Today I am in a position to offer you the magic pill that will instantly, and I mean, right now, transform you into a super warrior, walking death machine. You will become all powerful with amazing skills. A mere flick of your wrist will send an attacker flying into the wall. A focused look can literally knock an adversary over and a punch that you deliver will shatter bones without you even breaking a sweat.

In addition, I will share with you THE secret technique, the secret of all secrets that will make you invincible, all powerful, and prevent you from being attacked ever again. It’s a secret so deep that it has only recently been declassified by top secret government agencies. They didn’t want you or other civilians to know about this as it’s part of the New World Order conspiracy theory that many talk about but only a select handful of people in the world know about. I’m one of them.

Combined, the magic pill and secret technique is known as the Fast Track™.

What? What’s that you say? No, it won’t cost you an arm and leg. It might only cost you a leg but more realistically, if your leg is worth $99.95 you can be the owner of the strongest and fastest punch, be in amazing shape and never train another day again in your lifetime.

YES, I want my MAGIC PILL and SECRET TECHNIQUE aka FAST TRACK™  NOW

Due to the huge worldwide demand on our offer you may need to click on the button several times for our dedicated servers to respond.

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If you are reading this part by now, you will realise that the above was just a satirical post of many “combat proven, spec-op, military special forces, ancient warrior temple secrets that have been passed from generation to generation” are just like that Click Here button. I don’t have the magic pill, in possession of any secret technique nor any fast or slow track programs.

I’ve been around the block (or twice). There are no magic pills or secret techniques. There are no Fast Track, TM or otherwise. I know. I’ve looked high and low for them. They aren’t there. If someone tells you otherwise, I hope you have a very deep wallet or have working mental faculties capable of detecting bullsh*t.

There are, however, an abundance of empty promises, scams and bogus program that incentivize you part with your hard-earned money for a piece of paper, ok, a “Certificate”, and a piece of cloth, ok, a “black belt”, that endows the wearer with instant street cred and “reputation”. I’m not sure what kind of street “cred” or “reputation” they usually refer to and but that “cred” and “reputation” doesn’t put food on the table nor win you any friends and will possess the capacity of invoking quite the opposite effect of what the pill and secret promised to deliver.

In fact, many people secretly harbour feelings of low-confidence, low-self esteem but also in possession of a short-attention span and high need for instant gratification. Confidence tricksters will offer you the “magic pill” that they so desperately want at a price.

These many scams have been around a long time. They may not be as sophisticated as other scams but nonetheless they are designed to part the money from the owner with the promise of low investment and fast and high returns. Too good to be true? Yes, it often is.

While I can’t speak for everyone, my personal experience has been one that your personal ability and skill on the mat has a direct correlation to your understanding of the technique and your ability to translate those techniques learned against a resisting partner. It takes concerted effort, time, sweat, blood, and (in some cases) tears to start seeing progress. On a more positive note, once you start experiencing success, it begins to snowball into other aspects of your training and your skills improve. You improve the “ok” technique into “good” and finally into “excellent” technique. Everything else tags along.

I am asked when “that moment” happens? I can’t say for sure as it varies from one to another but I have noticed that there are some who will pick up these skills faster than others. The ones who learn slowly, like myself, tend to keep at it longer because we realise that we spent so much effort, investment and time acquiring these skills.

I also recognise that these are perishable skills as their effectiveness relies mostly on physical conditioning and timing (as well as knowing the technique itself). I would say all forms of martial arts requires a high degree of athleticism. You will not become athletic through learning the techniques but the techniques require a high physical ability for success.

The moral of this story is to beware of the temptation and promise of fast, powerful, instant fighting ability in 10 easy classes. There isn’t one.

Best training!

