Archive for March, 2008

If you are like me and have scuba dived before, you have probably thought about what you would do if a shark attacked! I remember reading about this very issue in scuba classes when I was 16 years old. The instructor told us to go to the bottom and take your tank off to use as a barrier. We were taught to find a crevasse on the bottom to wedge ourselves in until the shark swam away. I don’t know about you but I think the shark has gills (unlimited air supply under water) so my best hope would be for the shark to lose interest.

I used to read Jacques Cousteau books so I could learn about the underwater environment. One method he employed was to make shark billy sticks. I duplicated the shark billy stick by pounding small nails into a small wooden bat, snipping off the edges close to the wood so the shark’s skin would not slip off the end of the bat. I also drilled a hole into the handle of the shark billy stick so I could attach a strap. My plan was to put the shark billy stick between any shark and myself so he would not eat me (If I happened to notice him).

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Many women and children do not feel powerful when attacked by a large man. Some men think because they are generally larger and stronger – they can intimidate women. While I cannot solve gender politics in this post, I can offer ways to mitigate some men’s aggressive methods of communication.

These bullies or worse – criminals (depending on the situation) try to get a woman to give in to his way of thinking by forcefully encroaching on a woman’s space – making her backup or do what the bully wants! If a man is going to get physical – you do not have to go along with him… you can get physical back! Here is one woman learning how to do just that!

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When I was a boy I wrestled in Junior High-School. I think my weight class was 132 pounds or so but one thing was for sure – there were not any girls on the team. I don’t know that I would have cared if there were girl wrestlers but 35 years ago – I just don’t remember any girls willing to take on the boys!

Well that has changed. This is old news to those of you following high-school wreastling but Michaela Hutchison (in 2006) has defeated a boy to win the 103 pound weight class here. The amazing thing about this is Michaela is every bit as tough as one of the boys! Take a look at this video below and for those of you not familiar with wrestling scoring – you get points based on pins, reversals (escaping control) and such.

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Three armed men boarded a tourist bus near Limon, Costa Rica, and attempted to rob the 12 retired folks on vacation! In a turn of events that warms my heart, a 70 year-old ex-marine disarmed and put one assailant into a choke hold! The other tourists started fighting back and the other two assailants fled!!! The group was onshore during a stop, during their Carnival cruse in February, 2007. One of the reports is here. 

While it is always sad for a human being to lose his life, the 20 year-old assailant had no business robbing people and apparently met his match by messing with retired leather neck (Marine)! Many younger people make the assumption that old-folk will not be able to fight back, let alone stand up to young punks! I have a few memories of older (I know – I keep calling 70 years, old – in 20 years I will think that is middle age too) folks defending themselves.

I was surprised last year by the band, “The Zimmer’s” that sang, “My Generation” seemingly as a cultural awaking that old folks mattered too! Well here at MySelfDefenseBlog.com, we think that old folks can kick Butt! Here is a short clip of, “The Zimmers.”

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Self defense for women and children is one of the main focuses of this blog because this group (more than half of the human population) is attacked by bullies, robbers, rapists, and murders! One lesson I learned long ago was that bad guys go after easy (perceived) targets. I often find good examples of content that I am trying to convey on youtube.com. I will use some examples in this post that show various flavors of women’s self defense.

The first example is near and dear to my own heart, being a Kenpo stylist. The women in this video are demonstrating, as near as I can tell, the adaptive nature of kenpo techniques in some real life attack scenarios.

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