Last night (Wednesday) we had another self-defense class. I must say I’m very impressed with how well the students are grasping the concepts.

We operate under the premise of educate-prevent-implement. It is important to understand the basics of self defense and educate yourself or get educated. It is important that whenever possible, you want to avoid and prevent any type of physical confrontation, whether that be by changing direction, crossing the street, entering a crowded area, or dialing 911. The last part of the training is the implementation.

In self-defense the actual physical aspect of self defense is a very small percentage. This doesn’t mean it’s not useful or practical to know how the body works and how to manipulate an attacker’s body. I always say that the physical aspect of self defense is used when you are ambushed and facing imminent harm. Someone who broadcasts to you that they want to hurt you, is giving you your greatest weapon: Time. They are letting you get prepared to flee, if you can, deescalate, if need be, or get a weapon if absolutely necessary.

Self-defense is most importantly about using your head. It’s about cultivating awareness, and yes I beat that concept into the ground each and every class because we have a tendency to walk around in a fog, unconscious, unaware of our surroundings and the people within them. So each class we expand a bit on the concepts and techniques, with the knowledge that we are not training to go toe to toe with an attacker. Our purpose is to incapacitate, distract, create an opening and get somewhere safe as quickly as possible with as little harm to ourselves as possible. I emphasize that many times.

We hear or read about violence and we never imagine that it can occur to us. We have this frame of mind that we are generally nice people and could never imagine being violent with another person, so we expect and wrongly assume that everyone else thinks the same way.

Violence is real, it can happen to you and it can happen to me. The sooner we grasp that idea, the sooner we can react to avoid or prevent it from happening to any of us.

I want to thank our newcomers last night: Tammy, Ron and Rosanna for joining us. Each time someone new joins, it brings new energy and makes the class that more enjoyable and satisfying. Thanks to all of you, who continue to attend each week, learning, practicing and asking the tough questions.

be safe

Sensei Orlando

This week in our class, we dealt with “What is vocal assertion?” and “How can sound be a weapon in your arsenal of self-defense?”

As we mature and become adults, the opportunities for us to use our voices diminish. You rarely raise your voice (unless you are a fervent fan of some sports team) and we are taught that it is improper to raise our voices or yell. It is this default way of being that an attacker counts on. An assailant does not want attention and if you are loud, you are making it difficult for him to achieve his goal, which is to harm or rob you. In some cases, both. When you are in this situation, you yell, shout, scream… anything that will draw attention to yourself. The idea is to deter the attacker by drawing unwanted attention and giving yourself time to escape the area.

We also recapped our wrist grab and escaping from the headlock. This week we added the use of the fingers to get out of the headlock and what it means to be aware, so you don’t end up with someones arm around your neck.

We also discussed carrying weapons. As I mentioned in class I am not against carrying weapons for your defense, but as I stressed in class if you carry mace and the wind is against you, you may end up being the one maced. Likewise if you carry a knife or box cutter or any other type of weapon, you have to understand that drawing a weapon takes time, precious seconds that you could be using to put distance between you and your attacker. Another point that was made in the class is that if you carry a weapon, you need to make sure you know how to defend against that weapon, in the event that the weapon is taken from you.

I realize we are living in uncertain times and people sometimes get desperate, it’s one of the reasons this class exists (Come join our class next Wednesday! It’s totally free!). Remember to always be aware of your surroundings, who is behind you or is shadowing you. Turn around and look.

I want to thank everyone who attended the class this week and especially our new visitors, Khadeidrae, Kat and Myron. It was really great being able to teach you all and I look forward to next week.

Have a safe weekend!

Sensei Orlando

It was pouring last night and I didn’t expect many people to show up. It was to my pleasant surprise that as I was bringing in the mats for the class that Madalyn was already in St. Marks. As I brought in the last of the mats and got everything situated, the group started coming in despite the rain. I want to thank everyone who came and especially our two new attendees Madalyn and Lori. Last night we worked on some basic conditioning, strength training and flexibilty. For many of us who lead sendentary or low physical activity lives, I’m sure the exercises came as a shock. Don’t worry you will get used to it over time. We went over our wristgrab from last week (“answer the phone”) and this week we acquired exiting from a headlock (” up and away”). I want to thank Nitin for being my designated victim. We also went over some of the aspects of situational awareness.

Here are some tips:

• When walking home at night and its late – turn off the ipod or any other mp3 player that could dampen your ability to hear. Your sense of sound is an asset in your defense.
• As soon as you are heading home, keep your cell phone handy, in this case handy means literally in your hand ready to dial 911 if need be.
• Avoid dark streets if at all possible.
• Be aware of your surroundings and listen to your intution, if something feels off or suspicious heed the warning and alter you actions accordingly.

These are just a few of the tips that what we covered in class and I invite those who attended the class to participate in the blog and post what stood out for them. Situational awareness is an important part of self defense. Like I have mentioned in class, you have to educate yourself, prevent and lastly if you have no other recourse implement the techniques that you have learned. In many cases there are cues that lead to a violent confrontation, what we need to do is become attuned to the cues and take the appropriate steps that can defuse and prevent a confrontation from occuring in the first place.

Last night (Wednesday Evening) we had our first Active Self Defense class. I have to say it was a great experience. First of all I want to thank all of you who participated last night. We had a great turnout. I want to thank Grant for graciously allowing himself be manhandled and contorted into very uncomfortable positions for our learning experience. Since it was our first evening we had introductions and covered some basic aspects of self defense, mainly that it is about education prevention and lastly when every other recourse is exhausted, implementation.

We discussed and shared why taking a self defense class is necessary (thanks Danielle B. for sharing about your experience on the subway) and why its important that when you walk alone, you walk with “intention”(thanks Danielle Z. for showing us what leisurely walking is and how it differs from walking with intention). Later on in the class we made mention that many of us walk around unconscious and Meera pointed out something very important, turn off your ipods or any other listening devices when walking home alone or in an area you are unfamiliar with. When you don’t, you immediately place yourself in a position to be followed without your being able to hear if you are being followed.

Later on we worked on escaping a wrist grab (remember “answer the phone”) and Ning pointed out what would happen if the assailant had long arms. She made the experience very realistic by promptly turning the tables on me, the “attacker” and making me the victim. Thanks Ning, keeping me on my toes!

We also discussed some other techniques and situations but most importantly using your common sense and listening to your intuition. Lastly we ended with some basic understanding of bio-mechanics – how the body works and how we can use that knowledge to our advantage.

I want to thank everyone who attended (Grant, Sarah, Nitin (and Naya), Meera, Lynne, Susan, Danielle B. and Danielle Z. and Ning for sharing of themselves and participating in making our neighborhood safer.

I look forward to each week of sharing with you and learning as you learn.

A special thanks goes to St. Marks Church (who donated the space) and Tammy who was instrumental in us getting the space.

Most importantly I want to acknowledge my wife, Dolly who made the forms, set up the table, and made it possible for me to focus on the other aspects of the class knowing that the details would be taken care of.

If you have any comments, suggestions, ideas, or thoughts please feel free to share them here with me and everyone else.

strong spirit-strong mind-strong body

Sensei Orlando