27 Basic Movements
The twenty-seven core movements of Smart Defences are drawn from my experience in Chito-Ryu Karate and Krav Maga. Together, they form a repeatable training routine that builds instinctive reactions through deliberate repetition. The goal is simple: perfection through practice. Each movement can be trained alone or combined with others, adapting to real situations as they unfold. With time, these motions become stored “memories” of effective defence—actions your body performs without hesitation or conscious thought.
During training, imagination overlays the physical world. You picture the attack, see your movement within it, and let the body follow the mind’s image. In that moment, mind, body, and environment align. This is where imagination and physical response merge—you visualise the next action and act upon it as one continuous motion. The brake-and-flow principle reinforces this unity: a short isometric hold to stabilise and store energy, followed by a smooth, isotonic release into controlled motion.
Smart Defences follows the loop Be Aware · Prepare · Respond · Improve, providing a practical framework for this integration. Training works much like shadowboxing: you select a realistic attack, imagine it clearly, and perform the matching movement 3–5 times in each direction. With every repetition, your body learns to recognise subtle cues—weight shifts, steps, or shoulder turns—and respond automatically. Over time, this training becomes a living map within you, where intent acts as the compass, guiding you instantly toward the right response. By thinking a second ahead and projecting your desired outcome, you train the predictive part of the brain to see what’s coming and act before it arrives—calm, precise, and fully aware.
This method works because it unites imagination with real movement, raising your signal-to-noise ratio more focus, less hesitation—and keeping you a second (or more) ahead. Lose that second and the roles reverse; you chase instead of lead. With just 10–15 minutes a day, imagined attacks are replaced by real ones, and the body reacts as trained: fast, controlled, and decisive. In both self-defence and daily life, the Smart Defences system becomes your map and your compass—turning preparation into instinct and panic into calm, purposeful action. You’ve already thought it through and acted it out in practice, so when the moment comes, you don’t need to think—you simply do.