Tag Archives | self defence

Protecting the Frontline 10 (diary entry)

April 13, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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13.04.2022 The tenth session of my Protecting the Frontline course for a teacher client of Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu brought us on to the post-fight stage. We briefly addressed the checklist of what needs to considered following a violent incident before focusing on the double tap. The double tap in this instance refers to a sudden release of fight/flight hormones following the episode and immediate new threats. We looked at hazards that might impact on the defender, such as dangerous […]

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Kingham Hill Self-Protection Course 7.9 (diary entry)

March 24, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
elbow strike

23.03.2022 My first group at Kingham Hill covered anti-grappling. My second group revised the fence, moved onto the cover and we discussed what constitutes attitude. The first group began with the hunter exercise in order to reinforce the forward pressure objective even when faced with being posted by an enemy. It also serves as a good training tool for the target holder who will play the role of a grappler. We then moved onto learning a series of basic grappling […]

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Kingham Hill Self-Protection Course 7.7 (diary entry)

March 10, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
hunting the target

09.03.2022 My lessons at Kingham Hill brought the first group up to removing obstacles from targets and the second group to hunting targets. The first group also got the opportunity to pressure test striking over obstacles using the gang-grip game. The second group discussed setting moral boundaries and principles in their self-protection decisions. Services

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Protecting the Frontline Course for Teachers 5 (diary entry)

March 10, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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09.03.2022 Wednesday’s first lesson – an online teacher consultation for Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu in Ireland – brought us up to pre-emptive striking. We discussed the tactical reasoning for pre-emptive striking and I described why it is important for students to test the effectiveness of this tactic or rather the ineffectiveness of blocking at conversational range. It is too easy for teachers to find themselves inside an echo chamber that takes the effectivness of this tactic for granted whilst preaching […]

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Protecting the Frontline Course for Teachers 4 (diary entry)

March 3, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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02.03.2022 Wednesday’s first lesson – an online teacher consultation for Drum Kempo Ju Jitsu in Ireland – brought us up to a list of useful options in a crisis situation. The list wasn’t exhaustive. We discussed how to teach avoidance. This is wide subject touching upon all the other options that followed. It includes simply avoiding situations that our awareness has alerted us to or avoiding certain places that intelligence has fed back has a bad reputation. However, it also […]

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Protecting the Frontline Course 4 (diary entry)

February 24, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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23.02.2022 This morning we looked at pre-incident indicators for deceptive and aggressive enemies in a self-protection situation as well as the impact of fear. As I discussed in the lesson, Gavin De Becker’s PINS address deceptive predators and abusers. They work against individuals who use disarmed dialogue, charm and various techniques we see being used by salespeople. However, they don’t address aggressive precursors. The deceptive PINS teach us how violence and coercion is veiled by certain manipulative social behaviours. They […]

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Kingham Hill Self-Defence New Term (diary entry)

January 13, 2022 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Hook palm 2

12.01.2022 Due to the situation presented with exams at Kingham Hill, the self-defence activity numbers haven’t properly been established. Therefore, I was left with only a few pupils for the beginning of my sessions. Seeing as all three of them were previous pupils, I decided to focus on some new hard skill work. We looked at pre-emptive striking against two antagonists. After a warm-up, we discussed dealing with the dynamics of this situation. I explained the importance of maintaining the […]

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Final Self-Defence Lesson for Kingham Hill This Year (diary entry)

December 2, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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01.12.2021 The final part of my self-protection course for teenagers at Kingham Hill drew to a close on Wednesday. My two groups went back over their anti-grappling training, we also revised a lot of the main material from the course, looked at protecting others, dealing with “friendly interference” and I finished on discussion regarding the post-fight. My “When Parents Aren’t Around” course on teenage self-protection has been a 10 hour course for each of the two groups. We have gone […]

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Fighting from the Ground (diary entry)

November 18, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
ground and pound 2

17.11.2021 Wednesday saw my two Kingham Hill lessons deal with the very difficult subject of ground fighting in self-defence. This can be a difficult topic to handle for non-martial arts students, unfamiliar with grappling and in their teenage years. However, we made it through with varying degrees of enthusiasm. Those who felt uncomfortable in dealing the symmetrical situations drilled this as a solo exercise. We revised transitioning through postures, followed by asymmetrical ground-fighting, followed by symmetrical ground fight both from […]

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Regaining the Initiative (diary entry)

November 12, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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10.11.2021 My two afternoon lessons on Wednesday were a continuation of my self-protection course for teenagers at Kingham Hill School. We shifted our focus onto the regaining the initiative stage. This is the first stage of reactive fighting from a hard skills perspective. Here we are beyond preemption and we have been preempted. I always make a point of stating how much this stage needs to be avoided. Whatever happens here on in, is reliant on a degree of luck. […]

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Circular Strikes (diary entry)

November 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Hook palm 2

03.11.2021 My two self-protection lessons for Kingham Hill School looked at the hook (power slap) and the offline (rear elbow/hammer fist) strike. These are both circular strikes delivered pre-emptively but under different conditions than the straight strikes. The hook might serve as a preferred variant on the straight strike some people, but these days I tend to teach it from a more sophisticated set-up such as the invisible fence or with a deception. We also trained it from a restrictive […]

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Fear & Hunting (diary entry)

October 14, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
hunting the target

13.10.21 My two self-protection lessons at Kingham Hill looked at understanding fear and further developing hand strikes. Training included a look at the reasons behind flight/flight responses, the importance of good training to develop good behaviours under stress and a few tips to handle nerves and emotions. We then continued work from the fence onto the focus mitts, progressing on with removing obstructions and hunting the target. The classes were finished with some pre-emptive strike pressure-testing. Services

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Building the Fence (diary entry)

October 3, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
Inside the fence

29.09.2021 Wednesday’s first two lessons were a continuation of my current course with Kingham Hill School. Today was mainly hard skills based, but with all the underlying soft skills previously covered. We looked at reinforcing the strike when personal space is breached by a confirmed threat reaction. This was performed as a target familiarisation drill and layered onto focus mitts. Having established the importance of boundaries we looked developed a concept of protecting these with the fence concept. This was […]

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Two New Self-Protection Courses for Schools (diary entry)

September 16, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
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15.09.21 With restrictions now lifted, I returned to Kingham Hill School for my seventh term teaching self-protection. This time I had two classes to teach on the same subject. We covered self-protection definitions, local violent crime statistics and why “respect and attitude” are basic foundational tenets. After this I taught escape tactics and tested the pre-emptive strike. Services

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Edged Weapon Hard Skills (diary entry)

May 4, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
edged weapon hard skills 1

02.05.21 Sunday saw the conclusion of my trilogy of edged weapon awareness and defence webinars. We focused mainly on hard skills, but this had to be prefaced with observational soft skills (behavioural indicators and presence indicators). Hard skill training went through my priority escape and sounding the alarm procedures upon spotting an armed offender to tactical escape variations to incidental weapons to unarmed methods when cornered. Edged Weapon and Awareness Part 1 Edged Weapon and Awareness Part 2 Services  

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Anti-Grappling Children’s Self-Defence (diary entry)

March 23, 2021 | Diary / Training Notes [ssba]
forest school karate anti grappling WPAA session

22.03.21 Forest School of Karate invited me back for the fourth and final hour of the anti-grappling section. The previous session finished covering the basics of grappling to lie a foundation for the anti-grappling. Having confirmed the behaviour of striking whilst being grappled and retaining strong grappling positions, it was time to look into more serious clinch and ground situations when striking options were less attainable. This included sprawling, biting, eye gouges, head-butts and elbow strikes. As is the case […]

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