The last video I will ever make... about the Ultimate Self Defense Championship

[@actuallywetsocks2374]

Booted up Skyrim for the first time in a while and what's the first thing I see upon entering a tavern? Ramsey Dewey discussing the Ultimate Self Defense Championship with a random argonian

[@chriskerwin3904]

he used to be an adventurer like you until he took an arrow to the knee... now he reads about the Lusty Argonian Maid

[@F.A.--]

zombie to the knee* @@chriskerwin3904

[@emissary_kyle]

I gotta say coach you have a helluva lot of heart. If I was half blind and to have a mangled knee I'd drop out way beforehand... Cameras be damned.

[@RamseyDewey]

It sounds like you are smarter than me! That's good self defense.

[@emissary_kyle]

@@RamseyDewey Lol. It's more of a genetic condition, I'm a wimp.

[@RamseyDewey]

@@emissary_kyle True strength begins by recognizing your limitations.

[@miguelnovais3878]

@@RamseyDewey I love that sentence, I want to reflect about it

[@DanGoodman-n4b]

@@RamseyDeweyA man’s got to know his limitations - Dirty Harry

[@punderlord]

"Sometimes I'm not entirely nice with what I have to say, I'm honest." Lots of people would use a sentiment like that to be mean spirited, "I tell it like it is," but here you've been giving an honest critique, good and bad. And people have to remember that The USDC even though it's on KZbin was basically reality TV, so things were edited to give a certain narrative, accurate or not. Appreciate the wider context Ramsey

[@iantufts8857]

The USDC served to illustrate some important lessons to those of us outside the combat sports, martial arts, or self-defense spheres. 1). You get stabbed in a knife fight. 2) At best, you survive multiple attackers. 3) the most fit and focused win. And 4) violence is risky for those who dedicate their lives to it... and far riskier for the rest of us. So maybe less violence in the world is a good idea. I hope this well-intentioned, poorly organized, sometimes foolish event leads to better decision making, for a lot of different people. Ps- I love hearing you and Mike come to the same conclusions, despite having very different personalities and life experiences.

[@yourleftisttesticle]

Funny enough, you actually dont have to get stabbed in a knife encounter. There are statistically likely ways to get out without getting stabbed, or at least getting seriously stabbed. They all involve weapons and running. Guns, sticks with longer range, heavy tools to strike the head before they land the stab. These are all ways we have seen people stop a knife attack without being stabbed. But NOT ONE of them is an unarmed fighting style. You need something to level the field, and another knife aint it.

[@justafan5179]

Glad you mentioned the self-defense industry as a whole... yeah, it's disgusting. Also glad you brought up the bridge, because yeah, it was horrifying to think what could have happened.

[@ThatJamesGuy88]

Hey coach, I loved the videogame backgrounds. I'd like to see a "normal guy" self defense championship. Get some normal people--a cop, a fire fighter, a former high school football player, someone who works at a bank, a garbage truck guy--normal people with normal people jobs. Keep up the good work.

[@beenright5115]

I would totally watch USDC with Master Wong and Jake Mace!!! I'm rooting for Wong

[@camiloiribarren1450]

Same!!! Master Wong is the man

[@fireeaglefitnessmartialart935]

With Shane fazen and jesse enkamp.

[@Zstar821]

Ramsey, I'm sorry you had a less than favorable experience in this event. Especially considering your injury. I appreciate your honesty in reflecting on the topic despite not wishing to engage in the subject anymore. I hope Rokas and Jeff can take the criticism professionally and without feeling personally attacked for their understanding of Self Defense. I'm worried it could be seen as you taking shots at the event to drum up drama. I hope you are not seen as someone who would want that. I've always respected your honesty and avid defense of your opinions. Personally, I very much enjoyed the entertainment value of this event. Seeing you with other content creators I enjoy watching gave me a sense of joy. Recover strong and be well friend, -Zstar

[@RamseyDewey]

You don’t even need to criticize Jeff Phillips to make that guy upset. He mocked me, some members of his team have said the most egregious things to me, misrepresenting what I said in my first reviews (when I was holding back criticism about the USDC and only doing a personal narrative) He deserves far more severe criticism than anything I’ve said in this video. The man is not fit to lead in my opinion. You, like Jeff, can interpret this however you want. But I’m done talking about this subject.

[@billbill6094]

​​@@RamseyDewey RBSD guys are like that. They have a sense of self-superiority for being more "wordly wise" and treat it like cute that fighters claim to know how to fight. But then when asked to prove it, they can't meet the call, trying every way of saying "I'll kill you" (and that statement is not entirely as an assessment of their skills, often it doubles as a threat for hurting their egos by wanting to see their mad skillz). Mocking is all they have. I guarantee the first time you stepped into a cage your first time you've experienced more danger than Philips in his life. Maybe even your first TKD match. Guys like that claim to have the secrets of violence while knowing diddly about it.

[@tkdguide]

Excellent points as always. If you define self defense as staying safe from harm, I think the industry runs into a major problem. The most important things to learn to stay safe from harm are probably not exciting and probably rarely interest people. Lock your doors, wear your seatbelt, don’t get publicly drunk… everyone already fell asleep. 😴

[@beenright5115]

I always rooted for icy Mike cause he's about my size and age (though fit and knowledgeable), but i think you read that fight correctly. He did great! But was dominated. That bridge fight though.... If they had footage of that fight from the ground or from an angle showing the drop clearer, there would have been a greater uproar from KZbin on the irresponsibility of it all.

[@RamseyDewey]

Mike is the personification of the little engine that could. Now that I think about it, I'm kind of surprised they didn't do any shots of the bridge from the floor, since they seemed to pick the location for the dramatic effect more than anything else.

[@kevingray4980]

I think the biggest flaw was conflating sport fighting objectives with self-defense objectives. The scoring in self defense is REALLY easy to define and score, you survived or you didn't. Reach the exit, survive 30 seconds till help arrives, reach the weapon, rescue a friend, etc. Fighting ability is just a tool. If you land zero punches but achieve the objective, you won. And here they were awarding points for strikes landed😅

[@mkoetsch6791]

More scene accessories needed.

[@AntonAdelson]

As a parkour coach of 4 years and traceur of 14, I'd say the escape scenario is very important to showcase the importance of parkour skills...

