1.  KUF was developed as extension of natural body reflexes. These natural body reactions were thoroughly studied, refined, and adapted for the use by defending fighters in specific situations.
2.   From any initial position, defenses and counter-offensives take the shortest trajectories and are extremely well targeted, being at the same time safe and maximum easy to perform.
3.    Respond adequately according to the circumstances and carefully commensurate the nature of your counteraction with the force of the conducted offensive (to avoid unnecessary injuries).
4.    Strike at vulnerable body parts to defeat your adversary.
5.     For self-protection and counter-offensive, use any objects that can be found at hand when you are attacked.
6.     In KUF there are no rules or technical restrictions. It is not a sport; it is a system of self-defense.
7.     Principles of training in KUF are: develop from easy to complex skills, from basic techniques to more complicated variations, from individual holds to serial job, from serial technique to improvisation depending on situation dynamics.
8.     Carefully evaluate the risk of performing any specific movement and try to avoid danger whenever possible to stay away from being injured. In KUF, the use of defensive technique is highly emphasized!

Main Requirements to Students of KUF

Grandmaster Yuri Kostrov, the founder of the system, underlines that a student of KUF shall follow the following principles:

1. "Be modest"  -  Do not brag about your skills and avoid unnecessary conflicts. Restrain your ego and control your consciousness, so that they would not let you down in real confrontation. Be ready to perceive criticism and guidance from others.
2. "Be timely"   -  Do the right things at the right time and in the right place. Your physical and psychological state defines your ability to stand up the confrontation. Use all your capabilities and all advantages of elements and conditions prevailing in the situation you find yourself in to act effectively under the circumstances.
3. "Be adequate" - This means acquiring a skill to identify the level of severity of possible attacks. This is critical in the training of young people who must be taught to exercise self-control and avoid violence, and at the same time develop their abilities to defend themselves effectively. This principle means: First try to avoid the confrontation, but if attacked respond with the adequate force level to neutralize the threat and avoid danger.
4. "Be invulnerable" - Means to achieve a high level of professionalism in self-defense. Even if you have been injured, you should know how to meet with assault (kick, punch, etc.) and move according to your newly acquired state.
5. "Be skillful" - Means achieving a level of professionalism so high that there is no need to kill.  A qualified KUF fighter does not have to cause unnecessary damage to his/her adversary, since he/she can finish the conflict in a quick and effective way.
   Learn to respect other people and demonstrate your respect even in extreme cases. On the other hand, remember the saying: "If someone comes to kill you, kill him first!" referring to uncompromising situations, when it is either you, or your enemy.

What Is Self-Defense?

Self-defense is the basis of KUF. Various self-defense techniques have been developed to allow KUF fighters to defend themselves and people around them against hostile aggressive encroachment, to avoid injuries, overcome offensives and neutralize attackers.
Self-defense holds in KUF include defense against a wide range of unarmed but very dangerous attacks like punches, kicks, strangulation, pinches and holds of head, body, etc. They also comprise life hazards when an aggressor is armed with a stick, a knife, a gun, a submachine gun, or even with a hand grenade. At the very beginning of KUF development, Grandmaster Yuri Kostrov, the founder of KUF, faced the necessity to provide quick and effective training to a large number of people with totally different physical levels - from ex-servicemen in a wonderful form to absolutely non-sporty high school graduates, students and people of advanced age. As a result, it was noted that self-defense techniques in KUF can be successfully used by both men and women regardless of their physical form, abilities, strength or age.

In KUF, self-defense techniques are based on simple and natural movements which are very effective and easy to learn. Trainees learn to use these principles and techniques in different situations, acting in the dark, sitting or lying, or in other complicated cases when they have to defend themselves in spite of their limited ability to move.

What Is Hand-to-Hand Combat?

Hand-to-hand combat in KUF is a more advanced phase of training when students are taught how to neutralize an adversary in a quick and effective way. This part of the system includes elements dealing directly with a single combat: offensives, defenses, proper calculation and choice of time, tactics, developing a skill to foresee an attack, etc., as well as certain necessary psychological and mental techniques that allow to survive in such dangerous situations.

Close Combat

Years of KUF development resulted in establishing a whole system of training for a face-to-face fight or a close combat to include technical, methodological, and tactical aspects.

Close combat in KUF is considered a top skill.

Arms in KUF

An efficient resistance of an unarmed fighter to an armed adversary testifies to a high level of skill in VF. This task can be accomplished more successfully through getting knowledge and skills of using different types of arms provided in KUF.

In real combat situation, you can take hold of your adversary's arms but your life as well as the life of people around you will depend on whether you can use the arms and how well you can do it.

In KUF, they study only those arms which are used today.

These include knives, different systems of guns and revolvers, sticks and batons of different length, long-barreled types of firearms from pump-action shortguns to Kalashnikov.

In KUF, students learn tactical firing, knife fight and extreme driving.

But it is essential to remember that the highest level in our system is the ability to foresee and avoid conflict situations.

WKUFO admits as a member everyone, who decided to follow a way of self-perfection for progress of Love, Good and Justice on the Earth. Any person (or group of people), irrespective of his nationality, colour of skin or religious convictions, may become a WKUFO member, if he supports basic principles of the Organization. The main thing is to have great desire to learn depths and heights of Combat Sambo, to improve himself through this martial art.

Representatives of other styles can also become WKUFO members. They are given an appropriate Kostrov's Universal Fisticuffs belt (KUF), level of which they should confirm after completing the training course under a direct guidance of the Teachers during "Winter" and "Summer School".