11/18/2004

Defense system used by Israeli military is a phenomenon that has come to Brentwood

By the time instructors Sam Sade and Mike Diamond got around to the class lesson - how to disarm an attacker - their 22 students, clad in white T-shirts, black sweatpants and hand-wraps, were more than happy to rest and watch the demonstration.

They'd just been through the grueling, boot-camp kind of workout the military is famous for employing in basic training, complete with jumping jacks, sit-ups, squats, push-ups, punches, crunches and more.

Now they paid careful attention as Diamond pointed a toy gun at Sade's chest and yelled, "Get your hands up!"

In one swift move, Sade reached out to the gun, redirecting the line of fire away from his body and controlling the weapon. Then he attacked the gunman with a few well-placed punches, disarmed him and backed off with the gun in hand, trained on his former attacker.

"The first thing to remember is not to show aggressiveness," Sade explained. "You're the victim. Remember that the gunman has a false sense of power."

Then Sade discussed how visualization and scenario planning is integral to survival.

"If you are facing your opponent and he can both see you and use all four arms and legs against you, you are facing his live side," he said. "You must always try  to move to his dead side. That way it's difficult for him to use his arm and leg farthest away from you to attack, and you are in a better position to counterattack and control."

The pair demonstrated the attack again, and this time Sade exhorted his students to watch where his center of gravity shifted. "Put your weight on the ball of the foot, forward," he said. "Then look at the gun and attempt to change its position."

With that, Diamond instructed the students to pair off and passed out toy pistols. After that, they practiced, over and over, how to position themselves to redirect a weapon's line of fire and, hopefully, take it away.

"A surprise attack forces you to react from an unprepared state," said Diamond. "Your self-defense reaction must be instinctive and reflexive. Practicing and repeating techniques will embed them in your consciousness, so you can summon them up in a moment of need."

Welcome to Self Defense 101. The hand-to-hand defense system of the Israeli military forces, it has become increasingly popular with martial arts enthusiasts in the U.S. since its introduction here less than 10 years ago. At first a West Coast phenomenon - the Self Defense National Center in Los Angeles boasts 2,500 members - it now has spread to 260 schools across the country.

A month or so ago, St. Louis Self Defense & Fitness LLC opened at 9001 Manchester Road in Brentwood through the efforts of Diamond, Sade and Steve Tschudy. Though the threesome is equally passionate about Self Defense (Hebrew for "contact combat"), they arrived at their knowledge of the street-fighting system in different ways.

Sade, 40, a native of Haifa, Israel, was exposed to Self Defense in 1983, when he began mandatory service with the Israeli army.

Israel has been teaching its soldiers the self-defense system since its war of independence in 1948. Based on techniques that are thousands of years old, Self Defense was modernized by Emerich "Imi" Lichtenfeld of Czechoslovakia, as a way to help the Jewish community protect itself from marauding Fascists and anti-Semites during Hitler's rise to power.

Lichtenfeld escaped to Palestine in 1942 and began training the Israeli military. Since 1964, Israel also has been training civilians in the method.

Sade, who served in Lebanon and along the Syrian border, finished his army stint in 1986. By 1988, he was a competitive body builder, winning the Mr. Israel title twice and competing in the Mr. Universe and Mr. Europe contests. In 1996, he began studying Self Defense seriously as well and earned his black belt in 2 1/2 years.

"I grew up in a tough neighborhood and was always involved in fighting. Self Defense was a natural extension for me," said Sade. He came to the U.S. in 1998 to help American attorney Darren Levine open the national center in Los Angeles.

That's where St. Louis native Diamond, 46, met Sade. Diamond, a personal trainer who grew up in Creve Coeur, had been in Los Angeles for 24 years. He owned Mike Diamond Fitness in Sherman Oaks when a client began taking Self Defense.

"I signed up for a once-a-week class, just for a change of pace and a new challenge," said Diamond. "Three weeks later, I had become an annual member of the center and was taking classes three to four times a week."

Sade and Diamond became running partners, training partners and friends. A year ago, Sade asked Diamond to help him open a Self Defense center in Florida.

"I told Sam if I was going to leave California, I wanted to move back to St. Louis," said Diamond. "Sam came for a visit and fell in love with the city."

By coincidence, Tschudy, 39, a real estate investor from Ladue and a fan of martial arts, had been training at the Los Angeles center and was thinking about starting a Self Defense school here as well. With only a Web site (www.stlouisselfdefense.com) and word-of-mouth advertising, they drew enough interest to persuade them to open the center here in mid-October.

Joel and Lacy Hubbard of Creve Coeur have been studying karate for years; he's a third-degree black belt, and she's a first-degree black belt. Now they're hooked on Self Defense. Joel, 37, a systems analyst at Edward Jones Co., is attending classes six times a week; Lacy, 38, a systems support manager at CMS Inc., goes an average of four times a week.

"Self Defense is simpler than other martial arts, but it's also easier to translate to real-life situations," said Joel. "And the warm-ups are incredible - I can stop going to the gym!"

Said Diamond: "We call it a workout with a purpose; it makes you physically as well as mentally strong. But comparing Self Defense to something like karate is like comparing slam dancing to ballet. It employs kicks in the groin, elbows in the jaw and pokes in the eye - things that it's better to know and not need than to need but not know."

For more information, call 314-961-5728 or check www.stlouisselfdefense.com.

Reporter Renee Stovsky
E-mail: rstovsky@post-dispatch.com
Phone: 314-863-6205

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