[@RamseyDewey]

You might think that until you saw the actual logistics of the course and the placement of the people guarding the exists and the goal.

[@AntonAdelson]

@@RamseyDewey Yes, there's the issue with them guarding the exits. I didn't say it was simple! 😅 In any case, I'd love to try it! Have you ever seen World Chase Tag Championship? I was supposed to be in Israeli team but I got injured trying to impress a girl... Anyway, have a watch if you haven't seen it yet! And if you have, I'd love to see your reaction to it!

[@jacksonsanborn246]

I felt the same way watching the series. I think a lot of the flaws go back to what you mentioned, Jeff Phillips bias, but also since Rokas was so heavily invested (as I understand put his life savings into the first filming) I think he got tunnel vision in trying to make everything entertaining. It seems they didn’t have the time or budget to test any of the challenges and work out problems like the unwinnable stab escape challenge. They also didn’t think out major issues like liability if someone fell off the bridge. I had similar worries when Matt ran up three stories in the amphitheater and was “hypothetically” kicking someone back down the ladder. The lack of real safety measures while simultaneously having mandatory helmets etc. seemed more like safety theater than anything. I think much better thought out challenges with much more specific rulesets and self defense applications could make the series much better. Rokas seems to have good intentions, although I haven’t seen him really mention or apologize for you being injured due to their negligence which isn’t great, but without a different partner, challenges etc. the self defense championship is a mess. Which is sad because it has good potential. Best wishes in your recovery Ramsey!

[@ShinFahima]

Legally speaking, to apologize is to accept liability. So if he made videos like, "Sorry about the leg, bro. :(" it's seen in court as an admission of guilt if it went to litigation somehow. I'm sure it's nothing personal. :o

[@jacksonsanborn246]

@@ShinFahima I agree. I didn’t really mean him make an apology video. Just reading between the lines I imagine if Rokas had reached out and spoke to Ramsey personally I feel like Ramsey would have mentioned something about them talking and Rokas handled it well etc. Obviously I’m assuming but since I haven’t seen Ramsey say anything like that I get the impression Rokas didn’t take extra steps to try and make things right after the incident. No idea either way and like I said I think Rokas has good intentions just not the ability to execute.

[@vladimirgertner3960]

@@ShinFahimaWhat? No! Absolutely not. To be clear, if Ramsey decided to sue for damages, he would easily win in almost any jurisdiction on this planet. So, no, apologizing would not put Rokas in a bad place. Secondly, "to apologize is to accept liability" is just not true. In fact, Australia (where it happened) has very specific wording in their laws that specify that an apology EVEN WITH ADMITION OF FAULT is not an acceptance of liability. Rokas is just a dick.

[@Wavecheckfoo]

Everybody gangsta til mormon terry pulls up

[@RamseyDewey]

Hahahahahaha!

[@ynghuch]

I did really enjoy the USDC but I too questioned a lot of the parameters for what the goal was. For example, on the bus rush I remember Seth saying he was half punching until a guy blasted him in the face and he realised he was allowed to hit harder.

[@RamseyDewey]

In the rules meeting before the bus event, Jeff Phillips specifically told us to go very light and just tap each other with strikes. (You can see the recording if you want on my previous video, and on Jeff’s channel) But of course when he sent his goons in to attack (for no other reason than to create drama) they attacked with bad intentions. The inconsistencies were rife.

[@kapilthevkanapathipillai6424]

I even commented on their livestream is that " Mma rules don't count, but MMA guy, WON! So what does that tell us? 😅"

[@murphylhunn]

A good rule of thumb for scoring dominant position is asking yourself, "would i rather be the guy standing up throwing punches, or the guy flat on his back throwing up kicks with flawless technique?"

[@IvanBarsch]

I myself greatly enjoyed USDC 1, and even with all its flaws (which seem to be even more plentiful than I thought) it did one good thing for me; it introduced me to your channel.

[@CombatSelfDefense]

“Combat sports sheds light on the reality of combat - the self defense industry sells a power fantasy.” - my entire channel summed up into one beautiful phrase. Great work, as always.

[@CALAdminWaffle]

Without Master Wong and Commander Brown, the whole event’s legitimacy has to be called into question.

[@DagwoodDogwoggle]

@10:05 - love the Picard Facepalm Ramsey Style. LOL.

[@kaizenproductions00]

Man, there was so much editing of what you said. That's basically reality TV 101 😂

[@RamseyDewey]

It was quite literally a reality TV show.

[@klapacjuszanimomon8501]

Watching this Championships was really one of most fun things I watched on yt. I was so entertain, to the point that i didn't even thought about half the things you were talking about. I guess a bit of "saltiness" is very much justified and honestly needed. Why would they cut out this many of your insightful takes, the person who's experienced at fighting, if they really wanted to help people with understanding self defense

[@martialgeeks]

Minecraft background...amazing! haha, jokes aside, thanks for covering this, it was a very unfortunate series of events...take care

[@ReeseRozum-sm1zs]

Well it wasnt legit without Master Wong anyway

[@RamseyDewey]

You cannot properly claim to train fo' da streetz!™ without Master Wong!

[@SINdaBlock411]

@@RamseyDewey yet you keep selling MMA as real self defence ...

[@schultemeister6975]

@@SINdaBlock411never seen that ever

[@user-vx8mj3ne5r]

He has repeatedly said that he trains figthers for a sport, not for any self-defense situation. Repeatedly. He's very clear on that​@SINdaBlock411

[@southpawmoose]

Yeah, where was Master Wong?!?!

[@raccoonmyroom6861]

I just started playing Skyrim for the first time and am understanding all of your Elder Scrolls references. You make such cool content! I would also love to hear more about the 4 S' of vaurd that you mentioned. I made sense when you said it, but I would love a Ramsey deep dive on it. Maybe you have already talked about it!

[@eriksturdevant8589]

You were part of something great. Be proud!

[@RamseyDewey]

Pride is the great sin of this generation. The proud will burn as stubble at the last day. Do not be proud. Humble yourself, even as the dust of the earth.

[@eriksturdevant8589]

@@RamseyDewey Let me rephrase that. A sense of accomplishment knowing that you did something that was pretty cool. I did not mean "pride" as a form of self agrandizement. That you for the admonishment, as I should thank you...according to Proverbs.

