Lessons

Lesson Info

Self-Defense (special guest: Dave Camarillo)

So this is Dave. Hello. How are you? And we are going to teach quite a few things, one of my favorite instructors of all things across all possible subjects, we'll be covering a lot of Jiu-Jitsu. But also trains a lot of professional fighters, including UFC champions. So I want to demonstrate one of the many many things that Dave can do, just by having him kill me softly with his technique. So what a lot of people don't realize about Dave is not only is he world-class on the ground, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, he also has a very strong background in Judo. And Judo looks like this. So Judo is called the gentle art, and there's nothing gentle about this throw here. (thudding) (laughing) Let's do it again. We gotta move these mats a little bit. Who's next? (spectators laughing) We could even do like, the uh, Shodan, like the, huh. What, are you gonna attack me? You attacked me wrong. (thudding) Okay, so, one more technique. My choice? What do you wanna do? Osoto Gari? (sigh...

) Okay, alright. (heavy thud) Alright. (spectators laughing) I think that's enough of that. Alright, (laughs) so, a couple thing I want you to realize. So, Dave could do this all day. The beauty of it is, I could also do that for a really long time because I learned how to fall. And what I'm gonna let Dave do is take you guys through the entire basic curriculum. We'll have a couple people come up, demonstrate. And I will let Dave take it from here. First of all, people take martial arts for many different reasons, generally self-defense. A lot do it for sport, for example, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competitions, Judo competitions. And sometimes the, what I call, self-preservation aspect of it gets lost because they get very narrow-minded, narrow view of what their objectives are. So, what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna show you guys a basic curriculum that I wrote for self-defense. I teach a lot of women self-defense, but this is a general self-defense. And it starts with what he's talking about, Ukemi. Ukemi is the art of breaking fall. And as I throw him, if you notice, he's taking the impact of that throw, and distributing it through his body, not in one specific spot so that he loses air, damages his body. And again, we could do this all day. He'd probably wake up very sore, but, you know, he's a master of Ukemi. So, I'm gonna show you guys some Ukemi. So, can we get some volunteers? A few volunteers, anybody. Alright. (clapping) Excellent. So, lets move this mat real quick. Yup. Thank you. Oh, it's slippery. Thank you. Yeah. No shoes please, I don't want you guys stepping on each other Take your shoes off. (tearing) So, this is a self-defense curriculum. First part, we're gonna start with the fall, breaking fall, okay. This is basic Ukemi. Alright, we're gonna start off with a squat. So we get really close to the ground first. The idea is, if I'm breaking fall, and I learn it the way I just showed you with Tim, it's not gonna go well. So, we're gonna get close to the ground first. So, we're gonna start with just a basic squat, and I'm gonna put my hands on the ground to stabilize my body, okay. The next thing, you guys should actually come a little forward 'cause you're gonna be rolling backwards. So right in about the middle of the mat. There you go. I'm gonna do it first. I'm gonna kinda bow my back, and roll backwards. When I roll backwards, at the extent of my fall, I'm gonna slap the mat, okay, breaking the fall. So I should here it, go ahead. (thudding) Nice and relaxed. Beautiful. Okay, stand back up. Do it again, nice squat position, very good. Bow your back, roll backwards. (thudding) Slap the mat. I think we're slow. Excellent, back up, one more. And just fall. (thudding) Beautiful, now face me. There are many ways to stand up. There is one proper way in a self-defense situation, okay. Since we're sitting on the ground, I want you guys just kinda mimic what I do. My feet are on the ground, my knee are up. My hands are here protecting my face. I'm gonna choose one side, okay, when I choose one side I favor one side. When I do that, my knee is gonna touch the ground. So, I'm just gonna fall and post my hand which support my weight. Go ahead and do that, one side, beautiful, 'kay. What you want, is your fingers to point away from your body palm down, and I'm gonna lean towards that palm putting weight on there to support my weight here. Just towards the palm. Keep your arm straight. What you'll feel is, your bottom leg, you can relax it. And I don't want you to be firm with it, just relax, and