When I was nine years old, I started my relationship with the martial arts world as the grandson of a boxing champion, who mentored me and started me on this incredible journey which has lasted 48 years so far. I love the confidence which I developed from putting in hard work to be the best I could. I was eager to develop and learn new skills, and I keep learning to this day. 

From an early age, I trained Karate, Judo, Kendo, Aikido and Samurai, and admired them all for what they offered as principals to defend myself if needed. But these forms have rules and regulations that limited me, and the lack of interaction between forms was only a further handicap. Karate students only practiced with other Karate students, and the same with other forms. 

Since it can take up to 10 years to master each form, nobody has time to master all forms without sacrificing their whole lives. Realizing this, combined a group of techniques acquired from all of these forms. Using my own experience and the experience of professionals and high-level practitioners of all of them, I formed Close Combat Arts for self defense.

I’ve taught all around the world, making sure to include those who are vulnerable or think it’s too late to learn martial arts. This learning experience offers solutions for real life situations like mugging, kidnapping, bullying and the list goes on. Prior martial arts experience is a plus, but not required to become successful quickly. I have enjoyed teaching martial arts to all my students over the past 35 years and I hope to do so for many more to come.

This realtistic and modern approach to self-defense was developed by Mr. Diaa Sharaf over 30 years ago, derived from studying 5 forms of Japanese martial arts. (Aikido, Kendo, Judo, Kempo Karate, and Samurai)

His training can be applied to deal with everyday situations including mugging, carjacking, road rage, kidnapping, home invasions, or any act of aggression one could face in real life.

Diaa has taught this form around the world over his career and speaks multiple languages including Arabic, French, and Italian. 

He is always looking to teach as many people as possible his life-saving skills, truly, a way of life.