Turning your Body into a Survival Weapon: Just Do It

Progressive Fighting Systems – Taught by Paul Vunak

I don’t know him personally, but his curriculum is by far one of the best for Martial Arts and the average person.   Paul Vunak’s style of combining different martial arts was the majority of what I was exposed to through a former mentor, when I was first learning martial arts.   I have no affiliation to Paul Vunak and don’t sell any of his products.  But I do know what works.  I’ve taught this to my friends and family and admire good content when I see it.

This man has compiled many years of “in the ring” and “on the street” fighting, into hours of DVD instruction.  Mentored by Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee’s good friend and student), Vunak has put together “Filthy MMA” that can easily be taught to adults and children and elderly.

Now, that last statement might turn some people off.  How can a program be easy to teach to children and the elderly, but still be brutal and devastating to bad guys?  All I can say is check it out.  One of the aspects that I like about Vunak is that he teaches the individual to be in control of how “brutal” they need or want to be in an altercation. 

Basically, along with teaching technique, he teaches to controlling one’s aggression and adrenaline.  When you’re in control of yourself, you can better control the outcome of your altercation.  That’s an underlying message that I think is lost among some of those teaching in the Martial Arts community.  Especially when you see it (MMA) on TV, everything is rage, attitude and bravado.

The idea in this curriculum, is that Vunak takes different arts, techniques that work particularly well together, and puts it in an easy to understand and more importantly, easy to train format.  Originally the combining of different Martial Arts, was or is called “Jeet Kune Do”.  The philosophy is to use the best of what each form of has to offer the individual and reject what is not useful.

I’ve listed  the DVD sets I recommend.  The recommended DVD sets should be supplemental for one’s training program.  In that I mean, you should have a more experienced person that helps you train at first, if you have not been exposed to martial arts.  A partner is needed too.  No one person can practice and become good at martial arts by performing drills in front of a TV, alone.   

For any person to become a good fighter, they truly need to have a good trainer to “spring board off of”.  The trainer needs to be live, in person, individually coaching them.  Even if you only train with that trainer a year or so off and on, it will make you levels better than if you didn’t.

On the other hand, in the “Information Age”, we truly have the benefit of a master instructor in our home teaching us and our partners.  This is a benefit that was not available 40 or 50 years ago.  If you’re looking for some survival skills to get you out of a bad situation, this is the curriculum to consider.

Vunak DVD Set 1

The first Vunak set I recommend is “The Enigma”.

http://www.fighting.net/view_product.php?product_id=41

It runs $197.  For what it contains, that’s a bargin.  He also says that this DVD set makes his older stuff obsolete . . . I disagree with that.  His older DVD sets go into a lot of detail that he just doesn’t have time to cover as “The Enigma” is so comprehensive. 

In this set he teaches the RAT system (Rapid Assault Tactics), that is very easy to learn.  He taught this system to Seal Team Six when he was consulting for them in the 80’s.  This guy definitely has the credentials.

Along with the RAT system, he also teaches knife and stick fighting.  He also includes how to train the curriculum so that you will never get bored and always have material to train.  It’s definitely worth the money.

Vunak DVD Set 2

The second set comes from a different website.  Don’t know if he owns the rights to these anymore.  This is the more detailed areas of instruction.  These DVD’s are FAR from obsolete.  Pricing is pretty good as well.

http://www.pfsvideo.com/paul_vunak.htm

Start off by getting the DVDs PV-1 through PV-7.  That’s $79 plus shipping.  All of them contain good material, but these are the basics and where you need to start to supplement what you and your training partners learn in “The Enigma”.

Wrapping It Up

In the best case scenario, you’ve taken some karate, you’ve been exposed martial arts, but you haven’t trained in a while.  For $275 you and your training partners and family can have enough material to train at home, that you will essentially never get bored with.  You already know the basics, so training safely won’t be a problem for you.  You might just need to brush yourself up and train those around you.

In the worst case scenario, you are new to martial arts completely.  Still, spend the $275, train with your family and training partners.  The RAT system can be trained without ever having stepped into a Dojo before.  You might not be the world’s best fighter at first, but no one is.

On the side, pick up some boxing lessons from a trainer; you can probably get a private tutor that will teach you the fundamentals of fighting, live and in person.  Once you have that experience though, you will be better qualified to teach yourself and those around you.

Either way, whatever your situation, make the smart decision to further your survival skills and get training.  Violent situations never seem to happen when you’re ready.  So train your body, train your mind and then train those you love.  

The DVD sets by Paul Vunak are a great place to start.

Thanks for reading,

- GLSC Team