Question for Michael Wright re:RBSD/Vunak

[Bullseye]

Hi Michael,

Hope you have time to answer this question. I tend to agree with what you write regarding self defence or "RBSD." I particularly like your take on how "sportive" training can help prepare an individual for self defence, and that's the crux of my question.

You have said you consider yourself a PFS man, and of course, Vunak is known for his street approach. An approach that you rate highly. So I was wondering how you reconcile the sportive approach and Vunak's PFS model. The two would seem to be somewhat in opposition, at least at face value.

Vunak is well known as a BJJ instructor, and has studied pretty much anything out there. So I'm not lumping him in with the "fat guys in camo" brigade. But I remember you saying in an old thread once how boxing has made you feel more confident than years of training in motorcycle helmets/scenario training. Excuse me, I am just trying to synthesize the point you made, as I remember it.

When you speak about the effectiveness of boxing, BJJ, or MMA, it seems that you believe that these arts are enough for the "street." This would seem to invalidate the PFS approach.

I'm most certainly not challenging any of your assertions, and I may be misinterpreting some of what you've written in the past. It's not intentional, I'm just interested in how you reconcile two seemingly (at least to me anyway) diametrically opposed philosophies toward training. As you seem to advocate "sport" and "street" (PFS).

[Guest]

No problem, more than happy to answer the question.

The reason that I place so much emphasis on Combat Athletics is because everything you train bears a direct relation to the end result. All of the training is designed for one purpose, to enhance your performance and therefore improve your percentages under pressure. For many years in JKD and Kali I trained in methods that were always sold to me, on faith, as there to enhance attributes a, b and c. I never really understood what the direct relation was, it all seemed rather convoluted, but when you respect people you take their word. About 3 years ago I left the arena of martial arts (in my own personal training) to focus on Boxing. What struck me from lesson one was the efficiency, the honesty, and the fact that I could immediately see results. Those attributes a, b and c that I had spent 15 years dancing around, improved 100% in 6 months of Boxing. I acquired a mantra from this experience, and that mantra is “train it the way you intend to use it”. Once I had that mantra, I went back and stripped out about 75% of what I was teaching, because I couldn’t justify the results it produced. The interesting thing is, I have seen the ability of my students spike sharply since I did so.

Are Combat Athletics the answer in entirety? No. They form about 90% of what I train. I cross train in Boxing, Muay Thai and Grappling. If you do that, with world class teachers, and if you train hard at a high level and spar all out in a functional environment, you cannot fail to become a better fighter. You can function in all four ranges of empty hand combat, you are in shape and have conditioning, and most important of all – there is no theory. There is only proven results in sparring and competition against fully resisting opponents, so you know 100% exactly what does and what doesn’t work for you.

So, what about RBSD? That forms 10% of my training, which may not sound a lot, but it’s a very important and very focussed 10%. As great as Combat Athletics are they do not encompass three key areas:
- Weapons
- Multiple Opponents
- Softer skills (awareness, avoidance, dialogue etc)

This is what I train in to round my game off, so I do want to make it clear that Self Protection is very important to me. I train the Police, I have taught the Armed Forces, I have taught Bouncers and Bodyguards, and I have taught my own family and loved ones. However, I still maintain, and am happy for others to disagree, that a combat athlete who is trained and tested in functional arts (Boxing, Muay Thai, Grappling) who ads a little bit of RBSD will be a formidable fighter on the street. I also maintain that the typical cammo pants brigade who spend their time basically playing a grown up version of army, are not developing any functional attributes to face the pressure of a violent confrontation. If your training consists of pretend arguments, pretending to shoot and stab each other, and pretending to throw deadly techniques…….how can you call that REALITY BASED self defence?

So mate, to get to your question, what about PFS? Here is the simple answer to that:

I am absolutely a PFS man, and Paul is my biggest influence, so here is the key point. Paul Vunak spent years training with the best in the world at martial arts. He spent years training with professional Boxers, he spent years training with Thai Boxers, and he spent years training with the Gracies. I don’t want to borrow the wisdom of Paul Vunak’s experiences, I want my own, and all I am doing is following his example. I have spent 3 years training with amateur and professional boxers. In 10 weeks time (thanks to my friend Fire Cobra) I fly to Thailand to train at a world class Muay Thai camp. And in the future I will return to my training in BJJ at Gracie Barra. I want to go through my own experiences and draw my own conclusions, I want to be a PFS man and not a PFS imitator. If you listen carefully to what Paul Vunak says in his videos, he always keeps re-iterating that you should be testing your art against world class people. He did, I want to, and I think that is a far better approach than doing a weekend of the RAT and calling yourself a Streetfighter.

The material Paul teaches is great, but it’s his. I am on the journey to find mine.

[Bullseye]

Hi Michael,

Thanks for taking the time to write such a comprehensive reply.

When you say you dropped 75% of what you were teaching, would that be trapping and stick work? I don't have experience in either personally, but I would imagine these areas to be the least practical in terms of usage/application.

[Guest]

No worries Bullseye.

Probably easier to talk about what's still there as opposed to what went:

I teach a simple base of Boxing, Kickboxing and Grappling. I supplement that with Weapons Defence, Multiple Opponents work, and a small amount of the basic, functional Jun Fan and Kali (empty hand) - taken from Paul's material. Most important overall - its all just fundamentals, with lots of sparring, and plenty of conditioning.

Everything else went. Its not because I have the empirical knowledge to say it doesnt work, its because it just doesnt fit with what I am trying to acheive.

[aseepish]

"You must spread some reputation around before giving it to Michael Wright again."

Good stuff!