VIDEO: Extreme Close Range Training with Damian Ross and The Self Defense Training System

DON'T TRAIN TO WAIT!!!
This drill comes from Module 4 of the Self Defense Training System: Defense Vs. Mugs and Holds. Where the vast majority of martial arts and self defense system teach you to wait for the grab and focus on the specific attack, The Self Defense Training System trains you to react instinctively based on distance and position NOT specific attack. The most common mistakes that will get you killed are training to wait and focusing on the specific attack.

Take the wrist grab for example. This particular attack makes me laugh, it's the first defense people teach and yet I've never seen or heard of anyone being taken out by a wrist grab. Anyway, typically you stand in front of your training partner and let the other person grab your wrist. The deadly mistake you're making is waiting for the attack when you're enemy is so close to you. You really only have two choices: attack balls out or escape...balls out. DON'T WAIT!!! What if it's not a wrist grab, what it it's a stab or a punch? Which brings us to problem number 2. Specific defenses.

How do you know if it's a wrist grab or a punch. In the dojo with a willing partner, being able to determine the attack may seem to work, but in a parking lot at 3 am with low light conditions you will not be able to recall the correct response for specific attacks. This has everything to do with physiology NOT how wonderful and talented you are. You SNS (Sympathetic nervous System) does not allow this to happen. Only gross motor movements and primary skill recall. Plus, the initial grab preempts the REAL attack. That shirt grab s followed by a headbutt or a punch. No sense wasting your time with the initial attack unless it disrupts your balance.

You only and best option is to train in instinctive and convulsive skill sets that allow you to engage your target based on position and distance and not specific, individual attacks. This is what has been proved to work period. The above drill is an assault from the rear. You sense the threat and you react to the threat. It doesn't matter if he's about to bear hug you, stab you, grab your hair...who cares, you're not waiting. Listen, you have the right to protect yourself if you feel you assailant has intent and means (check your local laws). That doesn't mean wait until he starts beatng the snot out of you.

NOTE: As a general rule of self defense you should exhaust all options before engaging in use of force. While people feel the uniformed compulsion to make the "why don't you run away" statement after every video post (God bless the internet) I must respond with there are situations where you have no other option or you job forces you to deal with violence. I have too much respect for time by wasting it on an assumption that most intelligent people make. When you make these statements it reveals you as a neophyte in the self defense world. Moving forward, just assume you haven't any other options and move forward from there.

Until Next Time, Train Honestly,

Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
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VIDEO- Making him "TAP" is not good enough, Damian Ross, The Self Defense Company

The "TAP" is only the beginning. In competition the object is submission, in close combat and self defense, the object is to incapacitate your target or stop the threat. Most of the times in the dojo, your training partner will tap when they feel the uncomfortable pain on their trachea or begin to feel a little claustrophobic. Unfortunately this happens well before they start to pass out (ears ringing, REM sleep and muscles twitch). And passing out happens well before any asphyxiation occurs. In MODULE 3 of the Self Defense Training System, Ground Fighting for Keeps we show you how to train to go way beyond the tap with the combat application of the strangle. This drill is one of the many we use to develop this skill in Module 3.

Traditionally in Judo we were taught to never tap on a strangle. You fought until well...you couldn't. This did two things. First it taught you what you could endure and how long you could last when you were being strangled. On the flip side, it taught you how to really strangle.

Joint locks are a completely different animal. While you will wake up from a choke (well if he stops: note to self, when the feet go flat...let go), you may not recover from a torn ligament, dislocation or hyper-extension that results when a joint lock is fully applied. In a blog post coming up I'll show you how in module 3 we train joint locks at 100%.

In training you must take great care in not damaging your training partner. Recklessness could end his career and you will eventually run out of partners. Don't be a "dojo hero". Give up the arm or leg lock even if it's close. What's the point of fighting in practice- it's just your ego. Tap and start again. Conversely if you have a joint lock and the guy is fighting it, let it go before he gets hurt. The more people who want to work out with you the better you will become. Don't be the a-hole everyone avoids. There is always one or two, but don't worry, they don't last very long. If no one wants to work out with you, you could be that guy.

