New Street Fighting Curriculum

[Thesemindz]

In the kenpo school I teach at we rotate themes monthly in the intermediate class. During April we've been focusing on Street Self Defense. With that in mind and using the resources available to me, I wrote a new Street Self Defense Curriculum for my students.

The following is the new curriculum I'm using and the general order of instruction of these skills and techniques. You can look at my April plans to see how I wrote this into actual classes, but it could easily be incorporated into whatever martial arts curriculum you are currently teaching. If anyone finds anything valuable in this, feel free to use it or share it with others.

The only things original to me are the mistakes.



Street Self Defense Curriculum

Moving and Engaging
Moving in a Natural Stance (shifting, guarding, casual guard positions)
Moving in Crowds (guard up, tight quarters, moving around people and obstacles)
Staying Away (scan, guard, command, escape)
Engaging (guarding, grabbing, pulling and pressing the opponent away, escaping)


Ambush Defense
Awareness and Attitude (awareness, posture, act first, over react)
Sensing (listening, monitoring, projecting confidence and aggression)
Hard Reactions (flinch positions, pushing the opponent away, stepping off the line of attack)
Dynamic Practice (eyes closed, facing away, second attackers)


Basics Practice – Air, Pad, Body (Form Accuracy Speed Power)
Long Range Hands (open and closed hands, lead and rear hand, inward and outward strikes, upward and downward strikes)
Long Range Feet (front kick, side kick, rear kick)
Short Range Hands (elbows, forearm strikes, short arm striking, punching from the wrist)
Short Range Feet (knee strikes, stomps, low line kicking)


Natural Bow as a Weapon
Guard Concepts (wedging, hi/low guard, neutral position, targeting with the guard)
Guard Dynamic (using the guard position to defend against strikes, flash drills)
Knee Checks (inside and outside position, striking and pressing, collapsing the opponent's stance, setting the sweep)
Gliding in the Stance (foot maneuvers, switching and lateral movement, setting the base and stomping, picking up and putting down the feet [feints, strikes, |safety|])


Moving with an Opponent
Long Range No Contact (mirroring, evasion)
Long Range Contact (push hands, sticky hands)
Short Range Contact (pummeling drill, circling with bear hugs)
Short Range No Contact (slow moving evasion, leaning away from strikes)


Four Defensive Strategies
Evasion (short range and long range, evading weapon attacks, escaping)
Blocks and Covering (static/dynamic, iron crane stance, defending from the wall)
Jamming (cross body checks, jamming with grabs/strikes/blocks, pressing the opponent away and following, body slams, jamming the draw)
Holding (hugs and armholds, inside/outside positions, |head position|)


Simple Grapples
One Hand Grabs (straight and cross grabs, grabbing the wrist/clothes/hair)
Two Hand Grabs (grabbing the wrist/lapels/throat)
5 Basic Holds (wrist and belt, wrist and straight shoulder [over], wrist and straight shoulder [under], wrist and cross shoulder [over], wrist and cross shoulder [under])
Basic Hugs (4 sides, arms in, arms out, hi/low holds)


Footwork
Angle Stepping (triangle/hourglass/square patterns, + and x patterns, pivot stepping, jenga)
Changing Ranges (in and out, 1-6 foot maneuvers, clearing strikes)
Circling the Opponent (lateral steps, switching stances, deceptive motion)
Escaping (coverout/double coverout/spin out, retreating with blocks)


Effective Striking – Air, Pads, Body
Long Range Combinations (feet and hands, double tapping)
Short Range Combinations (pummeling and striking, two arms pivoting, digging with the elbows)
Grabbing and Striking Long Range (grabbing the opponent's limbs and torso, pulling the opponent into strikes, striking the limbs)


Effective Grappling – In Place, Walking
Holding and Hitting Short Range (dirty boxing, stomps, head strikes)
Clinch Position (one arm and two arms, controlling the opponent)
Head Control (grabbing the face/ears/hair, dipping the opponent's shoulder and grabbing the head to turn the opponent, where the head goes the body follows)


Advanced Defenses
Taking the Back (stepping around the opponent, grappling around the opponent)
Near a Wall (block and cover, move and counter, walls as weapons)
Angle Stepping and Counters (hands and feet, combinations, kenpo blitz)
Opponent at 6 O'clock (being ambushed from behind, turning away from the opponent with strikes, watching reflections, strikes and grapples against a rear opponent)


