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Hey Sean! Yes the drop step is very important. Most all of my students say that it feels unnatural at first, so maybe I can help you some with the drop step so it doesn’t feel unnatural to you. The first thing to keep in mind is the drop step produces power and makes your strikes more effective and also is a big part of keeping your balance along with adding momentum to your forward movement. Here is a drill I have my students do. First I will have you do strike from an unnatural position, so hopefully you have something to hit.
Okay here we go. Position yourself in front of your target, now leaving your left foot forward step back into the blade stance with your right foot. Now without moving either foot, strike your target with your rear hand as hard as you can, keep both feet still. Now that should feel really unnatural and a fairly weak strike.
So now try it this way. Position yourself as before in the blade stance and at first do your strike in slow motion. As you start the strike with your rear hand raise your right foot as you were going to step over a basketball while slightly pivoting on the ball of your left foot, make sure to tuck your chin toward your chest, as you follow through with your strike stomp your right foot onto the floor just a split second before your hand makes contact with the target and freeze in that position.
Now if you note the position that your body is in, your knees are slightly bent somewhat as you are starting to squat down, your belt buckle is now pointing at about a 45 degree angle to the left of your target and your left hand is very close to shoulder level and to the rear. Keep the position of your body in mind as it is now because it will be important later.
Now move back into the same blade stance and make the same strike at about half power make sure to follow through with your strike as if you were trying to cut down through your target using the force from the drop step and strike.
Now then, if you think back to the beginning of this drill (the strike with your feet stationary) at full power you didn’t generate as much power as you did at half power using the drop step that is why the drop step is so important.
Okay so now back to the drill, forget the stationary part because it is weak and sucks a little. Move back into the blade stance with your left foot forward repeat the drill one time slow take note to your body position then repeat at half power alternate slow then half power 20 reps then repeat 20 reps with the you left side.
So now remember when I said to keep your body position in mind because it would be important later? You know, after your strike, your knees are slightly bent somewhat as you are starting to squat down, your belt buckle is now pointing at about a 45 degree angle to the left of your target and your left hand is very close to shoulder level and to the rear. So after the strike with you right hand, follow up with a chin jab with your left hand you are already in position for that strike BOOM! Just add this to your drill and your gaining ground, momentum and keeping good balance. Train honest my friend and enjoy. Give me a shout if this helps out.Good to see people take action. This video just proves how important it is for folks to know how to defend themselves. Maybe the execution would have been better with training however, 1 for the good guys.
Hey Tom, glad to see you made it to the inside. Like you, I have been busy at The Self Defense Company of Winchester and don’t get to visit here as much as I would like, but that is a good problem to have. Take care and good to hear from you.
Well that sure was the wrong target. It’s never a good idea to smash GV21 or GV23 into a wall, I’m guessing the ole head made contact with one or the other. For sure if you’re gonna be dumb you gotta get tough. Fear makes you do silly things……….
Here is my routine for this month, I change routines each month and will be glad to share them if you like.
Monday
150 jumping jacks
No rest go to #3
25 burpees
30 sec rest
25 pull-ups
15 box jumps
30 sec rest
15 50 lb. Sandbag squat-throws
100 crunches
30 sec rest
50 bodyweight squats
50 jumping lunges
100 meter sprint x 3 with 30 sec rest.
Jog /walk 1 mile for cool down and then stretch.
Beginners – 1 or 2 times through.
Intermediate – 2 – 4 times through
Beast Mode – 5 xWednesday
Run/walk 100m with 60 lb. Bag x 3
Main set: 30 seconds each exercise
Deadlift (with bag)
Decline pushups( from bag)
Incline pushups (from bag)
Squat (with bag)
Overhead Press (with bag)
Side Plank (each side)
Rest one minute repeat, rest two minutes repeat, Jog /walk 1 mile for cool down and then stretch.
Beginners – 1 or 2 times through.
Intermediate – 2 – 4 times through
Beast Mode – 5 xFriday
Warm up with 25 burpees.
Main Set:
Run 1/2 mile
20 burpees
50 lunges (each leg)
3 min. plank
Run 1/2 mile
40-40 jumping jacks (total of 80)
40-40 pushups (total of 80)
80 air squats
1 min. side plank (each side)
Cool down is a 1/2 mile jog, 100 sit-ups, and then stretch.Beginners – 1 or 2 times through.