[@evanhardin]

Love the backgrounds Ramsey. : )

[@Nunnayadambiness]

You are wearing a Terry Bogard cap. I see you are a man of culture in addition to martial arts.

[@mikeCD62]

Icy Mike had the deck stacked against him being 5'5" and over 40, and i felt like the judges were trying, potentially subconsciously, to throw him a bone where they could in the scoring. On one hand, it did further undermine the already tenuous scoring system, but on the other hand, I think that its understandable to have difficulty remaining impartial as a judge in that moment.

[@TimRHillard]

So if you blow out a knee, or break your neck at an adult' 'self defense day camp'' learning something you'll probably never have happen to you. And you don't really approximate that self defense situation anyway, it starts making my motorcycles street riding and even motocross at 56 yrs old look a whole lot less foolish. So, good on that part! So, the next time I come back from a weekend California desert riding, with my knee bandaged up, again. I can tell my wife, ''hey, at least I didn't fall off of a bridge horseplaying with my friends''. Its gonna be an epic winter y'all.

[@RamseyDewey]

daylight savings time in the USA kills more people every year than motorcycles.

[@thelogicalcaveman9139]

I support the idea of dust doing the next season

[@RamseyDewey]

Same!

[@dzen_dzenkazan8050]

We won't see that, of course. No way he agrees to participate

[@thelogicalcaveman9139]

@@dzen_dzenkazan8050 a man can hope can’t he

[@dzen_dzenkazan8050]

@@thelogicalcaveman9139 true. Let's hope for the miracle 😃

[@blockmasterscott]

It took me about five minutes to realize that it’s Minecraft behind you lol.

[@dixonbuttes]

Wait that’s Minecraft? I thought it was all blocky and stuff

[@blockmasterscott]

@@dixonbuttes It’s Minecraft at the very beginning, a bit later it’s changed to Skyrim.

[@dixonbuttes]

That part I noticed lol

[@A_Moustached_Sock]

One question I also had and meant to ask it a while ago but forgot. Did you tell anyone on set there about the whole blind spot and how the helmet hindered that? Or just being sleep deprived you didnt think to mention it?

[@ragnarok700]

@Ramsey Thank you for going through all of these detailed review of this joke of an event even though it is pretty clear there was a low of miscommunication about the activities themselves (on purpose?), the timing of all of it with the travel was definitely less than optimal and, you know, all of the other issues you've mentioned through each of these reviews. I always appreciate your insight on this kind of content but in this case it was particularly interesting since you were in those events yourself and many of the other martial arts content creators I follow regularly! Keep up the good work! :)

[@ArifRWinandar]

Fun and dumb idea: what if you organize your own version of the USDC in your gym with your students as contestants?

[@corrugatedcavalier5266]

Thanks for being willing to criticize this. I think other youtubers who were involved probably didn't want to in order to keep on everyone's good side and make it seem like it was all worthwhile. Honestly most of it looked pretty ridiculous to me too.

[@Aleyander]

Thank you for talking so long about that bridge. I could not believe it when I saw it, so dangerous.

[@RamseyDewey]

I know, right? Jeff’s logic in using the bridge was to create a sense of fear to simulate a street fight or whatever, but the result is that we have guys who are good friends trying extra hard not to hurt each other.

[@Shnuksy]

I just watched the thing, i enjoyed bits of it, but i just didn't get the scoring at all. I'm also very suspicious of "self-defence experts".

[@cosmoreverb3943]

Yeah, same

[@ZovcDrafts]

I've never done sparring with this kind of gear before, but here's some input that could hopefully be constructive: If speech is going to be part of the competition, mouth guards are out. You're already wearing headgear. I use a Sisu mouth guard when I'm teaching and am able to talk with a slight lisp. I don't get how a mouth guard helps if you have headgear (maybe it allows you to clinch your jaw? Idk), but look for something like that if it's necessary. Regarding the "amped up" simulation, I didn't really get it either. I've been in situations where I thought I might need to physically intervene and have felt stress and anxiety about it, but that's only been as a bystander. It would make more sense to me to say "you need to stop this person from getting hurt" and have the sports ball guys doing ground and pound on a small person. As an observer, you need to overcome fight or flight to actually step up. If you're being attacked, I agree with Ramsey that you're much more likely to go from 0 to 60. Otherwise you've been in a situation where you failed to deescalate which means you "already lost" at self defense. Like, "Oh no, this big scary dood wants to fight. I guess I have to fight."

[@RamseyDewey]

Headgear sucks. It doesn't protect your brain, and it doesn't secure your jaw in place. It just makes your head bigger and heavier, makes you easier to hit, and makes it harder to avoid strikes significantly harder to grapple, and harder to see. This particular headgear was very difficult to breathe in. Headgear only serves to prevent superficial injuries. A mouthguard is the single most important piece of protective equipment. Do not spar with headgear but no mouthguard. It's not smart. I would have preferred to do the entire event without any of the protective equipment except mouthguards. The LARPing required no protective equipment whatsoever, and it was a mistake to mandate it.

[@ZovcDrafts]

@@RamseyDewey appreciate your reply. I agree that mouth guards are very important and wasn't trying to suggest they aren't. I haven't trained in headgear so I was curious about them. Your claims about the faults line up with what my limited research has told me. Didn't consider the jaw, but I assumed the face shield would provide some protection to it. There are two things that made me consider trying headgear for training, your opinion would be great: I teach friends most weeks and they're complete beginners aside from what we do. I was considering getting headgear for very inexperienced people who are uncomfortable with being punched as a way to try helping them get used to the visual cues without needing to actually have a glove touch their face. No hard sparring, just drills or a freeform "I'm going to throw some light punches and I want you to take focus on keeping your composure." The other consideration is that I've heard it said that boxing gloves "allow" people to punch harder "safely," which is to say it keeps the hands safe and also prevents cuts and the like. I never saw data one way or another, but I heard the claim that bare knuckle boxers have a lower likelihood of long term brain damage because they're simply not able to punch each other in the head as hard as modern boxers are. My conclusion based on that was that headgear and no gloves (or very small gloves) might yield less injuries because I don't want to punch someone's elbow or whatever without a nice big pair of gloves. I don't want to implicate Armchair Violence, but I want to say a lot of what I learned about that came from one of his videos. I don't think he suggested that headgear was necessarily the solution. In fact, I think he points out that American football hasn't been able to do anything about CTE with R&D, but I feel like that is a lot more traumatic than most sparring sessions should be.

