Self Defense 101

Where to Start, What to Look For, What to Avoid, Who to Train With

First of all, I prefer the term Personal Protection or Protective Offense to Self Defense, for the former is proactive (placing you mentally in control of the situation) while the latter is reactive (makes you feel like a victim waiting for something to happen before choosing a response).

An article by Georges Z. Fahmy, Senshido Affiliate Instructor for the Greater Middle East Area.

“Like many people out there, I turned to Self Defense to avoid, escape, or survive violence (in my case, High School Bullying). To help you guys and gals avoid the hassles I went through, and save you time and money, I’ve decided to write this article to outline what you should be looking for in a Self Defense school/ system/ method.

Choosing to train in Traditional Martial Arts (TMA) schools, like Karate, Kung Fu, Tae Kwon Do, Wing Chun, Kali, Aikido, Systema, etc should not be your objective if you seek to learn Personal Protection (PP). Although the abovementioned styles and systems are beautiful, culturally rich and allow their users to become disciplined, these methodologies have remained fixed in time, not evolving with the rising tide of violence, or are found lacking in one or more aspects. I personally trained in Chinese Kung Fu while a child (from age 10 to 15) and am proud to say that the art has allowed me to be flexible, fit, as well as disciplined.

Sadly, it did not help me in learning effective and realistic PP.

Combat Sports like Muay Thai, Boxing, Kick Boxing, Wrestling (Greco-Roman, Freestyle, or Catch-As-Catch-Can), Judo, Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (BJJ), Sambo, and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA, also called Vale Tudo), among others, are very beneficial in developing a fighter’s toolbox. However, these arts and systems while allowing you to dominate a single, unarmed opponent, do not fare as well against multiples or armed aggressors. Additionally, it lacks the crucial pre-contact (psychological, emotional, and behavioral) as well as post-contact (evasion, legality, revenge and other factors) aspects a respected Self Defense methodology must have to be complete. I personally favour and wholeheartedly recommend training in MMA, as well as BJJ and Catch-Wrestling, for they teaches an individual useful tools, covers striking, grappling, and submissions, conditions its aficionados to full contact full speed training, and provides a great workout.

The third category people encounter while looking for Self Defense instruction are Reality Based Self Defense (RBSD) programs. The name itself, as Richard Dimitri, Senshido’s founder, states, is an oxymoron: RBSD as opposed to what? Unreality Based Self Defense? Nevertheless, many so called RBSD schools are just TMA repackaged, without uniforms and belts. Others are taken from Military systems (Krav Maga, Kapap, WWII Combatives) and may not be applicable by civilians because of numerous factors (such as legal, use of force, etc).

How do you distinguish between the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly?

Well, for a PP methodology to be efficient, applicable by anyone (regardless of sex, age, build, strength%u2026), and realistic, it needs to cover the all-important trinity of emotional, behavioral and psychological training. Cover, not dabble in, not mention – fully cover.

These three elements have to be addressed across the three phases of combat, namely the Pre-Contact, Contact, and Post-Contact aspects.

Allow me to outline each phase in detail:

- Pre-Contact phase includes awareness training, fear/ anger/ adrenal management, evasion and escape tactics, understanding the criminal mind, tactical assessment of one’s environment, and much more

- Contact phase includes one’s ability to protect oneself and others from armed as well as unarmed assaults while covering the ballistic, kinetic, edged, striking, kicking, close quarters, grappling, and ground fighting ranges against one or more aggressors

- Post-Contact includes the legally of one’s actions, talking to the police, preventing revenge attacks, debriefing and analyzing the confrontation for enhancing one’s survivability, etc

For one to be ready to survive modern violence, I believe it is vital to train full speed, full force, with intent, while replicating realistic scenarios that induce an adrenaline dump similar to the one experienced in actual life. If what you do works under these conditions, then it is a realistic PP training methodology. If it doesn’t, then it isn’t and you need to change what you’re doing.

I have searched for a methodology that fully integrates all these aforementioned crucial elements and am glad to have discovered Senshido in 2002. After comparing it to other, more technical RBSD approaches, I decided to train in it and one day become an instructor. This great honour was mine in December 2006 and became responsible for the Greater Middle East Area since that day.”

Take care and stay safe.

