Last year we saw rioting, burning, and looting in Albuquerque and other cities.  While businesses were burning and people were being killed, we heard calls to defund the police, and we saw city mayors and state governors order police to stand down.  

Furthermore, a growing body of Supreme Court decisions, such as DeShaney vs. Winnebago and Town of Castle Rock vs. Gonzales, have ruled that police are not obligated to protect citizens - even when a threat is apparent, or even in progress.  

These recent events and court decisions teach that our safety and protection and that of our loved ones is, unfortunately, up to us.  

Albuquerque Warrior Arts was founded to help individuals and families learn to protect themselves.  We do this by providing:  1) instruction that makes it easy, safe, and fun to learn what you need to protect yourself, and 2) a state-of-the-art facility that makes it convenient to practice what you learn.   

Albuquerque Warrior Arts is a learning facility, not a traditional martial art.  Traditional martial arts employ a rank hierarchy where knowledge is parceled out, or even withheld, until students reach certain, often arbitrary, levels.  Frequently this is more beneficial to a school’s continued revenue than it is for students.  At Albuquerque Warrior Arts, we don’t believe in keeping information from students.  We teach skills that require practice, but we never withhold information “until a student is ready.”    

Traditional martial arts are technique based.  Meaning a student will step forward in a prearranged way and attack his or her partner with a prearranged technique (typically a “lunge punch” that in no way replicates a real-world attack).  The partner will then execute a prearranged technique, copying what the instructor demonstrated, and everybody knows in advance what will happen.  This type of practice begins at the last stage of the OODA (observe, orient, decide, act) loop.  Therefore, students never learn to read attacks, respond to surprises, react to improvisation, or improvise on their own.  

It’s impossible to teach martial arts without techniques, but at Albuquerque Warrior Arts we don’t believe in memorizing set responses to set attacks.  Students train at the beginning of the OODA loop rather than the end.  They learn to read body mechanics and intention, to pre-connect with an attacker, and to “think with the body” - responding to attacks naturally, with movement, flow, and mechanics rather than memorized forms.         

In traditional arts, value is placed on how accurately students copy the instructor.  Which is great if the goal is to preserve an art or if the student has the body type, age, strength, and flexibility of the instructor.  But in these arts, modification, creativity, and self-exploration are often punished.  The art is considered complete, perfect, and students are . . . students. How could they possibly come up with anything on their own?

Albuquerque Warrior Arts believes that, to learn fully, students must explore and experiment. We will frequently show a concept or a few movements, then say, “Go play.” Students can then take those ideas and motions to the training floor, practice, play, and add to their understanding and skill sets. To use a music analogy, our goal is not to teach people to blindly play sheet music and memorized solos. Our goal is to create jazz musicians who can improvise and create their own music.