The Seven Signs Your Instructor’s a Pussy

Anti-violent mantras from the mouths of  martial artists

If you spent any time in a martial arts uniform, somewhere, someone along the line has told you to never use your art for violence.

I call bullshit.

There is CLEARLY a time to use force, if there isn’t, what the heck are we doing all of this for?

People get attacked and raped every day (there’s your happy thought). Violence is real and it happens in every community. If you think you can talk your way out of any situation and will never have to resort to violence I have a great tip on a horse…

The “never use violence” philosophy perplexed and confused me throughout my self defense and martial arts journey. There were times I even used these terms myself because I felt it was something I was obligated to say, like a disclaimer before an advertisment. To be honest, people like to hear that they don’t have to fight, it gives them some relief knowing that if they train and prepare, they will never have to fight.

But that’s a lie and it’s irresponsible.

Training with the hope that you’ll never fight is like learning to swim with a fear of water. You wouldn’t practice swimming so you don’t have to swim. At some point you’re going to get wet and in  deep water so you better train like it’s going to happen.

Now on to the Seven Signs Your Instructor’s a Pussy

1.”Always Walk Away”

Do you mean turn your back on a potential threat? Do you mean run away? What if I have my kids there? Do I leave them?

Seriously, I don’t understand this statement and for the life of me I really don’t know why someone would tell another human being this…EVER.

Between normal, law abiding people there should never be a reason to use force. You can disagree without fighting and most times you do. But then there are times someone just doesn’t want to “agree to disagree” and take it to the next level. Now it doesn’t matter if the fight is over a parking space or your child’s life – the level of danger is the same and should be handled as such.  A push is just a push, but if you slip and crack your skull you’re still just as dead.

You should never turn your back on any threat and you should NEVER let them to get close enough to hit you. Now it’s not up to me (or anybody else) to TELL YOU you have to use force, just as it’s not up to some chuckle-head to tell you you have to walk away. To fight or not to fight is a personal decision that  you have to make.

I only tell you the best tactical time to use force (which happens to also fall within the guidelines for legal use of force). The decision to take advantage of this time is yours and yours alone.

2. “I train to Fight so I don’t have to Fight”

Bruce Lee gets credit for this quote – the same guy who claims to have fought in “hundreds” of street fights. One of his “fights” was even depicted in the movie Dragon. So what gives? You’re training  to fight AND still fighting?!?! Well if the legend of Bruce Lee is true, even the Kung Fu Master himself felt the need to “put foot to ass” from time to time. So let’s green light your decision to do the same.

I like this quote better “I train to fight so I know how to fight.”

When you know how to fight you get a certain “Alphaness” (I’m totally copyrighting that). Alphaness is the subconscious signal  you put out when you really know how to protect yourself. This only happens when you have true knowledge and confidence in your skill and the will to follow through.

3. “Violence Never Solves Anything”

Maybe not, but it sure stops a lot of stuff like rape, murder, WWII, the invasion of Iraq…should I keep going?
There are many people on this earth that use violence to intimidate and take whatever  they want. These animals only understand power and pain. The only way to stop them is with more power and pain.

4. “Violence is Never the Answer”

On the contrary, sometimes violence is the only answer. It is an immediate and effective means of correcting anti-social behavior.

Violence is a short term solution to an immediate problem.

I wouldn't try to rehabilitate a criminal by beating him on a daily basis and I wouldn’t try to counsel a man who was kicking in the door to my house.

5. “Use Non-Lethal Techniques First”

This notion comes from the “escalation of force” concept that is always misinterpreted. Escalation of force applies to police work and basically comes down to verbal commands, physical and mechanical use of force and finally deadly use of force.

If they don’t listen, you use your hands, feet, pepper spray, ASP, taser, etc to get them to comply. If they appear to want to hurt you or others and are capable you can use deadly force.

This does NOT apply to technique. Somehow people have twisted this into meaning I start with pain compliance, then go to joint locks, then strikes and chokes…IT”S NONSENSE.