Georges Z. Fahmy
Senshido Affiliate Instructor for the Greater Middle East Area, spanning from North Africa to Indian subcontinent.

Do you have any questions, comments or are you looking for training and seminars in the Greater Middle East Area? Visit my site www.senshido.net , email me at info@senshido.net, or call me on + 961 3 499 712 .

Senshido saying of the week: “Rather than provide technical aspects for people to use in specific situations, we provide analytical skills that will be useful in any situation”

The Unconscious Power Of Assumed Constraints

Assumed constraints – the unconscious power inside you!

Combat Training Principles — Secrets For Staying Alive When “Rules” Don’t Apply

People often ask me for the best way to “protect” them in some imagined criminal assault.

They want me to respond by giving some perfect technique that handles their particular imagined scenario.

They’re often disappointed at first when I don’t respond the way they want me to answer their question. They don’t like to hear the truth — that violence is random and thinking only in terms of “techniques” to use against a random act is a good way to get you killed.

The problem with practically everyone’s approach to dealing with violence is not that they’re incapable of learning techniques – it’s that they don’t understand this way of responding to violence — real asocial, maim, cripple, or “kill you now” violence — is seriously flawed.

That’s because when it comes to violence, we (meaning you and me, the productive, law-abiding members of society) live lives of ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS.

We are taught early on by parents, teachers, and our legal system that if we want the benefits of living in a society like ours then we need to constrain our violent impulses when things don’t go our way.

And obviously, this is a very good thing.

It’s the reason you don’t kill the obnoxious jerk that steals your parking place, you wait patiently for the light to turn green at an intersection, and you don’t shoot the neighbors Labrador for digging up your rose garden.

When it comes to the subject of violence, we are controlled by society much like circus elephants are controlled by their handlers.

These trainers know the most reliable way to handle an elephant is to “condition” it when it is very young.

They put a shackle on the baby elephant’s leg with a short chain that is held in the ground by a very long spike. The baby elephant tugs at the chain attempting to break free.

After a short while the elephant breaks the skin around the shackled leg and gives up. But the pain of attempting to break free is never forgotten.

Later on, that same method is used to control the now fully-grown elephant, even though the adult beast could pull the spike free with no more effort than you and I use to remove a thumbtack from a corkboard.

And the same approach is taken with all productive members of society regarding the tool of violence.

We are “shackled” at a very young age — first at home, later in ours schools, and finally at our workplaces.

When faced with violence, most of us respond SOCIALLY.

We attempt to communicate with our attacker in hopes of avoiding the use of violence. We may threaten to use this tool but we really don’t want to since that shackle is still firmly attached.

The sad part of ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS is that most martial arts, combat sports, and, yes, even most “reality fighting systems” teach you to respond — WHILE STILL SHACKLED!

It doesn’t work.

I learned long ago the first order of business is to teach my clients how easy it is to break those ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS when the threat warrants such an approach.

Because the real threat to society is when we run up against some “rogue elephant” that has never been “shackled” and has no problem using violence to get what he wants. And imagine how easy it is to fight someone if they have their leg shackled.

Remember first and foremost — violence is rarely the answer to most situations, but when it is the answer, it’s the ONLY answer.

Once you understood that (and as a reader of this newsletter you have heard me say it numerous times) you then must be able to rip off those ASSUMED CONSTRAINTS and free yourself so you can utilize the tool of violence when required.

I can assure you the methods and principles taught in Target-Focus(TM) Training Live Seminars and our various other products do EXACTLY that, allowing you your best chance to survive an asocial, violent threat.

Take some time to digest this message, read through it again — then look within to see if you can truly break free from your “shackle” if the need arises.

If you’re not sure — really sure — then get some help to do this because you don’t want to discover those shackles are intact with a 9mm pressed against your ribcage.

Until next time,

Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus(TM) Training

Target Focused Training
TFT Human Weapon Defense System
Live Target-Focus Training
TFT Striking
Using Your Bodyweight as a Sledgehammer!
TFT Throwing Series.
The Art of Head Trauma:Dumps, Drops & Throws

TFT Weapons Self Defence.
Discover secrets for destroying anyone attacking you with a weapon!
Surviving The Next 5 Seconds Of My Life!
The Survival DVDs
Surviving the most critical 5 seconds of your life!
The Survival Book

Generating Maximum Power

Generating Maximum Power

I remember for much of my youth my martial arts training revolved around speed. I was always trying to punch and kick faster. Often you were judged on how many strikes you could deliver in a given amount of time.

