There were a few reasons that AMAS was created:
The first reason, was centered around the joy that was produced inside me from the martial arts, for a lack of better words was "other worldly". It created in me a high if you will, that nothing else at the time did. That same joy that presented its self inside me, was that same joy that I knew had to be offered to others. This wasn't to imply, that there were not other adaptive martial artists before me, certainly there were of various styles.
However in my mind, no one was presenting it as I was. That is in a modern MMA context. Even at a youngster in high school, there was an understanding that even people with cerebral palsy or otherwise could deal with the reality of cruelty. Even if it came in the form of physical violence or harm. This then, leads me into my second inspired reason, which came to life in my first or second year of college.
There had been a posting that came through my social media feed, regarding a women who was brutally stabbed to death in her wheelchair inside of harm. If that causes a pause and cold feeling inside you, it should. There then came the realization, that something had to be done, to speak back and take action against this particular reality of violence.
Think about it in these terms, that same Anti-social criminal that took the life of that same woman, didn't care about her age, race, social status or even the fact that she was in a wheel-chair. This anti social criminal was willing to commit a quick a violent crime without the regard of human life, flourishing or morality.
As mentioned earlier, there have been other adaptive martial artists that have come before me. In my estimation, however, none of them dealt with the harsh reality of violence against the disabled community. One could say that it doesn't happen very often, still though it does happen and a huge majority goes without reporting or making a presence on news networks.
We have seen that A-social criminals have no regard for human life, except their own and even more so the lack of regard for that of the disabled. What then is our response to violence in return. Mantras in the self defense community, tell us to run away or maintain situational awareness. Both of these mechanisms are great, however:
One cannot always run away (especially if one is in a wheel chair or uses crutches), nor can one always be one hundred percent situationally aware all the time. Sometimes we fail at it or let our guard down for various reasons. Further, those that advocate for carrying a concealed weapon, such as pistol as I do. One cannot always quickly have access to their own weapon, becomes sometimes an attacker can get a drop on us.
Our training matters, obviously, anyone that follows the AMAS understands that we put a huge amount of time into clinching domination and survival. Why? Because most violent encounters centered around or having the potential to reach deadly force happen mostly in very personal distances, that being up close. As mentioned earlier, as humans things can not go our way, and we can be caught off guard and on the defense.
There is not a weight class, a referee, a rule set or a sports commission. There is only the wills of the attacker and the will of the surviver.. The will.. Thus, this implies that we must have inside of the will to not only fight but survive. The strength of our will must be bigger than that of the predator. This is done through getting in your training center, putting the time in, putting ones self in uncomfortable positions and learning to keep fighting.
It's learning to develop more of the strength in the mind, not so much the human body though that matters as well. You matter, treat yourself like you do. Take your safety and the safety of your loved ones seriously. Train in as many aspects as you can, turn yourself into the warrior that may lie dormant inside you. Rise above the evil in the world and become the peaceful warrior.
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