Archive for the 'Self-defense' Category

I saw this video entitled, “Seniors Learn Self Defense Techniques” on San Diego’s 10 news last night and was stunned! Some parts of the news story by Joe Little made sense, you know seniors learning to defend themselves but as a kid that grew up in long island, fighting over your wallet or purse does not make much sense unless you are a great fighter! Better sense is to not carry too much cash on hand and be ready to give up your wallet if doing so can save your life!

 After watching the story I had the feeling that it was endorsing old folks fighting for their purses? Why? Part of any self-defense strategy should be giving up lesser valued property (wallets, purses, cars) to save your life! Unless you live in an area that allows you to license a concealed firearm, why would a 70 year old man, much less a 70 old woman want to fight for a wallet or purse from a 17 year old assailant? Watch this video I found on youtube.

Full Story »

Church is a place that people go to connect with their God. Most people end up letting their guard down as they feel safe at church. My wife had an experience recently while she was praying alone during the day at a local house of worship. She got the feeling of dread while she was in her quiet corner of the church like a premonition of something bad was about to happen. I will tell her experience and relate it to an important self-defense issue for women.

One area of self-defense for women has nothing to do with fighting but is very important for women’s safety! If someone is stalking you (the women or anyone), you first try and avoid if possible. One way might be walking inside andlocking your door or simply not walking through a bad looking neighborhood. But what do you do if you cannot avoid the situation? Here is a picture of a scary looking church I found on flicker here.

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Full Story »

Many of you that have learned karate remember the side kick? In sparring you can keep someone off of you but the kick would mostly encounter elbows and not be truly effective. Has anyone won lots of matches or fights with the side kick? Well yes… have you heard of Joe Lewis? He was famous for his strong, lightening fast, side kick.

The video I found below is of Joe Lewis and Chuck Norris in a point karate match. You will notice they only cared about the first point and do not really cover up much past the clash. Both Joe and Chuck were good at side kicks. I will speak about the mechanics of the side kick and then how to use this kick effectively for self-defense.

Full Story »

I have found a couple of good examples of girls (10 and 15 years old) waiting until the oppertune momement and kicking guys in the nuts to escape! The first story is of a girl being forced to walk with a guy (he had a gun) and then being partially undressed by this pig. The girl then kicked the guy in the nuts and got away. A passing motorist helped the girl get away.

The guy was 6′1″ tall and I don’t know from this story if he was caught. The interesting thing about stories like this is young girls can really hurt bad men if they keep their wits about them. In this case the girl apparently waited until guy did not have the gun and she had a good chance at kicking the nuts. Other good targets include eye pokes, half-fists to the throat, maybe an elbow to the face and such. The great thing about the kick was it put the guy in enough pain for the girl to get away (the goal of any defense)!

My only critique here (although this girl was great!) might have been for the girl to run when the guy first showed her the gun if there were cars and people nearby. My thinking is that most attackers will not shoot and the ones that do will probably miss. The alternative is usually not good for the victim (going with the asiliant). Before I talk about the next situation I found this video (on other self-defense blogs) of a Spanish girl kneeing another student.

Full Story »

How do you deal with bullies? If you listen to school administrators and psychologists, you might get the impression that if you turn the other cheek, the bully will just go away. But really, how do you handle a bully? Well there is no real good answer, if you buy into the school philosophy. Nowadays many schools state they have a zero tolerance policy. What is that? Well if someone is attacked by a bully and decides to fight back (you know your right to self-defense), both the bully and the defender will be punished!

Whats up with that? Do you mean to tell me that if a kid gets attacked by another, he or she should just take it to avoid punishment? I am so happy I grew up in another time. When I was a kid, it was expected that if one kid smacked another – the other kid was expected to mount a defense of some type. In my day, the teachers and Vice-Principal would try to find out what happened and then punish the kid that started it (assuming the defender did not go overboard). In this post I will try and examine bullies, schools treatment of attacks, and how a parent can console their kids to deal with bullies today. Here is an example of how kids and parents are consoled about bullies today I found on youtube.

Full Story »

A female prison officer was able to thwart an attack from a gypsy man in Rome in this story. This Italian lady was also a karate champion. The guy asked for cigarette and then grabbed her neck. Lara Liotta struck the gypsy with jabs, knocking him down. she ran for help and the guy was detained by police. Miss Liotta stated that no one in the plaza came to assist and luckily she was able to fight off the attack with her karate skills.

Anyway my bias is apparent now if it was not before. I think women cops will have a much better chance at any altercations if they become great fighters of whatever martial art of their choice. I also think if women hang their hat on equal employment and do not do the extra work to excel at hand to hand combat, they may have an issue if Murphy’s Law comes into play. My choice would be the extra training above and beyond what the police academy requires.

 As far as I can tell Miss Liotta did everything right, she was in a crowded plaza, approached by a man. She did not have a cigarette and was accosted without warning. She was able to mount a counter attack from her karate training and got away. She found the police who arrested the guy. I think had Lara not had the karate background – she would have been hard pressed to end the attack so quickly. It is sad that people are not willing to assist a lady being attacked in broad daylight. I salute this Italian woman – karate champion for her great application of self-defense! I will speak about karate and women police in this post. Here is a picture of Lara Liotta competing in karate.

Full Story »

I remember watching the Miss America pageants when I was a kid and heard some of the contestants wishing for world peace. I would hear snickers and cynicism about that idea. On the face of it, world peace should be achievable if the worlds peoples were of a like mind. Then I remembered all of the movies I had seen about the good guys and the bad guys and when Reagan was elected – I heard about the evil empire. I soon figured out that this is an us and them kind of world. Maybe I should suspect that kind of reasoning but it makes sense that I am or my country is right and everyone else is wrong – Right?

Ok without expending the scope of this article to world peace, I would like to point out why I don’t really think bad guys will ever all come to the light and become good guys. People just think differently! Some people rationalize bad behavior like I do when I eat meat (by the way I like meat and will probably never stop eating it – but when I can afford free range chickens – I will probably start buying that). It is kind of a law of the jungle – eat or be eaten. Then there those of us that believe civilization has a chance and that some day people will care about their neighbors even if they do not agree with them or their lifestyle. Maybe I am a dreamer.

Full Story »

Most kids have grown up reading the Goldilocks and the Three Bears and the Three Pigs but do you remember Little Red Riding Hood? I was trying to remember how it ended and was surprised to learn there are different versions of the tale. The one I remember has a wood cutter saving the grandma and Little Red Riding Hood by chopping the wolf’s head off. In any event, whatever versions of the story you remember, don’t you wonder how this story might have changed if Little Red Riding Hood knew karate? We here at My Self-Defense Blog have scoured the ends of the earth to find an answer to just that question in this youtube video.

I would say that girl is assertive! I kind of like the violence of the attacks on the wolf because he has it coming! Bravo I say.

One a more serious note I would like to talk about some brave girls that decided not to be victims. Today’s girls many times are sent mixed messages such as listen to adults, teachers, and police but I would argue that in today’s enviornment one cannot simply tell their children to trust anyone. I applaud parents and groups that talk about boundaries and behaviours as the deciding factor for children to decide how to react. 

In this post I will give examples of girls fighting back as well as commentary to echo what I believe was good and bad in each case. I found a good video of Noel Gyro giving girls some self-defense tips and I will inject a more modern-day Little Red Riding Hood video of how a martial arts girl might respond to an attack! As you read this post, please think of ways your family can increase their skills and awareness to improve their chances of a good outcome in the event of an attack!

  Full Story »