We’ve previously already discussed the importance of striking a specific target on the other guy’s body, so lets talk about speed. Where does it factor in when you fight?

First a little physics is in order — Force x Velocity = Power.

Most instructors in the combat sport and martial arts world focus on just one aspect of the equation… Speed. (Speed is how fast an object moves, velocity is how fast an object moves from point a to b.)

Why?

Because most of those disciplines are taught in what Target-Focus(TM) Training terms the Effect-State(tm). The Effect-State revolves around you reacting to an event that already has occurred. In fact, it can be argued that most of society operates in this defensive state of mind. That subject would require a separate post altogether.

In a fight it is natural that if you operate in a Effect-State you will try to compensate for your waiting to see what the other guy is doing — with speed.

Problem is… speed without force is only a portion of the equation, and even if your targeting is accurate, you strike with static force. In fighting, a static-force strike would be a punch using only your arm speed to strike rather than putting your entire bodyweight behind the punch.

Essentially, in the context of fighting, a speed-only response equals FEAR. I’m not saying it can’t be effective sometimes, just that you are counting on ALWAYS being able to be faster than the other guy.

I don’t like those odds.

Target-Focus(TM) Training was developed with the idea that you may not be faster or stronger than the other guys but you compensate for those realities by operating in the Cause-State(tm), striking with dynamic rather than static force.

I’ve touched on operating in the Cause-State in earlier newsletters so lets explore using dynamic force.

Dynamic force allows you to strike with the full power equation, putting your bodyweight behind each strike to maximize damage and minimize the length of the conflict.

The key to generating dynamic force is understanding how to properly lock your body and transfer your body weight into each strike. This can be accomplished quickly with some basic exercises and on-the-mat training at a Target-Focus(TM) Training seminar.

Although it is beyond the scope of this newsletter to try to instruct this method, I will say that one way to start the process is to SLOW DOWN your free-fight sessions, hit your targets, and leave your body weapon on the target until your opponent MOVES AWAY from your body weapon.

Most people strike and quickly take their body weapon off the target. This does not allow for the force of the blow to penetrate the other guy’s body. It is the other guy that should move from the force if you want to generate maximum power. This also gives you feedback as to whether you are in balance when you strike.

You may do this at slow speeds and get the feedback without injuring your training partner. Quickly, you and your training partner can increase your speed AND deliver maximum power.

So let Hollywood entertain you with SPEED but make sure you TRAIN for POWER.

Until next time,

Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus(TM) Training

PS. If you’re planning to attend a live training session, don’t put off your registration. Classes are limited. You can register today at:Live Target-Focused Training

Target Focused Training
TFT Human Weapon Defense System
Live Target-Focus Training
TFT Striking
Using Your Bodyweight as a Sledgehammer!
TFT Throwing Series.
The Art of Head Trauma:Dumps, Drops & Throws

TFT Weapons Self Defence.
Discover secrets for destroying anyone attacking you with a weapon!
Surviving The Next 5 Seconds Of My Life!
The Survival DVDs
Surviving the most critical 5 seconds of your life!
The Survival Book

How To Really Protect Your Child From Predators

Protecting Your Child From Predators

Martial Arts is not the answer to this problem…!

“Children might or might not be a blessing, but to create them and then fail them was surely damnation.” — Lois McMaster Bujold, 1991

Recently in the news we have seen another child fall prey to a predator. This time the little girl was at a carwash and the abduction was caught on tape.

Whenever such an incident occurs, my inbox is flooded with emails asking me to create a “Target Focused Training” program for children.

The sad fact is that teaching a child to physically fight an adult “predator” is woefully ineffective and very misguided.

If a hyena were stalking a lion cub none of us would expect the cub to be able to fend off the hyena. Yet we somehow wish that our children would be able to do just that.

More importantly, some ask that the child be taught to not speak to or even more unrealistic, shout out, if the predator asks them to leave the area with them.

We fall “prey” every day to some very effective sales people and advertising (just look around at all the useless exercise machines gathering dust in many of your houses!). These predators targeting children are some of the most effective “salesmen” when it comes to manipulation those young, trusting minds.

