New Approach For Self-Defence

A.E.T.F. REPORT

Newsletter 1/2015

New Approach For Self-Defence

AETF reporter

Norbert Érseki

I visited the previous Holland Cup, organized by Tim Kool’s Sportschool upon their invitation. At that time the AETF Reporter position was quite new for me, so I had just started building relations by that time. I contacted Flip Kneppers, who is responsible for PR in the Netherlands if there was anything interesting going on in their country. He wanted to introduce me to Robert Boer, who started the so-called RADIX program with his friend from Norway, Roy Rolstad. I did not have the time to prepare for the interview, but then Mr. Kneppers reassured me that I should not worry: when it comes to self-defense, Robert can talk for endless long hours.

He was right.

This article is the first part of a two-part series about the RADIX project. 

Name: Robert Boer

Born in 1965

6th degree ITF Instructor

Trainer and consultant since 1995. Works with teams of professionals in conflict management, non-violent communication team communication, support, and aftercare concerning violent and aggressive behavior. One of the most experienced trainers on the subject of aggression regulation in the Netherlands. Trained and treated hundreds of violent offenders in both open and closed (treatment) settings.

Trainer at the Police Academy: Training, advice, and policy support in dealing with violent and aggressive behavior in health care, law enforcement, education, judicial institutions, child welfare, mental health, and social work.

Developer of the Wu Wei method: dealing with violent and aggressive behavior for professionals.

Developer of the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. method: Aggression-regulation and moral reasoning for adolescent offenders.

Active in Taekwon-Do and other martial arts since 1977. Head coach and team manager National Team, I.T.F. Netherlands 2005 – January 2011. Runs an ITF School in Groningen, Netherlands. Board member I.T.F. Netherlands.

    Thank you for making this interview happen. How could you summarize the project in a few sentences? What is it about?

    We have started it a few years ago. I have met Roy Rolstad from Oslo. We have talked about self-defense and self-defense applications from our patterns - that’s a rather undeveloped part. Within the ITF we have an excellent standard when it comes to patterns and applications. You have of course the standard applications that you can find in the encyclopedia, which works fine, but there are so many self-defense systems around at the moment, and when people compare ITF Taekwon-do to other self-defense systems, they say we are lacking some depth, and lacking realism.

    Maybe it is because we have no competition in self-defense, and many of the schools are concentrating on the different competition categories, right?

    Yes. And we are a very competition-oriented organization. There are for example other systems, which do not have any competition, and have a high level of self-defense - they train police, military, and so on. Our systems derive from other systems, you can find a lot of Shotokan and a lot of Okinawa-te, and some Chinese systems in our basic movements. We ask ourselves - what is the first and most original meaning of the things we do? And then we say - make a low block, and you see in competition and in self-defense - how many use the low block as really a low block? And then can easily answer the question - is the low block effective in self-defense when we use the low block as a low block? So from that point, we ask ourselves - what are the possibilities of these techniques? Because most of the techniques we have been using around for hundreds of years. And General Choi, Nam Te Hi, and other instructors have assembled these techniques in a new order and in a new way. And what we ask ourselves - what is the most original application of most of the movements? Then everything within the two has a meaning. The stances have combative meaning, the movements have been returning to the hip - we say it is only a counter-movement, to make the movement itself more effective, and we use all the movements going back - but normally the hand that is returning has something in it.

    Robert asked me to give my hand to him, so he could demonstrate what he meant. With a najunde makgi and a pakat palmok block, he used the counter-moving other hand to grab my attacking hand, easily got the high ground, and got to a position in a split second, from where he was able to throw me on my back.

    All these techniques have multiple applications - he continued - and we have just dived into that. We have been doing it for years with Roy.

    What is your plan with the program?

    We call it a project. It is not a system. I don’t care if it is not in a system. I want to deepen my ITF Taekwon-do. I have been in many other systems, and I like the ITF the best for aesthetic and technical reasons, and also for the people. This is where I belong, this is my place: the ITF. And it is the same with Roy. He did many systems too, and he is also very self-defence oriented.

    We call it the RADIX system. Radix is the Latin word for ‘root’ - we want to go back to the roots of what we do. So what does this mean? ‘Why is my hand here? In other systems it is here and not there. Why?’ - So we go back to the root, and if we cannot find the root in literature, we have to try to find it ourselves. But when you are in this alternative way of thinking, you see things that could be the same as we did there.

    When you started the project, did you get any feedback, or maybe a decision, or order, from others, or did you just start it on your own?

    I was just curious, and Roy was curious too, and we developed it separately - some basics. And then at a certain time, we met at a tournament, at some seminar, and we talked about it. And we were really happy to find a soulmate! I thought I was the only idiot doing this - he laughs. - And now there are more and more people into it. As they see - This is nice for me, because I am a guy, who really wants to be able to defend myself, with all this training that I have done.

