We are a self-defence system that prides itself on honestly addressing the realities of knife defence. Our goal is to empower people through challenging training. We are dedicated to inspiring our students to improve physically and mentally and to help them develop the confidence to live an extraordinary life.
Knife defence is brutal, physical and incredibly challenging. We here at BKD want to address these challenges head-on with honesty, hard training and an open mind to improve our chances of defending against an edged weapon.
We offer online video learning for those interested in training at home or adding our program to your current martial arts training. We also offer regular Knife defence workshops and seminars if you are interested in training in person with us.
If you are interested in going further in your training and want to help us pass the material on and help more people become stronger and more confident we also have run coaching certification courses throughout the year.
Whatever your goals are for Knife defence training we are here to help!
Try our taster course to get a flavour for our training methods or dive right in and get started at home with our full BKD program!
I have been training all kinds of knife defence martial arts over the last 30 years. I have seen the good the bad and the very ugly! When I designed BKD I wanted to use a combat sport methodology to make our training as realistic as possible. In order to do this we must start with these 3 presuppositions:
The bad guy may be skilled.
The bad guy is thinking tactically
The bad guy is trying to win at all costs.
Therefore, in BKD, we include progressive resistance in all of our drills and sparring. The ultimate goal of our training is to be able to survive against an opponent who is attacking you with whatever techniques and tactics that they like.
Our goal in BKD is to be able to "compete" and win against an attacker who may or may not be skilled, who is thinking tactically, and who is trying to win at all costs. I use the word compete because whatever the rule set and whatever the objective, we are competing to win against our opponent.
In order to win, we have to be better than our opponent in one of these 4 ways:
We have to be more skilled
We have to have better attributes
We have to have better tactics
We have to be luckier
At BKD we aim to maximise the first 3 so that luck will be on our side as well!
Our training blueprint is based on tactical responses that can change at a moment's notice. Like any combat sport, we need to develop our skills in all the possible distances and pressures we may find ourselves in.
All of the training in BKD is designed to develop our attributes. This way when we come to the fight we are able to perfore at our peak.
As well as the physical confrontation part of our blueprint we also train our pre-fight skills. These include awareness, behavioural, emotional and phycological training.
Here at BKD we only rely on empirical evidence when building our tactical and technical program. We drill and spar in these 7 ranges:
Movement Range
Blocking Range
Isolation Range
Clinch Range
Grappling
Grounded
We also train what we call the "interview". This is the part of the confrontation the comes before any physical contact.
By using a sport methodology we can honestly train in all of these ranges and develop real skills against a bad guy who is also trying to win.
My passion is teaching and training martial arts and inspiring my students to live their best lives. I constantly strive to develop my teaching methodology to give my best to my students.
I love being part of a group that doesn't take itself too seriously, even though we are serious about training!
I have been training in a wide range of martial arts since my mother enrolled me in a Taekwondo class in 1992. I began teaching in 1997 and have been teaching full-time since 2001.
I have had the privilege to teach and train worldwide with amazing and inspiring people. My main coaches and influences are Ron Balicki, Johan Skalberg, Jeff Espinous, Richard Smith, Liam Harrison, Andy Howsen, Rungchai Makete, and Kowlan Lek.
I have worked as a Door supervisor, security guard, and close protection officer.
I am a certified instructor in the following arts:
-Filipino Kali/Lameco Eskrima - Full Instructor under Ron Balicki
-Kali Sikaran International -Katulungan Guro (Senior Instructor) under Johan Skalberg
- Jeet Kune Do/ Jun Fan - Full Instructor under Ron Balicki
-Muay Thai - Coach under Ron Balicki
-Shoot Wrestling - Black Belt under Ron Balicki
-Founder of Monkey mind self-defence
-Founder of Ballistic Knife Defence
-I am first aid trained and CRB checked