You Only Have 2 hours

Two hours a week that's it. That's the average amount of time most adults have to dedicate to any type of activity outside of work and family.

Running a martial arts school we knew this. We knew that most people can come twice a week for about an hour at a time. The "quit times" are 3 weeks, 3 months and 12 months. Anything past 12 months is considered a long time. Anything past a few years is a lifetime. That's why most martial arts programs have promotions and incentives around each of these time increments.

Everyone wants to train forever when they start and I know you have the best intentions. I know you will train forever and practice 3 hours a day to become an awesome wrecking machine. But you won't. Something will pop up, your work, your health, your family, something will change your routine to throw you off your game. It's life and there's nothing you can do about it. But that's OK.

Chances are you will only have a few hours a week and be able to train for (let's be generous here) eight to twelve weeks. Along the line you're going to have to stop for one reason or another after the first three months.

Knowing that, ask yourself, what do you want out of your training? If it is self defense, how often do you think you're going train in actual self defense?

On the other hand, as an instructor, how much real useable self defense are you giving your students? Let's take a look at it.

A typical martial arts curriculum consist of warm up, calisthenics, form or kata practice (you can put striking the air in here), pad work, sparring or "randori" and what is classified as self defense practice.

Now before I continue I'm looking at this from a strictly self defense point of view and not a spiritual, sporting or cultural perspective.

From a useable self defense perspective there are only two aspects of your training that actually directly benefit real self defense: calisthenics and pad work.

Calisthenics promote over all fitness. The more fit you are the more punishment you can take and more important, the more punishment you can dish out.

Pad work promotes hitting with power and it conditions your weapons for actual contact. It teaches you to dehumanize and hit your target with force which is what matters in the street. Power is King so "Hail to the King, Baby"- a little shout out to Bruce Campbell.

Katas or striking the air has about the same tactical benefit of a cardio kickboxing class. You're basically doing the same thing, following a set pattern and performing moves in the air. The only difference is the music and the clothing.

Sparring presents its own set of issues. While it gives you some benefit of the stress of fighting another human being, it's really a detriment when it comes to combatives. Sparring forces you to wait and look for openings. It trains you to be patient and operate within the rules. You wouldn't be very successful if in each match you attacked your opponent with reckless-abandon as you tried to rip his head off. But in the street, this is exactly what you need to do. You need to end each fight as fast as possible by whatever means. The longer you wait the greater chance for him to use a weapon, have some friends join in or watch you simply slip and fall on the concrete. In combatives, you don't wait for an opening, you create and take them.

Self Defense practice in the martial arts class consists of two people standing in front of one another practicing prescribed defenses against predetermined attacks. This format has been the same since Judo, Aikido, Wushu and all the Aiki Jujutsu started doing it in the late 1800's. This same format has been adopted by Tae Kwon Do, Gracie Jujitsu, Krav Maga and any other martial art that has added self defense to their sign.

This self defense practice looks like this: bad guy attacks with one technique, then defender reacts with a specific counter to the attack. Attacker attempts another technique and defender executes another new and separate counter. Now when this drill is expanded to multiple attacker situations it appears like the defender in the middle is seriously kicking ass, but all that's happening is a well choreographed fight scene. The attackers don't attack with the intent of injuring the defender. They attack to allow the defender to succeed. In the street, attitude and intent go a long way. What you're watching is far from random let alone real.

The negative effects of this type of training are many. First it teaches you to let someone into your space and wait for them to attack you. Just by simply allowing someone to hold your wrist, puts you at a severe disadvantage. In the real world that initial grab is always followed by repeated punches or a stabs. Too close it too late.

Second it makes you believe that you'll be attacked by a single technique. You are NEVER attacked by a single technique. Not by anyone worth worrying about. A good street fighter will set you up, lull you into thinking it's all good and then attack you repeatedly. Thinking that collar grab was all he's going to do is your second mistake (your first was letting him get close to you!). He's going to grab you by the collar and repeatedly bash your face with his forehead and then he'll go to work on you.

This type of self defense practice leads you to believe there are a finite amount of ways you can be attacked. This notion is ludicrous. Consider all the factors: single, or multiple attackers, edge or impact weapons, firearms, empty hand, collar grabs, wrist grabs, head locks, body locks, in the parking lot, on stairs, in your car..the list goes on and on. Between where you could be assaulted, who or how many will be assaulting you and with a weapon or not, the possibilities can number well into the tens of thousands.

In the dojo, against people who have been trained to attack and fail, you can pull this off. But trying to do this while you're locating your car, after a long day and someone approaches you asking for the time or directions and then in the blink of an eye, it's on. You will not be able to recall anything.

