TENANTS
OF
DRAGON SEN-I JUTSU
First let me say that it is incumbent upon
me to not under or over state the effectiveness on this system. It would be
easy to make it sound better than it is and cause you to assume that the
system, not you, is going to see you through. It is also my moral goal not
to create an attitude of thugry or street bullies.. The tenants of “Dragon
Sen-I Jutsu” below, are as germane to the system as its physical factors.
Use them as a preparatory and sustaining thought process for your training
and any unavoidable street encounters.
1) INITIATIVES:
When all evasive action to escape from trouble has eluded you, you must
take the initiative. This comes in the form of counter attacks, or first
strike. Which ever it is, it has to be with great force. Some people’s basic
nature makes it hard for them to use internal force when striking an
attacker. With all the ability and knowledge at your disposal it is useless
unless it is delivered with force. You must overcome your passive nature or
hesitancy to explode on some one. Natural fighters don’t have this problem
and possess trigger point that over comes any reservation about doing a
physical number on some one. For some, just knowing that they could do
someone in, is enough satisfaction and they are content to just walk away.
This is called conscious competence. For others, walking away is harder and
they have to over come their basic nature to do so, this is unconscious
competence and they need periodic proof to reassess their abilities. Each of
us know which one we are and need to develop an initiative plan to deal with
it.
2) TRAIN FOR THE STREET:
It is easy to get in a dojo competition mentality and forget that this
is for the real thing. The rules are, there are no rules. You must develop
a street realization that ending the fight is your job. You can’t get caught
up in your own self doubt or legal fears. Your job is to protect yourself
and your family. Their job is to protect themselves from you. See to it that
the job was too big for them. Even though you will train in a similar
fashion as “ultimate Fighters” the rules are still no rules. Even “ultimate
fighters” have rules and referee. You are on you own. Start out dirty.
3) SITUATIONAL REACTION:
The I.D. phrase of our system is, “A situational Combat System”. That is
a constant in our defensive selection process. It could be summed up by “do
what comes naturally”. Do not plan for what you are going to do. Don’t try
to make the situation fit the circumstances. That is way too much to manage.
Just let the circumstances become the plan. In baseball there are what’s
called, guess hitters. They try to guess what is coming. If they guess right
they hit the ball. If not, they miss. That’s still just 50/50. Losing 50%
percent of your fights is not a good average. So you can’t afford to guess.
Let your training make the selection and don’t stop until you are safe. Your
choice may be as simple as just wearing him down and exhausting his will.
You are training hard physically and mentally. Others are not. If you have
ever watched a tough man contest, you will see what happens when tough guys
run out of steam. With your striking skills (assuming you are willing to
strike hard), you may be shocked as to how fast it is all over with. You may
even be disappointed and be tempted to ask for an immediate rematch. When
you are trained, sometimes things seem to slow way down in a fight. This is
because you are use to trained, motivated, opponents in class. Street people
rely heavily on sucker punches and hitting you from behind. They have rarely
been hit, kicked, slammed, and kneed in three seconds or less. Also, don’t
underestimate the advantage of getting use to being hit in class.’ Most
people lose their ability to think and act after they have been hit hard.
They aren’t necessarily badly hurt, just disheartened and suddenly afraid.
Most fear happens before and after the fight. It is your job to instill fear
during. Pain compliance can be a kick to the knee and punch to the neck.
It’s all about mental toughness or lack of it. If the person is on drugs,
choke off their air and or blood supply. That is the only constant that over
rides all situations.
4) TRAINING:
Reality train. Don’t burn daylight and just go through the motions.
Train as if you are going out to defend yourself that day. Train to strike
hard, move quick and recover fast. Train with your partner on the line
between, training and competition. You need a few good stingers coming your
way and some painful ground work to sort through. Don’t get caught up on
individual technique practice. Certainly you want to develop them, but you
need to load test them soon, under fire from your partner. Train in the
process. Train from start to FINISH
(engage, disengage). It’s all about
transition. It is like foot work; You don’t fight out of one stance. You
fight from stance to stance. That’s what transitional foot work
is about. You will also train as
specifically as possible. This means training in no pads and street clothes,
more than pads and gi’s. Don’t let equipment become part of your skill and
create false security. You’ve got to experience over all body pain as in the
street. Keep your hands, feet, shins, and fore arms hard. They will toughen
up fast and make your body a weapon. Weapons training will consist of
defense against the knife, club, ect, with cross training in the Yawara
stick and knife. Always bring them to class and to the street.
5) FINISHING:
Finishing does not mean anything beyond the situational circumstance. It
depends on the severity of the encounter. If you are to be further
threatened after the altercation, then finishing is guaranteeing your
safety. In general, finishing means to render your attacker incapable of
further aggression. Protect yourself to the fullest extent of your ability.
What ever legal ramifications occur later, will be better that your being
injured trying to protect his rights. I have only one piece of advice for
anyone jeopardizing my safety, while threatening me with an arrest at the
same time. “So be it!!!” “I’ll get out of jail, before you get out of the
hospital.” So go through the process:
Start and finish strong...
