Get the most out of your training with these effective methods. All of us want to be skilled at our arts. We want to move fast and be effective with our technique. Smooth, coordinated movement is a must for that to happen. Regardless of your style or art, there are effective methods for developing coordination that you can incorporate in your practice sessions. Whether you are swinging a stick, slashing with a karambit or practicing a takedown, you can break down the movement and make refinements that will not only make you look better, but also perform better. To do this, you need to know the right movement, practice effectively, and analyze your progress and you make improvements. Know the Right Movement In order to develop the most coordinated movement, you need to know what the right m...

How to Get the Most out of your Self Defense Training (in a short period of time) Don’t mess around.  Your life depends on it.   Time is precious because we have so little of it.  Obligations of work, family and personal life all leave little time for training, but training is important.  Without it, your chances of prevailing in a violent attack are greatly diminished.  In addition to pushing your training up the priority list, you have to train efficiently.  It’s all about managing the time you have to train in order to get the most out of it.   After teaching for more than 20 years, I have seen that there are a few simple things students do to learn faster.  If you follow the advice below, you will avoid wasting your valuable time while also ...

Create Distance and Shoot? Using your gun effectively at close range. Why following a conventional self defense response can get you killed   Conventional responses to threats   In a violent encounter, there are several basic tactics that will give you an advantage.  One is changing the angle of your position relative to your attacker.  This includes getting to the side or back of your attacker or getting more dominant grappling position where he has fewer options.   Another is using stuns to disrupt the attacker’s ability to observe, think and act.  Yet another, is creating distance between you and your attacker.  These are all sound tactics, but if default to them all the time, you may be setting yourself up for failure.  This is especially tr...

How to Spot an Attack Before it Comes With a little informed awareness, you can see the future   We need physical techniques to prevail over our attackers, but it may even be more important to have informed awareness skills to perceive a threat before an assault even begins. You need to understand how the offense works. You need to know the typical methods a violent criminal uses in preparing for an assault. You also need to be able to read the behavioral and physiological cues that manifest in any individual who is planning to attack you. Knowing these things will improve your situational awareness and allow you to make a plan of action before the attack comes.   The Criminal Approach   There is a process most criminals go through prior to assaulting their victims. If you r...

How to be Mentally Ready for a Violent Attack You can’t just hope you will be ready, you have to train your mind to be ready. One of the keys to successful performance of a self defense technique is repetition, but you can practice a technique a million times, and it will never work if you do not recognize when to apply it.  Your 10,000 hours hitting a target, sparring with a training partner, or pulling a trigger will fail to be enough.  You can have all the physical skills you need, but if you are not aware of your surroundings and mentally ready to act or react, they will not be accessible in time. If you hope to successfully respond to a threat, you must be aware of your surroundings. You need to know what is around you, who is around you and what they are doing.  This i...