Jerry Peterson of SCARS talks about how he got into studying martial arts after he returned from Vietnam. He analyzed all different forms of martial arts then looked at them from a different aspect and wondered about the science.
After over 35,000 hours of research, he founded a process he called “Peterson’s Dominant Process Systems” which is a combination of geometry and human movement.
“After that, I said, “That’s it. This is the science of human movement. The science of how humans can take their body and do anything with it that they need to. They can handle a gun, knife, club, multiple fights.” I took it to the government. That’s how I got invited to go talk to a group of Navy SEALs.”
Be sure to check out the full episodes with Jerry and Blake Peterson on The David Johnson Show: S.C.A.R.S. The Science Behind Combat and Eliminating Fear https://youtu.be/QuMgfBQxmbo
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Video Transcript –
I don’t care about the color of your skin or the nature of you. All men and all humans are created equal. Now how their brain works and how their personalities develop, that’s what I was interested in. When it gets to the martial arts, yeah, I did the martial arts. Then I got out. I said, “OK. I’ve unfortunately had to kill people with my hands. Why would I need to go to martial arts?
“Gee, I already proved to myself I’m a ‘badass.'” Well, I never thought I was a badass. Trust me. I’m not a big man. [laughs] I’m not built to be a fighter. I looked at that and I said, “I’m going to go out and try to find the best in the world. I got to refine myself.”
David: Martial arts.
Jerry: Martial arts.
David: You’re talking about it, but was that more of a hobby, or were you already at that stage trying to marry the two worlds that you lived in from the psychology and the study of the human aspect, and martial arts? Was one more of a hobby?
Jerry: It grew. They grew together. I did it right out of the military, went [inaudible] with some people I knew. I went to different forms. They call them “styles.” Then I started analyzing it. Then, by studying more advanced physics and geometry in college, I realized, “Look, this doesn’t make any sense.”
You got people that go to a martial-arts world and they say, “I’m going to learn this style.” They learn this style. Then they get another style and another style. They’re always looking for that ultimate system.
After analyzing both the soft and hard, the Chinese, the Japanese, the Korean, the Hawaiian, the Filipino, which I actually like the Filipino style, too, and the Okinawan and all these different styles, I looked at all this different aspect and I said, “OK, where’s the science?
I’m not going to spend 20 years saying, ‘Ooh, I’m a master,’ and then find out that some guy with a knife or a gun can take me out because my art doesn’t handle that.” That’s where the marrying came in of geometry, human movement. I found a process that I coin as “Peterson’s Dominant Process Systems.” It’s about 35,000 hours of research I did from 1968 up to about 1987.
After that, I said, “That’s it. This is the science of human movement. The science of how humans can take their body and do anything with it that they need to. They can handle a gun, knife, club, multiple fights.” I took it to the government. That’s how I got invited to go talk to a group of Navy SEALs.