When it comes down to self defense once you’ve made the decision to use force you have only one obligation – survive and stop the threat as fast as possible by whatever means possible.

Messing around with complicated  joint locks and pressure points only creates opportunity for your attacker to injure you. Your best bet is to use methods that will stop your attacker dead in his tracks.

There is no classification in any law book that details what techniques you can use.

There’s nothing that is “banned by the government” or “outlawed” either. No mention of technique or style. There’s only use of force and deadly force. Which means there are times you can use force and there are times you can use deadly force.

Use of force cases focus on the circumstances of the situation and use terms like credible,  reasonable and duty to retreat.

Take this situation for example:

You’re approached by some young thug  by your car in an empty parking lot.
He asks you for some spare change and you say you don’t have any.
He continues to ask and you decide to back away, he follows you.

Can you use force to defend yourself?

Is he a “credible threat”? YES.

Can you “retreat” without putting yourself at risk? NO.
He’s following you and if you turn your back on him, you will be put at risk

Is it “reasonable”to assume that his intent is more than just spare change? YES.
You told him “NO” and he continued to stalk you. His intention must be more than what he has indicated.

Can you defend yourself right now? YES.

Can you use deadly force? Possibly.Depends on the details and your lawyer. More times than not, if you’re outmatched you may be able to use deadly force.

The bottom line, you don’t have to wait for him to physically attack you to use force, which brings me to…

6. “Always let your attacker, attack first.”

This goes along with “always let him throw the first punch” which works in the school yard with 4th graders, but in the real world we call the guy who waits for the first punch the victim.

Waiting for the punch or the grab is too late. A good street fighter is going to attack you with a barrage of punches and stabs and try to beat you into the earth.

Yet everywhere in every martial arts and self defense class millions of students around the world, train to wait. What’s the first thing you do in self defense class? OK line up with your partner and let him grab you – STOP, there’s the problem. You’re training to wait for the attack. You’re training to let someone into your space, put their hands on you and attack.

Against a real threat this is just too late. If they can put their hands on you, they’re too close.

What you need to do is put yourself in a position of advantage and identify the intent of your threat BEFORE he makes a move.
We cover that in SDTS Module 1.

Then you attack in a way that takes into consideration that your attacker is armed, has intent, has friends, is bigger and stronger than you (all in Module 1 as well).

7. “Always fight ‘honorably’.

Let’s make one thing clear – LIVE your life HONORABLY, but FIGHT DIRTY.

Once the decision is made to go, then you need to go full bore, no BS. Never put yourself at risk by training in tactics that enable your attacker to “slip away.” In fact, the safest and most humane thing to do is to end the conflict as fast as possible.

Your safety comes first – not your attacker’s safety. Going into a real fight with the notion that you’re superior fighter just because you got some time in a gym and underestimating your attacker is a HUGE mistake.

Most of the scariest people you will ever meet, never spent a day in a dojo. What makes them dangerous isn’t their strength or their techniques, it’s their will to do anything it takes to get what they want.

You must be willing to do the same.

Hey, I get it, you don’t want to hurt anyone. Good, normal people don’t fantasize about hurting others. There’s not an argument that can’t be solved with decent communication. That’s why most “fights” don’t go beyond the verbal stage.

But there are people who use violence to get want they want if they think it will work. To defeat these animals you must be willing to do whatever it takes to save yourself and the people you care about.

It’s the only true way.

See You on the Inside…

The Self Defense Company

Training For Multiple Attackers

George Hutchings
Self Defense Company Ontario

There is a lot of discussions about training for multiple attackers.  First off being in a situation with multiple attackers sucks.  One person who wants to do you harm is bad enough.  Now add a couple more individuals who have little to no regard for your well being and you can see that this is really a situation that you do not want to be in.

Most martial arts and self defense systems focus on training you to deal with one threat.  They give you great strategies for dealing one on one, and then give you a separate training on dealing with multiple attackers.

