Take Downs & Escapes

"How to Effortlessly Control Your
Opponent's Center!"

At the base of Grappling and Wrestling are two important concepts: Distance and Manipulation. Everything depends on your ability to control your opponent’s Center (or what we call in FSD “Central Axis Manipulation” or what others might call “Separating of the Halves”). This lets you make him go where you want him to go... with as little effort as possible on your part.

In DVD 1 of this series we focus on the 12 basic takedowns & throws and the 8 escape techniques that allow you to do just that. It gives you a base to work from. And quite frankly, likely the only ones you’ll ever really need in a real confrontation.

In DVD 2 we'll turn our focus to distance (or space). Remove the space between your arm and you’ll land an effective Choke or Breaking technique while creating distance to help re-position yourself or escape. You will find NO competition moves here. Only what’s functional for the streets. Things like: Biting, Clawing, Ripping, Fish Hooking, Gouging... from any position, be it on the ground or standing up.

Note: Anticipated release date for DVD 2 is July 2008.

Investment: just $33.30 for DVD #1 + shipping & handling.

Trapping Hands

"The Secret to Infiltrating
Your Opponent’s Defenses."

When you engage your opponent it’s almost inevitable you’ll end up in each other’s face... at close quarters. Police officers, security guards, bouncers all tell us the same thing... all fights get up close and personal. The question is... what will you do once you get there? You can have great punching and kicking skills but if you don’t know what to do at very close range, you lose!

The facts are: without training in this area close quarter conflicts often end up ON THE GROUND! And often that’s a prescription for disaster. Broken glass, asphalt, unknown opponents watching out of sight or maybe even a hidden weapon to deal with.  It’s not where you want to be.

The solution is learning the art of close quarters fighting. We call it: Trapping Hands.

In Trapping Hands you learn to infiltrate the opponent’s defense with little or no effort, increase hand speed, commitment, and intensity.

First learn the basic 15 sets or combinations to get acquainted with the concept. But don’t stop there. If you do, you’re putting yourself at risk (most people get stuck here).

You'll want to naturally progress to “Asking for the Hands” (AFH) and “Slap Sparring” training (SS) to build the spontaneous responses needed to overwhelm your opponent in close quarters. Watch how it goes from a technical approach (combinations and mechanics)... to a raw flurry of strikes and jolts to finish with a bang.

Trapping hands is also a perfect lead-in to Clinching and Throwing techniques.

Make sure you don’t miss any piece of the puzzle by adding Trapping Hand to your skillset today.

Special Bonus...
When Ordering Trapping Hands!

Before learning the trapping techniques outlined in our Trapping Hands DVD (or Advanced Hand Speed Drills DVD), it’s helpful if you’ve practiced a series of drills to become accustomed to being in contact with your opponent’s arms. This gives you a “kinesthetic awareness” of what’s happening around your hand and arms. What this does is allow you to begin using your sense of touch... to let your hands “think on their own” as they engage the opponent.

That’s why I’m including a free copy of our Phon Sao Principles: Teaching Your Hands To “Think” For Themselves DVD when you order Trapping Hands.

Since it takes time to familiarize yourself with reading energy (or pressure), Phon Sao is the perfect prequel to doing Trapping Hands, Chi-Sao and other energy drills. You’ll learn to read through your fingertips, palms and forearms, and eventually, through the body. Phon Sao, which in FSD stands for “borrowing the opponent’s energy,” helps you use this energy against your opponent! You learn to “Stick” to your opponent like glue and quickly anticipate his next move.

Begin with your FREE copy of Phon Sao... and watch how quickly you master Trapping Hands.

Investment: just $39.97 for Trapping Hands DVD & the bonus Phon Sao DVD + shipping & handling.

Wooden Dummy

"How To Win
At Close-Quarters Combat!"

The Japanese punch trees to condition their knuckles. The Thai’s kick palm trees. And the Indonesians crack open coconuts with their bare hands.

Following in these same ancient principles we smash our arms against the body of a “special” tree with what looks like “branches” sticking out. It’s called a Wooden Dummy.

Nothing strengthens the arms and hands like a wooden dummy. Results show very quickly. Your palms, wrists, back of hands, fingers, inner & outer forearms are all being conditioned and strengthened simultaneously. This gives you confidence knowing that you won’t hurt your hands or arms when engaging your opponent. Other benefits include increased speed, flow, crispness, close quarter power (improve your power punch), footwork, and balance, as well as improvements in your kicking techniques and your ability to judge and close distance.

Looking back on my training, I have to attribute much of my foundational growth to this unusual device.

It’s a tool I wouldn’t train without. It played a big part in my foundational development and one that should play an equally large part in your training.

The benefits you’ll experience: First is toughness. When you’re constantly hitting and slapping wood you expand your threshold for pain.

Second is explosion. The crispness of every blow. It forces you to generate maximum power in such a short distance.

Third would be Flow. To always keep attacking. If you’re struggling with this aspect, the wooden dummy will lend a helping hand because from start to finish in the 117 movements (yes, there are that many) you do with this too, you’re always attacking! It’s the way you build a powerful offense.

At Fang Shen Do, we teach classical sets as well as "free-style" ones. The first key principle to remember is this: "It is a Means to an End." Meaning it's only a tool. Once you've learned the classical sets, and acquired super arm conditioning, Jing (life or “snap”), flow and speed, you’ll move on to creative flow.

Another way to challenge your development is to blindfold yourself. You’ll be "Seeing" and "Feeling" through sense of touch. There's always a way to challenge yourself and take this to another level with the Wooden Dummy!

I’ve been training with these tools for so long, I still have my dad’s original wooden dummy. It’s 23 years old. Still intact. Still perfect. I was six and had to stand on a bench to reach the arms. I was so excited back then, I learned all of the 117 movements in just one day!

We don't just like the classical dummy but also modern ones as well. Some of our collection (over 50 different models) range from: spring-loaded (which adds a more human feel), breakable arms and legs, moveable (on wheels), those with timers, dummy’s made of steel, adjustable ones (height), padded, etc...

There’s so much more to the Wooden Dummy than I can even begin to describe here.

This magical 2-DVD set lets you experience all aspects of this tool today.

Investment: just $47.00 for both DVDs + shipping & handling.