Self Defense Central has literally hundreds of hard hitting, eye opening and educational articles on all facets of self defense. Whether you are a total beginner or have trained for a number of years, you will enjoy and may even be shocked about the truth of real self defense.

Learn why most traditional training will never work on the street and what you can do about it.

We have included just a couple of sample articles to give you an idea of the treasure chest of information in the members area.

Fighting the Bulletman

Why does everyone seem to think that complicated techniques are best for self defense? Why do martial artists scoff at simple techniques? Is there really a better way?

For years my goal was to simplify my self defense system. I knew that only the most basic, direct and simple techniques would really work on the street, when the heat was on. I spent years looking for a better way. This search brought me to seminars, special classes, bringing in guest master instructors and watching scores of videos. I picked up a technique here and another one there. I found simpler, more direct and easier techniques than what I was teaching.

Slowly I incorporated these changes and modifications into my system. But it wasn’t until I had the chance to fight the “Bulletman” that I really learned what would work on the street! Let me explain.

I was sitting in a national martial arts convention. This guy was up on stage talking about adrenaline stress response training. I had never heard about it at the time. The instructor was talking about the effects of fear induced adrenaline on the mind and body during an actual street attack. I was intrigued.

A little later in the demonstration they asked for a few volunteers. Several men and a women were chosen to go up on stage. The next thing that happened had most of us feeling the effects of adrenaline, right in our seats. Another instructor comes out in this weird looking suit. He has football shoulder pads and some obvious groin protection. On his head he wore a huge piece of headgear which I found out later was a professional football helmet with four layers of special density foam padding wrapped in silver tape. They called this ‘monster’ the Bulletman, obviously because of the silver round headgear that looked like the top of a bullet.

One of the volunteers was asked to come out. The instructions were to try to maneuver around the Bulletman without getting too close. If the Bulletman attacked they could strike him full force into the groin and head.

The action began… The Bulletman starts screaming at the guy. He shouts obscenities at him. He taunts him. He faints attacks as he threatens the guy. I could feel my gut shaking just sitting there. Then suddenly the Bulletman attacks. The poor guy attempts some foolhardy kick which embarrassingly misses the mark by about a foot. Next a punch that had less impact than my eight year old grandson could muster. After a few more minutes of this hideous display a women instructor blows a whistle and the whole thing is over.

A few more volunteers and about the same result. Now here is the interesting part. Everyone of these volunteers were experienced black belts. Some were school owners with a dozen years or so of experience. So whey did this happen?

They fell prey to the natural effects of adrenaline on the mind and body. Adrenaline is the natural result of fear induced aggression. It really can’t be stopped but it can be focused and used. These black belt volunteers had tried to use their dojo (and dojang) techniques. What they hadn’t anticipated was that the adrenaline had dulled their senses. It minimized their fine motor skills, it gave them tunnel vision and even affected their cognitive thinking.

Without taking this adrenal rush into account, effective street self defense cannot be accomplished. To be effective, each technique must be simple, direct and not require fine motor coordination. Additionally, the techniques should build, one upon another so that a minimum number of total techniques (regardless of the type of attack) need be learned and practiced.

Within a few months we brought this instructor and his system into our school. We not only took the seminars but learned to teach this technology. We had many chances to see what would work against a fully armored, attacking opponent, that we could wallop full power into his vital areas.

Besides being a lot of fun we sure learned a great deal. Next we went to work to adapt, modify and overhaul our system of self defense to employ this new found and proven knowledge. The result is a new video based training program called… Self Defense 101.

Shihan Michael Pace

Will "Pressure Points" Work for Self Defense

The "Secret Pressure" Points - Will they really work for self defense?

Often you hear of how a person, trained in some mysterious art can knock a man out with just the touch of a finger in some very special (secretive) place in some very special way. You may have read about certain "nerve cavity" strikes that can render someone all but helpless with very little effort.

While, in fact, I have been to training seminars and have had pressure point experts visit my dojo, the techniques when applied correctly really do hurt (a lot). Some of them can bring a man unconscious very quickly.

The question becomes can the average person really make this work under the heavy stress conditions of a real attack. The fact remains that the adrenal rush is real and it happens to all of us (with varying degrees of intensity and effects). After having run many adrenal stress response programs and taking part directly in many of these not only as an instructor, but as student as well, I believe that:

•  You cannot "learn" to stop the adrenal response. It is automatic, reflexive and natural.
•  You can learn to adjust to it and get use to it, even welcome it to increase your power and attitude.
• It has been proven over the years that the more exposures you get to the adrenal dump, while trying to defend yourself, the better you become at defending yourself while "adrenalized".

I believe the problem with systems like Dim Mak (or any other pressure point fighting system for that matter) is that:

1. They leave too many variables. People are effected very differently. Some respond strongly and quickly and others, well barely at all. I believe in self defense you need to depend on something that will give you a very high 'probability" to work.
2. The concept of striking several "points" to work the full effect is unrealistic in a real world self defense or fighting situation. It's fine for a cooperative training partner but what about someone who is adrenalized themselves, is moving, and is attacking you as well. For those unfamiliar with these systems, sometimes to make a pressure really work you need to hit two three or more precise targets to get the full effect.
3. It is doubtful whether most could pull off the accuracy needed to hit precise targets while under duress. Remember fine motor coordination is one of the first things to go. 
4. It is also doubtful as to whether most could even recall the many pressure points and striking targets that are required type of attack presented. We lose too much cognitive thinking to do this effectively.

So in conclusion, I believe that pressure point systems work great under controlled training conditions (I can vouch for that!) but can they be applied effectively in real self defense? Yes, it is certainly possible that a master of these techniques may be able to make this work in real life, but how about the average person? I seriously doubt it!

Shihan Michael Pace