Well let me let you in on a little secret. Every situation should be thought of as a multiple attacker situation.  Always assume that your attacker has friends. And the sad thing is you really are only able to "fight" one person at a time.  So you better train to to get rid of them as fast as possible.

                                                                                                                  The Self Defense Company provides the perfect training.   With Insider  all of the training maintains the mindset that every situation is a multiple attacker situation.

Do Your Worst

George Hutchings
Self Defense Company Ontario

I get asked all the time why I chose the Self Defense Company and the Self Defense Training System. Unfortunately my response is always "out of necessity".  We live in a nasty world.  There are people out there who want to hurt you.  They don't give a shit if you make it home to your family or not.  Perhaps you have something that they want.  Perhaps you were walking in the wrong place.  Or perhaps that sick fuck just wants to have his way with you.

There are lots of great systems out there. But when I took the time to evaluate each, I was convinced that the SDC was exactly what I was looking for.  And the founder Damian Ross has not disappointed me one bit.

With the Self Defense Training System we teach you to be aggressive.  Do your worst to your attacker.  He has no regard for you. You are just a piece of shit.  Not every encounter will force you to be lethal but it sure is awesome knowing that if shit hits the fan you have the necessary skills to protect yourself.

Check out Insider today and get started training in this amazing system.

10 Minute Self Defense

The Self Defense Company

10 Minutes is all it takes to go from Candy Ass to Bad Ass

If you’re living on this planet earth, you’re in the game. Your chance of being attacked NEVER changes and only gets more probable the older you get. If you think you’re too busy, too old, or too broke for self defense…that’s all going to change right now.

Self defense training shouldn't be a luxury of the young and wealthy. Everyone needs this skill and now you’re going to get it.

Knowing how to protect yourself and your loved ones is a life skill that can be easily incorporated into your everyday life. The problem is your idea of “training” involves a lot of time and sacrifice and it’s a pain in the ass in the long term.

Training in a martial art or with an instructor is a short term solution. Sooner or later you’ll get injured, move, change your job, lose your job, get married, have kids or get bored (Don’t worry, your instructor does too) it happens to all of us.

Earth, a nice place where people attack and rape each other…kind of a lot.

Let’s face it, by the time you arrange your schedule, get to the gym, change your clothes, talk to the classmates you like (avoid the ones you don’t), take class and get home, that one hour class actually will take two or more hours!

How long will you be able to set aside a couple of hours out of your day to make class?

According to the National Association of Martial Arts Professionals (NAPMA) the average adult goes to a martial arts class about 2 to 3 times a week for 3 months.

That’s it. So NAPMA spends a lot of time thinking of clever ways to keep you training longer. Me on the other hand thought of ways I could train you faster.

So instead I developed a way to train you faster in that 3 month time frame. I look at this this way, as an adult your number one concern is self defense. So if you’re going to spend 5 minutes, 5 days or 5 weeks – you’re going to walk away with some REAL SKILL and knowledge.

And it worked really well, but there was a problem.

3 months is enough time to build an awesome self defense skill set, but over time your skills get rusty so you need some form of regular practice to keep your self defense skills from deteriorating. The problem was solved by creating the Insider Training Platform, but it had to meet some pretty tough criteria if it was going to work.

I will tell you right now – going “back to class” is not the answer.

Going to class is an impractical, long term solution for most people; it takes up way too much time and expense and it can’t “go with you” so to speak, you have to go to it and that doesn't fly.

In order to accomplish this your self defense training needs to be:

• Simple and easy to learn – something you can do alone or with friends
• Convenient to fit your every day life – accessible through modern, mobile technology
• Non-intrusive – short practice sessions that can accessed from anywhere
• Adaptable to your ever changing physical ability – Our health changes from day to day, the way you protect yourself does too.
• Affordable – You shouldn't have to sacrifice anything other than pennies a day.

Finally and most important the self defense has to WORK. If it doesn't work, don’t bother.

Simple is as simple does.