Manual Positioning
Holding the Opponent Up (nelson holds, chicken wing, hammerlocks, bearhugs)
Putting the Opponent Down (in place sweeps, pushing and pulling the opponent to the floor, clinch takedowns, tripping)
Pinning the Opponent Down (knee on stomach/back walking with the opponent as he tries to crawl away, grabbing the legs, dragging a prone opponent)
Picking the Opponent Up (lifting from the head, lifting with the head, lifting from the legs)


Sophisticated Defenses
Distracting Attacks (slaps, stomps, throttles, yells, kiai)
Inside Evasion (slips and bobs, parries, close range defensive contouring)
Stop Kicking (teep, thrusting sweep kick, side kick, rear kick, targeting the hip girdle/inside of the thigh/shin)


Offensive Approaches
Piston Striking (one arm repeatedly, changing targets and weapons)
Machine Gun Striking (two arms alternating, striking and pressing)
Vulnerable Targets (joints, organs, nerves, arteries/veins)
Poison Hands (biting, pinching, finger strikes, sound attacks)


Impact Grappling
Interactive Grabbing (dynamic with a partner, cuff and lapel, hi/low grabs, hand to hand passing)
Joint Attacks (stress and shock, hard locks)
Lifts and Drops (bearhugs, bouncer's exit, double leg lift)
Chokes and Strangulations (front and rear position, takedowns, hanging)


Defensive Concepts
Avoiding Violence (identifying risk, going around, most of self defense is avoiding dangerous situations)
Distraction (feints, creating mind clutter, thrown objects)
Cancellation (with checks and locks, zone control)
Escaping (disengaging, creating barriers, getting away alive, stun and run)


Advanced Concepts
Breathing and Tensing (when striking and being struck)
Defending Another (legalities, shielding and getting away, |dangers of getting involved|)
Multiple Opponents (tactics - gather/separate/line, human shields)
Fighting with an Ally (working together, back to back)




That's it. The purpose is to teach the intermediate students basic street fighting skills that they can use to defend themselves in case of attack. If anybody has any suggestions or questions let me know.


-Rob

 

[Twin Fist]

well, if anything you are throwing too much at them....but you certainly have a comprehensive list going there.

sounds good.

 

[WC_lun]

I like to start off simple when it comes to street self defense and work from there. So when I teach street stuff I start with space = time = safety. Second, there are no rules so anything that works is viable. Everything, even losing space to a point where grappling is neccesary is still based upon those concepts. This keeps a focal point to anything I teach. If I can't boil it down to one of these two concepts then I don't worry about it as being relevant. It also keeps things from getting too complicated, which as martial artist we tend to do all to well.

I wish you good luck and hope your curriculum gives your students what they need.

 

[John Bishop]

Street self defense? What other kind of self defense is there?

 

[LuckyKBoxer]

Street self defense? What other kind of self defense is there?

I was thinking the same thing.
Kenpo itself is a street art, so I guess I am confused as to what you mean exactly by street self defense, and what are some of the other themes you guys have practiced, maybe thats what I am missing for this to make more sense to me.

is this a fighting curriculum that you put alongside your kenpo curriculum?

at our school we have two curriculums that go along with each level.
a sports fighting one and the standard street fighting curriculum that is kenpo.
for sports fighting at different ranks we make sure to introduce them to point sparring,Kickboxing/muay thai, boxing, takedowns/judo or jiujitsu throws, jiu jitsu/wrestling, and finally MMA... not sure if that was more along the lines of what you are talking about or not.

 

[Thesemindz]

Sorry about the confusion. Street Self Defense is just plain old self defense. I just use the word street to differentiate it from sports combat. Everything we teach is self defense oriented, including the sparring and ground fighting. This curriculum is taught around the Kenpo techniques. In the intermediate class we rotate four months, self defense, ground fighting, sparring, test. This is what the classes during self defense month consist of. During the other months I focus on other skills and ranges, teaching kenpo as the core all the time. By the time they finish intermediate class they will have rotated through these drills at least three times as purple, blue, and green belts, or more if they attend as brown belts and above. Of course these skills are generally addressed at all levels. They're just emphasized here.

Basically beginners learn basics, intermediates learn fighting, and advanced learn weapons. That's simplified of course, but it's generally the way we teach.


-Rob

 

[Josh Oakley]

Street self defense? What other kind of self defense is there?

Self defense in the water.