Intermediate – 2 – 4 times through
Beast Mode – 5 xDaren like James Goolsby said use all of the modules they are attributes to your foundation, Module 1. You will find the basics you learn in mod 1 will be in each module that follows. Work those drills then work them some more.
You got it Daren, and very well said, just act and don’t think so much. Module 1 Rocks! Also Daren the best defense we learn is awareness, just being aware will prevent more attacks than you can imagine. Most attackers are not there to fight, they look for the blindside sucker punch coldcock, remember from mod 1 they fear BEING CAUGHT, BEING IDENTIFIED, AND BEING INJURED. The loud mouth bully is the one who wants to stand toe to toe, you know the guy, the one who runs his mouth and pulls his shirt off. The great thing about the SDTS and its simplicity is it works for both the attacker and the loud mouth types. Like I said it’s good to work on different attack/bully scenarios, just train using the basics that is what you will remember when the scrap is on. Great post Brother!
Daren, as a point of interest take a look at some old George Foreman fights. Even though George Forman was a boxer and that sport has rules note how he fights. You will notice that he would tuck his head and move forward like a bull. You will see him beat his opponents in the arms with hammer fist or whatever it took to push them back and then boom, that powerful short uppercut or a powerful jab and lights out. I’m sure his opponents were thinking what the hell; he’s hitting my arms and trying to run through me, that’s not how you are supposed to box. But it worked, I’m sure that came from the days back in Houston in the ninth ward when George had a street fight or two. When George got in trouble in the ring he would recall those days and did what worked. TAKE GROUND, BUILD MOMETUM, LEAD WITH SPEED AND FOLLOW WITH POWER, TAKE THEIR BALANCE AND MAINTAIN YOURS, BEAT, PUSH, HIT, DON’T STOP. Does all of that sound familiar? George didn’t use specifics when he got in trouble in the ring; he used what worked the basics he recalled about surviving.
Hey Daren this is a great subject. Now let’s go back to module 1, in order for an assailant to impose his will on you he has to get close, even if he is in the fist fighting stance he still has to be close enough to strike you. If we use our 3 primary defense elements we learn in module 1 DISTANCE, BALANCE AND MOMENTUM we have the best chance of success. The good thing is he has already shown us his intention, which is much better than being blindsided sucker punched and cold cocked. Distance gives us the edge we can put some distance between us and him because we learned in Module1 action is always faster than reaction. If we step back in the blade stance he now has to react to our action by coming to us. Also by being in the blade stance we are in a strong stance, now here is where balance and momentum come in. When he comes to you while you are in a blade stance he has already comprised his balance, his is in motion. Momentum is a two way street you can use his momentum against him or use your momentum to take ground. Now let use his momentum against him, we are in the blade stance and are prepared staying on his centerline he will have to come to you or it is just a standoff, for him to come to you he has to shift his weight, that is our cue to let the clutch out!
I’m sure you have heard the boxing term he got caught stepping in, that’s exactly what you do. Now remember LEAD WITH SPEED AND FOLLOW WITH POWER! As they step in open with a barge of edge of hand strikes to disorient them take their balance completely, it is already comprised because they are in motion now you build your momentum by hacking away taking ground now that you have taken their balance FOLLOW WITH POWER. It is good to practice different scenarios however, as we learn in Module 1 SPECIFIC DEFENSES DON’T WORK, when the shit hits the fan you won’t be able to recall specific techniques, stick with the basics, which is why the SDTS works, it is built on simple techniques that you WILL recall in a high stress environment. These techniques have the highest percentage of success and are proven. In my opinion Module 1 is the most important module in the SDTS because it is the foundation for our system. Learn it and know it well, use the other modules as attributes to your foundation and you will be successful in defending yourself and loved ones. In short don’t get hung up on specifics, use the basics in Module 1 and hack the hell out of them.Hey Legion Members, I’m Jim Nichols and I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself and share how I became a Legion member and what’s happening at the Self Defense Company of Winchester. Some call me Jim some call me JD and some even call me DA Monk, I guess that one comes from my Shaolin Do Kung Fu days, along with this shaved head I sport. I was training in Combatives before Combatives were cool. I actually started about 1971 as a young boy in order to keep the knots off my head and keep my lunch money while riding the school bus. Later on I studied other types of martial arts and furthered my hand to hand in the United States Army. A few years ago I began to teach self-defense to a few select friends who had the need. That blossomed into a friend of a friend and so on. My problem was I didn’t have a formal program so what I taught was a few select hand to hand combat techniques and ten self-defense techniques from the Shaolin Do system.