[@Omidion]

Yeah you reminded me about the bridge episode, when i saw it i too was "this isn't good, someone could easily fall over, i wouldn't do this". And yeah you r right that the participants should only be selfdefense coaches. P.S. Love the Kobayashi Maru reference :)

[@indiecrust]

I am thankful you said what needed to be said about this event coach. I found it entertaining watching you guys interact and compete. But the challenges themselves were rife with issues and the event organizers explanations and justifications left a lot to be desired.

[@ObiwanShinobii]

Ramsey, this is an interesting take and appreciate you sharing this. This is just proof that the realm of self-defense is not as cut and dry as many people are led to believe. I myself run a dojo focused on both self-defense and combatives - I understand the difference and this is always emphasized during instruction. We teach the legal implications of certain types of actions, understanding legal definitions of different types of force, understanding local self-defense laws as well as from some of our neighboring states, and utilize stress inoculated drills. On the other hand, we also place an emphasis on a mixture of martial arts like JJJ, BJJ, TKD, boxing, and weapons since training just to be an average Joe for "street self-defense" isn't actually such a great idea. I agree with you on the superiority of combat athletes when it comes to fighting, not that we are training athletes at my dojo, but we do teach proficiency in actual martial arts.

[@combatlearning]

"You'll fall to the level of your training." This highlights why it's so incredibly important to train "ecologically" or according to the Constraints-led Approach's principle of "representative learning design." RBSD programs have a nasty habit of never sparring because it's "sport" -- but then they never get around to setting up live scenarios or changing the rules of sparring to be more conducive to self defense. It also highlights the fact that people who claim to seek the truth and create more realism are so unaccustomed to thinking about it that they are incapable of doing it safely and responsibly. We've come to the conclusion through these recent videos that there are some things that just don't have good available options right now. If self-defense trainers actually spent most of their time workshopping in live environments, we might find that unlikely tactics emerge as the best way to deal with some of these probable self-defense situations, like defending a knife stabbing. We'd also figure out how to do that without risking the life of trainees in the process.

[@jasonbenic6324]

now rokas knee has also been accidentally injured

[@XangoFwet]

I always assumed that Self defense guys and combat sports go hand-in-hand but thanks for sharing light on the disparity Ramsey!

[@RamseyDewey]

Polar opposite things in every way.

[@altaydogahan342]

Question to you coach. Did you have a chance to roll with Jeff Chan? How did it turn out? If not how would you say it would? Just curious. I follow both of your technique tutorials for MMA. Cheers✌

[@RamseyDewey]

No. We did a little light stand up sparring. He didn't want to grapple.

[@altaydogahan342]

@@RamseyDewey makes sense why given the competition going on. Nevertheless I think it's a very intriguing grappling match up

[@kaizenproductions00]

The bridge scenario seems really weird. I don't think the majority of "street fight" scenarios occur in such places. That was a weird "training" exercise that felt like something from a Jackie Chan movie

[@Sbv-25]

Maybe if they put a line of christmas lights leading from ceiling to floor, someone might reenact the scene from police story!

[@Arcknight9202]

It seems like having a third-party as "oversight" would be a good decision. This way the people who are really excited about something cool don't lose their heads and forego safety. Obviously that cuts a bit into the "realism", but nobody wants to fall to their death like that poor guy in the zombie challenge. At the end of the day, a dash of humility does us all some good.

[@billbill6094]

Saw the USDC recently and yeah honestly had a lot of the same thoughts right off the bat. I didn't think Jeff Chan beating Mike was even debatable until Jeff 2 tried to draw it. He was essentially trying to say "oh but he's just doing Jiu-Jutsu" as if 'doing jiu-jutsu' is not an extremely powerful tool to have. Then we're counting the frequency of Mike's strikes but not considering the fact Mike couldn't possibly put either generated power or his weight into them with his back on the ground? Then there's the whole goal of the event. What exactly was it set out to test or prove? For example, there was a stark difference in success rate between the first knife scenario where you guys close your eyes, and the second with the barrell. Those who chose to fight back the first time essentially all succeeded, while only one barely survived a single round of the second. Why? Because the first used an actual practice knife, the second the millimeters long tip of a sharpie. Sure, if your opponent comes at you with a massive size advantage and has you in an isolation chamber, geared up with safety padding and tries to kill you via death by a thousand thumb tack presses, it's not very good looking. But the attacker had all the advantages, your 100% strikes couldn't phase him because of the padding, while a flick of his thumb counted as multiple "stabs" (meaning _both_ you "die" easier & you can't actually treat the sharpie tip as if he had a sharpie-tip-long blade, bc irl you might just ignore the microscopic blade and fight the person). All the while he gets none of the exhaustion of actually stabbing nor the risk of being disarmed or effectively pinned by the blade having any good length. This was the most called out episode in the comments and rightfully so. So what was this supposed to prove? That weapon systems are more effective at killing than no weapons systems? We've known that for the last quarter million years. That no knife techniques work? There was no knife to work them on! Wouldn't it be better to test the "the winner of a knife fight dies in the ambulance" scenario? See if mma training puts you at an advantage if you _both_ have weapons, see if weapon specific arts fair any better (get a full contact kali champion maybe to see if the skill is really advantageous.) You've once said take the best boxer in the world, give him a knife, you now have the best knife fighter in the world, it would have been amazing to see that put to the test! Because it seems the whole event only proved that a highly skilled and highly athletic mma fighter is better in fights, much to the chagrin of the organizers.

[@billbill6094]

I know my comment is long winded as it is, but just to add the knife scenario sucked to see for me because I remember you had this really good drill in a video years ago with Jordan, where you worked deflecting the blade and using your footwork to get away from the attacker. I have never seen that anywhere else and I was gearing to see it in action before they set you that impossible scenario _and_ ended up causing you serious injury.

