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Extensive selection of self defense tools utilizing all forms of media that take you from base principles to complete and immediately useable applications of the entire TFT System.
The fastest way to ingrain the TFT System into your subconscious is to follow a specific path of instruction. Now there are two ways to accomplish this.
The August 29-30 session in Boston has a home. And it’s a real doozy.
With 4 Olympic medals, Jimmy Pedro is a legend in the sport of Judo. And his facility in the northern Boston suburb of Wakefield is everything you’d expect from a world champion.
And now we’re pleased to announce he’s allowing us to use his training facility with its 2,200 sq ft of top-of-the-line Zebra mats for this session.
As you know I’m very picky about floor surfaces. It’s one of the reasons we haven’t offered trainings in more locations.
Well, the surface at Jimmy’s facility is the same as what we use in our own San Diego center. And it’s going to help maximize your take-away from this class.
Remember: one of the reasons we chose Boston was because a large group reserved a number of the available training spots. That means there’s less room than normal. So you can’t wait on this class.
If you have questions about live training don’t just sit and try to figure it out yourself. Give Vonnie a call at 360-582-9578 (US Pacific time). Or email her at “admin at targetfocustraining dot com”
She can answer most any question you’ve got. And if she can’t she’ll put you through to one of us.
Thanks and great training,
Tim Larkin Creator,Target Focus Training
PS. As more people watch the DVDs (especially Throwing) and the new online sessions over at our Target Focus Monthly site, some people are voicing concerns that “…your training seems like it may be too rough for me.”
Couple things. First, remember you’re watching instructors execute these sequences (and often they’re Master instructors, folks who’ve been doing this for more than 10 years and often far longer).
In your first class, you won’t go as fast as these guys nor will you be falling as hard as they do.
Everything is done at half-speed.
In fact, some critics of TFT like to complain it’s too slow, that it’s all choreographed. Unfortunately this is just ignorance on their part (and as you might have guessed, none have ever actually been through one of our sessions).
We do have you go very slow. If you didn’t you’d totally destroy your partner. But in the process of going slow there are some huge things happening.
We actually have you gently ’strike’ and push through each target on your partner. This slowly locks the movement memory into both you and your partner’s subconscious and nervous systems. It takes repetition to do this. But by the end of class, your body’s able to instantly recall these movements without conscious effort on your part. And that’s the way it’s got to be if you’re to survive a true hostile situation.
But the bottom line is: anyone can do this. Big or small. Weak or strong. Experienced or rookie. Doesn’t matter. And because you only go at the speed you and your partner are comfortable with, no one ever gets hurt (outside the occasional scrape or bruise that happens when you spend a day on the mats).
The other thing is all this is anything but choreographed.
We call it “free-fighting,” and for a good reason.
There is NO preset sequence you ever follow. Everything is random, made up by YOU as targets unfold during your turn.
We don’t teach you specific techniques for specific situations, then have you endlessly practice those, as others do.
Violence doesn’t happen like that. It’s totally random.
And that’s why we teach you how to strike targets using very specific principles that allow you to react instantly to anything that unfolds.
While this may be a bit difficult to imagine here, once you go through your first free-fighting session it becomes instantly clear. And 100% natural. That’s also why people pick it up so easily and so quickly.
Here’s the thing: teaching this all over the world as we do really limits the number of classes we can offer.
That’s why it’s important you take advantage of these unique sessions and REGISTER NOW while spots are still available.
This CCTV footage is graphic. I’ve posted the link to the story and video below. This is another visual example of how quickly anti-social behavior can go asocial. Here’s a Link to the Story: Aussie Footballer Choked Unconscious While Helping Friends
I don’t post videos to merely show gratuitous acts of violence. I strongly feel we need to study these clips in order to better understand what real violence looks like as opposed to the media images or the images we see in the combat sport world. Also much of the Martial Arts and various self defense training rarely accounts for how real violence goes down. I will let you readers make your comments first then I will post mine later this week.
Here is surveillance camera video of a fatal stabbing at a UK university from the recent past.
There is no audio with this video. I’ll reserve my comments on this clip until you’ve had a chance to post yours. (Hint: Be careful from which perspective you make your comments on this act of violence. I’ve covered my thoughts on how to view these items in my book and other past posts.)
Also, if you see what appear to be 2 videos below, just click and watch the first one. The second is just a picture and is occasionally popping up in some browsers.
You can’t call it an accident because it was intentional though the judge determined that the other boy did not have the “intent” to kill the victim.
Problem is most people are ignorant of the effects of throwing a human body against the planet. This throw landed the victim in a way that caused considerable head trauma and ended up killing the victim days later.
Instead of this kid teaching the other kid a “lesson” for putting him in a headlock, he ends up with a manslaughter charge.
It’s a grim reminder of why we culled our research data on putting injury into the human body from injuries documented in Sports Medicine Journals.
In the realm of Self Defense you must study relevant data on injuries to the human body so that you can reliably know how to injure someone when your life is truly threatened… and to avoid the anti-social behavior quagmire of unintended consequences.
As always your thoughts and comments are encouraged.
