Asia Pacific Self Defence (APSD) is a Martial Arts and Self Defence school located in the Centenary suburb of Mount Ommaney. It is owned and operated by an Australian Army veteran who served for 36 years. We are not like other schools. Check us out. You’ll be glad that you did!
What we teach
The primary Martial Art we teach is Hapkido. We also teach KEF-IC and JBI, as well as running Self Defence courses.
We are different
We are not just another Martial Arts school. We do things differently! Unlike many traditional Martial Arts schools, we focus on providing a relaxed and enjoyable training environment. We don’t call each other Sir or Ma’am. We don’t continually bow to each other. We are not focused on the belt colour of our training partner.
We don’t insist on students wearing their uniforms during training, preferring them to feel comfortable. In fact, some of our students only wear a uniform when they are attending a grading. At APSD you won’t be humiliated. No instructor will yell at or embarrass you. We want you to enjoy your training and improve your skills and knowledge whilst having fun!
Our Culture is important
We strive to maintain a supportive culture that encompasses everyone in a friendly environment. We want students to feel safe and know everyone has their best interests at heart. In fact, the most important person is not the instructor or senior belt. It is the training partner you have standing in front of you at the time. You are not competing with them. You are doing everything you can to help them succeed and they are doing the same for you. We have found that by adopting this concept, the competitive aspect of Martial Arts goes away and our students are free to be the best they can be.
To support our culture, there are four values that we encourage all students to adopt, being: courage, integrity, loyalty and mateship. These values are important to us and shape the school we have become.
Courage
Courage is not just physical courage. In fact the hardest type of courage is moral courage. To always do what is right, regardless of the consequences to yourself. For example, if your friends are bullying another person at work or school, moral courage means you will put a stop to it, regardless of what your friends say or think. We want our students to have physical and moral courage and always do what is right, regardless of the consequences to themselves. Unfortunately, the world is full of cowards, but we can make a difference. At APSD, we want our students to lead the way and make the world a better place.
Integrity
Integrity is closely related to moral courage. We want our students to always be honest and do the right thing. Of course, this includes showing self-discipline with their Martial Arts and Self-Defence techniques. Put simply, Integrity is a trait of good people. We want our students to be great people and this is one way of doing that!
Loyalty
In Martial Arts and Self-Defence schools, it is crucial for loyalty to exist if we are to achieve the best results we can. That is one reason why we continually push the concept of the most important person on the mat, being your training partner. If your training partner knows they can rely on you to help them succeed, they in turn will be loyal and do the same for you.
Loyalty shouldn’t be a convenient loyalty. If someone is only helping you when its convenient for them to do so, but disappear when its inconvenient, they are giving you a convenient loyalty. A convenient loyalty won’t build trust, because you won’t be able to rely on them. You also shouldn’t give blind loyalty. Loyalty is something shared between two people. If you can’t trust the other person to be loyal to you, don’t blindly give loyalty back. Loyalty is something special and should be used wisely.
We want our students to understand loyalty and give it to each other. We want everyone to trust each other and strive to make each other succeed. Without loyalty you have no trust. Without trust, you have no functioning school.
Mateship
Mateship was initially embedded in the Australian culture back in the convict days and reinforced during WW1. It’s a difficult thing to explain and is far more than friendship. Mateship is about doing everything you can to help a mate. It’s about making sacrifices so your mate can succeed. Mateship is about being there when your mate needs you. It’s about never placing selfish or unfair expectations on a mate. Mateship develops trust between people and trust is a crucial component of any relationship, including Martial Arts and Self-Defence schools.
We want everyone to show mateship to each other and not let anyone down. However, that doesn’t mean we should compromise our integrity, courage or loyalty when doing so. We always should be true to ourselves and our own value system.
The four values at APSD are closely linked and should influence all decisions and actions we take. We want our students to live by our four values and in doing so, help make our school the best it can be!