[@ZovcDrafts]

I love the subtitle of you saying "Really, why?" When Phillips says he thought it was really close. Such an earnest attempt to humor his claim. 🙈

[@Sovvolf]

What is it with the damn eye closed stuff in Krav Maga. Any time I've gone to a Krav gym to train. They do this drill where it's like "Your going to close your eyes, your opponent is going to swing at you with this foam sword thing, open your eyes at the last minute and perform the defense drill we've covered".... Usually they'll tap where they're about to strike first to give you a guess... Though it's just silly. What are we trying to prove? Telepathy? That you could be surprised by a random attack and that's going to be a bad situation? You don't say... Honestly Ramsey. I've trained in a few Krav gyms while travelling and I could go on forever about the bizarre out of touch methods that get taught there.

[@omni-nerdno7191]

Have also experienced this. I understand the theory as being, if something happens randomly and you're caught off guard. However that to me just proves my current belief that training "self defense" isn't worth it even if you are training "proper" techniques because those proper techniques still 9/10 times for 9/10 people will not work. So you train to do something where you'll inevitably fail. Is that not insane

[@Sbv-25]

Krav Maga is supposed to be taught to soldiers. If they are teaching soldiers to shut down situational awareness, the very thing that keeps the team alive, then i sense some bullshido happening!

[@RamseyDewey]

Self defense-gyms that call themselves “Krav Maga” almost all universally suck at teaching anything resembling self-defense, and are even worse at teaching hand to hand combat. Military IDF Krav Maga is a two week basic training course to get soldiers hyped up about going toward the danger instead of running away (literally the opposite of self defense)

[@Sovvolf]

@@RamseyDewey Speaking from my own experience, they also have an absolute stigma against martial arts. Just a bit of a background. I work away from home a lot as part of my job. So where I land, I train whatever is there... and I'm open minded enough to give anything its fair due. I've got to say that out of all the crazy arts I've trained none compare to the Krav Maga schools. I could go on a rant. It would probably be best for an email actually for sharing my experience because it would be a bit long winded for a KZbin comment section. I'll say this... and this is going to sound arrogant I know but, I didn't realise how dangerous of a person I was, until I walked into a Krav Maga school and I'd seen the fighting ability of the veteran students.

[@Sovvolf]

@@RamseyDewey "Military IDF Krav Maga is a two week basic training course to get soldiers hyped up about going toward the danger instead of running away" In regards to this, I also feel they want to have their cake and eat it. The reality is that it's supposed to be a crash course in fighting. Mostly if anything else, a confidence building exercise than anything really meant to be practical. Militaries have more important things to be teaching than Hand to Hand combat. Though out side of the IDF. It's taught with the same structure, format and the drive for a constant student role out basis as any other martial arts gym. They have ranking systems, belts, grading and even forms and patterns.... But it's not a martial art... No sir-eee. No, this is the real deal. "Martial artists have the luxury of rules. We don't" was a direct quote I heard.

[@Dale_The_Space_Wizard]

Imagine if this was organized by Frank Dux. :)

[@luch1281]

🤔 Ok It was a cool challenge, you didn't do well.

[@SaftonYT]

I don't agree that the 10-point-must system exists to inherently judge fights "based on the perception of the fight carrying on to its logical conclusion", but I do agree that Jeff certainly beat Mike in those 20 seconds if we're following anything resembling the Unified Rules.

[@RamseyDewey]

That’s not what was said. You are conflating two separate points I made.

[@SaftonYT]

@@RamseyDewey Please correct me where I'm wrong, but at about 4:00 you state that "following a fight through to its logical conclusion" is "essentially the goal of a judge's decision". What is being conflated here?

[@rafalongo7]

yo pensé eso, para qué hacerlo en un puente si el objetivo no es tirar al otro? solo serviría para causar un accidente. Tendría mas sentido un puente sin altura y colchonetas para que sea una posibilidad de eliminación en esa prueba.

[@pathfinder7614]

Heya coach! I actually just watched all of these today. When it got to you judging I was actually semi yelling at my phone...."What?!? Listen to Ramsey! He was an actual ref!" Yeah their whole judging was WAY off the entire series.

[@RoyBlumenthal]

Noooooooooooo!!! What do you mean, "Zombies aren't real,"?!?

[@harima6678]

15:00 I had similar thoughts to yours. The bridge fight was way too dangerous, but back then I thought you guys had setups some cushions or something to breakfall in the worst case-scenario 😂

[@SuperKendoman]

Oof, no cushions, mats or even cardboard boxes to break the fall. That could have ended in someone getting a one way ticket to the afterlife

[@josephsk8737]

The bridge fight really was crazy from a safety point of view. They could have just simulated a bridge by putting up some railings but with a padded floor and not actually falling down a whole level if you go over the side.

[@RadicalTrivia]

If I'd known how this really was, I would have had a whole slew of different questions! 😆 Hope your knee is on the up and up, my friend.

[@RamseyDewey]

We can always do another podcast. Want to be on my channel this time? I’m in the Philippines right now for the next couple of weeks, but February is pretty open.

[@ajshiro3957]

20 seconds? I can't finish my drive-through order in that time. How are you supposed to fight in that time?

[@TheCCBoi]

I never really watched the Ultimate Self Defense Championship (I probably should) - but it seemed like just sparring in weird places. Most of self-defense isn't sexy - it's situational awareness, it's negotiating, deescalating, etc. When you do have to fight - your fighting ability doesn't have to be great in most self-defense situations (that's why most Krav Maga or reality self-defense people get their asses wiped by any moderately trained fighter). The whole thing seems like LARPing to me - if someone adheres to the non-sexy parts of self-defense they can avoid 99% of situations that require fighting.

[@jonathancampbell5231]

Some of it is sparring, some of it is hide and seek, some of it was negotiation and de-escalation. Mostly fighting, but there was variety. Also, zombies.

[@Sir_Pants_Alot]

Lotta good points. I’d like to think Rokas just trusted the wrong person and let his excitement get in front of him. Not sure though. I’m not an avid viewer of his channel. There’s some things that I personally don’t find appealing about it.

[@nickolasdesouza3610]

16:32 the self defense champion is a joke, aside.frpm the fact you were involved! I suggest you make a FINAL video on this championship and how it isna major market for fear mongerers

[@Chraan]

I really appreciate your honest insights! I just assumed that they had a safety net spun under the bridge, because even if it would have been 3 ft instead of 30 ft it would have already been incredibly dangerous. You sound unfamiliarly furious but its understandable, considering your knee injury stems from their general neglect of safety. I hope it'll heal well! Also a shame they misquoted you and ignored your request to invite Master Wong, the internet waits for this.

