Accountability - the simplest method is not always the most effective.  One must take into account the Before which is the preparation, the During which is the true test of effective skill perpetuation and the After of your engagement or the consequences both immediate and lasting.  Is the antagonist down and out? Disabled long enough for escape? Or have you escalated his aggression and hence his resistance to your next strategy?  Does your attacker know where you or your loved ones live? Will there be later ramifications? In self defense, of primary concern is creating enough of an initial attack to prolong the antagonist’s time to operational recovery.  This is the moment when one seeks the advantage for control, escape or disablement. 
 

Adrenaline - In crisis, the body naturally readies itself by prioritizing physical functioning for Fight or Flight.  Certain physiological systems supercede others by turning on.  This adrenalized state can impede performance if not channeled.  The training program utilizes a little known and all too often overlooked process of activating a static adrenal state in order to acclimate to this intrusion on normal mental processes. This is fighting through the uncertainty to a decision to act.  The pacing of most school curriculums rarely encroach upon simulating stress to become more familiar with this potentially debilitating effect.  Modern teaching standards are internalized via a slow to slope learning curve.  It is quite often difficult to break this pattern of remaining within one’s comfort zone.  Thus most practitioners eventually discover their free flow of near perfect technical performance in class crumbles under the duress of street survival. 
 

Common Denominators - Common is not simple, it is a means of organizing information such that its distribution covers the fundamental probabilities a particular position relative to your opponent is likely to occur, but also that the library of skills is inclusive to and covers all conceivable challenges.  Common roots are how martial arts technique variation and unit training time is minimized.  You haven’t time as a luxury to cram for a test that’s taking place arm’s reach away.  To provide the most information in minimal time the advantage is in responding to a position, not reacting to a weapon, thus you are adapting only to a change in angle through leverage not struggling with opponent’s resistance through weak technique. 
 

Communication – Every move, every word, conveys some meaning to onlookers.  One word can cause a fight.  One look can reveal a victim.  Much of what causes assaults to occur can be minimized through awareness and participation of how one is transmitting information to the receiver (or potential antagonist).  The cut and color of your cloth, the projection of mood, the nature of posture, and the how, where and when of your travels are all ingredients to a simple cause/effect event. To reduce the probability of risk, be mindful of your choices and consequences, like all responsibilities even the smallest is in one’s own hands. 
 

Goal Orientation & Threshold Training – Any endeavor needs first a vision to manifest it into reality.  This is the blue print.  Guidelines first; Performance second.  The conceptual lay out of each phase of the course material is designed by achieving pre-defined goals and pursuing training thresholds as a means for continually advancing even the most basic of skills.  This eliminates the ambiguity and indecision commonly found when split second choices are crucial.  It is the elusive If/Then computer code for the mind reducing the number of choices. 
 

Glossing over Basics – A supply and Demand Equation.  Most practitioners are quick to strive for the more advanced moves.  It is a socialized instinct for personal gratification in record time. Thus many schools cater to their clients demands perhaps for survival reasons all their own.  The component training of hand & feet orientation, mechanical load and compression of a weapon, or exact posturing for single and multiple antagonists all requires adherence to principle.  In the worst case scenario when it comes down to the clutch you have to be in condition to deliver twice as many effective blows as you are receiving.  In time sensitive events, constant work on the basics make the difference between attacks and techniques that lose the advantage of leverage and position and are reduced to those based on physical size and brute force.  The Art is in the subtleties.
 

Guidance - Every source no matter what discipline will offer some measure of insight.  No matter how insignificant it will call for you to think of things in a different light.  Presently available are numerous sources.  Some agree and can coexist in the form of mixed martial arts, some conflict.  Each provide equal amounts of a logic designed to adhere to the arts traditional prescriptions for advancement in the study. Question Everything, ask what if.  Books and Videos too offer much information but should be considered as supplemental material alone.  Two critical limitations are no hands-on supervision for proper skill execution, no feedback from the resistance of a training partner.  They can breed a fall sense of security without these checks and balances of personal growth. 
 

Response Time – In APA all motions end in the same instant.  To maintain its combative edge, this is the single most important directive in our approach.  Though simultaneity is no new concept, I have yet to see a single style so completely governed by such a principle as to make it its main pillar.  Traditional methods use one step methods preceding an attack with a defensive move, a defensive move with a slip and hunt for an attack opening.  Some have a select few postures which incorporate the philosophy. APA stacks these three moves into one as the primary fulcrum to create an opportunity for a take down and hi-probability incapacitating strike.  Simultaneity as strategy overwhelms even the most prepared of antagonists. 
 

Closing Range vs. Distancing – Most schools conduct programs which focus primarily on the defensive approach.  Strategies whether in hand to hand combat or for weapon counters revolve around evasion.  Unfortunately this will place you in the most effective range for an aggressive opponent, which is typically trained as the last 1/3 of a fully extended arm.  With an armed attacker the hit and run tactic is really just a very frantic but drawn out process of getting cut to pieces.  Be of mind that you will get hit, you will get cut, you will get hurt, but be of mind that you can reduce the quality and quantity of contacts by seeking safety in the eyes of the storm.  Here, up close and personal, the opponent is limited in his ability to retract his weapon for full impact.  You’re too close, and in close quarters we teach you how to maximize your weapon delivery.
 

Image Over Feeling – Feeling is a comfort-driven gauge in many approaches for physical training.  Such a guideline redirects mental focus toward whether or not you have achieved some measure of power or speed.  Power and Speed are illusory quantities.  Perception of speed like beauty is in the eye of the beholder.  How you approach, telegraph movement, or follow through alter the appearance of speed and the results of energy transfer (or power).  Image takes priority over feeling in our approach to combat training.  Primary motion postures are the firmament to effective implementation of advanced skills.  Body feel without correction to alignments and structural geometries and it becomes clear that rotations, posture transformation, mass displacement and effective kinetic transfer do not achieve their peak.  This to reduce errors in the translation of pure image into mechanics.  Like many of the program’s concepts their universality lend themselves to be translated into a variety of environments.  Sourcing image before feeling is a method toward maintaining performance training thresholds but also reminds us to do the right thing.  Image is the strict visualized standard for which the player strives to improve action.  Feeling becomes a search for gratification in the process.
 

The Best Protection –The practice of martial arts is for a variety of reasons;  Fine tuning a piece of machinery, self empowerment and increased confidence, spiritual well-being, respect, protection, survival.  What ever your motive, you are only that which you imagine yourself to be.  This simple fact bears a great burden on oneself.  Many illusions and day to day struggles influence thought processes which reflect in us both physically and mentally.  It is a tug of war.  In this day, more people are interested in greater challenges, and in facing certain realities we come to the conclusion that in all likelihood we will require some measure of training in the art of self protection.  The best defense from feeling pain or experiencing threat comes from a  strict survival tactic.  Stay at home, bar the doors and keep a gun in a tight grip… To face no threat is to know no challenge.