In my opinion, the trained martial artist is always going to be able to beat an untrained street fighter.
-Horrible kick boxer I briefly sparred with in college.

A common mistake that martial artists make (and is unfortunately propagated in schools) is to envision easily defeatable attackers. Usually this imaginary attacker is about your height and weight and buckles under the onslaught of your counter attack.

You’ve met this guy, right? You see him when you are working your stuff solo.

If you are an average sized person (ie people don’t consistently talk about how big and tall you are) then preparing for an attacker your size is… risky. What if an attacker is bigger and taller than you?

Something that people don’t often consider is that a person who has a significant weight advantage (think 50 lbs and over) can usually weather hits from a smaller person pretty well. Their mass eats up a lot of the force. If you don’t believe me, go find a big guy and start punching him. You’ll see what I mean.

The gist is, even if you are fit and strong, sometimes it’s just not possible to generate the force needed to take out a big guy like this. The big guy, however, does not have the same problem with you.

What to do?

You need to go internal.

There are a variety of tools and skills you can build that will help generate the power to even the field between weight classes. One such skill is to put your whole body weight into every hit. This requires you to line up your joints so that when a hit is delivered, your body weight transfers through the strike.

To get an idea of what effect this has on the other person, consider the following:

You weigh 155 lbs. If you lift weights, that’s a bar with a 45 lb and a 10 lb weight on each side. Imagine picking up that bar and throwing it at a big guy like a spear. How many people do you think are going to shake off that kind of impact?

The difference between you and the bar is that when the bar hits, all the weight is transferred. When you hit, because you are mostly water and human architecture is more complex is more complex than a steel rod, not all the weight goes through. Lining up your structure for a hit gives you an effect similar to throwing the bar at the person. When it hits all together, it hits hard. If you can transfer your weight through your hit, you can penetrate the larger person’s mass and have serious impact.

The Knockout Striking Package is a five DVD set that will give you exercises to help train your structure so you can deliver whole body power with every shot. It also has tons of information on how to train your hit for maximum impact to give you an edge in a serious attack. Many applications and drills are taught so that you can easily see how to apply these skills.

Most folks who have experience in combat and self defense situations, will tell you one thing about your training:

Keep it simple.

These folks realize that, in a live situation, complexity will gum up the works. You need something that will do the job and is as simple as possible.

These two conditions are required for optimal self defense. As you get away from these conditions, your self defense becomes increasingly less optimal.

So if this is the case, what’s the point in spending hours developing complex, high level skills? Why not just stick to what most people would consider simple approaches?

Because as situations grow in complexity, responses must become more advanced.

While it’s true that a handy-dandy eye strike works great for a basic attack from one person, it is not sufficient alone for dealing with two or more attackers, a bladed attacker, someone who has surprised you and has you on the ground, etc…

While the eye strike can still be used, it now has to be used in conjunction with other skills because the situation has become more difficult than what a single technique can deal with effectively.

However, advanced skills are only complex if you haven’t trained them properly.

First, everyone needs a base.

Something that is simple and effective for basic self defense, but can also be a platform for building more advanced skills.

This way, as you’re working on advanced skills that appear complex, you can also feel safe and secure knowing that you’ve got something you know will work for an attack.

As you master those advanced skills, they become ingrained in your body and are no longer complex. They are now simply part of your base and you can begin working on even more advanced skills.

Clear Defense Certification program is designed to do just that.

This program provides a simple, powerful, and effective approach for dealing with attacks.

Once learned, this approach will provide you with a powerful base for building increasingly sophisticated and advanced skills.

We are having a Clear Defense workshop in Maryville, TN on July 14-17. At the seminar, you’ll learn this blistering fighting method, how to use it against a full speed attacker, and how to prevent freezing up during an attack.

The early bird price for this workshop is only good until April 21st

If you can’t make the workshop, get the Clear Defense Instructor DVD Package when it’s on sale April 19 – 21.