Real experience

Ralph Severe was born in the South and calls his home Texas. He enjoys martial arts not for sport but for the physical, mental and spiritual training. His fighting experience came about through street fighting, matches and sparring. From an early age into his late twenties Ralph Severe can account for hundreds of fights for experience and ego and thousands of sparring matches -- both with weapons and unarmed.

In 1987 he conducted his last street fight and turn about face to not fight again in the streets.

Then in 1997 he fought one last real hardcore fight within his Academy with sticks winning in 18 seconds. His opponent wore a helmet for safety. There was padding used by Ralph during this fight. This fight was witness by John Vidal.

Also the Urban Combative Training students have conducted many "taryu jiai" or matches between different martial arts schools to get experience and see if the methods work in a stressful conflict. The last matches between the students of the Academy and another school was in 2004. This was between a Jeet Kune Do school headed by Marco Hernandez in Dallas. It was a friendly but very bloody event behind closed doors. Only bloody noses, a broken arm and lots of bruises were accounted for during this match-up. Everyone went away friendly and with a new outlook on hard-core matches. Ralph feels a great deal can be learned from taryu jiai. This is one of the major differences between Ralph’s outlook on martial arts and the Bujinkan Dojo. His knowledge and views of these fighting conflicts can be understood through training with him, the experience gives the student 'real time' methods of training. The difference between Mr. Severe and most martial artist is that he lives as a warrior or martial artist. His life is in complete balance with his martial arts and he enjoys it.

When the ear hears, observe the mind. Does it get caught up and make a story out of the sound? Is it disturbed? You can know this, stay with it, be aware. At times you may want to escape from the sounds, but that is not the way out. You must escape through awareness. -Ajahn Chah, "Still Forest Pool"

Ralph Severe trains on weight-lifting, the normal Thai boxing heavy bag hitting, knuckle conditioning, kickboxing, grappling and weaponry training. He also plays and watches world football for fun with his friends outside training. He also enjoys allowing guest instructors to visit the Academy to train his students. Ralph Severe's specialty is the Jun Fan (started in 1976), Togakure ryuha Ninjutsu (started in 1980), Kali-weaponry and unarmed (started in 1983), and Shooto or Catch as Catch Can Wrestling (started in 1992) methods. He feels from experience these are the best over all methods he has trained in for true street protection skills when it comes to unarmed self-defense.

During the year, Ralph Severe enjoys the wooded area around Texas.. Camping, hiking, shooting, survival training, and teaching. He is a nature lover. Outside the training he enjoys reading, cooking, sewing, flute playing, airbrush painting, movies and the study of history. Ralph Severe feels that to complete his training in the warrior arts he must balance his life with other training such as his hobbies outside the Academy. Too many martial artists trap themselves by over training. He also enjoys training others and watching the NHB fighting arts. More of Ralph's views and opinions can be found on the "Philosophy" section of this web site. Training should be balanced with the natural flow of things around you. There is more to living than training to fight. Training to live better is the key. Ralph is a big fan of the beautiful game, world football(soccer) and played completive as a youth. His favorite football team is the Manchester United with the great Ryan Giggs. The only students of the Kamiyama Dojo methodology licensed to teach and rank others in Ralph’s system are - Ben Adams - Kevin Gutierrez - Ron Hughen - Robert Kesterson - Rick Henderson - Shannon Seaback - Robert Lane and Damon Colson.

A blessing: the arising of Awakened Ones. A blessing: the teaching of true Dhamma. A blessing: the concord of the Sangha. The austerity of those in concord is a blessing.   --  Dhammapada

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