[@Devilsblood]

I hope you do not take any critique as personal since the internet will always have trolls that will say anything to get you mad just for the sake of enjoyment. I'm not here for that. I do like your show and honesty about fighting and martial arts. The way that self defense competition was set up just feels like a reality show from the 2000s like fear factor or survivor. I have to ask are you upset that you lost or upset about the competition itself? I mean, it looks like another version of American ninja warrior or American gladiators and seems nothing more than just a game show to win prizes. That is how I see the event.

[@RamseyDewey]

No. I am not upset about those things, that would be dumb. The only 2 things that “upset” me about this venture was (1) gross negligence that resulted in a crippling knee injury. (2) what I discussed about a Jeff Phillips and some of his students in the previous video. Go watch it if you really want to know. Did this video upset you?

[@Devilsblood]

@@RamseyDewey no, life is too short to get upset over a video.

[@KatoCoyoteCombatWorkshop]

Rokas seems to have very strong opinions about "real self defense" and "martial arts that work" that I can't help but cringe at, the guy is wealthy and fortunate enough to travel the world training in aikido and then MMA, I have no ill will towards him as a person but his perspective on street fights seems misguided. Thanks for the insight, I was scratching my head at a lot of these as well.

[@YoutubeCommenter1]

It is so funny how people accept him as some kind of martial arts expert when he was preaching aikido just a few years before

[@notdanroth]

I love how you get more and more honest about your experience with each video in this series

[@orlandoboom9018]

FATAL FURY!!!

[@SwordAndWaistcoat]

In regards to the kobayashi maru thing, form a learning perspective it's not going to help you develop skills. A big part of skill acquisition relies on learning from success and having a scenario where you can't succeed, and therefore a scenario where you can approach it any way and have the same result, is not going to teach you any skills.

[@billbill6094]

Exactly. If a neophyte and a master get the exact same result of a kobayashi maru, how does it help the neophyte, who views an extremely difficult scenario that a _master_ knows is winnable as no different than the kobayashi maru? It's not preparing them for the reality of infinite and unpredictable scenarios, nor are they gaining any skill to become a master who can win exceedingly difficult tasks. They're just learning defeat is inevitable when it need not be so. I think of it like teaching someone chess vs having a newbie play a computer while they only have a king. If they 'learn' to play only by the most impossible of restrictive scenarios, how will they ever learn how to beat someone with 6 months of chess training? To them the two games seem just as impossible, but a chess grandmaster knows the latter is easy. Really, the fact that the kobayashi maru can even be cheated in the first place goes to show its inefficacy. Even an "unwinnable" scenario can be won by someone with the right skill making the right decisions. It's a good philosophical plot point for a sci-fi show but absolutely useless in any real sense.

[@IphigeniaAtAulis]

I would say it depends on the skill. See, if the idea that you don't learn anything from failure was true, then why does the military, and especially the elite special forces, have more failures in their training evolutions than successes? There is an old saying, "Practice doesn't make perfect. Perfect practice makes perfect." The fact is that the point of a Kobayashi Maru scenario is to force unconventional thinking. To force you to go outside the box. You could argue that Kirk actually passed the test by cheating. And maybe, yes, to force you to confront yourself in the face of death. It's quite easy to say I would stay and protect my family at the cost of my own life, but I don't know if you remember, but a few years ago, Hawaii had that false alarm about a nuclear attack and there were grown men who took off running trying to save themselves and left their families behind, only to have to return and face the music once it was over. As the Oracle at Delphi said, "Know thyself." Part of that is seeing how you face situations where you can't win.

[@billbill6094]

@@IphigeniaAtAulis right, but people go too far when they say losing is inherently more useful than winning. At some point, you need those successes to enforce the correct neural pathways and strengthen your knowledge and skills. You can't only focus where you fail, you have to see where you succeed as well, why you succeeded, and strengthen that. A negative feedback loop is just as useless as a positive one. You need both where applicable to grow, a challenging environment where success is clear and apparent and failure is readily pointed out. It's why your brain rewards you both for persisting and succeedng at problems as well as has you get disappointed when you quit and don't solve them. The useful neural pathway has to be actively encouraged and practiced while the unuseful needs to be weakened and restructured. Same with martial arts, you don't gain a KO liver round kick or a deadly leg lock by doing it successful once then moving on to what you can't do, you practice until it's a weapon. The kobayashi maru by inspiring creativity only to create failure no matter what is discouraging creativity. A cadet won't learn what mix of battle tested protocol and shrewd personal judgement and outside the box thinking is needed in the reality of battle. Therefore it's a terrible learning tool that at best will demoralize cadets when they face the real difficult problens even the test couldn't throw at them, which may actually be winnable.

[@IphigeniaAtAulis]

@billbill6094 I think you may have missed some things. First, to reply to your last paragraph, Kirk won the Kobayashi Maru scenario and was rewarded for his original thinking. I agree that if you never reward success, then you will only reinforce negative feedback loops, but it is important to separate out training intended to instill specific skills (which should have positive reinforcement in order to generate a positive feedback loop in order to develope the skill), versus those intended to demonstrate to the participant the limitations of their skills/solutions to a particular problem. It's like saying a person only needs boxing for self-defense. If we never make them go outside boxing and fail by, let's say, facing a wrestler, then they will never learn the limitations of their skill set. I think part of the confusion is how we see a Kobayashi Maru scenario. You seem to see it as a scenario that is always unwinnable and never rewards those who pass it. I see a Kobayashi Maru scenario as one that is unwinnable using traditional methods, with the intention to force out of the box thinking in its participants, even if that out of the box thinking is technically cheating. There was actually a pretty good example of this in the USDC. The scenario where they had to deal with the sexually aggressive female boss, Icy Mike won the challenge by doing the unconventional solution of lying he had to use the bathroom in order to escape, whereas most of the guys either got caught up in the idea that there was a physical attack coming or just didn't know how to get away without it looking like they were being the aggressor. I'm going to be honest, I haven't watched the entire video, so can you give me a timestamp where Ramsey talks about the unwinnable scenario.

