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Wednesday, July 29, 2009

Self Defense Training

Ever heard of this guy?
http://www.targetfocustraining.com/index.html

Thanks,

flyboy



Hi Flyboy,

I never heard of this training program but it looks ok and focused purely on self defense which is good.
There's a part in the video where a guy purposefuly goes to the floor on second 37, looks as if he's doing some weapon retention drill, not sure why but I'd avoid going to the floor by all means in a real fight.
The one thing I noticed that there’s no non cooperative attacker drills (at least not in that intro video). If you don’t have non cooperative training (fighting) then it’s not very realistic.
Even if the instructor is a SEAL, his SEAL powers wont rub on to you just because you hang around him. :-) You need to fight yourself and fight against someone that wants to either knock you down or submit you.
If it sounds like competition, that’s because it is. It’s life, there’s winners and losers. If you go back home you win, if you end up dead you lose.
Another thing I noticed, is the confidence boost some of the people appeared to have.
When I went boxing for the first time, I got no confidence boost, got my ass kicked instead. After getting my ass kicked for some time I started doing some of my own ass kicking. Same when I started with Vale Todo and floor fighting, I was forced to tap out more times than I can remember, it was a humbling experience, not a false sense of security.
The close combat fighting class I took a few months ago? Again, I left feeling I needed more training, not less.
Beware of false senses of security. I don’t know much but I know that feeling all bad ass after a couple days of cooperative partner training means nothing, and may even do more harm than good boosting a person’s confidence beyond his/her real capabilities.
Then there’s marketing, and I think I mentioned this on the Krav Maga thread as well.
If you advertise your system or class in a way everyone feels they can do it, you’ll get more customers, more people that will pay for what you offer.
The class I took on close quarter H2H combat pretty much said bring a mouth piece and be ready to fight. There was no mistake and no feel good marketing strategy, and it was made abundantly clear that we we’re going to fight for real. We used mouth pieces and padded gloves, but those where the minimum safety measures. Other than that fingers to the eyes and groin kicks were all allowed. There was no excuse. No “Oh, but on the street I’d do this and that…”
No one was surprised when all those supposedly super deadly dirty tricks made almost no difference.
Of course in that class, you didn’t find soccer mom’s or couch commandos, you found fighters, people that had no problem delivering and receiving punches, kicks and pain in order to improve their H2H and knife skills.
Again, humbling experience, not false sense of security.
But that’s were the economic problem starts. An instructor needs to make a living. If you reduce your market sector to people that are fighters, guys and women that don’t worry much about getting a bloody nose, cut, bruised or a nose broken, that class isn’t going to be very big, because most people wont go for it.
Everyone has to start somewhere, and there should be self defense classes for men, women, senior citizens, beginners and advanced people.
Just don’t have false expectations and beware of anyone, any system or course that promises to turn you into someone with serious self defense capabilities just with a few days of training.
If the system doesn’t even include non cooperative training, be even more suspicious and think twice before spending your time and money there.

FerFAL

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ferfal,

I agree with you 100%. If you go to a class or gym where you don't have to wear a mouthpiece and a cup, you are just wasting your time. Tasting your own blood for the first time during training opens up a whole new world.

Take Care,

Cliff

DaShui said...

FerFal, I'm not sure about this post.
I know about 10 people that have been murdered and only one was beat to death, a woman. Half of them were shot, the others were killed by cars or Molatov cocktails.
If you were a (smart) surgeon you would not participate in these brawls, because you can't risk injuring your hands. Why risk injuring your hands, or eyes that you might need in order to use your Glock?
Why wear gloves? To protect yourself from boxer's fracture. If you are on the street and punch someone in the head, as you have been training, but without padding, you will break your hand, and you can't hold your pistol correctly, if at all.
M.A. or M.M.A. is fun, and one can learn an indefinite amount from them, but you can't tap out a .45 JHP.
One example I know of is when I had a Cajun repo man working for me. He was a tough guy, Sheriff deputy. One time when his arm was broken, and in a cast, he beat this guy with one hand in a fight. The Cajun's wife got angry one night and shot him in the the back and through the heart with a .357, killing him.

Anyway, train smart!
DaShui

FerFAL said...

DaShui, I understand what you mean.
I’m no surgeon but I do work with my hands a lot, mostly drawing and sketching. Guess I could still work with AutoCAD for drawing architecture plans, but I’m good at the sketching thing and braking a hand is a bit of a concern.
I broke several fingers on my left hand when playing Rubgy at school when I was younger, but hands are not something I’d want to mess with.
Guess you have to find a middle ground between safety and realistic fighting skills and training. Not always easy.
Punching correctly helps a lot. Hammering with the first as taught in many systems, including KM= very bad idea.
I’m not much of a fan these days of hardening the knuckles punching a makiguara, but I did that for years as well.
All I can say is that today I take care of my hands and wrists as well as I can, but still try to keep H2H fighting as real as possible.


FerFAL

Anonymous said...

I used to go to KM classes 3-5 times a week and there were several LEO in the class...at the conclusion of class you could see them all strapping on their fanny packs before they left (and I think we all know what was in the fanny packs).

I decided to do what the pros do and simply carry a handgun.