Personal Responsibility

Personal responsibility - we each feel it at some level. It is my personal responsibility to educate and empower as many ladies in the skills of personal defense as possible. Hitching my mission to National Sexual Assault Awareness Month, by offering opportunities to learn personal defense for FREE! is the perfect setting.

Each year, for the last three years, I have tried various methods to entice people to take me up on the free programs. This year has been the best participations since starting the offer. I was able to reach a wide variety of people, from teens to every age of adult imaginable. With my own training becoming more informative and proficient it only helps me truly prepare students better.

Preparing for violence is challenging, mostly because it is difficult to find accurate information. Much of what is available is simply handed down from teacher to student, without any authentication. It fun, fanciful moves that look good in any movie. But the realty is that violence is NOT like the movies, NOT like the last sparring match you had, NOT like any MMA match. But that is the vision many people have of what violence is and how it happens.

It is my mission, my duty to pass on the education. To give my students the best possible ammunition to defend, along with all the pertinent details. I look forward to each and every class, and I especially look forward to honing my presentation.

Tragedy. The heart of grief.

I am not certain of how to start this post. The tragedy at West Wendover has ripped me up. It was tough to get out of bed today.

Not only because it has hit so close to home, but because it is a young life, who in one moment has her whole future, and is living carefree and hopeful.

Then violence strikes.

How do we prepare our youth for the future. We don't teach them skills that will keep them debt free by understanding the process of credit cards, percentages in applying it to every day consumerism.

We don't prepare them how to prepare a nutritious meal, or how to plan for a week's menu, nor how to shop, store or budget for it. How many households teach the kids living sharing it with a parent or adult, show their dependents any of this stuff. When those having kids are kids, without these skills how the hell do we expect the offspring to learn what the parent doesn't know?!

Neither does our rural youth know violence. Nor are they prepared. It is known more so than many realize, but when it is predatory is is a foreign concept.

How in the world can a good, young, uninformed person, or even one who has lived a life not affected by violence possibly comprehend predatory violence.

Predator: (n) an animal that naturally preys on others.

Predatory violence is exactly that, simply the hunt for prey. They want resources or they just like the process of the hunt. There is no rational rhyme or reason to those who cannot consider hunting for the kill, another human being.

It's like the spider you squashed, or the deer you got last season. Same indifference, except most people would not ever think of applying this indifference to other people.

There is no answer to "why". It isn't consoling to hear how awful the world and people can be. There is nothing that will give solace to this tragedy. NOTHING..

Except a drive forward to try to educate. Accurate, informative education so that other families don't have to go thru this.

Bullshit information will only set up illusions of safety with out having actual security.

This is not about physical abilities. It is about education and training of how to apply that education.

In a previous post, I mentioned feeling like Neo, who took Morphius' red pill, and realized he was far more into a rabbit hole than he knew he ever wanted to be. With no turning back.

Here I am.

That post was in relation to the violence dynamics training I recently attended.

One cannot unlearn.

Preparing to Defend

Another week, another post. I have stepped into an adventure that is both exhilarating and scary. I have signed up for a weekend of training in Oakland. I am staying in San Francisco, driving myself there. Driving in California is the scary part.

I am attending another seminar facilitated by Rory Miller, author of 'Meditation on Violence'. I read this book last June and absolutely loved it. It covers aspects of self defense that I have been contemplating for as long as I can remember. Violence is a part of personal defense that is a given, but the training most get is not very accurate. This is because we are so influenced about what happens in a violent situation thru media and video. When we step into most karate/martial arts classes, which we all know are synonymous with self defense, we begin practicing defense for specific situations. All crisp in our white karate uniforms, with our nifty colored belt around our waist and our bare feet gripping the floor.

But violence is anything but crispy white or nifty. it certainly can be gripping, but not specific. There are a lot of variables, and unforeseen circumstances, that are not usually brought up in the karate workout. Even sparing, no matter how fun, is still not quite the realism one would experience in the terror of a real violent encounter.

My contemplations with this began during my training. Even tho I had never really had a 'violent' encounter, I somehow knew that a violent encounter would probably not be the way I had been training for. Therefore, I am adamant at finding distinct, training with excellent instructors who have true, accurate experience. How else can I truly prepare my students, no matter how few, to defend against the terror of a violent encounter.

Read about the the upcoming training.. here.