what I wanna do is post my right foot behind my hand. Beautiful, and then I stand up with my hands up. Excellent, now we're gonna do something called Ukemi again. Close to the mat, watch your space. Ukemi. Now we're gonna sit up. Choose a side, protect our face. And we're gonna do what's called standing-in-base, 'kay. All my weight goes toward my palm again. Pull that leg behind you, and stand. Now stand there real quick. Very important in martial arts to have a good stance, a good base. That's fundamental. Meaning I can't just walk over and push you over. Tim, right here please. If he's standing just square and straight, just hanging out, I can easily just push him over, okay. He has to take an extra step to not fall. What I want you guys to do, is wherever your target it, which is in front of you generally, you should be facing your adversary. One foot in front of you, one foot back. Slight bend in your knees with your hands up, 'kay. It's like a fighting stance, alright. So, we're gonna practice falling down, getting up right into a fighting stance. Okay, everybody got it? Watch you spacing, okay. So, I'm gonna do it first, and then you guys go. (heavy thud) Okay, you don't have to do it that fast. Nice and slow, go ahead, go. (clap) (thudding) Beautiful, excellent. Go. (clap) (thudding) Beautiful. Go. (clap) (thudding) Good, make sure that hand's behind you. One more time, go. (clap) (thudding) Excellent, alright you guys look mean. Alright, let's move on. Okay so, obviously if we fall down in a self-defense situation, you generally do not wanna fight from your back. Even though there are techniques to defend yourself from the back. And this is where sport and self-defense vary tremendously. In Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu competition, we do what called pulling guard. You know. Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu is artistic. It is a self-defense, but the rules that govern Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu kind of make it desirable, through systems on the ground, for me to pull guard and win competitions. And generally, if you do that over and over again, you start to become what I say, deficient. So if I'm not reading Tim's book, I become deficient in certain minerals in my body that make me strong. I don't have enough vegetables in my body. It's very similar. So, if I'm used to pulling guard and I don't reinforce the importance of staying standing, or if somebody attacks me, staying mobile on my feet and have the ability to make distance, and stay on my feet and find an exit, then I'm reinforcing a situation that could put me in a bad situation, okay. So, what we wanna do again real quick. Make sure you step away, always be ready, that's another thing. So when I clap my hands, you ready, go. (clap) (thudding) Excellent. Okay so, again, I'm already teaching you guys the importance of just where you should be. Mobile, in a good stance if you're attacked, okay, and always knowing your surroundings. Alright, next thing I wanna do is we're gonna start from the ground all the way up. So, we're actually going backwards. So, I'm gonna start worse case scenario. Worst case scenario is being on the ground an fighting. Imagine somebody on top of you trying to gouge your eyes, trying to hurt you, and you're on your back. Now imagine there's two people, okay. You can see that things could go bad really quickly. So, what I wanna do is get you comfortable with somebody on top of you, and you guys are gonna work together doing this. Okay, you guys ready? So, we're gonna get comfortable with what's called, in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, the butterfly guard, okay. So, we're gonna get a partner, and I make what's called hooks. My feet arch, and they hook my opponents body. It does a couple things. It gives me a little bit of control of them because when you're attacked, you actually want control of who's attacking you. You don't want them to be free to move, okay. So, I want some type of control. Also, my shin is gonna create a barrier between me and them. That's that barrier where at least, again, they can't close the distance so easily. So, when I make these hooks, I have this barrier. We call it butterfly 'cause these are like wings. So my knees are open, and I'm ready to fight. I'm sitting up, okay. He's gonna try to lunge on me, kinda like a zombie, okay, and I wanna be on the inside. (Tim groans) (group laughs) I wanna hear the groaning, okay. You are graded on it. (Tim laughs) Alright so, I'm on the inside, and I'm controlling the biceps. And I have a little bit of control with my elbows in. My elbows can tough my knees, and I'm just