The training I provided would sure enough get someone out of a jam if they were good at it, the down fall was it took a great deal of time to learn and some of the techniques took some skill that only come with years of practice and not everyone was good at it. It was easy for me since I had years of practice but for the average Joe or Jolene it took more time than they could invest to really be good, and the biggest question was in a high stress situation could they remember how to use them. That made me very selective of who I trained and resulted in me turning some people away and in some cases it was people that really needed the training. My fear was I would set them up for failure because training for, and being in; a high stress situation is two different things. If they were in the middle of a scrap they wouldn’t be able to say let me try that again, or hold on I did that wrong, they had to know. I even thought about not training people at all. The problem was the people wouldn’t stop asking me to train them so I started to search for the best possible way I could get it done.
Here’s where I found Damian Ross and The Self Defense Company. I started researching self-defense systems I would say hundreds of them, the problem was, they were almost all martial arts based, or so technical they would take years to learn and 90% of them were just plain silly. One night while surfing the internet for some reason I typed in combat self-defense and The Self Defense Company came up so I started to read. The thing that really got my attention was reading Damian’s Bio here’s a guy that is proficient in Tae Kwon Do, Jujutsu, Judo, Kickboxing and Wrestling and he doesn’t try to sale that for self-defense. I must know more, so I filled out the online form and Damian contacted me. After talking to him over the phone I knew he was the real deal. What I couldn’t believe is why didn’t I think of that, I’ve been doing this most of my life. But that didn’t matter I found what I was looking for and why reinvent the wheel It would cost me thousands and thousands of dollars to do what Damian had already done.
Since joining the SDC family I have opened two locations and will open another this coming spring I have a one year contract to provide fitness training for 3 hospitals in their after hour’s fitness centers and I now have 3 employees helping me. I personally give self-defense classes 6 nights a week and a 1 hour Combat Fitness Class 7 nights a week, it takes a lot of work but I love it. I saw a post on here that a gentleman had been instructing part time for over 40 years and was looking to do it full time and wanted ideas of how to do it, it’s simple, do it! You have to talk to lots of people 1 in 20 may be serious. I still have seminars that hardly anyone shows up but you just finish it and move on, the next one you may have to turn people away, it’s the nature of this business. Anyway that’s a little about me, it’s your turn.Hey John, I’ll chime in a little with Damian, I don’t know where you are in training within our system, but it is defiantly not martial arts. Damian has put together a system that anyone can use regardless of their situation. He has taken techniques that have the highest percentage of success, moves that come natural that you will remember in a high stress environment and put them in a neat package of 12 modules called the Self Defense Training System (SDTS).
Now then in module 1 you learn that specific defenses don’t work, you also learn that a good defense depends on 3 primary elements DISTANCE, BALANCE, and MOMENTUM. In the training drills in module one your first drill will be using the finger dart, blade stance, whip kick, and horizontal edge of hand. When you see the blade stance don’t confuse that with being a type of form that has to be perfect. It is actually a body position where you have greater strength. If you are square up with someone and they push you backwards it is easy to take your balance. If you are at a 45 degree angle you are braced so it is easier to maintain your balance. If fact, it is a natural reaction when you are pushed to brace yourself by dropping a leg back which automatically puts you in a blade stance we just go to the blade stance in preparation.
When we speak of a stance in our system it is about body position and the strength, distance and momentum you can gain from that position. For example in the blade stance with a finger dart you have created some distance, protected some of your vital parts and put your attacker in a position he now has to make another move. In module 1 we learn that action is always faster than reaction, so by moving to the blade stance at his approach we have already reacted to his potential attack and created some distance so we have more time to react. We would react by throwing the whip kick followed by a train load of edge of hands steady pushing them back gaining momentum taking their balance always moving forward. So all the blade stance does is prepare and protect you it doesn’t need to look pretty or perfect.
In my classes I tell folks use these techniques and fight like a bee. It doesn’t matter that a bee is small they attack, attack, and attack always moving you forward and taking your balance. In our system things don’t have to look pretty like in a martial art. You will never be graded on form in the street, so don’t get hung up on what you can’t do concentrate on what you can. Just hack, scratch, bite kick or whatever you can to survive. That what this system will prepare you for is survival during an attack. No Katas here. I hope this helps friend.
