It's obvious I have a love-hate relationship with martial arts. Hell, I have 3 black belts so there has to be something there. The problem that I have is when martial arts put "self defense" as an added benefit to their bullet point sales pitch. Truth is, my martial arts training almost got me killed. Until I stated training in the SDTS methods, I depended on my combat sports training in wrestling to save my ass. All of the self defense techniques I studied in Tae Kwon Do, Aiki Jujutsu, Bando hindered my ability to survive. Point sparring made me pull my punches and I never got attacked they way we practiced in the dojo. No one ever grabbed my wrist or came lunging at my throat with both arms extended. In fact, if it wasn't for my instinct and aggressiveness, I would have been crushed.
Getting back to our keyboard expert on Facebook, I asked him why he studied Aikido? He said it was because he wanted to get in shape, be a part of a group and it had the added "perk" of self defense.
The perk comment pissed me off.
But before I jumped to conclusions, I wanted to see if he had any other experience in any other martial art, tactical training or with real life confrontations? I was looking for anything that would have put him in a position to identify an effective method of self defense. He tried to deflect, but the answer was a big fat "NO". Other than what his Aikido Sensei told him, he had no idea what he was talking about.
Now the "perk" comment REALLY pissed me off.
The self defense "perk" has been listed as a benefit from Tae Bo to P90X. It seems like every time someone starts throwing kicks and punches, they are learning to defend themselves. When two middle-aged white guys practice wrist locks, they're learning self defense. Anytime you do something that resembles fighting, you're doing self defense. Self Defense has become the punchline of the martial arts world and THAT'S where you're getting ripped off.
What's typical about my Facebook friend (and I know a lot more about him than I'm letting on) is that he's a somewhat typical guy and he is exactly what is wrong with the martial arts.
He is smart, I would say an elevated IQ. He has never done a sport or much of really any other physical activity. He has never been in a real fight and would prefer to acquiesce before fighting. In fact he would probably NEVER be pushed to a point of fighting. He is middle aged and reached a point in his life of exploration. He has seen movies and documentaries about martial arts and chose Aikido because the thought of not having to hurt or get hurt appeals to his sheltered life of non-violence. In fact, the thought of him having to defend himself is an impossibility.
Yet in spite of his lack of experience, his intelligence and his inflated ego won't stop him from trying to justify his investment. He can't help it. So he posts of facebook and forums and makes statements he has no basis of reality to make. He does this because he is scared and deep down he knows the truth...he's a pussy and he will crap himself if he was ever faced with any sort of physical violence.
But this doesn't stop him. He continues to train and perpetuate the myth that what he's doing will work. With out any personal experience or historical fact he continues to make claims based on rhetoric and urban legend. Just as his instructor did and all the instructors that came before him. It is a culture based on bullshit designed to exploit your willingness to avoid conflict, pain, injury and any legal ramifications. It lies to you and banks on the fact that you are middle aged, middle class white guy who will always back down from a fight at whatever the cost. Knowing full well that the chances of you ever getting a life or death struggle are slim and none, but if you do the last thing on your mind will be blaming your style, you will be sucking lunch through a tube, or dead.
This is the martial arts rip off. In the end you're much better off training in a system that requires you to fight a 100% restive partner. BJJ, wrestling, Judo, Boxing, Muay Thai, Olympic Tae Kwon Do, Kyokushin Karate, MMA, or anything else that requires you to fight an opponent on equal ground is light years better for self defense than Aikido or any other cultural fighting art. The only reason cultural fighting arts still make any money is because of they perpetuate the self defense "perk".
Self defense is not a perk, it's a purpose. And if that's what you are looking for than that's what you need to focus on. It's not 15 minutes at the end of class or random moves thrown together. It's a tactical response to violence that requires a certain mindset and specific skill sets. It needs to be treated as a separate entity and NOT squeezed in between sparring and forms. It's the most important segment of your training and deserves a certain amount of respect.
FYI: Aikido defense vs. Two handed Grab From the Front
SDTS vs. Two handed Grab From the Front
Any questions?
Damian Ross
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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.