controlling, and he's doing his zombie thing, and I'm just keeping him away from me so he doesn't bite me, okay. So, what I want you to do is get down, just be comfortable with this position and we'll move forward from there. So, grab a partner, put your hooks in, butterfly guard, stop the zombie. Let's go. (clap) Beautiful, that's it. (Man in dark blue groaning) Groaning. (group laughs) 'Kay, freeze freeze freeze freeze. Right on the biceps. Elbows in, good. Let me hear your groaning. Beautiful. Good, don't let him bite you. (Woman in stripes laughs) So one thing I'll say is just be careful not to use your thumbs. [Woman In Stripes] Oh okay, like this? So, nope, like that. Palm intensive. Use your palms. Use your palms. There you go, yes. (group laughs) Good, what I'd suggest Alright switch top to bottom, let's go. Is you wanna make sure you're not relying on your abs to do that, so sit up as much as possible. Okay. Yeah, see what I mean. Yeah. Lemme hear the groans, Let's go. And this is very important. And this is a good place to start, worst case scenario, just to point out something that Dave would indicate. Especially if you're a women, and you're attacked by a really large male aggressor, you're gonna end up on your back. And chances are, you fight a guy, he wants to punch you in the face. Male, female, different story. Do I try and push from my arms? Excellent, it's good. Okay. Are you groaning? You can slaw him, he can take it. Good. Put your weight forward like you're trying to get at him. There you go. Good, he corrected it. [Man In Light Blue] It's like a laughing zombie. They're solid. There's a zombie spectrum. Some are pretty nice, some are really... You got the slow zombies. Some are slow, some are fast. Some know Judo. Okay, stand-in-base, everybody up. Fight stance. Okay, Ukemi. (clap) Stand-in-base. 'Kay, good. Alright, let's move on. Now that we're comfortable keeping an attacker at least at bay, or some type of control. And let me talk about hubs. We call this a hub in my book. A hub is a position where you have a degree of control and options. And in fighting, we try to find hubs. As a matter of fact, we try to trap our opponent in a hub. And so, if one of you we're attack me right now, I would put you in one of my hubs, and I would work my systems, and my options, until something, you know Breaks. breaks, exactly, good. We've known each other a long time. He's broken me. It does. Okay, so this is a hub. A system where I have control. So, I'm in my butterfly guard, and again, I can be offensive if I can get up. I can attack, I can you know get his eyes. Got your SureFire just in case I misbehave. Yeah, that's for later. (Tim laughs) Alright, so I'm gonna turn to the side. So, here's what I'm gonna do. You're gonna get comfortable now with your opponents weight. So if he's charges at me, what Imma do is, I'm gonna get comfortable controlling the weight. So, I want you to feel the weight. My knees are still open. Make sure your knees are open because that keeps him at bay. I have my hooks. Go ahead and put all your weight on me. And I'm just gonna control him. Now when I put my weight here, I'm gonna push him back where he was, and I'm gonna extend my legs to make space. So, we're gonna do that over and over. So, he's gonna drive his weight forward, and I'm gonna push him away. And he goes forward, and I'm gonna push him away. Everybody got it? Watch your spacing, okay, and go real slow. Before we do this, do you wanna do an elevation to juji, just for fun. Of course. So, push him away, lift up. (thud) Just for fun. That's next class, alright. (group laughs) [Man In Dark Blue] It looks dangerous. Okay so, with your partner, take it really slow. Get back to that butterfly guard. So, your partner on top, you have to help out. So, you're gonna put your weight forward, okay. Accept the weight, make sure you have the biceps controlled. Accept the weight, feel the weight, and then push the weight off of you. Everybody got it? Well, let's go. Quick point for the person on the bottom, don't be afraid if the person you're partnering with is heavier, because you're supporting them on your skeleton. You're not using a lot of muscular strength. It's not like you're bench pressing them off, okay. So, don't be afraid, as the person on top, to really put the weight on. It all comes down to leverage. Put your knees down, put your knees down. Yeah, yours, yours. Put your weight forward, forward. Forward, forward, forward, forward. There you go, look at that. Now, push him away from you. Beautiful. That's good. Careful, careful. Slower, that was good. It's alright. Good, good. Slower when you push them off of you. Sorry. Not