I came across Tim Larkin when I read on the BBC News website, in 2012, that the Home Secretary had banned him from entering the UK because of the self-defence system he was teaching. I explored his system further by briefly joining his online training programme.

Target Focus Training (TFT) is a reality-based self-defence system created by Tim Larkin, a former Special Warfare Intelligence Officer for the U.S. Navy. For over 25 years, the programme has been teaching self-protection to military special forces, law enforcement, and civilians.

Core Philosophy

TFT focuses on teaching concepts for manipulating the body to quickly induce injury in asocial violent situations where an assailant is determined to cause harm or death. The system emphasises several key distinctions:

• Social vs. Asocial Violence: The training teaches people to identify the difference between social aggression (which can be avoided) and asocial violence (which is unavoidable)
• Violence as a Tool: The program treats violence as a survival tool rather than a fighting system, focusing on injuring attackers rather than engaging in prolonged combat

Key Principles

TFT enables people to stop attackers by inflicting injury to easily damaged body parts using simple, intuitive movements that anyone can do, regardless of athletic ability, size, or shape. The system is built around:

1. Principles over techniques: Rather than memorizing specific techniques, TFT teaches principles that allow practitioners to react automatically from any position
2. Targeting vulnerable anatomy: Students learn to target highly specific areas on an attacker’s body for strategic counterattack
3. Physics and physiology: The system uses scientific principles about how the human body can be injured effectively

Because this system is primarily designed for the most extreme forms of violence that the average person is unlikely to face, I tend not to demonstrate some of its techniques during my Kyushindo Karate instruction; however, there are certain aspects that I do cover, though notably for dan grades.

1. Stepping in to attack with simple strikes, such as forearms and elbows, is one such technique. This requires a degree of attack prediction, as the focus is on your strike rather than blocking theirs.
2. Shift your focus from the knife to targeting the brain, which is the ‘real’ weapon. A knife is just a tool until it has a ‘brain’ behind it.
3. Do a TFT drill. This involves observing the attacker’s reaction when you strike, and it requires performing a slow strike while still maintaining full movement and penetration (basically a lot of slow, deliberate pushing). They may move or partially collapse, which now influences your next strike. Many karate combos assume the opponent will stay in the same spot after each hit.

1 is already touched on in karate instruction as a simultaneous ‘block and strike’, but the techniques shown are more focused on the strike and should be done without a block. I have noticed that some individuals find it challenging to move beyond the block-strike mentality that is instilled up to the black belt level.

I get the argument that block-strike will enable you to get more power, but I balance that by striking first, even if it only buys you a distraction rather than a finish.

2 is easier said than done. However, any principle that avoids wrestling with an opponent’s hand holding a knife is beneficial.

I observe that 3 is not popular, as it means making a lot of contact and pushing through, albeit very slowly. This inhibition against fellow students sometimes leads to performances that differ from my instructions.

The Romsey Kyushindo Facebook group has a few videos from TFT. One video demonstrates the knife principle by contrasting the focus on the knife with that on the brain, while another video showcases one of their advanced flow drill demonstrations.