CHAPTER 1:

THE PYRAMID

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THE GREAT PYRAMID OF SELF-DEFENCE

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Check out the above pyramid diagram. I call it the GREAT PYRAMID OF SELF-DEFENCE (trademark pending).

Like any pyramid, it's wider at the bottom (duh) and narrower at the top. No, this isn't an illuminati plot, it's just a handy illustration of what we do and why we do it.

Like a chart, going higher on the pyramid represents harder self-defence type problems that you could come across.

The horizontal axis represents the likelihood that you would ever encounter that problem, and also the percentage of the population that could give you that kind of difficulty in defending yourself.

You're already on the pyramid, by the way. And not at the bottom (go you!)

The very bottom would be, for example if a child tried to slap you. You could deal with that, couldn't you?

In fact, I bet that if a 5 year old grabbed a knife, even without any training you could probably handle the situation. So almost any self-defence situation involving kids and 5 year olds being the attacker is below you on the pyramid - just by virtue of you being stronger, more coordinated, more experienced and quicker (both in body and mind).

Situations involving 90 year old attackers are probably below you on the pyramid too. Probably - some of them are pretty jacked. Like Jim here:

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Well, if we move up the pyramid, we have, for example a 50kg untrained adult, who gives up easily, trying to hit you. Whether or not you can handle this situation depends on you - your skills and attributes. Are you currently good under pressure? What's your size, strength and speed compared to this person? What about (and this is important) - your skill and training to defend yourself against strikes?

Make them a 120kg athlete and the situation is definitely higher up on the pyramid.

Give them some training (whether they're 50kg or the 120kg) and the situation goes higher up too. Put either of them on drugs, or give them a knife, or make them highly motivated to kill you and all of these situations are definitely higher up on the pyramid.

And that's just one attacker - add in a second, or a third etc. You're starting to get how it works.

Remember, it's not a competition - these people aren't above or below you on the pyramid per se - it's the situations. The person who's attacking or harassing you just happens to be an integral part of the situation, but we don't want to make it a pissing contest about who's higher up on the pyramid. It's not in our culture as a school to do this.

Back to the main point, how many 120kg athletes are there compared to the general population? How many people take drugs where you frequent? How many people are likely to be highly motivated to kill you compared to people that will give up if things aren't going their way and you give them an out?
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The situations that are higher on the pyramid also have less chance of occurring.

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For example at the top of the pyramid are 100 ninjas all armed with assault rifles who have sworn on their honour to kill you - specifically - or die.

But that situation is so unlikely that even though you might want to train towards being able to handle it (after binge watching the John Wick movies), and you will probably never get there, you can still feel safe - because you know you're high enough on the pyramid to handle all of the likely situations that you actually could encounter.

So really, we have two goals here:

1. Get high enough on the pyramid that you can handle whatever's most likely to be thrown your way - and be able to walk in peace ASAP.
2. See how high on the pyramid you can get. For the personal challenge and growth that comes with that.

These are our goals for you too - paying special attention to the types of problem that are more likely to worry you (eg. maybe there has been more knife crime in your area recently or maybe you're a small female worried about harassment when you go out).

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CLIMBING THE PYRAMID

So how do we get you up that pyramid? What does it mean to be at a certain level of the pyramid? Why does the word pyramid look like it's mispelled after reading it so much?

This is where the second structure comes into our ancient architecture metaphor:

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CHAPTER 2:

THE PILLARS

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THE 4 PILLARS of SELF-DEFENCE

There are 4 pillars that together, determine your ability to deal with self-defence situations. Two of them are skills, and two of them are attributes. They're all intertwined, and need to be progressed together if you're actually going to be able to defend yourself against problems in real life.

• Technical (skill)
• Tactical (skill)
• Physical (attribute)
• Mental (attribute)

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The Technical Pillar

The word "technique" actually comes from the Greek "tekhnē" - which means skill. This is not to be confused with "techno", which is a style of music you might hear in our fitness classes if you ask politely.

The technical pillar is about your motor skills, patterning and technical decision making.

Motor skills are your body's ability to execute movements - like throwing a punch, blocking a knife arm at the wrist or moving around an attacker.

Patterning is your body's ability to react to a problem with the relevant movement fast enough and accurately enough to be effective.

