"Attacked!"

Larine's Story...

Dear Tim and Chris,

"First, thanks for a really great seminar. Not only are you both excellent teachers but your passion and dedication to your mission are inspiring. The evaluation form is attached separately, but this letter is to tell my story of an encounter with violence.

"Only a few people know that it happened, I never even told my family. As you know, most people recoil from violence and want to distance themselves. The details are somewhat gruesome, but it’s a perfect real life example of how not to react that could help students, especially women, understand they should never just give up or let their assailant recover. Your training proved to me that there was something different I could have done and if I’m ever confronted by a similar, or even worse scenario, I have the skills I need to prevail.

......

"I grew up in the Minneapolis projects--- not Chicago, New York or LA, but rough enough to require a rather bookish kid to be street smart and tough enough not to get beat up. I’d taken a self defense course from the police (more on that later) and was in pretty good shape from being a wilderness camp guide.

"On a gorgeous autumn afternoon in 1972, I was a tall, slender, confident twenty three year old, the world was mine and it was inconceivable that I would be the victim of a violent crime. My car was in the shop and since it was such a nice day, instead of taking a ride from one of the guys I worked with, I decided to walk the three quarters of a mile home. My route took me through a park area adjacent to a public golf course in the middle of town. I never thought about the concrete supports of the highway overpass as a danger zone, just as a shortcut. I was about a block away from lots of people and activity when out of the shadows someone grabbed me around the neck from behind and stuck a gun to my head and said “Don’t move or make a sound or I’ll kill you.”

"My brain screamed that this could not happen, it kept trying to rewind and start over. The only thing that seemed real was the damn gun and I totally froze. He marched me over to a secluded bushy area by a lovely little pond. He told me if I made a noise or tried to escape he would kill me. The gun never left my temple and all I could think about was my skull exploding. He made me kneel in front of him and told me to beg him not to rape and kill me which really aroused him.

"My brain finally started to work a little and I started reviewing my police self defense course. They mostly advised us not to go places alone and I’d already blown that one. Then there was yelling with authority things like “No”, “Stay Back” or “Fire” so someone would hear, come to your aid, or would make your assailant to flee in fear of being apprehended. They showed us a few feeble evasion and hitting moves but said if your attacker had a weapon, it was better to submit than be killed. They didn’t mention that submitting didn’t mean you wouldn’t be killed. Then there was the part about if you were in close and had an opportunity, you would likely only have one chance so take one shot and make it a good one so you could run. They didn’t say that if you let him recover, it would get worse but, I’m getting ahead of the story.

"Begging and groveling came easy because I hoped I could talk him out of it but it was soon apparent it only added to his experience. I decided that my only hope was to get rid of the gun which he still had firmly against my temple. When he started describing how he would rape me, I figured he’d have to set the gun down to do it and that would be my chance. He was a really big guy and was able to pin me down with one arm across my throat and force himself on me without taking the gun from my temple. Since he told me that when he got done raping me he would kill me, I had nothing absolutely nothing to lose.

"I had one free hand and he was nearing completion so I slowly reached down and then quickly grabbed his testicles as hard as I could and squeezed and pulled. His head jerked up and he grabbed for his balls and dropped the gun. I grabbed the gun, tossed it as far as I could into the pond and figured I was on equal ground now that he was screaming and had no gun.

"Unfortunately, he still had me pinned down and when he recovered, he was mad. He started beating me and then choked me until I urinated and defecated. When he let go, air never seemed so hard to get back or so welcome but I felt paralyzed. He told me that since I had hurt him and threw his gun in the lake that he was going to have to punish me by raping me again. I thought he’d choke me again afterward and leave me dead but, for some reason, he just left.

"As awful as this was, I came to learn from a friend of mine who was a cop that I was probably one of the earlier victims of a serial rapist who had a career of escalating violence and most of his later victims were killed.

"The TFT model would have had me ignore the gun, find a target, cause an injury and continue injuring targets until I was certain he could not get up and follow me. Had I known and practiced it in 1973, everything after “Don’t move” would have been different.

"During the free fighting on Sunday, several times I was in the some of the same positions I had been for real. The nice thing about working with the mastery students was that they didn’t just let go, they made me work at it. I proved to myself I could do it and I know that if it had been real and going at full speed, my assailant would not have gotten up.

"While time heals many wounds, sometimes really deep ones remain and subtly fester until properly excised. I never believed I deserved what happened to me or that it was my fault. I have a really good life but, Saturday night in Las Vegas I realized I had spent all these years believing what happened was because I was too weak and frightened to stop it. The truth is that I just didn’t know how to confront violence. “The truth shall set you free” isn’t just a slogan. Releasing the underlying fear that has colored so much of my life for the past thirty five years is a phenomenal gift and I can’t thank you enough.

"Please feel free to share any parts of this that you think may be of help to your students."

Larine R.

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Join a live TFT training session and discover what Larine did.

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When you leave Sunday afternoon, you'll possess something no one can ever take from you... the confidence that you can now go where you please, whenever you want. It changes the very being of who you are. And should you ever face "the most critical 5 seconds of your life," you decide the outcome -- not him.

All in just a weekend. Here's your chance.

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Some of Larine's other comments about the class she attended:

"Top of the line. Far exceeded my expectations. The DVDs are very good at conveying the material but can’t capture the participant experience. I hadn’t expected to do much more than observe because I’m wasn't in great shape.

"When we arrived and you announced we wouldn’t be working with the person we came with or with other women, I just about bolted for my “Plan B”, a trip to the Grand Canyon but didn’t have the car keys. The first time you said the words “free fight” really made me uncomfortable but I’m glad I didn’t chicken out. The atmosphere was very safe, controlled and well paced.

"The training was staged so we could succeed at a portion of the skillset and build on it at the same time we were wearing away the internal barriers to successful practice --- by the time the two and a half days were done, we had it all!

"The balance between explanation, demonstration and practice was excellent. The constant involvement and attention to detail of the instructors and the direct assistance of the mastery program folks were of immense help. Some of the best teaching I’ve been exposed to in any arena."