Self-protection is the oldest human practice. We teach it as a path to self-reliance — so what you learn on the mat transforms how you show up in life.
Why This Training Hits Different
What we teach isn't new. Protecting yourself, reading danger, staying calm under threat — these are the oldest skills our species ever developed. They're wired into your nervous system. That's why training them doesn't just teach you to fight, It awakens something ancient.
When done right, learning to protect yourself becomes the catalyst for building the qualities modern life demands but rarely teaches: calm under pressure, clarity when it counts, the resilience to stay present when everything around you is chaos.
At Crazy Monkey this is what we call Primal SkillZ — survival skills as old as humankind, refined for the modern world you actually live in.
"The Crazy Monkey Defense methodology offers practical, effective techniques combined with profound personal development. A game-changer for serious practitioners."
John Morris, Retired Green Beret, Owner of OSS2 Shooting & Survival & Crazy Monkey Trainer
Zero Meatheads.
Maybe you’ve trained before, or stood at the edge of it, but something didn’t sit right.
Too much spectacle. Too much ego. Too much aggression passed off as courage. You wanted to grow. To become capable without becoming hard. To learn how to show up in the real battles of life with calm, clarity, and self-respect.
Here, we train differently.
You’ll learn to hold your own under pressure, without losing yourself. You’ll move with presence, clarity, and resilience. These aren’t just fighting skills. They’re life skills.
Modern martial arts for the Mindful Warrior.
20+
Years Teaching
50K+
Students Coached
30+
Countries
Holistic Self-Protection: The Full Picture
Most martial arts programs train one layer. We train all four. This is what makes our approach genuinely holistic — not as a buzzword, but as a framework that covers every domain of real-world safety and personal resilience.
Inner-Defense
Your nervous system, emotions, mindset, and the stories that get you hurt. This is the foundation everything else stands on. If you can't manage what's happening inside you, no technique will save you.
Outer Defense
Awareness, boundaries, voice, and de-escalation. The vast majority of dangerous situations can be avoided or defused long before anyone throws a punch. We train you to see trouble early and handle it with clarity — not paranoia.
Physical Defense
Simple, pressure-tested skills for when there is no other option. No fantasy techniques. No fifteen-step sequences. Just honest, effective methods that work when you're tired, surprised, and running on adrenaline.
Recovery & Integration
How you process stress and difficult experiences afterwards — so they don't quietly break you from the inside. This is the layer almost every martial arts program ignores entirely. We don't.
Each layer feeds the others. Your inner work improves your awareness. Your boundaries reduce risk. Your physical skills give you quiet confidence that changes how the world reads you. Your recovery practices stop one incident from becoming a lifetime of damage.
The Mindful Warrior Path
Everything we teach is guided by four principles. They shape how we coach, how we train, and how we ask our students to carry themselves — on the mat and off it.
Focused Presence
Train your attention the way you train your body — with discipline and care. The ability to be fully present under pressure is the single most valuable skill you will ever develop. It's what separates reaction from response.
Inner Sovereignty
Master your own inner world before trying to manage the outer one. This means knowing your triggers, understanding your nervous system, and building the capacity to choose how you respond rather than being hijacked by habit, ego, or fear.
Compassionate Strength
Real strength doesn't need to dominate. The Mindful Warrior trains to be capable of force and wise enough to rarely use it. Compassion isn't softness — it's the discipline to meet the world with both power and heart.
Intentional Living
Move through life with clarity and purpose. What you practise on the mat — calmness, presence, focus, resilience — should show up in how you make decisions, hold relationships, and navigate the daily chaos that most people sleepwalk through.
Your Life is Your Dojo
The way you handle pressure on the mat is the way you handle pressure everywhere. We don't separate the two — and neither should you.
Every training session is designed so that what you develop physically becomes how you show up emotionally, mentally, and relationally. The calm you find while sparring is the same calm you need when a difficult conversation turns heated. The awareness you build reading an opponent is the same awareness that keeps you safe walking through a city at night — or navigating a toxic workplace.
The argument that could turn cruel. The meeting that makes your stomach drop. The moment you need to set a boundary and your voice disappears. These are the real fights. The mat is where you rehearse for them.
This is what we mean by the martial arts of everyday life.
“Rodney is one of the rare martial artists intentionally applying the science of wisdom cultivation and human flourishing to his teaching of the martial arts”
- Professor John Vervaeke
About Coach King
Raised in the hard streets of Johannesburg, I learned early what real danger looks like.
For decades, I trained and taught self-protectiton around the world. But it was only after a serious health crisis that I returned to what truly matters: Teaching martial arts that prepares you to flourish in life — not just interpersonal violence.
Today, I help people train not just their bodies, but their whole being. To show up in the world awake, clear, and unshaken.
Trusted By Real World Mindful Warriors
"The Crazy Monkey Defense methodology offers practical, effective techniques combined with profound personal development. A game-changer for serious practitioners."
John Morris, Retired Green Beret
"Rodney is the 'real deal' when it comes to all things 'street'. I 100% encourage students of the arts to investigate what Rodney King has to offer. You will not be disappointed. I know I wasn't."
Richard Norton, Legendary Martial Artist, Actor and 6th Degree BJJ Black Belt
"Rodney King inspires, teaches and has taken his life of training to empower others to take on life and win. He is a true master in his art and a warrior with the knowledge and the grit anyone would want to learn from."
Dr. Mark Green, Lieutenant Colonel US Army (retired)
"Rodney's approach to inner management takes cutting-edge performance psychology findings and, through easy-to-learn techniques, shows you how to harness the power of your mind through a personalised training program based on your unique values and goals.”
Dr. Richard Blonna, Author of Maximising Your Coaching Effectiveness with Acceptance & Commitment Therapy
How to Begin
Whether you're training from home or ready for an immersive experience, there's a path in.
Pathway 3: Holistic Self-Protection Intensive
A 5-day intensive on the Isle of Man with Coach King. Limited to 10 spots per year. This is the full Holistic Self-Protection experience — physical training, philosophical dialogue, nervous system work, and coastal walks. You won't find anything like it anywhere else.
“As a positive psychology researcher I am impressed with Rodney King’s intuitive grasp of people’s strengths and hopes. Rather than building a martial art around fear of attack, testosterone-based competition, or external rewards King introduces the best aspects of performance psychology to help people achieve their own goals. In a field steeped in tradition, King artfully reimagines both the dojo and the martial arts business mentality. At long last, we have a perfect union of proven martial arts techniques with cutting edge approaches to teaching and personal development. As a martial artist myself, King’s methods are a breath of fresh air.”
- Dr. Robert Biswas Diener
The Indiana Jones of Positive Psychology and Author of Happiness
