Guiding Principles
We train first and foremost for street self-defense.
We train to be effective in the street environment and then make adjustments to the training for students who wish to enter sporting competitions.
We train with progressive resistance.
A real attacker is going to resist your effort 100%. If you want to learn how to fight, you have to practice fighting against someone who is fighting back. Progressive resistance allows everyone, regardless of experience, to do this in a safe and fun training environment.
We train as complete self-defense athletes: All the ranges (kicking, punching, trapping, standing and ground grappling), multiple opponents, weaponry and environmental awareness.
We train to be prepared for almost any situation. We want each student to actually train in as many self-defense scenarios as possible so that if a student gets into a bad situation they already have experience in that particular situation.
Have Fun!
I plan to train for the rest of my life and it is my hope that my students will do the same. If we are going to spend this much time working on developing functional skills, we should be having fun doing it. If you are training for competition, you have to grind and do a lot of very uncomfortable and painful training. If you are training for self-defense, you should work very hard at times, but it should not be a big grind. The training sessions should be so enjoyable that we look forward to each class. Our classes are held in a very relaxed but disciplined atmosphere. Lots of laughing and joking while training hard. As Bruce Lee said, "You should train seriously, but don't seriously train."
What We Do
Students learn both the defensive and offensive aspects of empty-hand self-defense. The four ranges of fighting (kicking, punching, trapping, and grappling) are explored and proficiency is gained at all ranges. The empty-hand curriculum is derived from Jun Fan Gung Fu, Western (American) Boxing, Panantukan (an empty-hand sub-system of Filipino Martial Arts), Brazilian Jujitsu, Sombo, Catch-As-Catch-Can, Combat Submission Wrestling and Muay Thai.
Weapons
The weapons curriculum comes primarily from the Filipino Martial Arts of Kali, Escrima and Arnis. Weapons training greatly enhance the students speed, timing and hand-eye coordination. In addition, this element of the curriculum sensitizes the student to the need for defensive skills against impact and edged weapons. The weapon-based curriculum is derived from the LAMECO Eskrima, LucayLucay Kali systems and Inosanto-Lacaste.