If you really want to maximize your physical self defense skills there is some great information on this site that will help you do just that.  But you’ve probably missed it.  And if you have seen it, you probably didn’t realized how valuable it is.

For those of you that did realize how valuable it is, please take this opportunity to take another look at how well you’re integrating it into your training.

Of all the emails I get from readers and subscribers, almost none of them mention the most valuable and useful material I have: the Covered Blast, the Fundamental Five, and the 4 Step Matrix.

It doesn’t matter what martial art(s) you practice.  These are strategies that anyone can apply, and if you apply them correctly you will win every time.  I’ll write that again.  These are strategies that anyone can apply, and if you apply them correctly you will win every time.  Use them!!!

The Covered Blast

The Covered Blast is a strategy that maximizes your options while minimizing your opponent’s options.  It allows you to continuously attack your opponent without taking damage yourself.  It gives you a way to combine offense and defense, distance, position, and timing so that your opponent doesn’t have a chance.  I won’t go into the strategic and technical details here since I already have a page with information, pictures, and examples, but check out my page on it: http://www.functionalselfdefense.org/covered-blast

The reason why Brazilian Jiu Jitsu practitioners were and generally still are able to slaughter Japanese Jiu Jitsu practitioners is because they use part of what exists in the Covered Blast – “position then submission”.  The BJJ founders and practitioners realized that if you are in a superior position you can have your way with your opponent, while he can do nothing to you.

When two people fight with only techniques and no meta strategy, the fight is won by whoever happens to score first, or whoever happens to get more techniques in against their opponent.  This is a recipe for disaster, especially if you are smaller and weaker than your opponent.

But if you understand how to start from a superior position and how to maintain that position throughout the fight, your opponent will always be playing catch up, at best.  That is what the Covered Blast is about.  It is the most important concept/strategy on my website.

You’re already here, so make sure you apply it to your practice!

The Fundamental Five

The Fundamental Five is only briefly covered on this website, but there are 35 pages on it in my first book, The Ultimate Guide to Unarmed Self Defense.  And there is enough material on this site to get the gist of it if you watch the video and click through the links on this page: http://www.functionalselfdefense.org/techniques/

The Fundamental Five is the application of the Covered Blast in 5 different scenarios.  It provides practitioners with 5 default responses that are geared to real world physical self defense situations.  If you are threatened and cannot escape you can hit and run or blast the opponent until he is no longer a threat.  If your opponent attacks first with strikes, crash to get to a superior position and take him out.  If he uses a grappling/take down/tackle attack, use the grappling defense to turn the tables.  And if you find yourself overwhelmed, use the clinch entry or low strike intercept.

These default responses provide you with solid solutions to a wide range of attacks.  They don’t require you to match specific defenses to specific attacks.  They work without thought.  And you don’t have to use exactly the techniques that I use.  I recommend that you do.  But if you train another system you can probably find techniques from your system that you can use in their place.  The key is to have default responses for each of the different scenarios, and to make sure that the default responses incorporate the principle of the Covered Blast.  Having solid default responses is the difference between taking out your opponent when threatened and freezing under pressure because you weren’t sure what to do.

The 4 Step Matrix

The 4 Step Matrix is the application of the Covered Blast for self defense with weapons.  In my second book, The Ultimate Guide to Weapon Use and Defense, there are 84 pages on it.  And here on my website there is a detailed page on it with pictures and video: http://www.functionalselfdefense.org/weapons/4-step-matrix

The 4 Step Matrix works with any weapon and against any weapon, and because it is the application of the Covered Blast it ensures that you are able to continuously attack your opponent from a superior position while he is unable to do anything but attempt to block your attacks – at best.

Why Are People Missing These?

The Covered Blast, Fundamental Five, and 4 Step Matrix are concepts/strategies.  When I teach people in person and demonstrate these concepts, students instantly see how valuable they are.  But on the web and in print, where I can’t demonstrate these concepts *on* readers, it’s too easy to forget about the concepts and only pay attention to the techniques I’m using.  The techniques are easier to see, so people miss the concepts that are being applied.

Don’t do that!

These concepts will be more beneficial to you than any techniques I demonstrate, if you actually think about them and work on applying them to your practice.  Once you have a solid technical base, they’ll allow you to beat opponents who are much bigger, stronger, and faster than you.  They’ll allow you to do more with less.

Please let me know in the comments below why you think people may not be seeing the value in these concepts.  Am I not explaining them well enough?  If you have any questions or comments regarding them, please ask in the comments below and I’ll be happy to answer them.