    How do you find these applications? Are you experimenting? Or maybe you are trying to find the “original” meaning of the movements by research?

    Yes, we are experimenting and also trying to find the “original” meaning as you have mentioned. We have a list of rules which we try to apply to the techniques. Like for example everything in the movement should have a meaning. And the returning hand has normally something in it. Why is it that in step sparring we step back, and if we do a tull we almost always step forward with our techniques?

    He explains it passionately with examples of movements from step sparring and steps from Chon-ji Tul.

    If you put these things together, and you try to do the techniques within the most realistic context you can train in, then we have a lot of possibilities!

    He again makes an example, actively involving me. He makes an example with Do-san Tul, making a grip after the first block, then pulling me towards him while with the other hand, his punch reaches me with a deadly blow.

    You see! That’s why it is so much fun to do! And then all of a sudden you have hundreds of possibilities of effective self-defense techniques within the basic techniques we already know for years. But nobody uses this in a street fight the way we do it in step sparring, because if we make a punch and then step back, I am always too late. But if I do it like I have learned it in tulls - I step in, then I can immediately make a counterattack.

    This one is pretty cool too - he insisted on showing me another real-life application - I will show you another one. - Then he continued to show me some techniques for several minutes.

    We have always learned which technique in the Tul is for what, but in many cases, it does not make sense in a real-life situation. And that’s important! Many things are well developed in ITF. Tournaments are well-developed, tulls are well-developed, and sparring is well-developed. We have a very good sparring level, you can see it here (he is referring to the ongoing Holland Cup 2014 where we have made this interview at), and in many other tournaments too. But the self-defense part is not that developed yet. So Roy and I would like to share the things we found out, so that’s why we are giving these seminars.

    Were the self-defence techniques well developed by our Grandmaster and Masters and they only have been forgotten? Or is this a new area to discover?

    I think General Choi did a hell of a job spreading Taekwon-Do all over the World. But he was one person. He did his best in standardized technique, to see that it is well instructed all over the world, but then you cannot do so many things in a lifetime. Now it is for us to further develop the possibilities we have. People say that it is very difficult what we do. On the other hand - if you call it an alternative application, then it is good, and the Grandmasters also said, that it is all OK. If you call them alternative applications, then you can be as creative as you want to be. And you see all these things I have shown you - they are effective. You immediately understand why the hand is crossed for the preparation of a block, so you have reason, to explain these details.

    He once again showed me some other applications, explaining them with passion.

    I don’t know whether the General knew these applications, but frankly, I think it does not matter. Because Taekwon-do and martial arts should be constantly evolving. And these techniques have a very very long history. They are not owned by ITF or by Taekwon-do, they are collected together in our system. If you learn one of the Chinese systems they have almost the same basic movements. If people in the past depended on the safety of the techniques they learned, if they had found a way to make the movement much safer, nobody would use it in a different way. If they have kept this for so long, they must have a reason.

    Robert is standing up, showing me just another example, very cheerfully and proudly.

    I am quite happy with what we do.

    Have you been doing research in other martial arts?

    Yes, in other martial arts, especially Shotokan karate, as we are very similar. Open your mind - what did I just see? Why is it effective? Nobody says that they are practical, but if you are using them as… ah I show you.

    Robert gave me another passionate demonstration, about stances and steps within ITF and in other systems.

    All around the world people are doing stuff as self-defence. Not only because it’s popular, but it’s in the military, in the police, and simply because people have to defend themselves. They do it in many ways, but also there are many similarities. And then if you see there are more than - if I am right - 6000 techniques in Taekwon-do, there should be something in any case that is really effective without doing ‘strange’ things with it. So we have sat together many times now, and we call this a project because we want other people to get the possibility to do their own things and get involved. Otherwise, we are just two guys, with limited time, limited brains, and limited vision, and we would have a limited result. If people have good ideas, we incorporate them. We did some seminars now - two days in Oslo, two days in Amsterdam, and as you see, we could do seminars on only just two tulls, because there are so many possibilities - and then you have 24 tulls. Never in our lives we are going to finish this job, so this is for other people too. We want to go to the root of the system. The X stands for the unknown. There are many things that are unknown to us. In my school, I do a lot of self-defense training, and mainly the adults like it. Because the kids like sparring and jumping and competition. Once you are over 30, you say why am I still doing Taekwon-do? Because I don’t want to be in a competition, and I would do other things. This is a very good opportunity to first slower your learning, and for deepening it. When you do the first tull you see there are almost 30 applications for Chon-ji tul only. And if you do sajoo jirugi, there are many possibilities too. Then you deepen your learning, and people really learn to appreciate the basic movements. Because this is not a technique, this is a principle.

Will be continued…