The Problem with Martial Arts...

Is that it is too damn complicated.

When I was a kid and I started wrestling, it was all about the moves. I needed to learn more moves. I needed that secret move that no one else knew.

As I got older, more advanced and moved into high school and college competition I realized I didn't need a lot of moves, I needed the right moves. More important than that, I needed the right TRAINING METHODS.

Bruce Lee said it best, "In the beginning it was a punch, then I broke it down and learned all the nuances that made it a punch until I practiced it so much that over time it became just a punch."

The reason martial arts are too complicated is because they are sports oriented and are based on a model where martial arts business owners benefit more the longer you stay.

Sparring and competition in controlled environments with a specific set of rules and safety precautions will enable you to concentrate on specific situations and counter techniques. This allows you to dissect certain situations and develop a training strategy around them and your opponents. Even with it's plethora of moves and counter moves, it's an illusion. Martial artists try to apply this notion of "attack and counter" to self defense.Other than counters of position, timing, physical condition, individual counters to techniques RARELY WORK. In fact they only work when the person executing the initial move does so INCORRECTLY. Let's put it this way, if a person who knows how to perform a triangle choke really well gets you in one it's lights out. Remember sports evolve because of rule changes and training methods. The only thing that changes in self defense is technology. Take that away the rules from man on man combat have always been the same since the dawn of man: get him before he gets you by whatever means fair or foul. There is no attack counter formula only POSITION, DISTANCE, MOMENTUM and BALANCE.

Martial arts are designed to keep you training longer. The longer you train, the more money you invest. I owned and operated in martial arts schools for over 15 years. I've attended seminars and been a part of mastermind groups. There are three things a school needs to survive: enrollment, retention and renewal. Get new students, keep new students and keep those new students coming back. We knew a few things about you. If you stayed for 3 months, you stayed for a year. If you stayed for a year, you would stay for three. We also knew that the average income per lifetime of a student was around $1,200.00. So in order to maximize profits we needed to keep the people who were interested involved and investing in training for as long as possible. This meant new techniques, new programs and creative ways of upselling you into investing more money. The fact is, even if you have the BEST of intentions, a martial arts instructor just lie any other human being, acts in his own best interest. Most times they don't even know they're doing it because it's so inherent in the system.

Add to the fact that there's a certain prowess that comes from time in training. Saying I trained in something for 20 years sounds a lot more impressive than training for 2 years. But if you had 20 years worth of shit training compared to 2 years of good training it's not so impressive. To be honest, if you can't learn something in a few hundred hours, there's something wrong with you, your instructor or the system.

Make no mistake, I'm a life long martial artist and martial arts have their place. If you want to mentally and physically challenge yourself and become part of a community, then by all means have at it. But contrary to martial arts, self defense is a skill not an endeavor. My biggest problem is that martial arts have brainwashed you into thinking you need to spend decades trying to learn something. But deep down, they know it's not true. Take Judo for example. Up to third degree black belt your considered a competitor. Fourth degree and up are more for teaching and being active in the Judo community. The notion that a Sixth degree black belt can beat a third degree black belt is as preposterous as thinking the head coach of the Jets, Rex Ryan out block and tackle the members of his team.

Part of the reason the Self Defense Company has been successful is that we treat self defense as the life skill it is and not a life style. I'd like to take full credit for this, but every fighting force has been doing this for centuries. It's about instilling the correct skill sets.

We see the same problems in other self defense systems. They usually have a good idea but then they surround it with a bunch of other crap. The Marine Martial Arts Program (MCAP) is a perfect example of this. Sure the SDTS techniques are in there. Hell, they're in most every martial art in the world. The difference is which ones to use, why and when to use them and finally how to train them so they can be adapted to every situation. These programs make the mistake of treating self defense like a martial art because they're conditioned to do so. Somewhere you were lead to believe that more technique you know, the better off you are while in reality all you need to do is one thing really well. Personally I want to simply the SDTS EVEN MORE!!!!

Hey, I realize I piss a lot of people off because I threaten the very foundation of how they put food on their table. They tell you you need to train for years, I say it will only take months. They say you need to spend thousands, I and SDC Instructors give it to you for a fraction of the cost in a fraction of the time.

Like I said, I enjoy martial arts for what they are and will continue to do so until I'm too pooped to pop. But you don't need a black belt to defend yourself. You just need the correct set of skills.

Train Honestly,

Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defense Company


Damian Ross is CEO of the Self Defense Company and developer of The Self Defense Training System, the most lethal and effective self defense system in the world, The Guardian Defensive Tactics Police Combatives Program, 60 minute Self Defense and the Family Safe Program. Mr. Ross also founded the Self Defense Instructor Program that helps people develop their self defense careers from the ground up. Mr. Ross is originally from Ridgewood, NJ where he was a High School Hall of Fame Athlete in football and wrestling as well as a varsity wrestling coach. He then went on to Lehigh University where he was a varsity wrestler and football player. Mr. Ross has 3 black belts, 4th Degree in Tekkenryu Jujutsu, 2nd Degree in Judo, 2nd Degree in Tae Kwon Do. In addition to his martial arts experience, Mr; Ross spent 8 years in the professional security and personal protection business. He is internationally recognized as one of the foremost authorities in reality based self defense.