ISR Matrix meets Wing Chun in Qld

The North Queensland Wing Chun Kung Fu Academy in Townsville recently hosted a ‘Physical Management Subject Control’ course run by ISR Matrix Australia.

Academy owner Sifu Pablo Cardenas and 14 students took part, alongside a seasoned martial arts instructor and security officer who travelled from Finland to attend. Participants were taught control and restraint techniques that don’t rely on pain-compliance, striking or choking, with a view to remaining within the legal limits of reasonable and proportionate force. According to Cardenas, this element of confrontation tends to be under-trained in most martial disciplines, particularly those that are striking-focused. Learning control techniques that don’t cause injury or pain is also important, he said.

“Pain-compliance alone can be unreliable; it can also cause injury in training or in the street and it can escalate the situation,” Cardenas explained.

“In today’s society of portable filming devices, how you handle a potentially violent situation can be scrutinised frame-by-frame in court.

“Unlike many control and restraint courses, joint-locks/manipulations are not the cornerstone of ISR. Course participants learn to transition seamlessly between the ISR (Intercept, Stabilize, Resolve) physical control options under pressure, and here lays the strength of ISR: the ability to stabilise and resolve a constantly evolving and volatile physical confrontation.”

The ISR (Intercept, Stabilise, Resolve) Matrix system focuses on pressure-testing techniques and tactics through ‘aliveness in training’. It was founded in the US in 1996 by Luis Gutierrez, primarily for use by law-enforcement personnel.

Sifu Cardenas praised the system for its ability to provide students with immediately applicable protective skills. “From the pre-contact ‘interview’ stage, ISR gives you the ability to cover up and survive a physical attack and to bring down the biggest resisting guy in a controlled manner,” he said.

The Wing Chun instructor now plans to host further ISR Matrix courses as part of annual ongoing training for his students. “The students adapted well to the demands of ‘aliveness’ and the rigorous training involved,” he said.