Self Defense Tip #45
Review of The Essential Ray Floro DVD setby Thomas Kurz, co-author of Basic Instincts of Self-Defense and author of Stretching Scientifically, Secrets of Stretching, and Science of Sports Training.
To read the previous installment click here.
Ray Floro has developed the best system of knife fighting and defending against a skilled knife fighter that I have ever seen. I consider it the model of efficiency—from its techniques to the teaching method. This is the knife fighting system anybody serious about self-defense has to learn, so I decided to post my review of it as my self-defense tip.
Ray Floro presents a few—the essential—knife fighting techniques that form an unbeatable system. The techniques are a distillation of Ray's many years of practicing (and excelling at) Filipino martial arts, Western fencing, and other systems, plus real-life fighting experience. It is due to his system's effectiveness that Ray Floro teaches Special Forces Teams, various Special Response Units, and the Australian State Police.
His system is the most rational of all knife fighting and knife defending systems I know of. It is made simple by stripping out all actions and concepts that are not 100% proven sound “in the field” (street, etc.).
Three things impressed me most:
1. That Ray used his knowledge of psychology to select those techniques that take advantage of the flinch response--a natural defensive reflex. In Ray's system the flinch reflex helps the defender. Yes, the same flinch reflex that gets people hurt in poorly designed systems . . .
2. That practically all knife attacks, from any angle, are dealt with in very few moves. (How few? See the DVD!) So rather than losing a split second by having to decide which one, of say five moves, will fit an oncoming attack, you speed up your reaction by eliminating this decision. You know the OODA (Observe, Orient, Decide, Act) loop, right? Ray has tightened this loop by getting rid of the need to Orient and to Decide, and that spells the difference between winning and dying when you have less than a blink of an eye to make the right move.
3. The system's techniques are also very effective in empty-hand fighting.
Summary:
System is simple and effective, easy to learn
Tested with elite military and police units in the US and Australia
Easy to integrate into any training program, any martial art
Step-by-step instruction
DVD set includes a great lesson on best use of improvised weapons (plastic bottle, book, umbrella, newspaper, etc.)
Ray Floro's martial arts credentials include (but are not limited to):
Okinawan karate, Italian fencing to national level, Lameco Eskrima (3rd degree), Kalis Illustrismo (master teacher)
More info at: http://www.real-self-defense.com/essential_ray_floro.html.
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