American Defensive Arts (ADA)
was founded in the late fall of 2002 in Hickory, NC. The first classes began as a result of two families that were home schooling their children and needed an exercise program. Their mutual goal was not only to get into good physical condition but to teach their kids how to protect themselves against a possible violent attack. The original school met in a basement with a total of 9 students from these two families. It did not take long before word-of-mouth spread the good news about the start of ADA, and soon many requests to expand were received. We have not always been the largest school or had the greatest commercial success. Neither of those have been our true goals. While size and success are helpful if they happen, they can never be our first priority if we are to stand by our principles. Let me share with you what ADA is truly all about:
AMERICAN - While we draw heavily on the oriental arts where so many fighting styles began, we add to and alter these styles freely. One of my instructors rejected someone’s thought that what was useful 2,000 years ago is automatically useful today. He in turn stated that we should be thankful and profit from what we did receive over the years from previous masters and keep an open mind. As Americans,
I believe we have the right and even the obligation to change, alter, improve and invent new techniques as they become available.
DEFENSIVE - We do not seek confrontation and will even go out of our way to avoid conflict. As all attacks are not the same, our ability to respond needs to vary. There are two primary types of physical attacks, and within these two primary types there may be a dozen different sub-routines. What I am sharing on this web site is not all-inclusive by any means. This is a general overview for you to find out how we approach self-defense instruction at ADA.
The first type of attack tends builds slowly into a full head-of-steam and then explodes. You may or may not know your attacker. The attacker may or may not be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and this is a major factor in your analyzing your potential response. Your attacker’s choice to be under the influence of an addictive substance says a great deal about their character and personality (and as I like to say, their lack of character, morality and ethics). As a former police officer, I can attest to seeing scores of people who would not be thought of as violent personalities almost do a “Jekyll & Hyde” transformation after ingesting small amounts of alcohol and/or drugs,. Many people will do things after drinking that they would never have done otherwise, such as drive a car while intoxicated or enter into a violent attack for no reason.
The second type of attack is the most deadly: the ambush. This type of attack may be impulsive, or have been set up ahead of time. It may be used by multiple attackers or a lone assailant. You have no warning of the imminent danger and probably did absolutely nothing to bring it on yourself. The speed with which it comes is blinding. You must be vigilant at all times to avoid being caught unaware and becoming the victim of an ambush.
ARTS – Although this is a difficult concept to define, what we mean by the word “arts” is the teaching of numerous styles of martial or "warrior" arts that have been passed down thru the centuries. For example, the Japanese consider their martial arts to be on the same level as painting, poetry, calligraphy, and so on. At ADA, we try to address to a small degree the historical aspect of where our forms originated. It has been said that if one does not learn from the past, he is doomed to repeat its mistakes. I believe that by studying the foundations of our marital arts instruction, and in particular what made our lead instructors successful, we can move forward in a positive direction. At ADA in the spring of 2010, we are going to embrace a new project that will provide our lower-ranking students with basic martial arts history in a different way. In the past we have shared important history verbally in class and later tested students on the information. In the future we will provide a "mini-history" book to the students, who will be responsible for learning the material independently as they test for promotion from beginner ranks up to and including black belt.
With regard to dating of the martial arts forms taught at ADA, we try to address the issue of the historical age of forms (hyungs, katas) versus the value of these forms. Many are hundreds of years old, some are only just 30-60 years old, and the age of others is unknown. We believe it is best to learn from the value of the form, and so try to give the age issue as little credence as possible. We teach some forms that are about 250 years old, while teaching some that one of my instructors personally developed about 40 years ago which are in many ways as good or better. Do we ignore them due to age? Of course not! We use and benefit from all of them.
We believe that what makes ADA particularly unique, however, is our focus on God's Word. We use 3 separate groups of scripture verses to communicate our beliefs. These 3 groups are geared around our martial arts instructional philosophy and what we want our students to take home with them.
The first is Psalm 144:1 which describes the physical side of the battle. We use this verse on our school patch which goes on our uniform. We also use this verse as one of our three central verses on each promotion certificate issued, regardless of rank.
The second group of verses covers spiritual warfare. You will find this in Ephesians 6:10-18. As Christians we may not personally enter into a physical conflict but we are at spiritual war each and every day of our lives.
The third group can be found in Philippians 2:2-5. There is nothing in this verse that would leap out at you saying it applies to martial artists: "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than themselves." However, it does speak to the attitude we encourage in our dojo. Some people have wondered about the ritual of bowing to one another in a karate dojo or dojang. It is simply a matter of showing mutual respect, and not that anyone is better than another. I once heard the son of the founder of a large martial arts organization address the issue of becoming ego-inflated by all the attention paid him on a constant basis. He said he did not become conceited at having a room of 500 black belts bow to him when he entered into the room. Rather he looked at it as they were simply showing respect to those dozens of masters who came before him down thru the centuries. I personally went through a long phase of being uncomfortable with that type of situation. Now I just take it that when I enter to teach a seminar in front of a large group of students that may include black belts and some masters, they are also bowing to Grandmasters Bradley and Conde, and Sensei Housman. Those three men have all earned our respect for the work they have done!
AMERICAN -
DEFENSIVE -
The first type of attack tends builds slowly into a full head-
The second type of attack is the most deadly: the ambush. This type of attack may be impulsive, or have been set up ahead of time. It may be used by multiple attackers or a lone assailant. You have no warning of the imminent danger and probably did absolutely nothing to bring it on yourself. The speed with which it comes is blinding. You must be vigilant at all times to avoid being caught unaware and becoming the victim of an ambush.
ARTS – Although this is a difficult concept to define, what we mean by the word “arts” is the teaching of numerous styles of martial or "warrior" arts that have been passed down thru the centuries. For example, the Japanese consider their martial arts to be on the same level as painting, poetry, calligraphy, and so on. At ADA, we try to address to a small degree the historical aspect of where our forms originated. It has been said that if one does not learn from the past, he is doomed to repeat its mistakes. I believe that by studying the foundations of our marital arts instruction, and in particular what made our lead instructors successful, we can move forward in a positive direction. At ADA in the spring of 2010, we are going to embrace a new project that will provide our lower-
With regard to dating of the martial arts forms taught at
We believe that what makes
The first is Psalm 144:1 which describes the physical side of the battle. We use this verse on our school patch which goes on our uniform. We also use this verse as one of our three central verses on each promotion certificate issued, regardless of rank.
The second group of verses covers spiritual warfare. You will find this in Ephesians 6:10-
The third group can be found in Philippians 2:2-
At ADA we strive to put all three of the biblical verses mentioned above into action:
v we want to be prepared for combat at all times;
v without question, we want our spirits to be prepared by depending on God and daily walking in a manner that honors Jesus Christ;
v we wish to do all we can to reach out to help others.
As an instructor, it is my responsibility to do the best job I can to impart as much knowledge to and hone the skills of my students. I firmly believe that if one of my students surpasses me, then I have done my job to the best of my ability!
