Our Training Philosophy

Many martial systems teach the fighting skills to survive a violent encounter, however they do not examine the events leading up to it. The core of Diamondback Combatives is not in our techniques. All our civilian courses are based upon two principles, Awareness and Avoidance. Once that basis has been established, we introduce "hard skills", our hand to hand, edged weapon and firearms techniques. Everything we teach is designed to work under the physical symptoms of adrenaline that everyone from Navy SEALS to bankers experiences in a life and death situation.                                                              

                                         Awareness
In our classes, the one thing we stress more than anything is awareness. In order to avoid danger, you have to have good situational awareness.   When I talk about danger, I am not just talking about the strung out crackhead most of us train to defend ourselves against. Think of your everyday life. How many people die by getting hit by vehicles every year? How many people twist their ankles stepping of a curb at the wrong angle? How many people spill hot coffee on themselves because they were not aware of the other drivers and had to stomp the brakes? 
Awareness can help to protect you from these deadly, painful or embarrassing situations as well as give off the signal that you are aware. This can be the one thing that causes a criminal to find another victim. There is always an easier one. 
We stress this in our classes but it is the kind of thing that is very hard to teach. It has to be a lifestyle.
                                        







           

                 
                                        Avoidance
As combatives and self-defense instructors, the lives of our students can rest on what we teach. We have learned through experience that no technique works 100% of the time. Therefore using any self defense techniques should be an absolute last resort. Having said this, in my opinion it is TOTALLY irresponsible for instructors to teach fighting techniques without teaching avoidance(and therefore awareness) techniques FIRST. Just because we taught our student a technique does not mean that they can or should effectively employ that technique to win the confrontation. Almost all physical confrontations can be avoided. The problem is many people have too much ego to properly avoid. As I have said before, in street violence the only thing for certain is uncertainty. Watch MMA some time. You can't watch for too long before you see a huge upset. That is from guys who have spent 9 months studying each others style and skill, as well as training for 8 hours a day. In the street you don't know when or what will happen, what your opponent knows, or what he's carrying. So call me what you will, but I will avoid a fight at all costs rather than risk my life over something I could have avoided. 

                      

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