About Hertao
I decided to create Hertao in 1996. I was teaching a self-defense based martial art from New Orleans and had trained in a variety of other styles at the time, but found all of them to be lacking in certain areas. My search for a system that would provide techniques and training methods to deal with not only the crime that occurred on a regular basis in the city, but also martial artists from different styles led me to develop Hertao.
Hertao is not limited to specific styles, training methods, or techniques. Training is primarily concerned with the most efficient and effective path to real ability in self defense, rather than art or sport. However, high level self defense practice is an art, and because we train using sport techniques and methods, there are certainly benefits that transfer to combat sports.
There are systems out there with similar concepts, such as Jeet Kune Do...but the focus of most JKD I trained was not what I was looking for. It was either too much art, too much tradition, or too based on one-on-one empty hand fighting. Krav Maga is a self defense based system, but is lacking in depth in many areas. Pekiti Tirsia has outstanding weapon and empty hand techniques, but comparatively little clinch and ground work, and a blade culture I am not attracted to. Each system I trained had positive and negative elements, but none had exactly what I needed. Therefore I developed Hertao, an open system, constantly evolving, and focused on self defense without limitation.
The purpose of this site is to provide a resource for anyone interested in learning self defense. The techniques, training methods, and strategies are the result of many years of teaching, sparring, and testing. Spending the time it takes to train in them will no doubt produce outstanding results.
