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The following information is to provide a brief introduction to
the teaching and training theory behind the development of this system. It is
important to note that the following information is just to give you (the
reader) an introduction to the thought processes and logic behind the
development of a self defense system that breaks from traditional martial arts
technique and training methodology. This is by no means meant to explain the
total system to you. This is really meant to try and give you some insight into
some of the intricacies that differentiate a system of self defense from that of
a traditional martial art. The sole focus of your training from white belt
through black belt is grounded in developing skills that will enable you to
survive the violence that plagues our modern society.
Before I start, I would like to pay a special tribute to my
first instructor and mentor, Master Sensei Steve
Fossum. Without his instruction this system would not exist. He was the
person who first instilled in me the ideas of challenging traditional training
methods that were not applicable in a real street fight. He pointed out the
problematic methods of teaching everyone the same techniques because it is in
direct  conflict with the fabric of our
development; our individuality. I learned to be skeptical and to find out for
myself if something really worked, as opposed to just accepting what someone
told me. Mr. Fossum's teachings and many of the techniques of
System 5 Combat Karate have played an important role
in the development of this system.
I was fortunate to start my martial arts training in an
eclectic art (System 5 Combat Karate.) that
focused on practical self defense skills. I have cross trained in many different
martial arts and I can honestly say that I have found very few systems that
offer self defense skills that a student can apply in today's modern society.
After spending nearly 12 years of intensive study in several martial arts,
earning two black belts in two different systems, and working 3 years in patrol
for the Sacramento Police Department, I noticed most of what I had been taught
in the traditional martial arts was not effectively preparing me to face the
types of situations that happen all over the country in our cities and suburbs.
Through actual street encounters, I realized that most of the traditional
martial arts are just simply antiquated methods of reacting to an environment
that has been drastically changed since the industrial revolution.
The main core of what is now termed "traditional
martial arts" development took place over the last 1500 years. Before
the industrial revolution, warfare often involved close quarter combat with a
multitude of various weapons. Because of this, many traditional arts focused on
the use and defense against weapons such as: short stick, long bo, tonfa, sai,
long and short sword, knife or dagger, kama or sickle, bayonet, and many others.
Traditional training also focused on grueling workouts using stances such as the
"horse" stance to develop leg strength and stamina. This type
of training was not so much to make the student a better martial artist but
rather to prepare them for the exhausting and physically demanding endeavor of
engaging in war.
In the traditional translation, the word "martial"
refers to "military" or "war" arts. This is
because originally that is what they were designed for. However, war is not
fought the same as it was 1000 years ago or even 100 years ago for that matter.
The type of training that is required for someone to prepared for a war is
different in many ways from what is needed to defend yourself on the streets of
our cities and suburbs. This is not to say that some methods of training
soldiers is not applicable to a street fight, especially the mental attitudes of
survival and perseverance in the face of imminent danger. I am simply stating
that much of what is taught is wasted time that could be better spent on more
practical training. For example, our front line soldiers can be required to hike
8-10 miles in rough terrain carrying a 100lb back pack and still have the
strength to fight at the end of the day. They need a level of strength and
endurance that simply does not apply to the street fight that a civilian faces,
which is usually over in a few seconds. For this same reason, traditional
martial arts incorporated training methods that over developed areas of strength
and endurance. This is because wars fought long ago required the movement of
troops on foot, walking for miles, even days before they reached the
battlefield. Once the battle started, they may have to fight for hours or days
without stopping, eating, or sleeping. Close quarter combat meant fighting
person after person, all possibly having different weapons and all trying to
kill you. Remember, we are talking about training methods going back 1500 years
or more in some arts. This type of long term endurance training simply does not
apply to a street fight that generally last a few seconds or a maximum of a few
minutes. It doesn't matter if you can stand in a deep "horse" stance
for an hour if the fight only lasts a few minutes. This is not to say that you
shouldn't train for strength and endurance. I am saying don't waste an hour of
precious time standing in horse stance to develop something you can accomplish
with a couple sets of squats and a 20 minute jog. Your self defense training is
a specialized skill and most of us only have a few hours a week that we can
dedicate out of our busy schedules to practice and train. That time is best
spent learning and developing the skills that will keep you from becoming a
victim.
Today many of the traditional martial arts hold on to these old
methods of training. This is not a matter of significant importance if you are
interested in learning martial arts for reasons other than self defense.
However, if your main reason for learning the arts is to develop skills to
defend yourself than you can unknowingly waste a great deal of time over
training in areas that really do not offer any benefits to teaching you how to
defend yourself against the common street thug or sexual predator. This is not
to say that traditional martial arts has nothing to offer. On the contrary, I
thoroughly enjoy training in traditional arts. What I am saying is that most
traditional arts are not teaching "self defense." Many of your
traditional arts advertise self defense training as part of their instruction
but what they teach is not going to prepare you for a real fight. Most of the
instructors out there that run traditional schools simply do not have any real
life experience with actual street fights. This is like someone who goes out and
shoots basketball alone and never plays in a game. They may be able to make a
basket from anywhere on the court but that doesn't mean they can make a basket
when they are being covered by one or even two defenders.
