Realistic Self Defense Techniques & Training Methods

The Reality of Violence

- What you need to know about real violence.
- It's dynamic, stunning, and chaotic.
- It's not what you expect.
- Most martial arts don't prepare you for it.
- How you can prevent it.

Self Defense Techniques

- Learn techniques that work on any attacker, regardless of size.
- Effective for both men and women.
- Proven default responses for threats, grabbing, and striking attacks.
- Empty hand vs. stick, knife, and gun attacks.
- Learn to use blunt, sharp, and projectile weapons.

Self Defense Training

- Alive training methods with progressive resistance.
- All techniques are trained against uncooperative opponents.
- Mix of methods to balance shorfalls.
- Learn drills that engrain techniques until they become second nature.

Self Defense Strategy

- Five effective default responses for different types of attacks.
- Learn when to attack and when not to attack.
- How to use distance, position, and timing to your advantage.

Self Defense Products

- Recommended products for training.
- Recommended products for self defense.

MMA and Style Specific Techniques and Training:

Boxing for Self Defense

- Learn to use your boxing skills on the street.
- Adapted to deal with kickers and grapplers.
- Safe ways to strike without gloves.
- Additional striking techniques for stand up and clinch.

Practical Kali - Escrima

- Realistic stick and knife training.
- The only way to train sombrada.
- How to apply Pekiti Tirsia knife tapping.
- Using everyday objects as weapons.

Wing Chun for the Street

- Simplified training drills.
- Applications that work.
- Integration with and against boxing and MMA.

More on Hertao:

Hertao is a modern self-defense system utilizing practical techniques and training methods from traditional and mixed martial arts. It was developed in New Orleans, Louisiana, with realistic self defense as the primary purpose, without the dogma, rituals, hierarchy, and competitive nature of the majority of other systems.

Self defense practitioners can learn to be more effective through Hertao and mixed martial arts practitioners can learn techniques that are most often beyond the scope of common MMA training.

The Hertao Difference

The following six principles set Hertao apart from most self defense systems, TMAs, and MMA:

1. Self Defense Emphasis - Everything we do is viewed through a self-defense perspective. There may be multiple opponents, weapons, etc. We train to use modern weapons and anything in our environment to increase our chances of survival. There are no rules, and there is no such thing as cheating.

2. Open to All Styles - We do not limit ourselves to only sport styles, only Japanese styles, etc. We look at all martial arts and fighting methods to find the most efficient and effective techniques, training methods, and strategies. Nothing is off limits.

3. Sparring and Uncooperative Partners - Every technique we practice will be trained in sparring against completely uncooperative partners. Initial training is done in a cooperative and low intensity environment, progressing to high intensity sparring against a partner who is entirely uncooperative.

4. Footwork - There are no stances in Hertao, only footwork. With every offensive or defensive technique, we move. An opponent is not going to stand still, and when you attack him, whether you strike him or not, he is going to move.

5. Lack of Counters - We strive never to block, then counter. Most martial arts teach blocking on the opponent's attack, and striking back on a second beat. This allows the opponent who is throwing multiple strikes the ability to continue his attack, likely hitting you with the second strike in a combination. We train to strike before, or during the opponent's attack, not after it.

6. Zone Theory - Every technique we use limits the opponent's ability to simultaneously attack or counter by means of footwork and position and/or covering and trapping. We will never stand directly in front of an opponent and punch him in the face with our head up, and other hand on our hip, for example.