faster. Keep your knees open, Okay, you wanna try? or you will... You guys alright? Good? Okay, switch top to bottom, go ahead. [Man In Dark Blue] It's too fun. Stay relaxed. Here let me try this. Let me get in there real quick. Watch me real quick. Butterfly guard. I want my knees down on the ground, and I'm putting my weight forward, so I will even walk. Feel my weight, control my weight. Now push it away. That's it, let my knees hit, not my feet. So he, if you end up like this. I wanna be like as close together here as possible. Then it's really easy to get him off you. If you get extended like this... Nice and relaxed. Good, good. Let your knees hit. Let my what? Just let your knees hit again, so like, watch me. I'm gonna do this, my knees are down. And I'm fighting him, (fighting efforts) and then I go and he pushes me. Yeah, nice and relaxed, good. Yeah, exactly. You always wanna be doing this with your arms. You guys good? You guys good? Good team, yeah you guys are good. Just a couple things to emphasize, correct me if I'm wrong here. If you are already like this when they get on top of you, you are not gonna have enough control. So, you want to keep as tight as possible here, so you have the control to rock and push them off. And don't use your thumbs, and you want that inside control. We say balled up. Yup. And so, we look at, in terms of how vulnerable you are. The flatter I am, the worse it is. This is bad. Yeah, this is really bad because he's open, he can put me on stomach, he can do all kinds of things. But if I'm balled up, I have some kind of defense, and I can actually get my feet in there, okay. And I can kick, and do all kinds of things, alright. For now, we're keeping it simple. Obviously, like I said before, this is a hub. There are so many options from here, it's ridiculous. Yup. The idea is you want control, okay. Okay now, let's move forward. Now, we're just gonna implement the stand-in-base to get us on our feet again, right. So, this is worst case scenario. I get taken down, guy drives on top of me. I'm going in on the inside. Some of you guys were naturally doing it, but did you see what just happened. We call that a pummel. So, if he beats me, he's on the inside, I'm pummeling here. Okay, kind of like a wrestling move, but I'm going on the inside. So, I can always be on the inside so they can't attack me, okay, keep that in mind. Now when I push him away, he's gonna stay on his knees. If he's goes to his feet like some of you were doing, I'll start kicking him, but for now we'll just keep it simple. He's gonna stay on his knees. Don't kick each other yet. Yeah. When I kick him away, I'm gonna make a frame. And when I make a frame, it's a cross grip to the shoulder. And notice I'm kinda arms length away now. I'm creating space. And in reality, Jiu-Jitsu, Judo, it doesn't matter what it is, fighting, someone attacks me, I need to control space, okay. So, I'm gonna post my hand, and just to my stand-in-base, and take this slow. Some of you guys are doing this again, and you're putting your hands. Remember, I'm turning my body like I'm running away, I post, he can come at me right here, and I can just keep him away. Okay so, one more time. Starting on the ground, I'm here, maybe we'll do a couple pummeling. Push him away, make my frame, and we do this at the same time, watch, I turn. Support my weight, because what I'm doing, I'm gradual, I'm raising my level, and then I'm getting to my feet. Drive forward. He comes at me, here's where I wanna be, right in my fight stance, okay, and then we'll talk about this position. Notice, this is gradual, working our way up. Everybody got it? With your partner, let's go. (clap) So I just wanna point something out here because I think this is part of the magic of what Dave does. Do you see how he has a logical progression. There is a sequence, so just like we talked about the DiSSS, Deconstruction, selection, sequencing, stakes. This is like the secret sauce that Dave has really put together as a framework for creating extremely good fighters. And that's why he's in the 4-hour chef. I mean, he is the first page of the sequence chapter. 'Cause you go to a lot of schools, and I've been to a lot of Jiu-Jitsu schools. Really good fighters, not the best teachers because their classes are intended to be easy for them to teach. So, it's like what should we teach today, uh okay, technique du jour. And then the students are like, "Wow, all you can eat "buffet of technique. I don't know what to do." I don't remember anything. Yeah exactly, so anyway, not to interrupt. I just wanna point out the commonalities between very good teachers, which also tells you the approach of really good students. 