Make contact, keep it. That’s a basic philosophy of our system or ketsugo jujutsu. When someone throws a punch or a kick, or moves in to grapple – they are giving us a gift by presenting us a set of targets for attack.
It’s a good idea not to box a boxer, or wrestle a wrestler, [...]
Growing up in Maine, we never locked our doors (car or home) until the day we were burglarized. Now I live in a relatively crime-free area or rural Maine, yet I own a sophisticated alarm system and lock all my doors. I know people who do not and want to believe that there is no [...]
I am a big fan of action movies, specifically martial arts action movies. I have been my whole life. Anyone who has some training in a Reality Based Martial Art (RBMA) knows that the movies and TV have little to do with real self defense. Unfortunately many people without training, including those who shape our [...]
I just returned from Bonny Eagle High School, a local school, where I taught a group of 24 seniors an 1 1/2 hour self defense class. I have probably done a couple of hundred very short self-defense seminars such as these over the years, and I draw a few distinctions between teaching martial arts and [...]
It’s a simple fact that many people will encounter armed violence in their lives. Frequently, after giving a short self defense demo of an hour or so, a participant will ask, “what do I do if the guy has a gun or a knife”. Unfortunately, dealing skillfully with an armed assailant is not something easily [...]
No, I am not going to suggest that you break a person’s arm to win an argument as satisfying as that might seem. Remember that jujutsu is the art of yielding. The majority of self defense instructors (the ones with working brains) will tell you to avoid fighting, physical self defense is always the last [...]
As a child, I was subjected to numerous surgeries, the most severe was the amputation of one of my feet. Growing up with a lower limb prosthesis was challenging and often painful experience. As a boy, my parents and several of my teachers noticed that I seemed to have a fairly high pain tolerance. My [...]
The terrible news that San Diego high school student Chelsea King’s body had been found in the park where she disappeared came soon after the police announced they were holding John Albert Gardiner III, a registered sex offender, as a suspect in her disappearance. It seems that police may have their man as he is [...]
In a real encounter against an assailant, most assumptions can get you hurt or killed. When these assumptions carry over to how you train, they can leave gaps in your skills. For example: assuming an attacker will give you time to fish your pepper spray out of the bottom of a backpack, assuming that an [...]
If we are to believe the news, it looks like home invasion is a growing crime. The truth is that it is hard to tell because home invasion is not tracked as a single type of crime. Instead, home invasion may be counted in crime statistics as a count of breaking and entering, with perhaps [...]
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