[@terencejeffries5359]

how do all? for what it's worth: my belief in goodwill saved my life one night at the local astra hotel, bondi beach. after a bantam lost at pool i responded as his r. hand rose to shake, thinking he had character, when suddenly a switchblade suddenly appeared from his fist. i grabbed his wrist, steered the blade past my torso, while putting my left arm between his legs and launching his body onto my shoulders like a sack of spuds. walked him slowly between sixteen 8 ball tables and 100 odd locals who saw the two edged knife still in his grasp. seventeen paces we arrived at same railing height as your walkway's with about 10 ft drop from shoulders to roof of old car parked below and rolled him off directly inline to land on roof. as i turned, heard the knife tinkle on the bitumen. one and half seasons wicketkeeping for st peters college, auckland conditioned my bodies speed and agility to react at speed happy new, taztez.

[@RamseyDewey]

Are you from Sydney?

[@thewanderingaguia]

In the whole entirety of the ultimate self defense championship the one thing I truly learned is . Wile learning and mastering technique will put u at an edge , it wouldn’t matter if you aren’t able. If u cannot physically you will not , no matter the amount of time u train a technique you body is your biggest limit and the better it can the better it will

[@nickolasdesouza3610]

This is my favorite video you have ever made bro. Id like you to make one more

[@Dondlo46]

Always love that Minecraft background, brings back great memories

[@gallindolucas]

Dang Ramsey, the video was good but I would be more interested in hearing your thoughts on tactics for each scenario and event. What worked, what failed, what you could plan in the moment, what was pure reaction. You did that in the beginning. I suppose one could "fix" the ruleset to make the competition more reasonable, but I don't think self-defense championships is really a good concept. I would take the scoreboard as a silly gag anyway. EDIT: Hope your knee and Rokas lungs get better.

[@RamseyDewey]

How to gamify a 20 second go? The same way amateur boxing is gamified: look busy & throw more strikes than the other guy.

[@gallindolucas]

@@RamseyDewey That's the easy one, and they goofed it 🤦🏻‍♂️ The scenarios are harder to gamify (someone who strikes poop man gets more or less points than you, who disarmed without strikes?). We can stablish a point system, but I think it would dampen the effect of the curve balls. Now to the relevant point: Master Wong vs Jake Mace without groin protection in Season 3, how fast will Mace die?

[@BushCheney04]

What if the reason ramsey is wearing a hat is because he's secretly growing out his hair and wants to surprise us

[@Sbv-25]

After 20+ years of baldness? That’s miraculous

[@TimRHillard]

'Nobody's died yet'. Really stupid reason.

[@bravelilspidey]

Dang... as far as the bridge scene... I got into a fight once on a roof top on a 3 story building and both the guy I was fighting and myself were trying to throw eachother over the edge. I didn't know I was going to fight, the guy just attacked me. When the others around saw we were trying to throw eachother over the edge thats when they stop us. Who was I fighting? My squad in the marine corps while deployed in Iraq with a Sniper threat in the area. My squad set me up and ambushed me on my first deployment. F*** those guys. Needless to say 5 deployments later, I survived. But realistically, that bridge scene, someone would have gone over the edge.

[@orkunkaansimsek]

Coach, you should organize something like this. At least a mini version would be so fun!

[@brianchurch]

Thanks for making this video. I enjoyed USDC because I follow all of the folks who were involved in the first season. With each episode, I was thinking "is this related to self-defense?" Where was the situational awareness, where was the de-escalation, where was the discussion with law enforcement, lawyers, etc. to justify your actions against another person? Without those aspects, it seems like it's just an interesting combat sport outside of the usual ring or octagon (but with poor judging skills as you noted here).

[@bligh1156]

I find Rokas' commentary and the way he edits very annoying. Imagine all the footage, interviews & insights you could get with those guys in the same place for so long? Instead we get Rokas saying 'ultimate self defense championship' and other annoying catch phrases over and over.

[@Bfolks84]

On KZbin there a couple of vidéos of two trained kickboxers who get into a street fight.. because of their training the street fight resembled a professional fight in the ring. It was actually really impressive.. they used head movement, Feints, leg kicks…just they were on a street somewhere.

[@thingstodowithgaming]

Its a shame that the series ended up the way it did, it had so much more potential. It's also a shame rokas wasn't more vocal about the problems considering it's his idea. I think he was a bit blinded by the idea of a MrBeast style series in the martial arts community. It seems he's a youtuber first, martial artist second. Whereas most of the participants are martial artists first.

[@ReeseRozum-sm1zs]

Rokos has long covid , he's in pretty bad shape and couldn't be much help in production

[@gailvalleymartialarts]

"Street fights don't look like professional fights, because there are no professionals involved". Just a few minutes in, but at 2:10 they actually show professional fighters fighting at press conferences. I thought that was an interesting point and we've seen some examples of that. Seems like you ignored that.

[@gailvalleymartialarts]

Regarding 5:50, to be fair, upkicks like that have knocked people out. Renzo Gracie vs Oleg Taktarov is one example. It's a question of the scoring system of course, but the kick should be worth something. Even if not as much as a takedown + passing the guard + ground and pound.

[@RamseyDewey]

A bunch of dudes at a press conference harmlessly shoving each other to generate hype isn't a street fight. It's advertising. Welcome to the fight game.

[@RamseyDewey]

@@gailvalleymartialarts Upkicks have knocked people out... that particular upkick did nothing. I'm not interested in conceptual combat, I'm interested in what actually happened.

[@McFangsworth]

It would be cool to hear a discussion between you and Ilan from @inside_fighting about martial arts for self defence vs combat sports. I think you both have interesting and illuminating thoughts on the subject.

[@dixonbuttes]

I remember your power fantasy video, it was great. As I watched this whole series, I also felt like there was bias against MMA.

[@MultiAwesomered]

We need reactions for season 2

[@bryanfong1023]

Hey, coach ramsay! Im a big fan of yours, and ill be going to china next month. I would love to take some classes with you!

[@RamseyDewey]

Cool!

[@konstantinosntelirabakas7340]

I personally started watching the thing some time back and i quickly dropped it because it felt like it was too arbitrary and very much focused to pass AN AGENDA. a well intentioned one sure, aka. even heavily trained fighters can lose in high risk situations like these, but it felt too damn arbitrary man. i never really thought it out but i kept catching myself saying : "but this isn't really realistic, nor that, nor that, not that either man, like ughhh, yeah sure whatever, so this guy won because???? etc." And i dropped it and this video right here is why i guess. thank you Mr Ramsey lol. Wish to get well soon!