Self defense is SIMPLE, it has to be. There’s no such thing as complicated or advanced self defense. Advanced self defense is  a unicorn – it doesn't exist in reality.The only “moves” that work in self defense are simple and to be honest, completely devoid of any athleticism.  They’re not pretty and that’s a good thing because the stress of fighting for your life is nothing like you experience in the ring. The adrenaline shot will shut down a lot of things you take for granted, like small motor skills, your ability to reason and peripheral vision.

Fortunately these simple, core power body movements are really easy to learn and recall.

10 minutes is all it takes right in the comfort of your own home at your own pace and in your own time. 

Short term increment training is something educators have known for years and it’s how we set up the SDTS Combatives Program on Insider. According to the University of Southern Florida College of Education it’s actually better to learn in small 10-15 minute increments than hour or more long sessions. It seems our attention span for comprehension and learning only happens in those increments the rest is physical conditioning and muscle memory.

You’re SDTS Combative Insider Training will take advantage of this proven learning principle.

All you need to do is:

• Log onto Insider (http://insider.theselfdefenseco.com)
• Set up your training in convenient spot in your home area like we show you in Module 1.
• Pick a few training drills and do them for a few minutes whenever you feel like it.
• When you get bored or feel that you’re comfortable with them, go to the next few.
• If you have a question log on to Insider and ask in the forum.

Now there will be days you’ll want to go for a long periods of time (especially in the beginning) and you’ll probably be able to do this for a few months and that’s great but like I said, it’s going to stop so you’re long term plan looks something like this:

SDTS Combative Training For Life

• 5 to 10 minute work outs every day or two
• An occasional long term session or train with a certified SDTS Instructor in person or at a seminar
• Go on Insider and read blog posts
• Go in the SDC Library and read the material
• Go on the Insider  SDC Nation Forum to keep up on current events

Even if you don’t physically train, just thinking about self defense issues and topics will increase your awareness.

Like I said, you’re not training for the Olympics, you’re training for your life. Low and slow…like Barbeque!

Train for your worst nightmare on your worst day.

SDTS Combatives isn't only empty hand techniques, this would be a huge misconception. Your training will include every type of modern edged and impact weapon and how to carry, conceal and use those weapons. Everything from pepper spray to black jacks is covered. Because when you are older, smaller or weaker you need an edge to take down that 800 pound gorilla.

Remember, survive by whatever means fair or foul.

I don’t care about the bad guy, I care about you getting home to your family and friends. I care about your ability to do your job and provide for your loved ones.

I want to give you an option other than to hope no one attacks you or just give them what they want. Because they might not stop at your wallet.

The World’s Most Effective Self Defense for only 65 cents a day.

You shouldn't be too busy or too broke to save the lives of the people who matter most. There’s no reason not to take 5 minutes and a few dollars to make sure you have a plan for when the wolves come to your door.

I think its a tragedy that money will get in the way of your survival. That’s why SDTS Combatives was made affordable and accessible. If you can read this, we can train you. There’s no reason you can’t do this.

Self defense is a life skill and should be treated as such. Like auto maintenance, balancing your checkbook or going to the grocery store. You have time to feed yourself every day, yet you don’t have time to protect your self?

Self preservation is a primary instinct, like food and shelter. Every person should know how to defend themselves and you don’t need to spend thousands of dollars and years of your life to do it

Your Training Partner is Killing You

How a training partner makes you weak.

The Self Defense Company

There is no “give and take” is self defense.

You’re either attacking or being attacked – you’re either hitting or being hit – it’s just that simple.

And it is always better to “give” than it is to receive.

Yet you’re still under the impression that you need a training partner for self defense when the opposite is true because training on a live training partner will have a negative impact on your effectiveness and develop extremely bad habits in your subconscious that will have grave ramifications.

Remember – this is not martial arts or combat sport – it’s self defense and there’s a huge difference.

I've trained tens of thousands of people to survive in the worst environments on the planet and the training is always the same – the only difference is if you’re doing it next to someone or alone.

The following are common misconceptions about partner training.

1. You need to know what it’s like to “get hit” and work with on a real person.

I’m sure Ricky Hatton (on ground) is really confident in his self defense skills now.

