Escudo MMA: The Art of Self Defense

When the two men approach William, it is clear that they are not looking to mingle. If the belligerent steps are not enough to give it away, the man who is now an arms length away from William snarls and unmistakably proclaims that he is a “bad man.”

“Hey, what’d you say we get this kid?!” he exclaims.

The bad man aggressively paces forward; his “crony” follows suit.

Ready to pounce on their prey, the men converge on William. The bad man launches the first strike: a quick right jab headed straight for the crown.

William bends his knees and crouches. Balancing himself with an established low center of gravity, he intercepts the blow with his forearm, grasps onto the bad man’s arm, and thrusts him into his crony.

Picking himself back up from the floor, the bad man looks over to his bewildered partner and chuckles.

“Good! You see how he used me as a shield to get away? You gotta be able to do that! You gotta be able to use the attacker body to your advantage!”

The bad man, better known as Hector Segui, actually works as an IT on the UC Irvine campus. On Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, however, he doubles as a loud, energetic, and often eccentric Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) instructor at the ARC.

Growing up in Spanish Harlem of Upper Manhattan, New York City, Segui has always been a mixed martial arts enthusiast, taking lessons at local studios when he was just 12 years old.

“To me, [mixed martial arts] was all just fun,” Segui said. “It’s sort of like how some people enjoy ballet and the flexibility involved with that or figure skating and the amazing feats that they could do and everything…these are the same reasons that attracted me to [mixed martial arts]. At the same time, I also wanted to be able to defend myself because I was always the runt in every class…I was always the smallest and thinnest guy and I lived in a rough neighborhood. I don’t have any brothers or sisters so I didn’t have anyone to defend me so I had to defend myself. I thank God I never got into any real ugly altercations but I was busy trying to prepare myself…and I still am. ”

MMA Instructor Hector Segui instructors two of his students during a small session at the Anteater Recreation Center at UC Irvine.

Segui has borne witness to many different scenarios at which people have had to defend themselves. Having spent a number of years in the Air Force and military before getting into security work, Segui managed to pick up tactical skills that were important in one-on-one combat. At one point, he served as a defense tactics instructor for the Mohave County and Pima County Sheriff’s Departments in Arizona. However, Segui had his qualms about some of the traditional methods that he had been taught in the military.

“In the military, there were a lot of different trainers that would come in to base camp and teach us some combative tactics,” Segui said. “But I found that many of these styles like Kajukenbo only prepared you to defend yourself in one-on-one scenarios and not really for multiple attackers. So long after I was out of the military, I sat and I reflected on this and I knew that I had to teach myself how to incorporate the best tactics from the other, more ancient martial arts forms.

Driven by his own general interests that he had bared as a young teen, Segui continued learning as a pupil of the ancient martial arts forms such as Tang Soo Do, Shudo Khan, and Wing Chun, adopting some of the maneuvers that worked well within each respective discipline and dropping those that didn’t.

As an instructor now, Segui pulls from his varied background in these combative forms to share with his students.

Escudo MMA isn’t pretty and it isn’t meant to be. In Hector Segui’s class, throwing the hardest punch or the quickest kick won’t do you any good — not in a real street fight where multiple attackers are ready to strike you.

With the emphasis on Escudo, meaning “shield,” students who take Segui’s class are not looking for glory in competing at tournaments or winning championships and medals, but rather in adopting a unique and efficient set of skills that will help them fend off anyone who is looking for some trouble.

“This style is not one of those styles that is going to make you look spectacular,” Segui said. “It is about being effective so that you can get out of harms way as quickly as possible and get to safety. It’s not about fighting these guys for the next five minutes…I’m not going to teach you how to do that. You only fight when you have to in order to get away. So if you can get away in thirty seconds and do what you have to do…then you did good.”

All in the while, many who are enrolled in the class are also engaged in the art and philosophy behind Segui’s no-nonsense forms including William Huynh, a third year Biological Sciences major who was Segui’s very first pupil.

Huynh first met Segui two years ago in the very same sports studio on the upper floor of the ARC, where sessions are regularly held. Growing up as a mixed martial arts enthusiast but not willing to pay for $400 sessions that only covered one specific discipline, Huynh would often quench his enthusiasm by hitting the heavy bags on his on free time.

One day, Huynh noticed Segui working the heavy bag and was thoroughly fascinated at the precision and skill at which he struck it.

“When he hit the bag, the bag moved…and I mean it moved,” Huynh recalls with a little snicker.

It would not be long before the two began to train extensively, meeting up five days a week for two-hour sessions a day. Pretty soon, Segui made the program official and Huynh, as his first pupil, became a TA for the course.

Huynh believes that Segui’s style draws from Jeet Kune Do, a “formless,” combative style that is shapeless and adaptive in style.

“What we learn here…[Segui] doesn’t call it [Jeet Kune Do] but it essentially is,” Huynh said. “Jeet Kune Do is really a philosophy that I always wanted to learn. It’s all about taking everything that is most practical and efficient and meshing it into one. [Segui], being experienced in many different forms and not just one particular discipline, really drew me into it…I actually take this philosophy outside of the studio. Whenever I’m studying or working on something, I take my best habits and mesh them all into one…I think whenever you do that…you always get something good.”