Technical decision making is your body's ability to accurately read the problem (eg. is it a straight punch or a circular punch) and choose the correct movement that best solves it.

Notice I'm saying your body - because all of this happens too fast for you to consciously do it. You need to train it in as a response.

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The Tactical Pillar

Not the tacticool pillar, tactics are about your broader decision making skills. Where do you position yourself? What kind of stance, body language etc do you use while talking to an aggressor? How close do you let them get and how do you manage the distance? Do you move around the attacker to your left or right, and why?

Generally speaking, the better your tactics, the less amazing your technical skills need to be to deal with the situation, because you'll be putting yourself in a better position to defend yourself before it goes physical (and maintaining a good position after it does).

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The Physical Pillar

Speed. Power. Precision. Mobility. Balance.

These buzzwords are the most important physical attributes to develop. That 50kg adult from before? If they're fast and precise enough, they can get their fingers in the eyes of the 120kg giant before he finishes loading up his haymaker, then kick him in the groin and get out of there.

Having amazing technique and instant reaction time doesn't translate too well if you're body's too slow or frail to execute what your mind tells it.

Luckily these can be improved so much that they're practically skills - especially once you learn about biomechanics and start doing our handy exercises to get faster and more powerful.

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The Mental Pillar

Separate to decision making, this is all about 3 things:

1. How well you can control your focus
2. How well you handle the stress of a real confrontation
3. How well you can turn on and off your aggression

Number 1 is so you don't get too tunnel visioned that you get king hit by the aggressor's friend, or so scattered that you can't focus enough to respond.

Number 2 relates to number 1, because stress can cause both of those situations to happen - not to mention make your whole body so tense that you can't move fast any more.

Number 3 puts you in the optimal state to fight so that the body runs smoothly and at its peak, as well as making sure you don't go too far and end up in jail - which is really important. You don't want to ruin your life because you blacked out with rage when someone attacked you.

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RAISING THE PILLARS

I considered titling this "Lengthening the Pillars" as it's more technically correct, but something about it just sounds off.

All of these pillars contribute to your level on the pyramid, and you're only as good as your weakest link.

You could be the most amazing fighter, but if you go blank due to the stress of someone shouting in your face, it's not going to help you in the moment.

You could be Mr Olympia, but it won't help if you can't react fast enough to a knife coming to your throat.

And you could be the essence of Clint Eastwood filtered through John Wayne (you kids know who John Wayne is, right?) but all that cool calm and collected won't solve the problem unless you have some actual skills to execute.

So the answer is holistic training.

We usually start in the Technical Pillar with basic motor skills (at the same time building your Physical Attributes).

Then, once the task gets easy, we ramp up the difficulty by doing one of two things:

1. Increase the difficulty of the attack
2. Add layers of decision making

A more difficult attack usually means faster and less telegraphed. Sometimes (if it's a grappling attack or grab) a stronger or heavier attacker too.

More decision making means increasing the options for the attacker so you have to decide between different technical responses or variations of a response. It also means letting the attacker be dynamic and continue with their goal of ruining your day by responding to your responses until you overcome it and stop them.

And very often it means adding in CONTEXT.

Scenarios, roleplay (of the self-defence kind) and simulations allow us to practice our skills in context - meaning we get to use and strengthen all the little Tactical Pillar decision making skills that make things easier for us. It also adds a level of stress that helps us raise the Mental Pillar, alongside stress drills and Challenges (which you can read about in Part 2 of this Series).

With the above, we have infinite variations of drills, exercises and games to follow this simple rule:

If the activity is getting too easy, increase the difficulty (going up the Pyramid).

If the activity is too hard, decrease the difficulty by simplifying things or slowing down until it becomes too easy and you can go back up the Pyramid.

Bit by bit, one step at a time this ensures that every class you come to, you're Raising the Pillars and going up that Pyramid so you can eventually fight those ninjas.

Or so you can go about your life in peace, and have a sense of satisfaction at being able to do something cool, practical and relevant you once could not do at all.

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This was a long post, but it was fun to write. I can feel it strengthening my passion for this stuff, so I'm going to go do some more speed training exercises.

Let me know if you have any comments, questions or requests about this stuff!

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Coach Arthur