Articles by Rick Faye
Drills >>
............................
A Brief Biography: Guro Dan Inosanto >>
............................
The MKG Menu and Jeet Kune Do: >>

Articles by Jon Baklund
Private lessons >>
............................
Having fun while training. >>
............................
Physical, Mental, & Spiritual income from the martial arts. >>

Articles by Paul Boyajian
Accelerating Toward Your Goals: Learning in the Martial Arts Studio >>

Articles by Bob Carver
Giving Back >>

Articles by Roy Harris
What Makes a Good Instructor? >>

Articles by Sarah Kennedy
Training With Your Significant Other >>
............................
Curing Depression With Muay Thai >>

Articles by Peter Kwong
It's All In The Detail >>

Articles by Roy Liang
Teaching and Training Young (4 to ~7 yrs) Kids in the martial arts. >>

Articles by Tim Mousel
The Thaiboxing Workout: A Scientific Approach >>
............................
The Making of a True Martial Arts Master >>

Articles by Diana Rathborne
Self Defense Self Assessment for the Martial Arts Instructor >>
............................
Personal Safety For Women >>
............................
Mind Over Matter >>
............................
Competing With Your Instructor >>
............................
Basic Truths >>
............................
Muay Thai in Minneapolis, Minnesota with Kuhn Kru Rick Faye >>
............................
Be Safe - Be strong: Simple self defense tips >>

Articles by Rudy Rogers
Warriors and the Weed >>
............................
Progressive P.C.T. >>
............................
Ram Muay: Thai Boxing's Calm Before the Storm >>
............................
Martial Arts and Your Health: An Interview with Scott Schmaltz >>

Articles by Scott Schmaltz
Overcoming Fitness Plateaus >>
............................
Genetically Modified Foods >>
............................
Misconceptions of IBS >>
............................
Toxins In Meat >>

Articles by Anthony Sell
Building rapport with your students - 5 Sure-fire ways to improve your teaching skills >>
............................
Infusion-based Learning - Making the most out of your seminar experiences >>
............................
Lessons from NAGA - Why competition is an Important Experience. >>
............................
The Wisconsin Martial Arts Camp Experience >>
............................
Growth and Expectation in the Martial Arts >>

Violence Education/Survival for the Martial Arts Instructor by Diana Rathborne

Inosanto-Lacoste Kali Salutation >>

This past spring I attended the Advanced Threat Assessment and Management conference hosted by Gavin DeBecker & Associates. Gavin DeBecker & Associates is an internationally recognized firm that specializes in the prediction and management of violence. The speakers covered managing victim fear, how to fire an employee, the Columbine High School and Virginia Tech massacres, the profile of a spree killer and much more. I also had the privilege of hearing Lt. Col. Dave Grossman speak at the conference (Lt. Col. Dave Grossman is an internationally recognized scholar, author, and speaker) as an expert in the field of human aggression and the roots of violence and violent crime. His presentation in particular confirmed my belief that the elements of violence prediction, prevention and survival are both intrinsic and essential to our job as instructors in the martial arts.

As martial artists we hope we will be able to defend ourselves and our loved ones should the need arise. For those of us who teach our martial arts to others, we have additional concerns. Regardless of the martial arts we teach and train, there is a much greater depth of knowledge in any art than is necessary for self-defense alone. While we hope to keep our students in the arts for their lifetime, we may have them only for a short time. We can inspire them to educate themselves on how to avoid violence by identifying itā€™s potential early. We can teach them the physical skills necessary to survive a violent encounter. Also, we can help some of them become determined not to be victimized.Each of our students is a member of a workplace/school/home and as such should be exposed to issues of Workplace/School and Domestic Violence. We have the unique ability to do this.

What we need to do is arm ourselves with as much good information as we can get our hands on, especially if we are teaching lawenforcement or the military. The professionals in these areas will be in violent encounters and will go to work each day with the threat of violence as reality. While we can focus the bulk of our teaching on our larger art, we have an obligation to teach functional self-defense skills to those who want it and will need it.

As instructors we should honestly assess our own self-defense skills and whether they will hold up in a violent encounter with an extremely hostile attacker. Do we have the best information on which of the body's tools can do the most damage? Do we know which targets are the most vulnerable? Do we have the physical and mental ability to follow up? Are we in condition?

A good self test for the self defense self-assessment was suggested to me by my instructor, Rick Faye. His advice: pick the biggest, scariest, baddest person you know and visualize them enraged and attacking you at the lowest energy part in your day. If you donā€™t think an effective set of skills will come out under those circumstances, you may need to adjust your own self defense training. Next, is to self defense curriculum evaluation. Will the tools work on a bigger, stronger, focused opponent? Can the skills you are teaching be transferred to your audience in the amount of time allotted? Do you have a spectrum of options? The unwanted grab in a bar and the drunk, disruptive relative should have different answers than an abduction attempt.

Techniques that require a lot of repetition, pratice and development are not appropriate for a short term self defense course. For example, if the spinning reverse eye-lid lock is foundation for your personal self-defense, the information on what exactly happens in one's body under stress might cause you to reassess that particular technique. There is a ton of great written material on how to functionalize combat skills. Only in the past decade has much of this research been disseminated to the general population.

We want our students to have the ability to make awareness and avoidance a habit; to assess and reassess a situation as it changes; and to act when appropriate. Some areas your research should include are listed below.

Violence prediction: A. How to identify a predatorā€™s behavioral cues, the markers for a school or workplace killer. B. Awareness skills, including how to identify the body language of intimidation, manipulation and lying. C. Physical Security measures: Learn how to make your home, workplace, school and yourself a harder target. D. Victim Education: Study the victim selection process, the domestic violence cycle, and situational and environmental awareness. E. Violence Survival: Good ways to develop verbal assertiveness skills, stress inoculation drills, assertive body language, functional defensive skills and ingrain the survival mindset.

Each group we are contracted to teach has elements specific to that group. What is appropriate for a police officer may not be appropriate for a bodyguard. Curriculum presented to traveling sales people traveling to Dubuque, IA should differ from those traveling to Mexico City. Here again is an opportunity to do some research including everything from what someone may be wearing to the specifics threats they may encounter.

Iā€™m often asked to teach how to ā€œuse an attackerā€™s force against themā€, how to ā€œdisableā€ an attacker, and even the ā€œone shotā€ ultimate self defense move. While these things might be accomplished over many years of training and by naturally superior athletes, usually those asking the question donā€™t fall into ā€˜superior athleteā€™ category but they want to learn the skills right away. Unfortunately, the media has created the belief that there is a predator around every corner, that there is a nonviolent way to handle violence and that our intuition is unreliable. Navigating these myths is where our many years of teaching and learning will come into play. As instructors we must leave our students with enough confidence to act effectively and urge them to continually develop their self-protection skills.

The ATAM conference underscored how important it is for me as a martial arts instructor to teach those around me to pay attention to their intuition and surroundings, to think for themselves, to be responsible for themselves, to speak up (respectfully and with kindness) when something is wrong and to help others. While the long term development of the martial arts is more fun to teach and definitely less stressful, we have an obligation to put forth the best self defense information we can.

Thank you for reading.

Diana Rathborne Minnesota Kali Group Instructor www.mnkali.com diana@skypoint.com

For your inspiration, I have included a link to the article below. On Sheep, Wolves and Sheepdogs (From the book, On Combat, by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman)