Just found this post again. A lot has happened since then. I'm now working just one job and I've accomplished my financial goals. And I've taken the live training class for Target Focused Training. I'm currently using the DVD's to further my training.
It was exactly what I had hoped it would be. No fancy moves, just simple attacks against weak points on the body and a focused, single-minded determination to destroy the other person by attacking those points and causing physical damage from whatever position you happen to be in at the moment the fight begins or during the fight.
It's principles based training rather than technique based, meaning you target and attack the weak points, one at a time---whichever weak points are open at the moment---rather than using techniques in combination. As well, it relies on reflexive reactions to damage you cause. We all know that a blow to the groin will cause an attacker to double over. The extent of that reaction depends on a number of things, not the least of which being how hard and accurate the blow to the groin was. Target Focused Training teaches to press that momentary advantage to cause more damage before the person is finished reacting. (After a blow to the groin, the ears, the eyes, back of the neck, kidneys, ankles, and shins are open to attack and undefended while the person is still reacting to the initial blow. Those are just a few targets open at that point. Successfully attacking any of these targets within a second or two will earn you another reaction rather than a counter attack. Keep attacking until the person is disabled and no longer a threat to you. Perhaps breaking the shin will be enough to allow you to exit the situation. Or perhaps it will take gouging his eyeball out of his head. Whatever it takes is what it takes.)
Another thing I liked about TFT was their willingness to teach students to maim and kill. They do not shy away from this aspect of self defense. Some of the first things they teach is how to take a life. Despite what I've read time and again, there is a such thing as a killing blow in one move. A hard blow to the throat will most assuredly kill a human being, for example. There's nothing fancy about it. Step in deep and deliver the blow as hard as you can manage using your body weight to increase the force. TFT has been criticized for teaching students to kill. People on the outside looking in tend to feel that TFT should teach responsibility and hold off on teaching people to kill until those students have proven they are responsible enough to know that knowledge. People on the inside taking the class are adults (No such thing as a children's class) and already understand how to deescalate a situation using verbal techniques. They already understand how to avoid danger in the first place. They already understand how serious the decision to kill another human being is. And they've made the choice to learn how to do that so they can be the one to walk away from a life and death confrontation that may happen despite all their precautions. TFT is not for sparring on the mats with friends. It is not for sport. It is not for settling disputes over stupid things. TFT is for life and death conflicts. Period.
So, with all that description, TFT might sound like the end-all, be-all combat system. It is not. TFT is a very limited self defense system in that it is used ONLY for the point of crisis in a life and death confrontation, the point at which someone is actually attempting to harm or kill you. TFT has no place in the escalation leading up to violence or the aftermath of using violence to save your life. TFT would not serve one well for anything but a life and death confrontation. Martial arts, on the other hand, does deal with the escalation toward violence and it does teach responsibility. Also, martial arts has levels that one can spend the rest of his/her life to achieve one after another. TFT does not.
TFT compared to martial arts: Someone trained in TFT can probably not take down a well trained black belt who is seriously trying to destroy that TFT-trained person. As well, someone trained in TFT can probably not take down a professional boxer, or a boxer who has years upon years of training. The reason is simple. Those black belts and boxers and wrestlers or what-have-you's have dedicated years of their lives learning to perfect their skills. The person using TFT does not possess those skills and will fall short against someone with years upon years of training. However, I say probably because even someone with those skills can be taken down and killed if they make just one mistake, let just one well aimed blow slip by to the target. (An inadvertent blow to the throat or temple can kill someone with super duper skills as quickly as anyone else.)
TFT was designed for the thug who would victimize you and yours, not Mike Tyson or Bruce Lee. Yes, you could argue that a thug who has spent years perfecting his fighting style can still kill someone with TFT training. That would be correct. However, most criminals you're likely to encounter have not dedicated their lives to learning a fighting style. Heck, if they were that dedicated to being the best they wouldn't have chosen a life of crime to begin with, most likely. They're simply there to immobilize you as quickly as possible and use any means necessary so they can victimize you. TFT teaches you to do the same to them.
Multiple attackers and weapons: TFT teaches how to deal with weapons as well as multiple attackers. When dealing with either, the main focus is, as always, on causing damage quickly to the person. The focus is always on damaging the person and never the weapon itself or the other attackers who are moving in on you. In the moment, doing damage is all there is. You can block a knife strike, but expect the attacker to strike again and again until you can disarm that person or he kills you with his knife. However, if you damage the knife-wielding person badly enough you can expect to walk away with no further attacks. With multiple attackers, you focus on one at a time and damage him badly enough to put him out of the fight, then focus on the next attacker, always moving to keep whoever you're dealing with between you and the others.
Is this the perfect solution to weapons and multiple attackers? No, there are no guarantees you're going to survive. But for someone who has not dedicated his/her life to becoming an expert in one of the many fighting systems out there that requires years of training to be effective, TFT gives a solution that does not require years of training and is effective almost immediately.
TFT mindset: Simply put, the person that causes the most damage the quickest is going to walk away with his/her life when the confrontation is over. Damaging or even killing the person is the only sure way to end the confrontation. Take the knife away and the person can still use his fists or another weapon. Take the knife-wielding person's ability to continue fighting away and that threat is done. The threat is always the attacker, never the weapon. He will not get up and attack you if you damage him badly enough, especially if you kill him. Toward that end, there is nothing else to focus on except causing damage. That single-minded determination is what makes someone with this training dangerous, IMHO. Someone with TFT under his/her belt is not looking to find out if they're a better fighter, stronger, more skilled, or tougher than the person who is attacking him/her. He or she is focused on damaging the person as quickly as possible so he/she can safely get the heck out of the situation. Period.
The motto I heard more than a few times was, 'Violence is almost never the answer, but when it is, it is the only answer.
Right and wrong: TFT has absolutely nothing to do with civility, rules, manliness, right and wrong, looking good, looking skilled, social rules, winning or losing, competition, pitting of skills against an opponent, dignity, integrity, chivalry, or any other qualities society wrongly attaches to combat. TFT is about getting the job done and getting the job done means damaging the other person so badly he is no longer a threat, up to the point of killing the person. TFT is about violence and nothing else.
If a person doesn't already have a sense of right and wrong, know better than to go looking for trouble, know to avoid trouble in the first place, know how to calm a potential conflict down before the point of crisis, and understand the seriousness of taking another human's life, that person has no business learning TFT.
Training: Currently, TFT offers 3 methods to train; DVD's, Live training class, and online training. I can speak only about the live training and the DVD set. I have no experience with the online training. The live training is excellent in my opinion. You learn both how to train and how to survive a life and death conflict by damaging or killing the person. The DVD's are very good, though it's best if you've got a live training under your belt before you begin training with the DVD's. There are principals like using your body weight to plow through your targets that aren't as clear as they should be in some of the DVD sets. However, live training covers those principals very well person to person. Once you've got those principles you can apply them to the training on the DVD's.
The training with a partner is done slowly and methodically. This is for safety. You simply can not plow through your reaction partner's throat and expect not to harm or kill him or her. As well, your partner is not actively blocking or attacking you. You start from a point after initial damage and continue from there, slowly and methodically, your partner giving you the minimum basic reaction to the damage you cause. It's nothing like sparring in a ring. The nature of TFT makes that impossible. There are very few actions you will take that will not damage a human being, including your reaction partner. Hence, you do not actually use it full force/full speed on your partner.
The online training, from what I've read, seems to involve videos from TFT, videos of yourself training with a partner sent to TFT for review, feedback from TFT trainers, and live critiques via telephone conversations with TFT instructors.
Price: TFT is expensive, no getting around that. You can expect to pay $1,500.00 to attend a live training class which lasts two days, 8 hours per day. The DVD sets are hundreds of dollars or, if you want the whole nine yards, around $1,000.00 for the whole system. I'm not sure about the price of online training.
Was it worth it?
I was looking to learn how to kill and maim if I had to in order to survive a violent encounter or to protect my family. I wanted to learn how quickly and easily. I wanted to learn simple moves, nothing fancy. And I wanted to be able to use it at any point, whether I continue to train or not, from then on if I chose to use it. TFT fulfilled all of my criteria and I am not the least bit disappointed I took it. My wife and mother are next to be trained this December in Vegas. I would not pay that kind of money to get my wife trained unless I was satisfied with TFT.
I have experience with a system I took a long time ago called HCS (Hostile Control Systems) put out by Jerry Peterson. This was over twenty years ago and was the first system he introduced to the public. That system was also effective, though it didn't cover maiming and killing. Jerry Peterson's current system is called SCARS (don't know what the acronym stands for) and from what I've heard from other TFT students it is as effective as TFT. However, Jerry's system, SCARS, will set you back over $5,000.00 if you show up for the week long live training.
So, there is my personal opinion of TFT based on my experiences in martial arts, HCS training from Jerry Peterson, and TFT training. Yes, I am very much in favor of TFT as an effective self defense system that is easy to learn and effective almost immediately. But there might be even better systems out there that are more effective. I can speak only to TFT. I am hoping I presented this well and without grading it against martial arts or other combat systems. TFT is not a martial art and should not be compared to one.
If anyone else here learned either TFT or SCARS I'd like to see your take on it, positive or negative. I wrote all this because I've now taken the live training class and know what it involves and because I think it would serve a survivalist who can't spend years learning to be an effective fighter very well.
I've read enough posts about fighting systems to know this will probably devolve into a debate about which system is the best and which systems suck, which is too bad. For those looking for information and who have nothing to prove or, ah---compensate for---I hope this helped in some way. For those who have no experience with TFT or SCARS but are dying to explain, again with no experience in TFT or SCARS, why they absolutely suck and why his chosen martial art or combination of martial arts are the only things worth learning for self defense---have fun entertaining the adults.