A SELF DEFENSE TOOL IS JUST A TOOL
Why use a handgun, or a baseball bat as a tool? Your chances of being accidentally effective increase with the use of a self defense tool. The tool doesn’t increase your skill or your accuracy; it only magnifies the trauma when you do manage to line things up just right. With this perspective, the knife, […]
SURVIVING THE AFTERMATH OF SELF-DEFENSE
The following question is why we go to such great lengths to educate our self-defense clients about the realities of breaking the physical plane. Anonymous writes: “Denver Colorado, three years ago. A friend of mine (we were both Rangers in Vietnam) was out for his 60th birthday celebration with friends. They all decided to leave […]
MULTIPLE ATTACKERS SELF-DEFENSE: PART THREE
When the five guys pulled up to go after Will, they tried to limit his options by coming up onto the sidewalk and hemming him in between the car and the building behind him. Will failed to see that as a problem. As the car door snapped open, Will was already in charge of the […]
SELF PROTECTION: NATURE OR NURTURE?
I was recently asked how I go about helping the passive and meek develop the intent to cause injury. This opens up an interesting debate about whether self protection is nature or nurture… Is intent innate, or can it be taught and learned? There’s evidence for both sides. The most unlikely people become human demolition […]
SELF DEFENSE AND YOUR EXPECTATIONS
When you look at this picture, which guy needs self defense? If you found yourself in the above situation, what would you do? Your response will show your self defense expectations and where you see yourself in violence. It’s an inkblot test, or one of those optical illusions where you can see either a vase or […]
UNDERSTANDING VIOLENCE: FOUR LEVELS OF HUMAN INTERACTION
When it comes to understanding violence and normal human behavior, there are four general ways in which human beings interact with one another: As a person – social This is trying to change behavior, mood, or motivation. This is where most people would like to keep the situation. As a skill-set — anti-social This is […]
WHY DO WE TEACH LETHAL SELF DEFENSE?
Much is made of the fact that we teach barehanded killing. It’s the sensational tagline for media reports on what we do, and it’s the first thing people notice when they see us training. Just the other day, one of the instructors at the TFT San Diego Center lamented about the difficulty in talking to […]
SELF DEFENSE MINDSET: WHAT IS YOUR LIFE WORTH?
Think about your self defense mindset. When it comes to fighting to the death or living, what is your life worth to you? Your car? Your cell phone? The contents of your wallet? Twenty bucks? Everybody’s going to have a different answer, and if you don’t already have one you should try to figure out […]
BUT I DON’T WANT TO KILL ANYONE!
I was recently reading an article on personal self defense in which the author was speaking of violence as though you could pick and choose the level of seriousness of the interaction. If he’s a little more serious, then so are you—and if he wants to kill you, well, that’s the only time you’re going […]
SELF DEFENSE TRAINING VS. MMA TRAINING
Asking about self defense training and MMA training, R. R. writes in: “My concern is facing someone who is trained in MMA or some reality-based system. I’ve already had an altercation with a MMA guy and even though he didn’t beat me up he still got an ankle lock while I was standing and it […]