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Damian Ross, Turning Madness into Method: The Origins of The Self Defense Training System

By Scott Carter, Staff Writer

Imagine this:

• It’s dark, you forgot where you parked in the mega mall lot and you’re stressing about work and you think you’re being watched.
• You’re a little buzzed as you head out of the bar it’s late and you’re feeling a little sick and you have forgotten about they guy you accidentally bumped into.
• You’re on patrol, going door to door. You’re tired, hungry and you’re thinking about hitting the rack you don’t notice the locals starting to leave the area.
• It’s a routine traffic stop and you’re pulling a double shift and you don’t see the passenger reaching for something.

What do these situations have in common? All have the potential to become deadly in a blink of an eye. It is most ever act of violence begins. It happens fast and before you know it, you’re adrenaline hits, you have tunnel vision and time seems to stand still as you realize you’re in a fight for your life.

Add to that the other “variables” the location, the weather, is he armed, does the enemy have friends are you at peak health? All of these factors play a major roll in your ability to survive an act of violence.

To prepare for each individual situation is impossible. Between possible weather conditions:  wet, dry, icy weather, terrain: sand, street, gravel, ice, etc. and what type of attack: armed, unarmed, single, and multiple assailants plus the variety of attack: punch, kick, grab, stab, headlock, body lock, etc.

Most self defense systems demand that you learn separate defenses for each individual attack. While in a dojo environment this may seem plausible when demonstrating with “willing attackers” and rehearsed scenarios. Under the real world conditions described above the method behind the techniques are NOT known to work.

Enter Damian Ross, CEO of the Self Defense Company and Developer of The Self Defense Training System who has literally revolutionized self defense industry. “When you’re under attack your body ill only allow you to do a few gross motor skills. Forget what you see on TV, forget what you see in the movies and look at actual after-action reports. Read what both trained and untrained people did to survive a rape, mugging or combat. All of then had one thing in common, he will to survive. Real hand to hand combat training enables you to channel that will in to effective realistic methods.”

Ross has developed he Self Defense Training System, a 12 step modular training program designed to take you step by step through close combat progression. The program starts with tactics and those tactics are reinforced with techniques that are simple, powerful and comprised of gross motor movements.

Ross stresses that tactics combined with the right techniques are why the Self Defense Training System works so well. “Every possible situation is broken down to position and distance. Every techniques is based on the easiest to learn, causes the most damage to the enemy and the least amount of injury to you.” Ross continues “Even foot work and movement is designed to work in any terrain.”

The Self Defense Training System is not just hand to hand combat. It also incorporates edged weapons, impact weapons and a variety of “old school” weapons.

“When you get into the advanced stages of weapons defensive and offensive tactics, you simply are applying what you have already learned. The same gross motor skills and principles. You also learn to take advantage of your environment and do whatever it takes to survive: it begins with prevention and ends with weapons and technology.”

The biggest misconception about martial arts in self defense comes from Hollywood. The uninitiated perceive movie fights as real fights. This seeps its way into training, instruction and perceptions of reality.

The other misconception is that mixed martial arts is real fighting. While “more real” than a wide variety of martial arts, it is still confined by rules and safety equipment. But if you put any fighter, even a professional fighter, in any of the scenarios in the beginning of this article, you would not see what you would expect.

Damian Ross is impressive, his Black Belts in Tekkenryu Jujutsu, Judo, Tae Kwon Do, Lehigh University Wrestling and Football, time spent as bouncer and body guard are impressive to say the least, but he will be the first to tell you he didn’t “imagine” what techniques and strategies would work

The research began in the 1900’s when police needed a formal system to tech officers hand to hand and close quarter skills. These methods were tested without prejudice, no agenda; just what worked.

Over the next 40 years methods were simplified. But because of technology, better weapons, intelligence gathering and longer range, more accurate weapons, hand to hand combat is not stressed beyond a few basic (and effective) bayonet and hand to hand skills. The close combat training has been over run by the martial arts mentality designed to build confidence rather than effective hand to hand skills. The truth is it is extremely rare for a soldier to use hand to hand techniques in combat.

On the home front, law enforcement faces restraints driven by liability. Methods taught are based on use of force guidelines. Officers are taught techniques that are based in the fiction of the martial arts world.

“Any good cop knows that what they learn in the academy is a gross waste of time” says Ross “for any real training officers are forced to pay out of pocket for any real advanced training. But we’re changing that. Through our Guardian Program, departments can sign up and train in the Self Defense Training System.”

Ross admits that he brought this training into the modern age. Over the last 10 years we systemized it. No one sat down and really tried to put the training into a step by step program using modern training methods and tools. We have.

Over time, we found that we got the best result when you trained without any regard for your target, so training partners were replaced with dummies. The only way to develop confidence and power quickly is to train 100% impact and you can’t do that with a training partner.

Some martial artists are threatened by this. Others realize that martial arts are one thing and self defense is a simple skill. Martial arts demand that you invest a lot of money and more importantly, a lot of time. To the public, if they’re not teaching mixed martial arts, they’re teaching self defense and if they’re not teaching self defense, what are they teaching?

Ross doesn’t think it’s that drastic. “Everything has its place. Martial arts are great for building self esteem and competing with in the same realm as other sports. They’re fantastic because you can grow in a non-competitive environment. There are no teams to make or auditions. It allows people and especially kids to develop on their own time table. We have a lot of martial artists add the Self Defense Training System to their programs. Instead of teaching the old, ineffective methods, the drop this in, its simple enough and it doesn’t take any time at all.”

So what separates the Self Defense Training System from all others systems of self defense? Krav Maga is a martial arts marketed as self defense. It uses sporting techniques along with the types of defenses we were doing in Tae Kwon Do 30 years ago. Other reality martial arts are mixed martial arts dressed in street clothes. All of them are adapted full contact forms of fighting. Self defense is based on a completely set of circumstances.

Would the Self Defense Training System fair well in a UFC fight? Ross comments “Not at all, would a dragster win a NASCAR race? Better yet, would an MMA fighter win a point fighting tournament or a boxing of a judo match. Obviously not, it’s the wrong tool for the job.”

Damian Ross is now the CEO and founder of the Self Defense Company headquartered in Saddle River New Jersey where he and his wife run the defensive tactics training and education business. You can visit their site at www.selfdefensecompany.com