Recently, I started thinking of martial arts as a huge tree. The roots represent its history, culture, philosophy and the knowledge passed down through generations.
The trunk represents the martial arts itself, its principles, techniques, systems and traditions.
And from that trunk grow many different branches.- Sport and competition.
- Forms / Pattern
- Choreography and performance
- Aesthetics
- Tradition and culture
- Physical & Mental development
- Combat sports
- Self-defense
Every branch has its own purpose and value. But I realised something about what I teach.I am only interested in one branch.
Self-defense.
I’m not interested in trying to cover the entire tree. I don’t want to spend my time making techniques look beautiful, perfecting choreography, collecting forms, or training for competition.
Not because those things are wrong.They simply aren’t my objective.
My objective as the head coach of Urban Street Defense in Malaysia is to take the self-defense branch and go as deep as possible. And once you choose that branch, you have to start asking uncomfortable questions.
- What actually works when someone is trying to hurt you?
- What happens when there are no rules?
- When the attacker doesn’t cooperate.
- When the distance is wrong.
- When the environment is unfamiliar.
- When you’re afraid.
- When adrenaline takes over.
- When there is more than one variable happening at the same time.
- When reality doesn’t look anything like the training scenario.
That’s where my interest begins. I want to strip self-defense down to its essentials and keep testing it against reality.
Not what looks impressive.
Not what looks good on camera.
Not what works only when everything goes according to plan.
What actually works when things go wrong?
Martial arts is a huge tree. There are many branches, and I respect them all.
I’ve simply chosen one branch — self-defense — and decided to see how far it can truly grow.