arts programs imply that you will be sharper, more resourceful, cooler under fire, more disciplined and more determined to win as a result of their training, but there is little actual instruction in how to accomplish such personal elevation. In crude programs like that, you are expected to just keep banging away at training and the advanced life skill capabilities you hope for will somehow magically emerge and mature despite lack of direct instruction in such qualities.
What if there were a reliably effective way to prepare yourself for conflict and confrontation in potentially dangerous streets, unpredictably troubled workplaces, and too-often unstable family homes while still maintaining a hopeful or optimistic outlook on life? What if there were a way to stay prepared for a violent clash without sinking into a pained mind-set of isolation and cold aloofness towards others? What if there were a way to build your awareness of personal security without losing the freedom to be trusting and joyous? What if there were a program that could show you how to feel more confident while not requiring you to dedicate your life to unabated alienating toughness? What if there were a way to prepare for possible conflict without having to become as cruel or brutish as the loathsome characters who take pleasure in violent damage to others?
My program emphasizes an ethic of learning to be a protector as opposed to a predator. Sure, some schools give lip service to such ideals, but evidence shows there is still a lot of loud aggressive ego even among some highly rated martial artists. I am disappointed to say that I have met too many martial arts teachers still controlled by the inner demon fears of inadequacy and insecurity that led them to seek instruction in how to fight in the first place. Sadly, beneath any noble creed can still lurk a need to present oneself as the roughest, meanest, or cruelest. Check and see. Flip through any popular martial arts magazine and count the photos of those who cultivate the look of tough criminals or thugs—the very monsters we train to protect against!
Our ideal is to become a tatsujin —a fully actualized person of accomplishment. The point of our training is creating more strength and safety in the world, instead of seeking thrill through hurting, beating, or conquering others.
If your martial arts training does not cause you to grow as a human being, such training can actually add to your pain in life. Without evolving and becoming stronger and bigger internally, you are stranded in a place where you have highly cultivated skills for hurting other people and yet are still dominated by internalized angers and fears collected in younger days of vulnerability. Do you really want to study how to be strong from a person whose fierce bristly external armor is but a brittle shell holding back the leftover childhood rage and loneliness he hopes you will never see in him?
This book is written for real people seeking realistic answers to real problem possibilities. Over the years, I’ve interviewed law enforcement officers, security professionals, emergency room doctors—and even coroners—to find the twelve most common attacks likely to be thrown at good people by dangerous aggressors. I then adapted the technique principles I learned from my decades of ninja taijutsu martial arts study and developed a first line of training to show people how to defend against these assaults. Begin your adventure with a look at how to win in the twelve assault types most likely to occur in a dangerous confrontation, how to work in those twelve threat situations to rescue yourself or other people, how to use twelve natural body self-defense tools, and how to develop the grounded presence of focused command in high-pressure situations.
I am first to acknowledge the training scenarios in this book are not the breathtaking exotic stuff of martial arts fantasy movies. I also do not hide the fact that seven of the twelve attacks covered in this book would be unlikely to show up in a prize fight arena, ring, or cage. The material here is neither for entertainment nor contest. These skills and insights are what you would want your loved ones to know if they ever had to walk some mean streets or make their way home from realms of predators. Less cool. More tool.
I admit my ego had to struggle with choosing a reality premise for this book. It is so tempting to just show off. I do have plenty of amazing tricky techniques I teach at my martial arts school, and a few friends urged me to make this an edgy and over-the-top book to impress others and celebrate my own decades of training for mastery.
I nonetheless chose to go with the ground of reality for this volume. A few of my other books teach some of my martial art’s more advanced skills, and my purpose in writing this book now after a lifetime of practice is not to show off or impress other martial arts masters. I have been asked by many people to present the distilled truth of what makes up the most important lessons in how to protect the good and the pure from the cruel and brutal. This then is indeed that. Here is the curriculum I wish I could have studied in my early days of passion for the martial arts when I began my training odyssey back in the 1960s.
The self-training program in this book gives you a solid and reliable foundation for learning how to prevail over violent aggressors. There are three sections to each lesson.
First, you will study a fundamental response for each problem. What do you do when you suddenly must intervene to protect yourself or someone else? These fighting hits and grabs are called “the basics” in English, or kihon in the original Japanese language, and are your primary fighting tools.
Next, you will study a defense against each of these rescues gone bad. What if a confused or violent person uses the same skills to attack you or another? Practice each kata, or “fight scenario form,” over and over as a way to learn to recognize the problem, condition yourself to find the right answer for the problem every time, and internalize how it feels to win.
Finally, you will practice your skills full-power and full-speed against training targets to advance your fighting attributes. How powerfully, quickly, and precisely can you move? You need to build muscle strength and flexibility, improve effective balance when you move quickly, and develop more fitness, finesse, and focus.
Depending on your level of expertise, you can practice each kata defensive action sequence with training partners approaching from appropriately progressing degrees of challenge:
“I’m new at this” - Practice the defense from a set place against a stationary simulated aggressor with a designated right or left attack
“I’m learning this” - Practice the defense from a set place against a stationary simulated aggressor who sends an attack from right or left without predesignation
“I’m getting this” - Practice the defense from a set place against a moving simulated aggressor who continuously changes position around you and then sends an attack at you from right or left
“I’m good” - Practice the defense while you move and change position against a likewise moving simulated aggressor who sends an attack from right or left
“I’m really good” - Practice the defense while on the move against a moving simulated aggressor who moves against you from right or left, and in multiple movement flow combinations with additional techniques from the same block of three lessons in the chapter
“I’ve got this down” - Practice the defense while on the move against one or more moving simulated aggressors who attack from right or left, as part of a multiple strike flow combination with additional strike or grab attacks from the entire series of twelve lessons.
This program delivers the twin benefits of efficient training for overcoming dangerous people and situations along with effective foundation building for personal self-development and well-being. If you are less vulnerable to humiliation or damage, you are more likely to be at ease in more situations with more people. The more at ease you are in more situations, the more likely you are to experience more peace in life. The more inner peace you find as a result of increased outer security, the more likely you are to cultivate enhanced health and happiness from less stress and tension. The healthier and happier you appear to be, the more other healthy