A note on submissions: they are a secondary technique in the world of close combat and self defense. In the Self Defense Training System we detail how and why you may be in a situation to use them, but make no mistake, in the world of hand to hand combat they're inefficient and require a lot more effort and training to become proficient. It's far easier to knock someone cold with a strike than it is to strangle or dislocate an joint. Plus a lot of the sport submissions are not applicable to the street as detailed in the SDTS.

Striking is by far your best bet. It's the most efficient, fastest and most effective means of taking out a target. Submissions became popular because they're easier to control in practice. You can't strike full contact in practice, it causes too much damage on the body over time. Anyone who says they "train full contact, 100% of the time" is either lying, doesn't know what full contact is or hits like a toddler.

Submissions give you real pain, most people in the martial arts world (outside judo, wrestling, shoot fighting and BJJ) have never felt that type of pain and power since most martial arts devolved into a form of cardio kick boxing. Submissions can be controlled and a winner can be determined in a 100% live scenario with little injury when compared to full on striking systems like boxing and Muy Thai.

Ground fighting became even MORE popular because there's even less chance of injury and it requires very little room to work out when compared to judo and wrestling where most injuries occur in the standing position and the most movement occurs in the standing position as well this requires more room. More room equals more real estate and higher overhead. From a business stand point a style like BJJ is a no-brainer: it gives students an excellent workout, provides them with real feedback, it puts them in a 100% live situation that let's them feel full resistance and it requires little equipment (a mat with gi optional).

WOW, now that was a tangent...where was I? Strangling for self defense, striking is more efficient but if your vocation or the situation requires you to do it, you must go far beyond the tap and this type of training in one of the few solutions. Imagine what this drill will do for your submissions in the dojo? I tell you this, if you do this 3 times a week for a month, people will start to tap as soon as they feel you set the choke.

Until Next Time, Train Honestly,

Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
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VIDEO- A gun and pepper spray couldn't stop him!

I don't care if you train in a Self Defense Company program or not, but please do something. A gun is not enough, pepper spray is not enough they are just tools, sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Sometimes you can access them, sometimes you can't. One fact remains: in order to be completely prepared to deal with violence you need to take a well rounded approach to your training. Even if you don't train in hand to hand combat, the least you should do is be in shape.

Years ago I ran an ad that asked one simple question: Could you save your own life? Then I continued to ask: How fast and how far can you run if you were chased (or chasing someone?)? Could you pull yourself out of a burning car? Escape from a burning building? Scale a 5 foot fence? Can you protect yourself against an assault?

The purpose is to take stock of your mental and physical readiness. Ask yourself these questions and be completely honest with yourself. What if your child and loved one were in danger and you had to swim/run/climb to rescue them? Could you do it?

Most people THINK they can, but very few actually can. I would get people in the Training Center who looked in good shape but didn't last through warm ups. In reality, you might be good for a few seconds but when your adrenaline and hormones kick in you're going to be sapped of energy in seconds (How much power do you think the officer in the video had in his strikes?).

Imagine being in a state of mind where you are so exhausted you can't even think let alone move. This is why it is imperative that you be in some type of physical condition and use tactics that will end the fight as soon as possible.

The cop in this video was lucky. The cop in this video was NOT prepared to deal with this guy. It is not his fault, it's his training. He has been trained to believe that if you use a firearm you will stop the attack. We know that unless you hit specific target areas, the only way your target will die is loss of blood. In most cases the target will not feel the gunshot or the knife wound and continue to be an extremely dangerous and even more violent subject.

There are two mindsets to use when you prepare for violence:
1. Think everything you do will work.
2. Think everything you do will fail.

A lot of firearms and martial arts training teaches you to believe that every shot is a kill and every strike is a knock out. This type of thinking will get you killed. In reality, you miss, get tired and Murphy's law rules. Once a situation gets "tactical" you need to end it as fast as possible by whatever means necessary. Anything less puts your life in danger. This thinking is not extremist, just logical.

Lucky for this cop he survived and the bad guys were brought to justice. I bet this officer found himself back in the gym a few days later.

