by Damian Ross
Founder, The Self Defense Company
Not a week goes by that I don’t receive a message from someone who has used the Self Defense Training System (SDTS) to survive a dangerous situation.
Now these are all great and please so DON’T STOP sending them, but every once in a while I get one that has an extremely valuable lesson and I like this one with you today…
Many people are under the HUGE misconception that you need to train long and hard to defend yourself.
Especially when it comes to ground fighting.
No before you speak, please check my grappling resume…hall of fame wrestler for Ridgewood High School in New Jersey, varsity wrestler at Lehigh University, Black Belt in Judo, multiple state and national championships. I even have a rank in BJJ – I’ve been a wrestling and judo coach on all levels….
I LOVE GRAPPLING…but when it comes to the street I’m telling you right now…YOU DON’T NEED IT.
Which brings us to today’s story about Joe.
I would love to say that Joe is a devout SDTS Elite Member and trains like and animal (but I would be lying).
In fact after Joe joined us in 2013, he trained a little bit and hasn’t done a lick of training in over 3 years!
But that didn’t stop Joe from scaring the CR@P out of the local meathead bully…
I’ll shut up and let Joe tell his own story…
Dear Damian and Self Defense Company Team,
I became an Elite Member in 2013, and as luck would have it, two days ago I got into in altercation with the guy at the liquor store.
I’m not a big guy, 5’9 180 and I’m not a “tough guy” but I’m no pushover either. I’ve played my fair share of sports but at 51, I’m not a street fighter by any stretch.
So the other night I go to pick up a bottle of wine for dinner and as I’m walking into the store this dude chest bumps me pretty hard. I turned to look at him and that when he punched me square in the jaw!
I stumble back stunned, tripped over something and the next thing I know I’m lying on my back staring at the maniac weight lifter who looked about 15 years younger and had at least 30 pounds on me.
I have NO idea why he hit me – I’ve never seen the guy before.
He sucker punched me and I went down but what happened next is why I’m writing you today.
I used your ground fighting techniques to from Module 3 of the Elite Membership to fight him off and they worked BETTER than expected…A LOT BETTER!
Now I have to be honest here, I haven’t trained in your system for well over 3 years, but apparently that didn’t matter.
I got in the SDTS ground fighting position and started to piston my legs (I have no idea how I remembered to do this)….
…and I barely remember hitting him, but I must have done something because he ran away from me and hid behind the security door and then told the people in the liquor store to call the police on me!!
Needless to say, all is well and I’m innocent.
So I just wanted to thank you and tell you that I’ll be logging in and going through the modules again tonight!
Respectfully,
Joe G
There are some valuable lessons here…. first and foremost is Joe’s apparent lack of grappling skills…in fact he has ZERO and he still managed to stop and survive an attack from a much larger, younger and stronger attacker.
Second, Joe learned how to do this from the comfort of his own home using the SDTS Video System.
Joe doesn’t know how to grapple, I’ve never met him in person and as far as I know, he’s never done any martial arts.
And finally….
What is the goal of self defense?
It’s survival.
Survival doesn’t mean to tap him out, take him down or pin him. It just means to live beyond the situation.
In martial arts it’s easy to measure success between winners and losers.
And the same holds true is self defense, but we keep score differently.
The goal of self defense is to SURVIVE.
In order to survive you need to STOP THE ATTACK.
The purpose of ground fighting is to GET OFF THE GROUND and IMPROVE YOUR POSITION.
Joe’s attacker thought he had an easy mark. But as soon as he realized Joe was going to fight back…and he stopped and when he thought Joe was going to hurt him or worse…HE CALLED FOR HELP!!!
Talk about turning the tables on your attacker!
I’m glad Joe’s safe and the good guys won!
Until Next Time…
Train Honestly,
Damian
P.S. >>CLICK HERE to see some of the ground fighting Joe learned
