The Damian Ross, CEO The Self Defence Company advert (above)? I clicked on it out of interest and am really hoping that no one thinks this is in anyway a good thing - sigh.....
Yes. I didn't know if it was everyone seeing it. Pics on site didn't look too hot. All a bit "Rambo". Some of the language is distasteful. The worst kind of ma site. Infact nothing to do with ma, just marketing and business. Yuk
Ross repackages Cestari material, charges a fortune for it and then makes it hard to cancel. The stuff I have seen is "meh" - typical RBSD stuff that i have seen 30 million times before If you are interested in this type of training go to this place; http://www.carlcestari.com/
When it says the most lethal martial arts self defence program in the world, does it mean lethal to the attacker or to the defender?
dunno if this site was paid to advertise his program or it is just a generic :google: ad. but you know what they say in business: DO NOT BITE THE HAND THAT FEEDS YOU I have a problem with their punchline though. "most lethal self-defense"? it's like saying "yeah, I kill people. I am a killer. I violate one of the ten commandments." :woo: if I click that and all they teach are personal techniques, I'm calling BS on that. for the most lethal self-defense that ever existed is MAD:mutual assured destruction. give both sides nukes and wait till one fires.
If I kill you with my bare hands before you press the button does that make me more lethal? Like I said, it is standard RBSD stuff - nothing more nothing less and certainly not the "most lethal" at all. It is not terrible though, despite all the marketing copy
It's a way to pay the bills, a site this size needs cash and it's not like anyone in this thread is a supporting member. If you want to have a look it's only like any other ad on any other website, you know you're being sold something and it's up to you to make a judgement call.
I clicked the banner out of interest. In all fairness to Damian he doesn't accept instructor candidates unless they're willing to invest a tonne of time and effort.
Don't know. Didn't get as far as finding out fees though. Seems like they do have a lengthy selection process though. I think the ad was on all forums.
I actually watched the penn and teller vid posted on their sight. His reason for his system being the most deadly in he world is "We don't play around." That about settles it.....we're all just playing freeze tag with a gi.
I find it slightly disturbing that your first thought was violating one of the ten commandments and not breaking the law.
Offended? No. Amused? Yep. Damian appeared on Penn and Teller's BS program in an episode on martial arts, but nto as a good example. He was basically put up as an overly macho, rather unintelligent thug, promoting barely legal approaches to the idea of self defence, and basically being laughed at. A lot. In fact, the only person on the program for balance was Marc McYoung, and he was put in the "anti-Martial Arts" seat. Despite his entire segment(s) of the Penn and Teller program being him and his teachings ridiculed, Damian almost immediately added to his ads "As seen on Penn and Teller!", which frankly only supports the less-intelligent image that the boys presented in the show.... So each time I see his ads, I'm amused.
Hum? I don't see a problem here. Lots of needless neck breaks and head stomps to downed opponents. Seems perfectly reasonable to me. :woo: Why is this in the ninjutsu section of the forums? Typical? Egads. I'm a little unfamiliar with this whole RBSD system, but according to this site http://www.selfdefenseresource.com/reality-based/articles/reality-based-overview.php RBSD uses: It seems like this, "The Self Defense Training System," is missing two of those steps. Also, they appear to have excluded any of the non-lethal training from the curriculum I saw in Youtube videos from other schools. We're expected to use judgement on MAP now?! I'm out.
Cestari-Fairbairn Hi; I knew Carl Cestari (who trained Damian Ross). I knew of him because he trained with my Judo teacher's college "dohai" (Nihon University, aka "Nichidai"). We met late in his martial arts training/teaching career. By that time, he had eschewed his Karate training to study, research and practice the unarmed combat techniques of William Fairbairn (especially) and Rex Applegate. Fairbairn was really the father of Military-OSS-SOE unarmed combat. It wasn't Defensive Tactics, as in "Restrain & Control" nor was it self-defense unless you went right to "Kill or Get Killed" (the title one of Applegate's books) situations. Carl's training was very "alive" and at times, very tough. He still showed very great care for his partners and students (whom he carefully picked, because he had limited patience with jerks); he was really to the point where he'd been in and seen enough "startle response/adrenaline surge" desperate fights (still a bit haunted) that he wanted SIMPLE, effective, easy-to-remember and perform actions. He maintained that only simple, brutal stuff worked when you where very suddenly attacked. He supplemented the simple and few "Fairbairn" techniques with, essentially, grappling a la Judo/Sambo/BJJ. We spent a while discussing and comparing approaches to knife techniques (Again, largely Fairbairn, Applegate and Styers, though folks such as Keating and Japanese vs. Soviet approaches were thrown in). He recounted a phone call he made to William Fairbairn, where they discussed the "unarmed hand forward" style Fairbairn advocated. It seemed very curious. Carl told me Fairbairn explained that method wasn't really meant to be used when the other guy also had a knife! With that anecdote in mind, unarmed combat it as meant to be; pure, "won't land you in jail" Self Defense it wasn't. Some years ago, I heard Carl had passed on and found that Mr. Ross was teaching his method, I gave him a call. He was very forthcoming. We discussed an ad I'd seen in a martial arts magazine that Carl had seemingly placed, a year or so before his death. It was that sort of page-long ad you would occasionally see, which promised the reader secrets that "Black belts could only hope to know". Carl suffered badly from diabetes, which I think caused him to be financially pressed enough to give such extreme advertising a try. Still, Carl was so very "grounded" that it was quite surprising. Carl Cestari was a very, very good man. It seems that Mr. Ross has made a similar decision to try to catch the public's fickle attention in the post "Grand Theft Auto" world. I'm sentimentally glad Carl Cestari's stuff is still out there...but, it's use in a simple "lost temper" situation? That's pretty harsh....
Great story. I'm pretty sure Carl would have been referring to a phone call with Rex Applegate, as Fairbairn died in 1961, well before Carl got involved in martial arts in general, let alone combatives.
You must be right; It was a long while ago; I remember that I did bring up how long both men had lived. I regret the confusion. It's a true story...I'm just getting older....:-( (not so bad, considering the alternative) Many thanks