CMD Malaysia

Firstly, I’m not in a position to comment about the socio-economic climate that breeds the prevalence and crime-wave cancer that is afflicting the country. I’m not a politician or policy-maker but  from Johor to Penang, Malacca to Kuantan, snatch thefts, car jacking, home invasion and personal crime is being highlighted daily. You should be fearful but don’t live in fear. Even then your fears can be alleviated with education and information. Most people only experience fear because they don’t know what to do. I hope that my small contribution to society can help alleviate some of the ignorance and feeling of helplessness being experienced by the citizens in our communities.

Another case of…

Media attention on the rising crime rate is largely due to the advances in social media platforms. Almost everyone has a mobile phone today and every little incident is recorded or reported within minutes. Some of it is true, others are fabricated. You need to use your judgement and experience to filter the news.

Do you know why this is the WRONG thing to do?

Why is it FREE?

The majority of martial arts businesses operate on a “for-profit” basis. I decided to offer an on-going course, our Corporate Social Responsibility initiative for “non-profit” basis. Why did I decide to do this?

When did I start teaching these free courses?

Believe it or not, I have been conducting these courses off and on since 2003, ever since the infamous “Canny Ong” case which took place in my backyard in Bangsar. It is almost 10 years now but I still recall the media attention and public outrage over the lack of public security and the inept, unprofessionalism of private security firms at a high-end shopping mall. In light of the recent incidents at other shopping mall car parks, these memories resurfaced and here I am again. 10 years later on, the modus operandus of these criminals haven’t evolved much. Good and bad news. Good news is that you know where and when crime is more likely to take place. Bad news is that we all have to use a shopping mall parking lot at some point in our lives.

Back to what we do and also why we do this.

Blood, sweat and tears

I teach and train martial arts 6 days a week. I put in on average 2 hours daily practice and teaching combined. I have been learning and teaching martial arts now since 1983. I would consider myself educated about personal safety and combat sport but no “expert” in the true sense of the word. I use these terms discretely. I don’t get into fights except while training inside my gym.

I train against stronger, younger and more skilled people with full resistance with varying degrees of rules. I understand the difficulty and challenges of sparring against a determined attacker with full resistance. I train against full resistance on a daily basis. It’s tough. As a result, I’ve had my share of bruises, cuts, dislocations, sprains, strains, knockouts, choke outs and concussions. You name it I’ve had it done to me or by me. Would it benefit you to experience and learn the same? Absolutely, but for the regular person who is hardly exposed to this type of violence it may seem terrifying and unnecessary. For those who can’t handle the truth that you learn in realistic training, then let’s skip to this course where I cut to the chase on personal safety.

I approach my training with a healthy mindset and a healthy objective. I have learned enough to always be aware of my surroundings and to avoid getting into a fight as much as possible. I have nothing to prove and everything to live for. Do you share the same goals?

Personal safety skills and combat sports have a lot in common. They share many common physical movement skills but greatly differ when it comes to the rules of engagement. This is where many “martial artists” get themselves in trouble. “Train the way you will fight” is the mantra for the United States’ military and for a professional army, they have different rules of engagement. By and large, you, the reader, is most likely to be a civilian, and most likely that you are not a professional soldier, or involved in law enforcement, prison guard, private security, personal bodyguard or a professional fighter. If you are a Malaysian, you are probably not licensed and cannot afford to own a firearm. Being unarmed makes life a bit challenging for the normal 9-5 office worker who are subjected to random acts of violence and crimes.

For the professional military, security and professional fighter, you have the luxury of being trained on a daily basis. Typically you will put in many more hours in your training than I will because simply your income and livelihood depends on your life and safety! It will be likely as a professional fighter that you don’t fight for the sake of fighting but for the love of the sport. However, this doesn’t mean that you won’t be a victim of pickpockets, mugging and sexual assaults when you are back in the civilian world as different rules apply.

As a regular civilian, you don’t have the means to learn these skills on a regular basis unless you actively seek it out but how many of  you do so?

Did you hear…?

