Phoenix Program


Red Phoenix is the only school in San Diego that has what is known as the Phoenix Program. The Phoenix Program is a free martial arts one on one training initiative. This means that a child under the age of eighteen who comes from a low income household situation can receive custom one on one Red Phoenix training without payment. This is Red Phoenix’s way of giving back to the community and brightening our future. Children should be able to learn to defend themselves regardless of their family’s income situation. The Phoenix Program is also provided to children and adults who are currently suffering from abusive situations. If you are a victim of bullying, domestic, or sexual abuse then you qualify for the Phoenix Program. People who are being abused and can’t defend themselves should not have to pay to learn how. It’s that simple.

The outdoors is, without a doubt, the environment you are most likely to be attacked in. This is the Red Phoenix area of study. Therefore, we train outdoors as well as in a student’s specific location of concern. We feel that practicing in this manor relieves performance anxiety and the fear of ego. At Red Phoenix, the training and curriculums for each student are different and are built on a case-by-case basis. Curriculums are centered around each particular student’s combative strength and are adjusted around their genetic limitations. Most curriculums made for students involve multiple hand strikes, blocks, kicks, techniques and concepts. The concepts of fighting are one of the most important aspects. They are the reason “why” we make any move in self defense. The concepts teach us not to simply hit, but to achieve a goal: disorientation, distraction, disablement, a warning, etc. Every curriculum involves proper breathing, stretching, thinking, foot work, and visualization. Every curriculum encompasses both traditional and combative practice. Every martial artist knows that big and wide movements in practice lead to smaller and tighter movements under pressure. It is the school’s responsibility to ease students into that pressure and teach them that traditional and combative are opposite sides of the same coin. Red Phoenix is the first and only school that takes people aside and has them practice both. Not just saying that “big and wide leads to small and tight” and expecting students to figure it out for themselves. Red Phoenix goes one step further then the rest.

Red Phoenix is a mixture of three different types of martial arts.

Choy Li Fut

Choy Li Fut combines the martial arts techniques from various Northern and Southern Chinese kung-fu systems. The style incorporates the powerful arm and hand techniques from the Shaolin animal styles from the South, combined with the extended, circular movements, twisting body, and agile footwork that characterizes Northern styles. It is considered an external style which combines soft and hard techniques. Choy Li Fut is an effective self-defense system, particularly noted for defense against multiple attackers. It contains a wide variety of techniques, including long and short range punches, kicks, sweeps and take downs, pressure point attacks, joint locks, and grappling. Choy Li Fut was used by the gang bangers of the Chinese streets, who fought on a regular basis. Its focus was to be specifically designed as a counter to all other styles of kung-fu during the time period. In the world of cinema, Choy Li Fut had a role in the movie Ip Man, being used by the thugs challenging all the teachers in Foshan at the beginning of the film.

Krav Maga

It is Israel’s national martial art, developed largely by Imi Lichtenfeld, and dedicated to no-holds-barred incapacitation for the purpose of street survival. It incorporates Western boxing punches, Karate kicks and knees, Greco-Roman wrestling, Brazilian Jiu-jitsu throws, and bursting, adapted from Wing Chun. Emphasis is also placed on disarming attackers with both knives and handguns, and turning these weapons on the attacker. It also exclusively trains hand-eye coordination, until defense becomes second nature and does not require thought. Krav Maga, when taught correctly can teach all of this to anyone, regardless of athletic prowess, in only 3 to 6 months. This is what makes it so unique. It was specifically designed for people who are unfamiliar with fighting to learn about it, learn it quickly, and have it be effective. It was made famous in several movies, including the Bourne series.

Keysi Fighting Method – KFM

The Keysi Method has almost no kicks of any kind. It thrives on extreme close-quarters combat using every weapon the body can quickly wield in close range: fists, head, knees, and especially the elbows. There is only one stance in this martial art: the thinking man. Recognized by the hands clasped on the head as well as the elbows raised to protect the head, neck and upper chest. It looks like a man holding his head while deep in thought. It is designed to strike with the sharp elbows, and lots of hammer fists, which are far more devastating than straight punches due to the fact that they employ the entire upper body, bringing the entire outside of the hand down like a hammer against the target. This is a hybrid style, using elements of grappling from Jiu-jitsu and Aikido. It also uses: ground fighting from Brazilian Jiu-jitsu, close strikes and centerline defense from Wing Chun, and trapping from Jeet Kune Do. The Keysi Method teaches its practitioners to defend themselves against any number of attackers with a 360 degree range of aggression. It was made famous in the world of cinema by Christian Bale’s role as Batman in the Dark Knight Trilogy. It has also been used in every fight scene done by Tom Cruise since Mission Impossible 3, as well as Liam Neeson in the Taken trilogy.

Red Phoenix Kung-Fu

The most important thing to note about all three of these styles is that all three of them are simultaneous defense/attack: instead of blocking an attack and then delivering a response, you block the attack and deliver a response at the same time. Not to forget that all three styles stress attacks to vulnerable body parts such as the eyes, throat, knees, and groin. Red Phoenix has adapted by taking into consideration such things as: technology, urban street education, as well as the law. Red Phoenix has filtered through the redundant and less effective blocks, kicks, and strikes of these three styles while keeping the most effective ones. The result is a simple yet extremely effective form of self defense focused on TODAY’S street threats; not those of 100 years ago. This hybrid style opens a new future for all martial arts because each individual student learns variations of each method which work for them. Red Phoenix takes the martial arts and makes it work for you as an individual by bending teaching and curriculum around the student, not the student around the teaching and curriculum. Like the fiery flames which forms the Phoenix, always in constant motion, always moving, always adapting, dying only to be born again and again. This is Red Phoenix Kung-Fu. A Kung-Fu system developed during modern times, FOR modern times.