When I teach self-protection/personal safety I do so from a situational perspective, identifying five situational components that define a situation. These are: location (where does the incident occur e.g. on the street, in a parking lot, in your home etc.), relationship e.g. is the assailant a stranger, an acquaintance, a family member etc. The assailant’s motive – do they want money, to sexually assault you? Etc. Your state of mind/level of preparedness and those third parties who are with you (friends, acquaintances, family members such as children etc.) Whenever I do scenario based training these are the factors/components I change...
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There are many people who believe that simply spending time in a gym, regardless of the amount and level of exercise they do, will get them fit. They come with little or no idea of what they are going to do for the hour they have allotted as their training time, and so spend most of it wandering aimlessly around. They then wonder after a few weeks, why they\'re not getting fitter, not losing weight etc. Their training lacks real intent. The same is often true of martial arts and self-defense training;...
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Somebody once sent me a link to a forum post where I\'d been mentioned. Though I like the idea of forums i.e. an arena in which to share knowledge and ideas, they unfortunately tend to be inhabited by opinionated individuals, who like to make unsubstantiated declarations about instructors, techniques and systems (that they\'ve never experienced or practiced). The post I\'d been informed about was actually fairly accurate and well measured, and contained a strange criticism; that I\'d trained with a lot of different Israeli instructors and trainers....
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I sometimes feel that the self-defense message of “Don’t be a Victim”, gets interpreted as, “Be Assertive” i.e. stand up for yourself etc. The two are not necessarily synonymous. There are many ways you can avoid becoming a victim, with assertive action being only one solution/way – and not always an effective one. In many ways, it is up to the individual – not everyone else – to decide what constitutes being a victim e.g. is the person who hands over their wallet to a mugger as part of a predetermined plan, really a victim, if their action leads to...
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Dogs & Self Protection (Gershon Ben Keren - Sun 1st Jun)
If you own a dog, you have not only a loyal, personal friend but have also invested in one of the world’s most sophisticated security systems. After occupancy, a dog is the biggest deterrent to any would be burglar, and as an early warning alert system is second to none. One of the main reasons a dog is so effective at security is that it cares about you - unlike an alarm or other piece of technology - and because of this it will work and give 110% to...