In firearms training do you need to know what it’s like to get shot? NO.
There are thousands (if not millions) of soldiers and cops who at the moment of truth fired their weapons and survived, all without ever being shot.

If you train knife defense do you need to get stabbed? NO.
Again, thousands of people have been stabbed and didn't even know they were stabbed until after the fight was over.
You can see hundreds of gruesome images on google.

Feeling what it’s like to get hit isn't necessary.  In fact in a real fight if you get hit with a good shot you’re probably going to lose.
In a fight you’re either hitting or getting hit. There is no, he hits me and I counter with another strike, that only happens in sport and the movies. In a real fight he’s going to come at you with a barrage of attacks, punching, stabbing, kicking, biting – he wants to end you as fast as possible. That first strike will lead to two, four, six, you’re out.

The only way to avoid this is to position yourself at the correct distance so you can gain the advantage BEFORE the physical attack occurs. Any system that teaches you to wait and block will get you killed. PERIOD.

One more important point is the amazing effects of adrenaline. In a real fight you will not even feel the punch that grazes you, the stab or the gun shot. You will be able to keep going as long as you attack.

2. Sparring  helps with self defense.

Point sparring is a game of tag that creates bad habits for self defense.

Other than standing in front of a real person who wants to hit you, sparring has nothing to do with self defense. The object of sparring is to score points, make them tap or in some cases knock them out by striking specific target areas. The purpose of sparring isn't to maim, injure or kill your target. Sparring is designed for safety, good sportsmanship and entertainment.

You wear protective gloves and equipment in a safe, controlled environment. Striking someone for real without a glove and a hand wrap could have disastrous results. Busted knuckles will render your hand useless, not only to strike, but to hold a weapon. In the street you need to strike in a way that protects your hands.

In sparring you face someone of your same size, age, sex and experience (the more contact in the sport, the more restrictive these requirements). In the real world you will be targeted by someone who thinks they can dominate you. That means they’re going to be bigger, have friends that you don’t see or a weapon. In the real world, it’s never going to be a fair fight. So don’t fight fair.

Sparring is consensual – there is a time and a place for your fight. One of the biggest challenges you face in the street is uncertainty. If you’re not trained correctly you won’t if the fight is going to take place or your threat is just posturing.

If you don’t know what to look for, he’ll get the drop on you and one shot is all they need. You need to put yourself in a position so that you can smoke out any physically aggressive technique before it happens.

This is more crucial for civilians. Soldiers in the battle field and Cops responding to a call are mentally prepared to have enemy contact. So they’re at an advantage in the field. They have an idea who the bad guys are and are armed to deal with them.

But when they’re off duty, they face the same problems as you, uncertainty.

You also must train to “win every time”. You can afford to lose in the ring, but you can’t afford to lose in the street. There is clearly one winner and it’s you and to develop the right mind set you must win each and every time.

3. Your training partner isn't really trying to kill you.

Jason was a great training partner.

This makes all the difference in the world. When you train with a partner and it’s your turn, they let you win.
Your partner can go fast and hard but if they accidentally hit you, they’ll immediately stop and apologize and you’ll go put some ice on it.

4. Training with a partner gives you a false sense of confidence. 

Teaching kids to think they can use useless techniques like this finger lock is completely irresponsible.

You “think” your techniques work because your partner stops when you pretend to hit him. You think you can really strangle because your partner taps. But that’s really only a fraction of the force you need to REALLY strangle someone until they’re out cold.

You pull your punches, you stop your strangles because you don’t want to hurt your partner, which is a good thing. If you really want to hurt another human being in practice you’re either a psychopath, asshole or both.

The problem is in order to develop real power you need to practice It’s like lifting weights. If you use the same weight every day you will not get stronger.

To get the power you need you need to go against resistance and in this case, it’s not weights but the force you put into striking, strangling, stabbing and gouging.

Training is about developing habits.

If you train to pull your strikes – you will.

If you train to stop at the tap – you will.

