The HSD-3 Method

HSD-3 is unique in its approach.  The founding members felt their previous system had lost its way and identity and as a result was no longer serving students in a way that provided members with the ability to survive real combat situations.  Also, the old system had become too self-involved.

HSD-3 would not have a “professor”.  Rather the HSD-3 Brotherhood would be governed by the Chief Instructors. The first task was to define what HSD-3 was going to do.  We did this by establishing a mission statement:

          ‘HSD-3 will train people to fight and survive in combat’. 

That is our only focus.

Next we had to consider the best way to execute that mission statement.  In the previous system each belt level focused on a particular set of arts until mastered, a belt was awarded, and the student moved on to the next set of arts.  Over the years the individual arts became the focus as they were constantly changed for one reason or another. All that produced was students becoming confused and the student body shrinking.  Another issue was it could be years before a student was trained to defend against a knife, gun etc.  As we assessed the arts and tried to tie an approach back to the mission statement we ask ourselves ‘What would we look for in every art if performed by a black belt practitioner’? First, we want to see BALANCE, then TARGETING, then SPEED, then AGRESSION and finally OWNERSHIP.  We had our answer.  The first four can be taught, the last is more difficult. 

Reacting spontaneously to an attack with balance, speed, on target with aggression…when you can do that have attained ownership of the HSD-3 system.  When a student can do that we have achieved our mission statement.  As discussed earlier our foundation is Kenpo, so our techniques will be those found within that artform.  We used to occasionally do “spontaneity’ training and I think most of us found it difficult because generally speaking the individual arts we worked on so much would fall apart and we would lose one or two of the components of ownership.  We had to change the focus of our teaching methodology, so the students are exposed to a multitude of techniques that would eventually become muscle memory, while not becoming conditioned to specific responses. We would have to put less emphasis on conformity and more on execution.

Truth be told you cannot short the training needed to perform at the level discussed above.  There is no short cut.  It will come faster to some, but still it’s a lifelong pursuit.  Each of the undergraduate belt levels will focus on components (balance, targeting, speed, aggression and ownership).  Each level should build upon the previous.  Students should never inquire as to when a belt test might occur.  But I do think it important to understand what the Instructor body will be assessing for promotion to each belt level.