In the study of logic there is a fallacy of "appealing
to authority." This is commonly used in advertising to get people to
buy products through faulty reasoning. For example, a lot of people pay big
money for Nike Air Jordan basketball shoes because they are endorsed by one of
the greatest basketball players to ever play the game. People convince
themselves that the shoe is the best based on the fact that Michael Jordan
endorses the shoe. What people do not think about is the fact that Michael
Jordan is an expert on basketball and not an expert on the construction of a
shoe. He endorses the Nike shoe because that is the company that probably
offered him the most money to sign his name on a dotted line.
The same thing happens with self defense training. Students
walk into the closest martial arts school, look at the guy in the karate uniform
wearing the black belt and assume that he/she must know what they are talking
about. If you stop and think about it you can see that the idea of someone who
has never been in a street fight teaching you how to defend yourself seems a
little perplexing. I am always amazed about the people teaching women how to
stop a rapist and yet they have never talked to rape victim or dealt with a rape
suspect. Let us look at this from another perspective for a moment. If you
needed an operation you, like most people, would look for a specialist. Someone
who has performed the operation numerous times with a high success rate. You
would avoid the doctor who is right out medical school with no time in on the
operating table. The reason why is obvious. Yet when it comes to self defense
training most people walk right into the nearest school and sign up without a
question or thought as whether or not the person running the school really knows
what they are talking about. We watch and see if they can throw fancy punches
and kicks and say to ourselves
"well they must know what they are doing because I
can see that they can punch and kick."
Well, I am here to tell you that there is a difference between
self defense training and traditional training, but only a person who has a
background in dealing with street violence, traditional training methods, and
modern self defense training is going to be able to fully teach a student what
those differences are. Why? Because they can compare their learned training with
their experiences of actual application in a street environment. The problem is
that there are very few schools out there that have their self defense training
actually tested in real confrontations. Without testing out your training all
you really have is conjecture and theory.
What I have learned from the experience of being in numerous
street altercations, most on duty and a few off duty, is that most of the
traditional martial arts techniques do not work in a real street fight. In
addition to my own encounters, I get a first hand look at what can happen to
someone on any given day by interviewing victims of various assaults, ranging
from sexual attacks and fist fights, to injuries resulting from being attacked
by just about any type of weapon you can use. In just a few years on the force,
I have seen everything from bruises and scratches to broken bones, deep
lacerations and puncture wounds, to a young man die in front of my eyes from a
gun shot wound to the head. The person that shot him in the head was sitting
next to him with approximately 4-5 gun shot wounds to the chest.
When I started comparing my past training to what really
happens on the street I realized there was a severe lack of real self defense
training. There is much more to self defense training then just punching and
kicking. There are so many martial arts that train to one extreme or the other.
Some arts focus too much on striking, some arts are too concerned with
grappling, and some arts spend far too much time training with weapons that are
only found in a martial arts school. There are some arts that offer cross
training along with their traditional training but the problem with that is the
students are still just training in two different arts that focus on one extreme
aspect or another. The fact of the matter is that we live in a dangerous world
full of violent attacks that are started and finished in seconds. This is the
world that we live in. Once you accept that you can start preparing yourself to
survive in it.
After introspection on my past training and the comparative
research that I was able to conduct while on duty, I came to the conclusion that
I needed to develop a system that focused on "blending the
extremes." I have sought to develop a system of self defense that
focuses on teaching specific skills that apply to children, teens, and adults.
The system was designed to create an individual training program that focuses on
the needs of three separate student types and two different gender types (male
& female). Unlike most other martial arts, this system does not teach
everyone the same. The program for children is different than that of teens and
adults, and the program for women is different than that of men. The goal of
this system is give the students the most balanced approach to self defense
possible by blending and adapting the best elements from other martial arts
systems, along with an understanding of the cold hard reality of the dangers
that lurk around every corner of our society.
The elements of those systems that result in a lot of wasted
time training on things that are not practical for any of the three
aforementioned groups of students was discarded. Traditional techniques were
modified and changed to apply to our modern society. Techniques and teaching
theories were also developed to apply specifically to the three different groups
because in the real world children face different threats than that of teenagers
and adults. There is also a vast difference in the types of threats that women
face as opposed to men. This is not to say that the ending result may not be the
same. By this I mean that in our society children, women, and men are all
susceptible to encountering physical or sexual assaults, or even death, by the
hands of a fellow member of our society. What is different is the initial threat
assessment and the circumstances that lead up to the altercation. For example,
women are much more likely then men to be physically beaten or killed by a
spouse or boyfriend. Children and women are also much more likely to be sexually
assaulted or kidnapped as opposed to adult men. Teen and adult men are much
more likely to get involved in physical fights with another person over trivial
matters.
The result of my training and research is a system that focuses
on the individual needs of its students through the teaching of techniques and
training methods that allow the student to "blend" together
all of their  learned material. While the
system is balanced it will never be complete because the process of "balance"
is never ending. We live in a world that is constantly changing. To quote Bruce
Lee,
"nothing is so permanent
as never to change."
Threats and violence are constantly finding new ways of
entering our so called "civilized society." Nothing has made
that more evident than the tragedy of the terrorist attacks of September 11th,
2001. With that said, It is my vow that I will not allow myself or this system
to become stagnant. As violence changes and adjusts to find its victims so too
must the methods and manner in which we train to avoid becoming a statistic on
some national crime reports.
Conrad Woodall
Master Sensei
- If you have any further questions or would like to sign up for the free
introductory class please contact the school by any of the following means:
© Copyright Woodall's Self Defense &
Fitness Center - 2003
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