Until next time, Train Honestly,
Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
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VIDEO: Knife Training with Damian Ross and The Self Defense Training System

Self Defense Training System (SDTS) Knife Training with Damian Ross

Would you practice batting and never hit a ball? Would you practice golf and never strike a ball? Of course not. Then why do self proclaimed knife fighters and edged weapons experts continue to stab the air and play tag with rubber knives and magic markers? While knife sparring is fun activities and will develop a competitive edge, it doesn't prepare you for plunging a knife into a living, breathing, human being. Hey, I know it may sound brutal, but what the hell do you think combat knives are made for? Fighting is not clean. It's messy, painful and caustic. Fighting with a knife is even more so. If you're serious about what it takes, you've come to the right place.

In the real world, when you stab a body it has flesh, bone, muscle, ligaments and blood. It's going to be extremely difficult to keep a grip on your weapon. A lot of martial artists hold the knife like it's a paint brush with little thought as to where that blade is going. Chances are your local butcher has more experience and practical knowldge than your local martial arts/knife expert.

When you stab something living, the flesh will actually close around the knife, create suction around the blade and literally hold it in the body so withdrawing the weapon is a problem. Prisoners have been known to literally lash the blade to their hands with bed sheets and soak it in water to create an impact weapon as well as a way of ensuring the knife doesn't leave their hand until the job is done. The point is, in a real fight, it's going to be tough to hang on to the blade so you better do two things: train your grip and practice stabbing something that will give you realistic feedback.

In the past I have stabbed the family roast, a leg of lamb, water jugs and foam. While raw meat adds to the realism, it gets expensive, it's messy and will make you unpopular around dinner time. By far the cheapest and neatest target is good, old fashioned cardboard.

Cardboard gives you some realistic resistance, you can find it easily and it can be attached to anything with just a little duct tape (now 1002 uses). I like attaching it to the training dummy like we do in Module 9 of the Self Defense Training System titled "Weapons Offensive Tactics". This way you can practice striking and stabbing with the weapon for more effective training.

But before we continue I need to mention something regarding the realty of all this stuff. I do this not to shock you, but I want you to think about this logically and compare it to what is generally taught as knife fighting. Yes, the complicated flipping and twirling crap you see all over the internet.
First of all, let's get one thing straight. You are not pulling any of that fancy shit off. In a real assault, attempted rape or homicide your body experiences "HORMONE INDUCED HEART RATE" or FEAR. This causes the debilitating effects of combat stress that have been recognized for centuries. Phenomenon such as tunnel vision, auditory exclusion, the loss of fine and complex motor control, irrational behavior, and the inability to think clearly have all been observed as byproducts of combat stress. Even though these phenomena have been observed and documented for hundreds of years, very little research has been conducted to understand why combat stress deteriorates performance. The simple fact remains: we know this happens so we prepare for the reality of only being able to perform a few simple movements under combat stress. Listen, you can believe me, scientific research, the military and police OR you can believe the elderly Asian gentlemen in the fancy pajamas. For more on the subject of the psychology of combat you can start HERE. and I'll see you in a year.

Back to training.

As far as what type of cuts do the most damage, ask any Emergency Medical Tech or Emergency Room Doctor, Nurse or Medic. Slashes cause superficial wounds, thrusts or stabs cause mortal wounds. When you penetrate the body you pierce the organs. This will you get the desired result. The greater and more frequent the stabs, the faster the target will bleed out. Other than a direct stab to the Hypothalamus, the only way someone will die from a knife or a gun wound is loss of blood or blood asphyxiation depending on the location of the wound. The short of it is, fast fancy slashes look nice but have little or no stopping power. Let me put it to you this way, if you are only going to be able to recall a handful of gross motor skills under stress would you you better make them count. If your life is in danger and you're in a situation that forces you to use a weapon to defend your life, why would you screw around with anything else?

The most important thing to do is grip the hell out of the knife and plunge it into the vitals of your target as fast and as often as you can. Who cares if he puts his hands up or is foolish enough to try to block it or grab it. When trained correctly, no one should be able to "take the knife away". At least no one that I trained.

