When you are confronted in a dark alley by a homicidal killer with a knife, you don’t react like you think you would. You hit fear. And you panic. Traditional training goes out the window.
Hey, look, a shortcut.
Chances are, no matter how much karate you’ve done, you’re going to try to grab the knife with both hands. And that’s okay. The difference between Wolfe’s Combatives and other self-defense is that they acknowledge that, and they build their moves around natural human reactions.
HOW many times does it have to save my life for this to pay off again?
Wolfes is self-defence for Special Ops soldiers, not athletes.
The reality is – when you are attacked, you hit a fear state. The only way to simulate the fear state is exhaustion.
If I keep this up I’ll get as ripped as my shorts.
And that’s exactly what Wolfes does. They will drive you to the point where you can barely raise your arms, and then pit you against four attackers, one of whom has a nasty sharp killing instrument.
The friendly face of your average assailant.
It’s a realistic fighting scenario – taking into account your fear – and the fight or flight that comes from first encountering extreme danger.
Palm strikes double as eye gouging opportunities!
The techniques and tactics they’ll drill into your head over four days come out sloppy when you are so overwhelmed. But they’re there. And looking back at it – you survive. It works because it’s simple. There are only 65 moves, compared to thousands in martial arts.
‘Uncle’ ain’t gonna cut it on the street.
For the last month and a half I have been training with Wolfes Combatives as an Immersion. Last weekend, I completed a four-day CORE course. The objective was to make me a “hard target” by immersing me in the hand-to-hand and knife defense fighting used by Special Ops units in Canada.
Nothing worth having comes easy!
If you want to learn how to fight for your life, you need to make it realistic.
Wolfe calls it Tachy-Psyche – how you train is how you react. And that’s what I learned.
I found out how to defend myself from men 30 to 50 lb bigger than me, and from threats wielding knives – using WWII armed forces tactics in real-life scenarios.
That’s one way to do it.
Bill Wolfe believes in going full-force in the training. We were burning 800 calories an hour over 6.5 hours a day. I don’t think I could eat enough to make up for the weight I was shedding. I sweated so much my name went from “Sweaty Mike” to “Slimy Mike”. I was disgusting. But it was actually a tactical advantage… I was hard to grab!
Wolfe’s got a grip.
It’s not all physical. During the CORE experience, beyond the non-stop fighting, there are lectures. These are given by Bill Wolfe and are incredibly insightful. They discuss everything from legalities, to confidence, to how to turn your fear into power.
As well as the advantages of having no hair.
Case in point: There are certain patterns to look for before an assault and ways to handle them. We learned go-to maneuvers for everything from defending against the traditional Canadian hockey grab (strike the elbow, then the throat) to the bar-room push (lock the elbows and attack) to the classic choke (grab, shake, strike the knee). Seriously, there’s something for everyone.
Hey, watch the shirt, pal.
It was probably the most physically and spiritually challenging thing I have ever done. It was harder than a marathon. More demanding than P90x. It made digging ditches seem easy and Tough Mudder like a walk in the park.
I hate it… But I LOVE it!
CORE is designed to drill in a series of fighting techniques used by JTF2 and other special ops units. They call it Hard Target Training because once you know even the basics, you become exceptionally dangerous to your assailants.
Mullets & Snake Fighting optional.
It’s a style of fighting known as Defendo. It was designed for WWII soldiers and has since been adopted by other elite tactical units.
Even Centurion soldiers used this effective little number.
It’s all about attacking the eyes, genitals, throat, liver and kidneys with kill-or-be-killed fighting moves. No nonsense. Nothing sporting about it. It’s dirty, nasty, survival fighting that works.
Still scary 70 years later.
Wolfe’s system is designed for war. Or any apocalypse coming our way. His mantra is K.I.S.S. – Keep It Simple and Savage.
Prepared for anything?
This is Bill Wolfe. He is a Canadian Special Forces Commando who has served all over the world. Since then he has been an ERT (Emergency Response Team) officer and police officer in New Westminster. He learned Defendo from the source, and has been practicing it for over 40 years.
Even the suit says badass.
After the course, I feel ready to defend myself effectively in life-threatening situations. I feel less threatened by men much bigger than me. And I know I have tactics to bring them to their knees instantly.
I tell ya, this one really works.
It’s reassuring to think that, as a medium sized guy, with bird-like wrists and ankles, I could still be taught to eliminate threats, immediately and effectively with tactical force and violence. It’s one thing to know what to do, and a whole other thing to be comfortable striking & kneeing someone as hard as you can, repeatedly, so you are ready when the time comes.
How you train is how you react.
Wolfes has been a life-changing experience and a skill set every soldier & civilian should possess.