'Kay so, get at it. 'Kay, butterfly guard. Make space, stand-in-base, let's go. So put your weight forward. About 10 minutes to break. Okay. Weight forward, kick him away. Make a frame, stand-in-base. Fight stance. Beautiful, war-cry. That was it. Do you wanna try again? Awesome, very good. Yeah, can we do it again one more time? [Man In Dark Blue] Let's go for it. Careful, careful. Stand-in-base, very good. Push, stand-in-base, excellent. Make sure you're supporting your weight by posting behind you. Okay. That's really crucial, 'kay. One more time, or switch, top to bottom. No it's cool she can do it. Then we'll do our other matching next. Yeah, lemme see it one more time. Excellent cross grip on the shoulder. [Man In Light Blue] Come up higher, start higher. Beautiful, that's it right there. [Man In Dark Blue] I'll give you my weight. 'Kay, switch. [Man In Dark Blue] Push me back, there we go. Now, freeze. [Man In Dark Blue] Right there. The closest point to you, that shoulder right there, post your hand, and up. Now you're fighting, 'kay. Lemme move this mat. That was good. If she falls over, she has to kinda regain her base to come chase you now. [Man In Light Blue] So, for when I kick her off, it's hand back. So, should I jump up. Leg back. Yeah. Behind you, post it behind you. [Man In Light Blue] Like that? No you right leg, so watch me. Watch my right leg, watch, behind me. And now I'm here supporting my weight. [Man In Light Blue] Can you do that one more time. This leg doesn't doesn't do anything until I post it behind me. I turn my hip, and post. Beautiful. Okay. Okay, ready? Beautiful. If you can't do your rolley, you're not gonna be able to do it correctly. Excellent time, very good. Can I ask a quick question? Yes sir. So quick question, ladies, how does it feel having a strange man in between your legs? Little uncomfortable. Now I just wanna make a point here. (group laughs) I had to beat that one to the punch. So, just the point I wanna make, and this is an issue that I sometimes have with, let's say, all female self-defense classes. You have to train realistically to react realistically, and part of that means putting yourself in a maximum position of discomfort. Psychologically, physically, and otherwise, and this is a good way to do it. Alright so, I just wanna point that out. It's intended to provide a level of discomfort, otherwise you're not gonna react realistically when you have to. Right. John Rambo, philosopher. He was right when he said the mind is the most powerful weapon. Everything starts right here. People say "It's " 90% mental." It's 100% mental. You're mind gets you out of the bed in the morning. You're mind pushes you to do things generally you wouldn't do, that's discipline. That all starts right here. And again, if you're not put in these situations when your training, and it's not like I'm punching at you and going crazy. It's baby steps, we go slowly, okay, but then you start getting used to the idea of someone on top of you, for example, okay. So, let's talk about the standing position. The frame is the same, and there's many clinches from here, okay. All kinds of clinches, and again, what do I call this position, any position I try to get to? A hub. A hub, a position where I have control, and options. What are my options? Knees. What's that? Knees. Knees, beautiful. I can throw knees. I can get his eyes, I can elbow. There's all kinds of things. I can push him away from me, okay. So, that same frame that we used from the bottom position, we will carry into the top position, and again, if you look at that developmental stages, I'm on the ground. And this is one thing I gotta talk about self-defense. I don't like self-defense. I mean, I understand people know what it means. I say self-defense, maybe I'm selling something, but really defense, I'm offensive. If you attack me, I'm offensive. I'm not defending myself, it sounds weak. I've lost the fight before it started. So, if I get taken down, and someone's on top of me, and they're trying to do me harm, I'm offensive. And I'm quick, and a lot of the actions I do, I don't even think about. My hubs are already kinda registered. So, what I want you guys to do is, put this together so your body acclimates to doing it in steps. So, with Tim, Tim is gonna make a frame. The same frame we were using on the ground. When he pushes me, I'm just gonna Ukemi. When I fall, he's gonna come forward to my butterfly guard, and then I'm just gonna go right into my sequence. So, when he goes, I Ukemi, catch him, push him away, and then I push him down, and then we continue. Everybody got it? Back and forth, so we're both learning, kinda saving time, we're both acclimating. We're both learning it through the sequence. Everybody got it? 