Think about this logically and put yourself in a situation where your best option was to run that SOB through, what frame of mind would you be in? Imagine the worst and then multiply it by 10. Fighting for your life is not a game and should not be treated as such.

To learn more about Module 9 WEAPONS OFFENSIVE TACTICS CLICK HERE

Until next time, Train Honestly,
Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
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VIDEO: Self Defense Circuit Training- Damian Ross, The Self Defense Company

Edge of hand circuit training with The Self Defense Training System. This clip show one of the hundreds of circuits from the Self Defense Training System. Damian Ross shows you how to incorporate your tactical training with body conditioning and physical conditioning. This circuit includes vertical dummy training, hand conditioning on your SDTS brick, push ups. lazy pull ups, lump hammer (killer on the delts), horizontal dummy training, and some ab swings to finish up. Each station has 25 reps and there is no rest in between stations. Do each hand 1 time through the circuit for a total of 4 rotations: Left hand horizontal edge of hand, Right hand horizontal edge of hand, Left hand vertical edge of hand and Right hand vertical edge of hand.

Repeat the circuit 1 to 4 times. This type of circuit can be replicated for any technique as detailed in the training manuals of The Self Defense Training System.


Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
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VIDEO-The Web of Hand Blow or Hand Yoke, Damian Ross, The Self Defense Company

This technique is featured in Module 2 of the Self Defense Training System "Advanced Methods of Striking" and The Guardian Defensive Tactics Police Combatives Program.

What I like about the technique is that it enables you to strike with a minimum of surface area (like the edge of hand) from a different angle of trajectory that's similar to the heel of hand or the chin jab. The down side of the technique is the possibility of injuring the thumb. In this clip, I show you how to tweak the technique so it minimizes that possibility. By simple arcing your strike slightly, you will minimize the chance of damaging the thumb and allow you to make contact with the correct area of the hand.

Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
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VIDEO: Hand Conditioning with Damian Ross and The Self Defense Training System

Body Conditioning: A systematic to prepare the human skeletal, musculature and nervous systems for close quarters, unarmed combat.

This is the most overlooked aspect of self defense training and it is essential for the SDTS (Self Defense Training System). Without this type of preparation you will be unable to withstand the physical demands of hand to hand combat. Methods that require you to wear hand protection, strike air or pull your technique on a regular basis must be SERIOUSLY examined as to their real world effectiveness.

There are tow types of "conditioning": offensive and defensive. Offensive conditioning refers to preparing all areas of the body used for attack: edge of hand, heal of hand, fore knuckles, forearms, elbows, shoulders, head, hip, knee, shin, heel, instep of foot, buttocks, bottom of foot, etc. Defensive conditioning refers to preparing the areas of the body that are targets of attack: chin, neck, throat, solar plexus, genitals, spine, kidneys, liver, spleen, etc.

The method to develop pain tolerance and to deliver effective strikes through body conditioning is simple in concept. Slowly start to inflict a tolerable amount of pain to the area without causing bleeding, bruising or breakage. build up the intensity over time and let pain be your guide. After you condition your body, put it in ice or under cold water ASAP and then hot. About 10 to 20 minutes of each. Do your conditioning at the end of your training session so you are warmed up and do not cause undo damage to your body.

The complete method of this essential training can be seen on module 6 of the self defense training system HERE (http://www.theselfdefenseco.com/module06.asp)

WARNING: STOP immediately is bleeding, bruising or intense pain. Make sure you are striking and object that is on a surface designed to absorb the shock and impact of your strikes. This will decrease any long term, negative effects of this type of training.
Damian Ross

www.selfdefensecompany.com Corporate Center
www.theselfdefenseco.com World's Most Lethal Self Defense
www.legaluseofforce.com Police Combatives Training
www.familysafeprogram.com Keep Your Family Safe
www.teachselfdefense.com Turn Your Passion into Profits
www.60minuteselfdefense.com Self Defense for Everyone
www.myselfdefenseresource.com Free Resource Material
FREE Training Forum http://theselfdefenseco.madmooseforum.com/