Being in security for a number of years I've seen quite a few instances where martial artists were successful in the street. But they always threw an overhand right (reverse punch)and then used a hockey grab to drag to get them down to the ground. It was only after the guy was subdued was anyone able to even attempt any sort of joint lock, but at that point the guy would give up and you could pretty much do anything to him, especially when three guys have their shins bearing down on his back, neck and legs. It's funny, at the time, even the martial artists didn't realize what they did. But no matter, I sure as hell was paying attention.

Here's the thing, you need a self defense common denominator. Once you know it, every situation can be broken down to a few simple scenarios. Those common denominators are position, distance, momentum and balance. The techniques are almost secondary.
If I locked you in a room and had you reverse punch a makiwara (striking board) for 2 hours a week for 3 weeks and told you that if anyone who threatened you got in your way, you just reverse punch them the first chance you get and don't stop until the threat is gone you will win the overwhelming majority of your fights.

Damn, where did that wind up?!?!? Oh yeah, two hours a week. If you have two hours a week and you are looking for the benefit of self defense, martial arts are not the answer. In an hour class you're after warm ups (10 minutes), forms (15 minutes), punching air (10 minutes), pads (10 minutes), sparring or their version of self defense (10 minutes)...you get the point, in fact you were better off from a self defense point of view BEFORE you even stepped into the dojo. At least before you would freak out and do whatever it would take to survive, now you're just civilized.

Listen, if you're in it for the cultural, spiritual and community aspect, please, by all means, enjoy. But if you think for a second that your art is actually giving you self defense skills beyond a punch (which works great) you will be disappointed.

When we started what would become the Self Defense Training System teaching publicly in 1998 we did it knowing that most people would train with us for 6 months. We felts it was our obligation as instructors to give them something with in the first few minutes that they could use. Technically, after the first 6 to 8 months they would really have all they needed for self defense. At that point our ethical obligation was fulfilled. After that if they wanted to learn more about cultural martial arts and combat sports, we would teach them.

The purpose of the SDTS is self Defense. Every Self Defense Company instructor has their marching orders, give you the skills that you can use now. Listen, if you can't understand it in a few seconds and learn it in a few hours, you will NEVER REALLY LEARN IT. If you can't explain it in a few seconds and teach it in a few minutes, it will never be learned.

What you want is to know how to defend yourself and not have to dedicate your life to trying to do it. Martial arts starting getting complicated when people started making money at it. Don't let the samurai fool you either. During the Edo period there was peace. A paid army that doesn't fight finds itself having to justify it's own existence (hence all the haiku, painting, flower arranging, sword polishing, and tea ceremonies). This is why I find the art of Iaido so amusing (That's an inside joke to myself).

You will not train forever. Everything runs it's course. You can however learn skills that will last you a lifetime. Core movements don't leave. You can still kick a ball and ride a bike and you will still be able to throw an edge of hand and chin jab.

Case and Point...
Just a few years ago, a 70-year-old man exemplified the motto of the Marine Corp League, "Once a Marine, Always a Marine."

When three thugs boarded a tourist bus in the Costa Rican city of Limon armed with a gun and knives they must have thought the twelve senior citizens on board were easy prey. They were wrong.

After witnessing a young, muscle bound terrorist put a gun to a female passenger's head, Allen Clady, a former Marine made his move. The Semper Fi senior grabbed a hold of the thug and strangled the much younger thug with such force that he broke his collarbone and killed the man. This prompted the other senior citizens on
the bus to begin fighting back and force the other two assailants run off the bus.

So, how could a 70-year-old man could take on, and kill, a much younger armed opponent? The answer lies in his old-school Marine Corp training.

The Marines recently introduced a new system for close quarters combat called the Marine Martial Arts Program (MCMAP). This new "nicer" system is supposedly for peacekeeping operations in urban areas and theoretically allows for a wide variety of situations where a Marine needs to use non-lethal force. This is a HUGE MISTAKE and another fine example of politicians dictating tactics.

Prior to the development of this new crap, the Marines used more lethal techniques originally developed by Major Anthony Biddle. His techniques standardized close combat techniques for the Marines and were based on proven concepts found in bare-knuckle boxing, wrestling and fencing. In addition, Captains W.M. Greene and Samuel B. Griffith shared what they learned about martial arts from William Fairbairn while stationed in China.

And we all know where all that Fairbairn Stuff Wound Up >>>> its Here.

Time is precious, spend it wisely.

Train Honestly,
Damian Ross
The Self Defense Company








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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.