Is it possible to learn how to swim by watching a video?  Maybe, but I think we’d all feel a lot better if you actually got in the pool…

Life-or-death self-defense is admittedly unpleasant business.  It’s all the stuff you’d really rather not think about, and so most of us don’t, hoping instead that it simply never becomes an issue for us.

Statistics favor this approach much in the same way that the vast majority of people will never need to swim to keep from drowning…

…Until they get dumped in the water.

That single freak occurrence could end their life.

If they haven’t prepared for that moment there’s not much they can do for themselves — they’re going to have to rely on the expertise of those around them to save their life.  And if they’re caught out alone…

Like swimming to not drown, life-or-death self-defense is something that yields to preparation.

Having a plan, and then going through the motions of that plan not only grant you peace of mind, but also greatly improve your chances for survival.
read this entry »

I love the television shows where physicists, doctors, self-defense experts and computer visualization artists all get together to look at what goes on inside the human body when it gets used as a punching bag.

Like the show Fight Science:

Of course, things go wrong when everyone involved assumes the human body behaves like a punching bag — as if it’s suspended from the ceiling by a chain or anchored to the ground by a weighted base. read this entry »

Going toe-to-toe, blow-for-blow with someone who is bigger, faster and stronger is an incredibly iffy proposition.

Unless you have the conditioning to go the distance (to outlast the exertion over several minutes of struggle and have the ability to absorb the punishment from non-specific trauma, e.g., “take a punch” or 20), the physical strength to overpower him, and the skill of fighting to bob, weave, block, counter and grapple with him, you’re going to lose.

If fighting is hard, being any good at it is even harder.

Being a good fighter requires a huge amount of dedication, time and effort to build your athleticism and skill.  You need to “weaponize” yourself by getting on the bigger, faster, stronger curve and pushing it as hard and far as you can.  You need to get in the ring, get knocked out and choked out, in order to practice — and perfect — the craft.  Those who excel in this realm are models of single-minded drive, physicality, and art.

Simply hurting people, by comparison, is easy.

How easy?  Easy enough that one of our Master Instructors has a 6’4″+, north-of-300-pound relative who doesn’t have a spleen anymore because his five-year-old nephew ruptured it during a rough-housing session. read this entry »