[@RamseyDewey]

My knee is crippled for life thanks to those idiots. The ligaments are completely ruptured, the cartilage is destroyed. The only thing preventing bone on bone contact with every step are the ganglion cysts growing inside the socket. It will not get better, unfortunately.

[@konstantinosntelirabakas7340]

@@RamseyDewey fuck man.... then I wish a miracle upon you 🙏 or that the doctors you went to, are also dumb and they were wrong 😕

[@konstantinosntelirabakas7340]

@@RamseyDewey i dont know what happened but i left a response that i cannot find anymore. it was saying: "fuk man... that's terrible! then i wish a miracle upon you or that the doctors were wrong or dumb and you do get better."

[@taekwondoacademystockport2395]

Sorry you got injured, but I do think it's an important lesson for all, that even a highly trained martial artist isn't invincible and can be injured by an unpredictable event.

[@RamseyDewey]

Well, I’m crippled for life now, but I suppose if being reminded of your own mortality points you toward God, then perhaps it’s worth it.

[@SwordAndWaistcoat]

It's really sad that the whole thing was done in a really macho fantasy way, and with minimal concern for the physical and mental health of the participants. Like as much as it has little to do with self defence having a series where fighters do MMA(ish) fights in weird environments would be fucking rad (I love things like car-jitsu and hip show), like that would be amazing to watch. And if I'm being honest the bits of the Ultimate Self Defence Championship where they're fighting on a bus or in a ring of couches are the bits that I really enjoyed. Even the hide and got stab looked fun as a game, but yeah, if you're actually needing to hide from a bunch of people with knives in real life what the heck is your life. I actually think this could be a format that could make all the novelty type MMA variants that have come and gone through the years viable long term. Like the problem with these novelty MMA things is that once the novelty wears off the appeal starts to wane, so they don't work long term, but if you're changing what the event is every episode then you don't have to worry about that. That would make for a legitimately good spectacle. But the whole self defence framing kinda ruins that because now you're thinking "when am I going to get attacked on bouncy castle" or whatever while you're watching. Also the self defence framing made it more dangerous since the environments they chose to fight in like actual buses or especially that bridge were likely chosen because they're everyday environments, whereas places where you could have made things a lot safer like parkour gyms or well padded playgrounds wouldn't have seemed as "real". Though even then I feel like the physical safety and mental health of participants just wasn't a priority in the way it should have been, and I'm sorry that most of that neglect ended up hitting Ramsey.

[@ngocehgayabebas2118]

You need to learn magic tricks to chintya chandrayana. You’ll be a winner instantly

[@ctakitimu]

I assumed either the bridge wasn't actually very high and was constructed just for this event, or the floor was covered in crashpads. Those really thick ones. Learning it wasn't was a huge shock! That's just dumb for a supposed fun event.

[@danielcartwright8868]

Many of the criticisms you make are valid but a few seem a bit uncharitable. For example, closing your eyes in the circle drill. Obviously they're not advising people to close their eyes in real life; they're trying to simulate an unexpected situation. You're probably right about the sumo drill not having a ton of self-defemse value, but it could be argued that it helps you to be more aware of yoir surroundings. Anyway, I'm guessing that was meant to be more of a fun activity just to get everyone to bond and warm-up a bit.

[@RamseyDewey]

I don’t believe that was uncharitable at all. I think it’s a crappy stupid way to drill. Do you want more reasons?

[@patdo777]

All in all the usdc was very entertaining but didn't have a lot to do with self defense. If the participants knew that beforehand and the rules and scoring was clear to them and to the viewers, and everything was as safe as this could have been, that would have been fine but none of that was true. I really really hope that that changes for season two, and that if it doesn't that the people they've invited see video's like this one and are warned beforehand.

[@RamseyDewey]

I doubt it. Almost every concern and criticism raised by the viewers and by myself were brushed aside. From the season 2 trailer, the only major difference I noticed was they had color coded headgear to make it easier to tell the participants apart from each other. My personal recommendation of get rid of the headgear entirely (because it causes far more problems than it solves) was, of course, scoffed at.

[@dorkangel1076]

To be fair, being confused, not sure whats going on and not sure what you're meant to do is pretty accurate to life. As is finding out other people are following different rules that you are... 😉

[@XxcarlofunxX]

Great job! Could you please do USDC season 2 review when it will come out?

[@RamseyDewey]

No. I’m done talking about the USDC. I mean it.

[@Sbv-25]

@@RamseyDeweywill you still watch it on your own?

[@RamseyDewey]

Not interested.

[@leonopterix981]

mike vs. jeff. that was really close. jeff doesnt hit mike clean with anything powerful. i still give it to jeff for one of the cleanest double legs ive ever seen and staying on top. but mikes upkick was the only big shot that actually hits clean that fight. you are wrong about it being so one sided

[@RamseyDewey]

I can tell that you need to believe that to get by today. Carry on.

[@leonopterix981]

@@RamseyDewey Mike snaps Jeff’s head when he gets hit with the up kick, Jeff never does anything comparable to Mike, the two punches after the up kick missed. Jeff was being nice (not slamming Mike) and it was closer than it was supposed to be because of that.

[@leonopterix981]

Rewatching in slow motion. Every power punch by Jeff misses. He only lands those elbows from side control

[@RamseyDewey]

“He ONLY lands those elbows from side control” 😂

[@leonopterix981]

@@RamseyDewey idk man, we didn't see the same fight apparently, id say damage was equal so jeffs control time is what gave it to him

[@mattstrader8956]

I think you have made some great points. I enjoyed the usdc anyway. I hope you talked to rokas about your thoughts because I do think it could make a more accurate sd competition. If usdc 2 is similar to 1 I might be less entertained this time.

[@angeloesguerra555]

"Hey coach, can you tell us your experience on USDA?" Coach shares his honest opinion: "oh why are you so negative man,move on"🤦

[@guytakamatsu7326]

Great commentary. if you have further insights, please do further commentary on the subject. I really found the ultimate self-defense championships to be very interesting. But I also found your critique of the series to be informative. I only hope that the organizers will listen to your input anyways, I’m reminded of the title of that James Bond movie never say never again.