This is about the kind of martial art I take, everyone asks me about it and often mistakenly call it "Karate", but you can't explain about this in a simple manner so I'll try to tell you what I can and send you some links for sites that will tell you more.
It is not a traditional, Eastern art, no bowing, chanting, meditating, or naming the instructor "Master", are done, and the "Kata" or stylized forms are also not taught (though, to a limited extent, we do forms with weapons).
Instead we shake hands, call the instructor "Sir" or "Mr.", and learn a wide variety of techniques that are more pragmatic, that is, they use all logical ideas to deal with an opponent on the street effectively.
Ways in which we train include:
Punches, kicks, elbow and knee strikes, leg kicks, takedowns, grappling, throws, chokes, joint locks, pressure points, weapon defense and offense, combat techniques, (subject to many variations to fit the situation at hand)
as well as point sparring, no-holds-barred sparring, and breaking boards.
The boards are a square foot, an inch thick, and are made of pine wood.
In the spring of 2003 I also broke some bricks (4), we used scalloped lawn edgers (landscaping experts are nodding their heads)
separated by stacks of pennies (to make it look like a flashier spectacle).
It felt surprisingly easy to break the bricks, yet very exhilarating, though it was a little messy to clean up the pieces of brick and pennies.
Anyway, Robert Bussey was the man who started this, he trained to be a high level Black Belt in Ninjutsu as well as Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido among others.
The Easternness was taken out because he became a Christian and because he believed that many things done in traditional arts do not have any real value on the street and might even make a person lose easily from what he calls "fatal tendencies".
The "Branch Tenets" established by Bussey are the Biblcal
"Fruit Of The Spirit":
Joy
Peace
Patience
Kindness
Goodness
Faithfulness
Gentleness
and Self-Control
Bussey formed an organization called Robert Bussey's Warrior International (R.B.W.I.) and he had annual summer and winter camps which featured all the self-defense skills but also had wilderness survival training, it included starting a fire with a bow and drill, trapping and skinning a wild animal, and tanning the hide, as well as building shelters, among a great many other things.
Unfortunately R.B.W.I. disbanded in 1997 so I can't be a part of those camps since I joined in 1999.
Bussey's friend and partner James Rosenbach took most of Bussey's reins and trains in the same place, Fremont, Nebraska, 15 or so miles west of Omaha.
I am a part of Mr. Rosenbach's organization, Rosenbach Warrior Training Branches (R.W.T.B.)
which is basically the same as RBWI but without Bussey and more localized in the midwest
(Nebraska and Missouri)
Mr. Bussey has yet another organization made called
Genuine Bussey Style.
The methods of self protection are basically the same but this time he eliminated all the vestiges of the Japanese and Asian arts he took like Ninjutsu and TKD, for instance, rank is shown by "sidebars" rather than belts, and traditional weapons are no longer considered as necessary to learn.
I am not a part of that but RWTB is probably just as good anyway.
My instructor, Mr. Freeman, moved from Neb. to SW Missouri and he was assistant to Mr. Rosenbach for awhile but wanted to start his own school.
He has 2 schools now, one in Hollister, Mo., where I usually train, and one in Cassville, Mo.
In November of 2003, it happened;
I tested for my Black Belt Status and was successful, and I tell you, it wasn't easy, even after training over 4 years and asking Mr. Freeman a million questions.
The test lasted over 4 hours in the locked studio in Fremont, where I had to ride with Mr. Freeman 500 miles because he was going for his Chieftain Status (like a 5th degree).
We had to take plenty of water breaks because we sweat so much that dehydration was very possible, and I almost broke under the strain but persevered till the end.
It comprised of:
Evasion and tumbling,
Kicks and kicking combos,
Unarmed self-defense techniques,
Club offensive and disarming,
Half-Staff,
Strap,
Knife and Gun disarming,
Swing Stick offensive and Sword disarming,
Kick catching,
Sword form,
Swing Stick form,
Long-Staff form,
(For the optional Weapons Status, other weapons may be used, the double sticks at least, then maybe a net, throwing stars, blowgun, and more.)
Sparring, in upright fighting, then grappling, then upright fighting and grappling with takedowns, then repeat.
Lastly we did board breaking, which was for me uneventful compared to what came before. (the sparring is what makes or breaks the tester)
And we did a written test concerning RWTB and its principles, as well as all of us who went for our first Black Belt like me, we had to write a 1,000 word essay on martial arts beforehand, mine was a lot like this page's explanation but was more drawn out and expounded on the history of the organization.
Here are links for the websites associated with R.B.W.I. or R.W.T.B.
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