Apathy and “it won’t happen to me” mindset seems to be the usual culprit, followed closely by “I don’t have the time, money, energy, blah, blah, blah”. Then it happens to you. You cry in outrage and anger. You complain to the government and media, and then more through social media platforms. What is it you seek after you have been attacked? Complain to the authorities? Blame someone else for not providing for your personal safety? Pray that what happened to you won’t happen to your neighbor? Realistically, it will happen to them and it will happen soon. Once the muggers have done it once, they will do it again. Using the same tactics, in similar areas. You have to learn to “let it go” and consider educating yourself about preventing future incidents and prevent future incidents from escalating to more violent crimes. You may end up being the headline in the next snatch or mugging Facebook story and be talked about while people around you feel sorry for you and just as helpless. You end up being the “did you hear about…” person. Sad.

So for those who claim that they don’t have the financial means, the time or knowledge to learn some basic but essential personal safety skills, I GIVE YOU this time and information at no cost. Yes, it does cost me time, effort and money to do this. Yes, I own and operate a small business but no, it will not make me bankrupt as a result. It will put my knowledge and training to good use. After all, I am not a professional fighter nor any of the things that put me in immediate need to use these skills that I have learned over the years. On the egoistical side, I see myself as a “sheepdog” doing its rounds to provide protection for the masses, chasing away the wolves and foxes for the betterment of the community at large. After all, what good are the skills I have if they are not used to benefit the community I live in?

The Women’s Personal Safety course is presented in 3 parts:

Part 1: I present the principles and information about victim profiles and the physical action is minimal. This is a FREE course.

Part 2: We move to the physical action. This isn’t meant to emphasize the importance of the physical response, rather to instil a set of habits when you are under pressure, confused and/or hurt. This takes more time and work so we charge a nominal fee of RM50 that will be donated to a charitable organization.

Part 3: We provide a long-term training solution to retain and improve the skill set in a healthy and fun way.

If you are interested to register for the free course or to conduct one at your workplace or community, please contact us. You can register your participation here

Every so often I will see one of my clients sitting off on the side with their arm wrapped in an ice-pack, brace or support bandages. Other times it may be a black eye, sprained ankle, tweaked knee or damaged finger joint.

At times like these, I question what happened to them and why they sustained the injury?

Usually the culprit is ‘Ego’. The competitive streak that lies within us all. I have often heard the phrase, “leave your ego at the door” and over the years it has made more and more sense.

Without the ‘ego’ getting in the way I find that my training is more fun, my training partners also enjoy the learning process and everyone goes home with a big smile instead of their arms being bandaged or hobbling off.

Here are some anecdotes on this topic:

“The big white belt was completely exhausted by the end of the three minutes of rolling. I held him in mounted position for almost the whole time, stifling his every attempt at escape. Gee, won’t the black belts be impressed.”

“I tapped the dude out seven times in three minutes. Man, I’m awesome. Wait until I tell everyone”.

“The guy did not score a single point on me. Wow, am I getting good! I wonder who was watching. Where is the teacher when you need them?”

Unfortunately, there is one in every academy, dojo, kwoon, or training hall. A big ego has gotten in the way again. One result: many of their training partners will quit before they have had a chance to develop their skills, out of frustration and a feeling of failure. A crying shame, and not only that, they will tell everyone they know about the “cruddy school where they took martial arts”. Another result: no one will want to spar with “that guy” anymore, and he will not progress.

Saulo Ribeiro, one of the world’s top Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu experts, puts it best in his book, Jiu-Jitsu University; “I cannot have a top student take the Mount and expect a white or blue belt to escape. This is because the school’s blue, purple, and brown belts all know the same techniques. With everyone sharing the same knowledge, the upper belts can stifle the progression of new and white belts! How can a white belt progress? By feeling how a good student can put him in danger and then working the escape. That’s the only way for him to train escapes as a white belt. The upper belt benefits by fine-tuning his timing and sharpening his submissions.” (Source: http://karate-kids.com.au/how-to-be-a-great-martial-arts-training-partner/)