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Hello and welcome to My Self-defense Blog! My name is John Zimmer and I live in
The topics will be about self-defense, karate, mixed martial arts and any other legitimate martial art. Street fighting, bullying, and scripted fighting will not be reviewed as I do not glorify what I consider to be fighting for fighting’s sake. I believe that many street fighters, bullies, and professional wrestlers are probably good fighters but I think fighting should be tailored to self-defense, competition or working out (cardiovascular benefits). Women and children’s concerns will be featured as I think everyone should have a basic idea what to do if a bad person tries to harm them.
I would like to say that I do not consider myself an expert in all forms of the martial arts or genres of self-defense. I do think that my 40 years of fighting experience (yes I am dating myself) put me in a good position to make an initial evaluation of a fighting/self-defense method. I will welcome corrections and discourse as this is the best way to evaluate ideas.
Please keep comments on topic and when responding – if you are angry or vehemently disagree with one of my positions… Please – attack the position and try to keep personal criticism to a minimum. It is not my intention to disrespect anyone’s martial art or style. I am bound by the terms of service of this web host to not allow profanity, lewd, or illegal activities to be a topic of discussion. I would further like to entertain everyone’s opinion so please keep it civil even if my opinion is irritating. My next post will start the topics and discussions. Check back soon!
September 24th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I loved the article you wrote for women. One other thing to note is that if they have you and you are standing with both feet on the ground. A good hard stomp on the top of his foot closest to the front of the let will at least slow him down in running after her.
One thing another guy told me he does when he feels that he’s in a threatening situation is that he hits himself and starts a 2-way conversation with himself like the crazy people do on Market Street. his belief is that if they think you are crazy, they will leave you alone.
September 24th, 2007 at 6:53 pm
Yes there are a number of great defenses to various attacks. I like foot stomps along with kicks to the shin, knees and nuts. You can knee to the nuts, forehead to the nose, eye pokes and such if you are caught! Any good self-defense class will give you lots similar ideas if you get caught. You are on the right track!
As far as the acting crazy… it is just crazy enough to work but I would probably act scared and keep my distance. Read Supprise Advantage (/surprise-advantage/) for other ideas
March 21st, 2008 at 2:23 am
John, I just reliazed, this is your blog. How kool! I am in the process of getting a deal with the biggest gym in Huntsville to teach American Kenpo and I will make sure I advertise here when and if that happens. Right now I teach out of my 3 car garage.
Keep up the great John (a great fighter!).
March 21st, 2008 at 8:28 am
Hey Victor, I’ll be glad to promote your efforts… just let me know. I’ll shoot you an email so you have that. It’s kind of funny how many fighters we know and have trained with over the years… I almost take it for granted because of the caliber of fighters I got used to… It seemed like the most natural thing for a person to know how to fight. But the real rule it seems is “Beer Muscle”
We are the exceptions to the rule because we spent lots of time paying our dues while coming up!
Anyway to that end – I keep harping on folks actually going out and getting some good training. By the way – I know the garage training well… Good luck with the deal at the Gym… sounds like they will be lucky to have you!
John
March 25th, 2008 at 5:57 am
When I first moved to VA I started a school with my x wife. It ran there for about 12 yrs. I still train there. My daughter is a brown Belt. I used to have up to 15 people training in there. I could charge a cheap price and I did not have to be politically correct. I never charged for belts or tests all I asked for was sweat and blood for those. My children grew up there. Since I stopped teaching regular there it is my personal gym. I even screwed the garage doors shut so no cars could ever go in there. Out of that garage came two good Black Belts and a few brown belts. I taught my daughters friends how to defend themselves the Kenpo way!!!! Now I am learning Judo/Ju-Jitsu and Escrima. Escrima is great for knife self defense. I would recommend it to anyone. But learn from a real Escrima person In El Cajon Ca. there is a great Ilustrisimo Master Chris Rickets if anyone wants his # send my an E-mail darcidino@atlas-tech.com
March 26th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
John Zimmer: Thanks so much for this website. Every once in a while, I would read about what some people I knew from years ago had done. And it was nice to see the pictures — I know that I was the one who took at least four of the black and white pictures of Vic — maybe five. I never thought that I would have seen those pictures again.
March 27th, 2008 at 7:36 pm
Hi Brason,
It is good to reconnect with old friends. I am enjoying seeing people reconnect too. I think karate was one good decision as a teenaged boy and still think so. Aren’t the pictures neat? I was amazed at the things one can do with blogging software. Anyway – good to hear from you again Sir.
John W. Zimmer