In SMKLGX 6D Self-Defence System, veteran martial artist and wrestling administrator Cleopas Gochera offers a rigorous and experience-driven intervention into contemporary debates around personal safety, violence, and the limitations of traditional martial arts in real-world self-defence.

At 186 pages, the handbook positions itself not as a sporting manual, but as a practical survival guide grounded in lived experience, technical knowledge, and situational awareness.

The book’s central premise is encapsulated in its guiding philosophy: “Escape to save lives.”

Gochera challenges the romanticised notions of combat - often associated with martial arts training - arguing that many conventional systems prioritise competition rules, aesthetics, or controlled environments over the unpredictable realities of violent encounters.

The SMKLGX 6D framework—an acronym for Sparring, Mutilation, Knowledge, Limbs and Ground—seeks to address this gap by focusing on prevention, avoidance, de-escalation, and decisive escape strategies.

Gochera’s approach is deliberately pragmatic. He frames self-defence not as a sport, but as a by-product of martial arts when stripped of ritual and redirected toward survival.

Throughout the book, he emphasises simplified yet effective techniques designed to build confidence, situational awareness, and instinctive physical responses under stress. The system integrates mental conditioning with physical training, reinforcing the idea that during an assault, conscious deliberation is a luxury the victim cannot afford.

The author’s authority on the subject is reinforced by a long and distinguished career in combat sports. A renowned wrestler and coach, Gochera has served as vice-president of the Zimbabwe Wrestling Federation and has been recognised as an honorary member of the organisation.

Beyond the sporting arena, he has expanded his professional footprint into self-defence consultancy, facilitation, and advisory services, bringing a multi-disciplinary perspective to the subject.

What lends the book additional depth is its autobiographical undercurrent. Gochera traces his commitment to self-defence to personal encounters with violence—ranging from childhood bullying to attacks in adulthood—and to his experiences of societal violence during Zimbabwe’s liberation struggle and its aftermath.

These formative experiences, combined with early inspiration from martial arts cinema, shaped both his passion for combat arts and his eventual realisation that many systems fall short when confronted with real-life threats.

The handbook also occupies a notable place within African martial arts literature. Gochera asserts that SMKLGX 6D Self-Defence System is likely the first self-defence book authored by a Zimbabwean, and one of only a handful on the continent.

Comparable works include Discovering the Warrior Within by Nigerian author Balogun O. Abeegunde, African Goju by Ghanaian academic Professor Danny Gwira (1985), and The South African Woman’s Guide to Self Defence (1999) by Sanette Smit. In this context, Gochera’s contribution is both regionally significant and timely.

Although initially scheduled for publication in 2019, the book’s release was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Its eventual arrival coincides with heightened global concern around personal safety and gender-based violence—an issue Gochera addresses with urgency.

He calls on individuals, particularly victims and survivors, to move beyond dialogue and toward practical empowerment through physical training.

Ultimately, SMKLGX 6D Self-Defence System is less concerned with perfect technique than with preparedness, awareness, and survival.

It is a serious, experience-informed work that will resonate with practitioners, trainers, and readers seeking a grounded, no-nonsense approach to self-defence—one that recognises violence not as spectacle, but as a reality demanding clear-eyed and decisive responses.