Regards,
Tim Larkin Master Instructor Target Focus Training
The UK is dealing with the grim fact that no matter how strict you make your laws concerning guns, knives, and bats there’s one self defense weapon that can never be outlawed… and it has proven throughout history to be the most dangerous weapon any human canpossess.
Take a moment now to read this article published in London’s Daily Mail:
I’ve been training self defense seminars in the UK for the last 10 years and before that I trained UK/NATO Military Units and Special Law Enforcement Teams. I’ve had access to UK data on violent crimes that isn’t general knowledge.
It’s interesting that the pot has boiled over to the point where this is now a topic openly discussed in the media. Of course you can skew data and I’m sure there are political and media oxes to gore in these reports. But the fact remains the UK is a very different place than when I attended University as an exchange student there in the ’80s.
Same is true in Australia.
Last time I was in Sydney there was a law enforcement report circulating that combined the criminal violence statistics of the 5 most populated cities in Australia. Those populations combined added up to a major US city population (New York, LA, etc…) and it was shown that if those Australian cities created one US city, it would, by far, be the most violent city in the US.
Now I bring this to everyone’s attention NOT to point fingers at the UK and Australia but to show that this is the case in two 1st-world countries that have some of the most restrictive weapons laws in the world. But…
“Laws can’t protect you from the most dangerous weapon… the human mind.”
Using the law as your self defense option is a risky proposition.
A frequent question I hear has to do with the so-called ‘unavoidable antisocial situation’ — the belligerent drunk who picks you, you get the luxury of seeing it coming, but there is no escape. What then?
I invite you to read this tragic article about the recent death of a soldier under similar circumstances:
My heart goes out to his friends and family — as someone who has lost a loved one to violence, I know how it feels. It punches a hole in your life, hollows you out, and nothing is ever the same again.
Also note that we had three similar incidents here in San Diego just last year — an argument goes to fisticuffs, and someone winds up dead. In all of these cases, that was not the intent of the activity. But that’s how it wound up. One life needlessly taken and innumerable others changed forever.
Regardless of what you may think, you don’t have to go there. Most of the time when people claim it’s unavoidable what they’re really saying is they don’t want to leave, not that they can’t.
Everyone gets the difference between the antisocial and the asocial, or at least when we paint it in bold strokes — the senseless and avoidable bar fight on one end, and home invasion/murder on the other. The answer to the first one is don’t play along — use your social skills to solve it, up to and including just plain getting the hell out of there. The answer to the second one is injury, injury, injury.
But what about that fuzzy part in the middle?
First, a couple of things about why it’s even a question:
1) You recognize that you don’t really want to hurt him, and this lack of intent pretty much defines the antisocial. You know violence is inappropriate in this situation and that even if you’re victorious there could be serious legal repercussions.
2) I don’t think you’re trying hard enough to get away. I think you’re still hung up on the ego of the whole situation and you’d really rather not leave. Whether it’s because you think others will think less of you, you’ll lose face or social standing, or can’t face yourself — you’ve still got ego tied up in it. And that’s a proven killer.
And now, some answers:
Q: Is it possible to ‘take someone out’ without hurting them?
A: Sure, as long as they’re a quitter to begin with. If they’re not, you’re in for a hell of a fight. And if they read the situation differently, you can end up in the hospital or dead. It ends up as a roll of the dice — most of the time people don’t die in bar fights. When they do, everyone’s really sorry. And while I’m sure the dead men never expected it, it only had to happen to them once.
If you’re interested in such things, pretty much everybody else out there trains for the antisocial. Just be aware that you’re stuck doing what you train, and it’s almost impossible to switch back and forth. It’s far easier to train for violence and then literally go out of your way to avoid the stupid stuff.
And as a cop friend of mine says, “It’s all stupid stuff.”
Q: Does violence work in the antisocial realm?
A: Yes it does. Like gangbusters. Regardless of the venue, from sport to competition to brawling to killing, breaking things inside of people is a show-stopper. And while you can go a long way by avoiding targets known to be killers — crushing the throat, breaking the neck, bouncing the brain off the sidewalk or kicking a downed man in the head — you’re still rolling the dice.
I’ve read at least one paper that discussed a fatality from a strike to the side of the neck, and heard tell of another, so you never know. You can go in to ‘just knock the wind out of him’ and end up giving him a heart attack, should he already be at risk (not something you could know just looking at him).
In the end, you risk your life whenever you break the physical plane. I won’t hesitate to bet my life when my life’s at stake — but it’s just plain stupid to bet your life when it’s about ego.
Go out of your way to get to the rest of your day. If that means there are establishments you just don’t go to because they have a reputation for aggressive antisocial behavior, then so be it. If it’s your kink to hang out in places like that, just realize you’re choosing to ignore the risk and it’s all on you.
Me, I’d rather not have my night — and a nice dress shirt — ruined by an antisocial run-in I was too ‘manly’ to avoid. Even if you ‘win’ chances are you’ll need stitches and a lawyer. And if you lose, well, it could mean your life.
For what?
Chris Ranck-Buhr, TFT Master Instructor
PS. If you missed them, check out both my recent comments on the post below (just click on the ‘comments’ link, mine are near the bottom of the screen that opens up).