Andy Norman and The Temple of Chaos
It sounds like the title of a movie but it isn’t. However it is one of the most important training philosophies of Defence Lab.
The reason I personally first got into Defence Lab training is because it offered me something I have never seen before, a realistic chance to experience chaos!
Now I know what some of our readers who don’t train Defence Lab will say “we train for chaos too”. I respect this I truly do, however in my own personal journey of martial arts I have never seen anyone do it like Defence Lab do! Today’s article is a look through the doors of the Temple of Chaos and an invitation for you to come inside if you dare!!!
Have you ever seen a group attack a person? If not then you will be surprised at what happens. I have seen large grown men with skills taken down by smaller and less skilful people who then use the man’s head as a soccer ball. Scary thing having a pack of Hyenas coming after you.
A ‘pack attack’ isn’t pretty. Very often you will be dragged to the floor by the man you didn’t see behind you. They say its the punch that you don’t see coming that knocks you out and pack attacks can bring down the biggest and toughest of us.
Why are Pack/Group Attacks So Hard to Deal With?
Part of the reason that group attacks are so tough to deal with is that trying to mount a defence of any kind of offence is really tough. You look at one person and you have no idea what is going on behind you. That’s when the glass bottle smashes against your head and you hit the deck.
I have always known that dealing with violence is seriously difficult. It doesn’t matter if its one on one, three on one or eight on one, Fighting ‘aint’ easy! So when I came across DL I was blown away, why? Because from lesson one I was placed in a position I didnt like- against multiple opponents and this is The Temple of Chaos
Now just think about this for a second, I have done Judo, Boxing even No Holds Barred stuff, yet within 3 minutes of my first Defence Lab class I was really uncomfortable, I was stressed and I knew at that exact minute all my years training was vastly reduced! I had 5 people hitting me with pads and I was taking shots all over my body, all over my head and every time I turned I got hit. When I turned to the person hitting me I took a shot from behind.
In my head I was thinking “this shouldn’t be happening”. My entire life of martial arts training was reduced to nothing in 3 minutes!!! and make no mistake I would have come off badly in reality. My boxers guard had serious flaws and I had no other solutions to this situation.
So what happened? Once it was all over I was a shell of a martial artist. My skills and abilities rendered useless and it made me question everything I knew about self defence. Trust me, after 20 years that was a lot of questions!
Now I was kind of lucky really, because my first Defence Lab class was actually taken by Andy Norman himself, so Andy was there on hand to teach me and within a few minutes I was shown a totally different method to defend myself in that same situation. Boom we went again and this time it was a totally different experience, I was able to block the shots coming in and felt really safe. That was until Andy told us to go to our knees and backs!! Here we were again! Reduced to a beginner in a few seconds.
It was a humbling experience. The moment you realise that your training has serious flaws and those flaws were exposed within the first 10 minutes of the lesson.
From that moment I was hooked. DL was my thing and if you are a DL student then you will also have felt that same feeling I had.
I had entered Andy Norman’s Temple of Chaos and realised that when the s##t hits the fan my traditional training was lacking. Defence Lab blew me away because it showed me that after 20 years of training I had huge areas that I needed to improve on! However you need to experience the Temple of Chaos for yourself to see the holes in your own training.
The Day Andy Norman Let Me Hit Him as Hard As I Could
I couldn’t believe he said it. This was just like fight club, Andy Norman had just said “I want you to hit me as hard as you can!!” So I did hit him as hard as I could and he smiled!!!
OK now lets put this into perspective for a second. I weigh 90 kilos and I hit hard. So when Andy said “hit me” I expected to send him flying across the room.
Boom first punch, boom I do it again and he didn’t move!! I hit him with about 10 shots and he covered and took them as if it was a fly touching him. This was Defence Lab training at its best. How many instructors will let you hit them as hard as you can to show you their stuff works? Not many but Andy Norman did this. It was an impressive thing to do and see but this isnt because Andy has super powers, it is the techniques of Defence Lab, and you too can learn how to do this as well. it is actually one of the basic drills of DL.
Now if you are reading this and you are a DL student then you know all of what I have written. Your heads might be nodding because you understand just how special DL is. If that is happening that’s great, however so many haven’t yet experienced Defence Lab so if you are reading this and you have never experienced Defence Lab then go to Defencelab.com and find you local Lab and come down and enter the Temple of Chaos. This is the only way you are going to see just what makes DL so special and you will see just how your own training holds up in the temple!
And if you want to see Defence Lab in action and also the Temple of Chaos then go and buy the DNA Fight Pack or you can even get free Defence Lab Videos at Andy Norman’s official website.
Until next time Shape Shifters!!