I Made The News!

And it wasn't for something bad!

My instructor set up a self-defense seminar at a local community college in light of recent attacks on state campuses (campi?) and I was one of the assistants. We spent about 1.5 hours with a group of 20 and accomplished quite a bit. Some had a bit of ability. Others, well, um, they really didn't.

Here's a video clip. Yes, I'm the fella being taken down by the blonde kid. That was the only technique she did well the entire night - I don't think her head was in it - but her friend was pretty decent in handling herself.

This brings me to a big peeve of mine with self-defense: Taking it seriously. Now, people shouldn't be glancing over their shoulders all the time - that's no way to live. However, with all the well-documented examples of women, heck people, getting attacked, you would think people who take time to attend one of these seminars would be serious about this stuff. You would, in fact, be mistaken.

What I saw were about four or five people who took it very seriously & about 15 who were there to try something fun, socialize or show what they could do. I'll address each of these in turn.

1) Fun people: That's not a bad reason to be there. I hope everyone did have a good time learning something new. L-I-S-T-E-N, though! If it's going to be of any use, you need to know how & why, not just go through the motions. Trained people don't & attackers won't give you a second chance.

2) Socializers: I see one more gaggle of gabbers at one of these things & the guy in the group is going to get a free, one-on-one, self-defense lesson & the others will benefit from his example. I've been doing this for over four years. That's not a long time by martial arts standards but trust me, you'll learn to pay attention.

3) Show-offs: See above. We're here to help you avoid bad situations & get out of them if you can't. Showing us some random thing you learned in grade school, the thing you haven't practiced since you saw it, once, is not going to wow us. I know guys who can take me apart in under one minute. They impress me. And no, they don't show it off, either.