'Kay, couple things guys. Watch the walls, second thing is, do not rush. Do not rush, if you can't do it slowly, you're not gonna do it correctly. Do not use you thumbs. Nice and slow. You will break them, 'kay. You wanna keep those thumbs. You don't wanna be like a golden retriever trying to open a doorknob, alright. So. So, let's do this in lines. Face each other. Push away with your strong arm, or it'd be probably your... I push with my left, that's a good question. I push with my left, why do you think? I'm right handed. She can mmm. Okay, so that's what I was thinking. Because a lot of times, I have something here to use. So you have your hand free, yeah. Yeah. This is my power hand too, I can strike. He I use, I have a flashlight, I always bring something with me. I can use this as a weapon, or I can put it in your eyes. Identify you, blind you. Mm hm. So my right hand's free generally, and I train a lot of military, if they're right handed there weapons are on that side. Yeah, I'm left handed too, so, right arm push away, and then I got my left arm. Yeah, there you go. You're power arm should be in front. I'm sorry you're power arm should be behind you, yes. Behind you. And then you follow through to butterfly guard. Nice and slow. [Man In Dark Blue] Push me slow. Beautiful, now you follow through. Zombie. Push her away slowly, stand-in-base. Take it slow, okay, go back. Go back. Push her away. Alright, get your hooks, you don't have hooks right now, feet up. Okay, get your arms inside on the biceps. Yeah, like that, no thumbs. Yup, good, okay, go. Yup. Yup, yeah yeah. 'Kay, slowly, yup, got it, alright Alright, so I want you to notice, you don't wanna use a lot of effort when you're getting up. Okay, lemme show you something. So, you're here, 'kay. So, what you just did is you moved forward like this. If he's pressuring in on you, that's gonna be very hard to do. You're blocking here, okay. So, you're here, and I want you to see how easy this is. 'Kay, it's this. Oh, that's what I'm not doing. It's this, you see how my hip's coming up. Yeah, exactly so, you're here, post. Yeah, good, do it again. Try that again. Slow, slow. Okay, do it again. Do it again. Good, okay, that's fine, that's fine So, you're not Getting used to it. Now, you push him now. Let's just do this part. Okay, come up. Ukemi. Follow through One shoulder. Okay now, nope hold on. Okay. Once that foot is down, it doesn't move. Okay. Here's what I want you to do, don't even move, just lift your hip. Okay, put it down. Okay, do it again, but take this right foot off the ground just a little bit like that. Yup, good, you have to be stable there, again. Okay now, next, all you're gonna do is swing it through like that. Right, but back here. Yes, exactly. Alright, time. Good work. 'Kay, obviously this is your first time. Always take things slow, know your surroundings, be very careful. And mindful of the details, the details are obviously important, okay. And that's where, when you do things slow, it's like a scenic route, I always say this. If I drive 100 miles an hour, and it's scenic, it's not scenic. I don't see anything. If I drive the speed limit, or slower than the speed limit, I see everything, okay. I see the beautiful trees, the deer, everything, okay. So, any time you learn something, learn it slow, do it slow. Last thing I wanna say. Last thing, and then we'll wrap guys, but this is great. Okay. When I talk about mindset, it starts with your walk. It doesn't start with the attack, avoiding the attack is the most important thing you could ever learn. So, knowing your surroundings, so, when I tell some of my students look outside in the parking lot. Where are all the places that somebody could be hiding that could attack me. But also, who is attacked? People that are attacked almost call for it by the way they walk. We were talking about posture earlier on right. Practicing better posture. If you don't have good posture, you're a victim. They will choose you, they will see you, and see weakness. Weakness is attacked. So, I do something like, you need to own your walk. When I walk... 'Kay. It's a universal language, lemme try that again. For some people, this is the way they walk, or they're on their cellphone distracted. Does everybody understand the difference? If I'm on my cellphone and I get attacked, it doesn't matter what I know, okay. It all starts with your walk, and it all starts right here. Awesome. Thank you David. Thank you. That was awesome. Thank you man. Thank you. You too. Alright. Thank you. Excellent.