You practice how you play and if you practice pretending to hit someone, that’s what you’ll do.

5. Partner training teaches you to wait to be attacked.

Grown men don’t attack each other like this…EVER.

Typical self defense training looks like this: your partner attacks you and you defend.

Just the fact that you’re standing in close range to a potential threat waiting to see what they do is a problem. You’re waiting for someone who is intent on hurting you to strike, grab, stab or bludgeon you.

This is insane, yet everyone who’s ever taken a self defense class has done this exact same thing.

Oh and is there a wrist grabbing epidemic I don’t know about?
I don’t know why every system in the world spends so much time on this.

Let me save you the trouble…JUST HIT AND KEEP HITTING.

6. How do you practice an eye gouge?

Or a bite, or a knock out blow or a throat crush or a stab? How do you really know how to stab something?

I have to chuckle at “knife fighting” experts who spend time dancing with their weapons like peacocks and never, ever practice stabbing ANYTHING! I remember training in Filipino Martial Arts and taking several knife fighting seminars where all we did was stand in rows and stab the air.

Holy crap what a circle jerk.

Let me save you some more time.

Knife fighting requires you hold on to the weapon and plunge it into your attacker as many times as possible. There are a few major target areas on the body that will accelerate your desired result and avoid large bone structures, and a few different blades and grips. But for the most part, put the pointy end in the bad guy as much as possible with as much force as possible and don’t let go.

Protect the weapon at all times.

In order to do that you need to practice stabbing something. We show you exactly how to do this in SDTS Module 9.

If you’re going to do it, you need to REALLY do it. You can’t just say you’ll just gouge the eyes, bite or squeeze his testicles you need to really train this.

Grip the head, plunge the thumbs into the eyes, squeeze and scoop while you shake the head. Repeat as needed.

You can’t do that with a partner and you shouldn't, that’s why we train the way we do.

Self defense requires you to do one thing: survive at all costs.

There are 3 segments, Awareness, Escape and Domination.

Your best chances of survival when you need to use force (Escape and Domination) depend on your ability to strike first, strike fast and strike hard (NO MERCY SIR!).

The better you can do this, the greater your chances of survival.

You don't wait , you go.

SDTS Combatives is something you do to someone, not with someone. You  don’t care what your attacker does do because you’re not going to give him the chance. You’re going to try to avoid fighting, but once he crosses that line you’re going to attack you with NO REGARD.

That means when you train your technique you need to go 100% power. This is the only thing that will build real skill and intent.

There are only two times to train with a partner: using non-lethal techniques for security and law enforcement (Guardian and Protector) or if you wanted to do some grappling to see how you can position yourself to use the SDTS ground techniques, but even that only requires a few times before you see the vulnerability of sport martial arts.

Go hard, go fast, go first.

What’s the Best Self Defense Move?

What’s the one or two moves you should know?

I get this question a lot and the answer isn't what you think.

First of all this question illustrates a huge problem in the world of self defense. You have been forced to learn moves or counters to specific situations. The more “moves” you know the better off you are.

This is bullish!t.

In fact the amount of moves you know has no bearing on your ability to protect yourself .

I’ll give you an example.

The “Front Choke” attack – arms extended waiting for you to react is not how it will happen. In reality your attacker will be head butting you, kneeing you and trying to bang your head off of a delivery van. By the time you remember to tuck your chin, it’s over.

In every other system on the planet your training looks something like this: Attacker grabs your shirt collar, you practice a counter defense. Then your attacker grabs your throat and you practice yet another defense. He pushes you and yet another defense.

3 different defenses,for 3 different attacks, meanwhile all of those attacks could be defended against with one simple set of skills.

You train for every possible attack and the truth is, when your fight of flight mechanism kicks in all of that goes out the window. The problem is you won’t realize this until you’re really attacked since it is IMPOSSIBLE to recreate a life or death situation in training.

The reality is this: MOVES ARE NOT IMPORTANT. Tactics and Mindset are what’s important.  Moves are just the method to implement those tactics and mindset.