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6 comments:
This is that Facebook friend here. Damian, I really do have a lot of respect for you, but you are misrepresenting our exchange. First, I didn't say I have no experience. That just isn't what I said at all. I have far less than you, but I have some. The last two fights I was in were more than 20 years ago, when I was training in Daito Ryu Aikijujitsu. I won both and felt like crap afterwards. Why? Because I hurt someone when there was really no good reason to do so. If I hadn't been all amped up on macho bs, I would have handled the situation in such a way that there was no violence.
The real point of my contacting you was because of what you describe as your love-hate relationship with martial arts. You throw the baby out with the bath water, and piss on people who are involved in honest training.
You say you don't need to spend untold hours training to learn self defense -- but then you criticize martial arts because they don't devote all of their time to self defense. You say that martial arts are a rip off -- but then you say that you don't want to completely replace people's martial arts training.
I like your tag line -- "train honestly". I actually have adopted that as part of my training routine. After every few reps I pause and ask myself "am I training honestly?"
But now ask yourself if you're marketing honestly when you tell people that martial arts can't teach self defense? We all know that there are plenty of bs dojos out there -- I've trained at 2 of them.
And yet there are dojos that can teach self defense and offer more than that (ie. exercise, a challenge, and yes, even fun, if you consider having someone put you in a choke hold repeatedly for 90 minutes to be fun).
If you can't admit that, I don't see how you can say you're marketing honestly. I don't know why you can't say "Hey, there's some good dojos out there and some bad ones -- whichever you're at, my program can help you with the real nitty gritty self defense part that too many schools give short shrift"?
Peace, PD
Thats what I like about you always telling it the way it is youll get alot of haters on this one ,but as they say 2 tears in a bucket f--k it.
Well said! A lot of people do not know reality. Those internet warriors have no idea what it means to survive in a real fight. Your system shows the real stuff!
Dear Mr. Ross,
Ive been looking for a forum to respond to your recent critiques of martial arts as self defense.while likewise responding to what seems to be a snobiness on the part of purist martial artists.
I served in the Israeli navy in a special forces unit and there learned my Krav Maga, Ive studied shotokan karate as a child and adult. and for the last few years have been a practitioner of wing chun kung fu. Having spent three years in lebanon(the 80,s im 43) and being involved in different hand to hand combat real life senarios both in military and in private life(bouncer security work and such in my youth) i can honestly say that your system(based from what i see a lot on major fairbairn defendu) is the most potentially effective defense system for a trained martial artist or simple citizen. I have been watching your dvds and have purchesed 6 to date onthe way to collecting the whole system.
I commend you on your work and simple presentation that actually may help someone protect themselves from within minutes of watching the first dvd. any martial artist that can not appreciate that fact is not a true martial artist intrested in the art from a human perspective of a combat system actually prtecting someone. Isnt that what most martial arts portend to be.
with deep respect and regards
reuvein scharf
Well said and one of the reasons I chose to train with the Self Defense Training Sytem. It is real life training, and like you said with a "purpose". I learned in my life I need what actually works in real life under real life circumstances. No one has ever come up to me thrown a mat down on the streets and said I want to fight you. Anyone at anytime will or can come out of nowhere and the fight is on. Now it is up to us to survive or not. I needed something simple and effective, that goes where I go and is one of the reasons I chose SDTS. I personally have found the SDTS so much easier and effective for everyday real life. Although I haven't trained in any martial arts, I just did not want to take the time to work at learning moves and hope that an attacker grabbed me or moved the way the instructers believed or trained me they should. I live in real life and thats the training that I need, SDTS.
Reuvin,
Thanks for supporting us and your comment actually cured my headache. You hit a few great points, the martial arts snob. The people who think they are above the reality of violence. That they can control their assailant easily and without sustaining a scratch.
Now here's the catch, they will say that they will get cut, or injured. But every defense has them controlling the weapon, not getting hit or even account for getting hit or injured. They TRAIN not to be touched.
As you know if you don't prepare for it mentally, you can not perform it physically. You MUST react in a way that takes little account into what the attack is but has more focus on injuring your attacker.
Regarding Fairbairn, no secret there, Defendu was what started all of this. But even then they got off into some of the complicated wrist locks (I think that had more to do with selling books and what was trendy than actual application).
Thanks, for the comments. I'm on here and Facebook more for direct interaction.
If you don't mind, I am going to share your comments with the community.
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