Sudden Violence

My Kembativz organization recently ran its Sudden Violence course for the second time this year. The intensive training session puts students in some very unfamiliar and uncomfortable situations with drills that require ferocity and legitimate performance. The focus is on developing enough skill to deal with situations that suddenly — and unexpectedly — become critically violent.

- Kelly McCann

I don’t know the attribution for the following quote, but it applies perfectly to our course: “You can’t hide what you don’t know in here.”

THE SUDDEN VIOLENCE course is genderless. Female students are not partnered exclusively with other women. Instead, they’re expected to perform to an acceptable standard regardless of who their training partner is. Men and women are paired with each other at various times with no regard to size, ability, strength, speed, agility or athleticism. The course, which I created in the late 1980s and have run ever since, is where the rubber meets the road.

The first day and a half of instruction prepares participants for the final drills but also include some full-contact sessions to test skill accumulation, preparedness and the will to fight. It’s all about fighting: punches, knees, elbows and low-line kicks against fully animated and combative training partners.