They appeal to very emotional triggers in children. But we somehow hope that these young developing minds can distinguish friend from foe. This type of thinking truly is EFFECT STATE in the highest order.

Effect State will not only get you killed — but also (tragically) those loved ones you are responsible for like children and elderly relatives. We’d like to think that there’s some special training we can give our kids that will relieve us from our responsibility should we falter in our vigilance…

— THERE ISN’T… it’s ours until they are past that vulnerable stage of life.

My clients realize that the physical fight training they get with “Target Focused Training” (one-on-one, hand-to-hand, multiple attackers, fighting with and against weapons) is the FINAL option. It is VERY necessary for an adult and TFT certainly provides the finest, most complete, and brutally effective program to handle LETHAL criminal violence.

But my goal is to keep that option from ever happening to my clients in the first place. And more importantly — that it never happens to those loved ones who can’t protect themselves. But that doesn’t necessarily occur from you applying one of TFT’s bone-snapping, lethal techniques on a “predator” who attempts to abduct your child.

The biggest deterrent to a hyena trying to stalk a lion cub… is a very alert lioness. Not one that is looking to kill hyenas… but one who is very aware of her cubs and her surroundings, constantly assessing possible trouble spots and keeping the cubs away from obvious potential dangers as well as the not so obvious.

If it comes down to her having to take action, then woe be to the hyena. But most times her living in CAUSE STATE is more than enough to send the hyena packing and off to a less vigilant guardian.

I have a young son who has yet to really receive any training from me other than the basics about dealing with adults unknown to him. There’ll be plenty of time, as he becomes an adult, to transfer the responsibility for physically protecting himself.

Until then it’s his family’s responsibility to protect him. Understanding and living in CAUSE STATE makes that job much easier for me.

Until next time,

Tim Larkin
Creator of Target-Focus(TM) Training
http://www.targetfocustraining.com
PS. In just one weekend you can learn to defeat any
attacker using the Target-Focus Training system. See how at:
http://www.targetfocustraining.com

Creating Anarchy in the UK Media’s Self Defence Debate

The UK Media’s Self Defence Debate Continues

Hi Malcolm,

Seems I’m fast becoming the poster child for “Extreme Self Defence” in the UK.

The uproar in London continues over whether or not the tool of violence should be available to citizens.

The debate has attracted the BBC, the Sunday Times, 2 separate documentary filmmakers (for both the BBC and Channel 4) as well as numerous newswires and magazines.

My Sept 26-27 London Seminar is fast approaching capacity and I’m considering extending my stay to handle the media requests and offer another seminar (the Sunday Times will be in attendance and has the print media exclusive for this one).

I’m being called everything from a “refreshing breath of sober advice” to the “Billy Mays of Violence” by the UK media.

I think they were trying to insult me on that last one but I was a big fan of Billy Mays and if you ever watched the show Pitchmen you know why. He was a good guy who only backed products he truly believed in. And he was someone who never took himself too seriously.

The debate in England seems to rest on the misguided fact that, if citizens are well-versed in the tool of violence for self protection, it will somehow transform them into hardened criminals.

The media and public officials conveniently dismiss the fact that self defense laws in the UK haven’t begun to keep up with the heinous asocial criminal acts of violence occurring with alarming regularity there.

In fact, in many of my interviews, these folks seem committed to actually ignoring this fact! Uh, what is it they say about the ostrich with its head in the sand…

Anyway, why this irrational response?

It’s because I discuss the reality which many people choose to ignore. It’s simply the fact that we live in a physical world… something predators fully understand and readily exploit!

As a reader of my newsletter, I don’t need to remind you of my strict definition of where and when violence is ever the right tool for the job.

But it seems the UK media and government officials are dead set against opening this debate. Fortunately, I’ve got thick skin.

And if you haven’t been to a TFT Live Seminar and are waiting for the right one, wait no longer. After attending this Sept 26-27 London Seminar training I’m guessing you’ll agree… it was one for the books!

(Just don’t be disappointed if the mayor of Slough isn’t there as your training partner).

Taking violence with the utmost seriousness but myself, not so much, in honor of the late Billy Mays, until next time,

Close Combat Master, Tim Larkin
Creator & Founder,
Target-Focus Training