Our Approach to Your Training
The physical side of our martial arts training emphasizes real life self-defense. That is our history and we are committed to maintaining that focus. If you want to know more about the origins of our style, click on the "Our History" tab above or visit:
Many styles tout their supremacy, but in truth real-life self-defense starts with an awareness of physiology, psychology, and the body's innate startle-flinch response. Research Tony Blauer's SPEAR system to gain the best understanding of this innate survival mechanism. From a SPEAR foundation, one must blend proven techniques, your body type, and your strengths in a way that gives you the best chance to overcome a threatening situation. Therefore no one style is THE style for every individual. A more flexible approach must be taken. This means we will take the SPEAR System as a starting point, as a foundation. We build off of this foundation using our baseline (Chang-Hon Taekwondo and Kong Soo Do) and blend it with a fighting style that best suits you.
Since we take this approach, we focus on all three areas of hand-to-hand combat: striking, grappling, and submissions. To help simulate real-life self-defense as closely as can be done in a safe manner, we focus on continuous sparring rather than the point-based sport system used in most dojos today. There are no "points," and grappling and submissions are allowed. This creates a more intense and challenging sparring component that leaves many practitioners calling us "old-school." We encourage you to visit us and try it for yourself.
Our school is part of the International Kong Soo Do Association (http://taekido1.wix.com/iksda)
Our chief instructor (Conrad Smith) is a member of the Tactical Hapkido Alliance (http://www.tacticalhapkido.com/)