Crazy Monkey Defense Official Blog

The Hidden Path Of The Warrior

Self-Preservation Series Part 1

Qualifying My Position

What qualifies anyone to teach self-preservation skills?

Like it or not real world skills stand way above in the credibility department than the ‘theoretical’ knowledge of the subject. While not everyone teaching self-preservation skills requires the real world experience per-say, they must have at least learnt what works from someone who does.
I am not sure if it makes me ‘lucky’ but my childhood and into my late 20’s afforded many real life experiences to draw from. This real life experience now allows me to effectively and realistically teach self-preservation skills to both my clients and to those who coach my program.

While I am hesitant to some degree to completely and methodically reference my experiences- as there is nothing worse than someone going off on what fights he has been in to qualify his position as a self-preservation instructor- like it or not people want to know and have the right to know that the person teaching them has some real world experience to draw from. To this end I offer a very ‘BRIEF’ summary of some of my real world experience.

My entire childhood was thwart with physical violence. From the age of 6 I was already being bullied. I grew up on the South Side of Johannesburg, similar to the projects in the United States. Needless to say gangs where rife. Violence especially of the physical kind was an every day occurrence. In my neighborhood how smart you were meant little, how tough you were meant everything.

I realized early that to survive my neighborhood and my schooling years I either had to become really good at running and hiding or learn how to fight back. As a kid I was always more successful at running and hiding.

As the years moved on and I grew older, the physical violence became more intense. It was clear that running and hiding were no longer options. I made up my mind to learn how to fight back. That decision shaped my entire life and still does today as a career.

In the years to follow I was awarded two 2nd Dan’s in Karate. I dabbled in several different arts as well, gaining some recognition in Judo, Tae-Kwon-Do and Kung Fu amongst others.

Faced with real fights in my neighborhood and not the symbolic, ritualized fights so prevalent in the martial arts listed above, I found that I still stood little chance against the bullies, the thugs and the gangs in my area.

It was only when I began to learn boxing at the age of 17 and eventually rising to the level of Golden Gloves by the age of 21 that things really began to turn in my favor. Added with the experience as a Platoon Sergeant and the Hand-To-Hand instructor for my unit during military service, I really began to learn ‘how’ to fight back and win. Once I went to Thailand at the age of 19 to learn Muay Thai as well, I brought that knowledge back with me and my fighting game really began to improve.

At the age of 20, with no education as I never completed high school and with little or no prospect of earning a living my real learning of the fight game began. My first real job was as a bouncer (Doorman). It was a rude awakening to the reality of the fight game.

I spent the next several years fighting every night. Sometimes more than three times in one shift. I fought hard, sometimes with my fists and at other times using a weapon. I was relentless, using all my pent up rage and aggression from my childhood. I quickly rose to the top, finding myself running my own venue security group with well over 60 doormen. In the seven years I bounced I saw every conceivable fight outcome. I survived several mass attacks, a shooting and a stabbing. More than a few hundred street fights later I was now in a much better position than most to teach others how to survive a violent physical assault.

During that same time while working as a doorman I also continued to run my martial arts school. I taught many people over the years who successfully competed in martial art events from kickboxing, Muay Thai, MMA and boxing. We had an almost flawless winning record. I also had some of the toughest and meanest people from the ‘streets’ come into my gym, both to test me, but also to see what they really had. At the same time and for extra money I also worked with few private VIP Protection Groups, sometimes as part of the team, but at other times teaching them how to survive at close quarters (As a side note during military service I was part of the South African Defense Force’s VIP Protection Wing and additionally qualified as a a ‘body guard’ with a private company run by ex SAS members after military service).

While I could go on and on about all my experiences in the fight game, far too many to list here, these and many other experiences shaped both my teaching and the Crazy Monkey Defense Program.

Rodney King – CMD’s Creative Monkey

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