to talk your way out of it. NEVER NEVER NEVER fight unless you ABSOLUTELY have to. Sure, maybe you can beat the guy up, but you just never know what's going through his brain. Maybe you kick his ass. Maybe you knock him out. And maybe he has a gun in his car, gets it, and comes back and shoot you. Maybe when some guy grabs your wallet, you can throw him and snap his arm. Maybe you can drop him in one punch. And maybe he has a knife, and stabs your neck.

Can you HONESTLY think of ONE THING that is worth getting killed over if there was another way? The best way to protect yourself from a mugger is to just give him your wallet. It's only money...maybe you can kick his ass, but you better hope that there's a vending machine in heaven where you can spend those 23 dollars you potentially gave your life for.