Saturday April 27, 2013  

Contact Defensor for more details/course applications

An experience I encountered at the age of 16 changed my life priorities and choices at that time. What I am today is the result of an attack I survived then that left me bleeding and half dead in an alley. I didn’t think that the attacker would “allow” me to live. I didn’t think I would live to see my family again. That “man” was the reason I got involved in the security industry and later into martial arts training.

In this article I would like to focus more on female self-defense courses and what can work for us and what won’t.

To clarify my comments here, I am not writing this article from a martial artist or an instructor’s point of view, but from the female perspective interested in learning some basic tips on how to protect her life.

My personal experience with martial arts began as a teenager and continues to this day but the bottom line is I’m expressing here my opinion as a woman, a student and a former attack victim, and I’m pretty sure some martial arts instructors won’t agree with it. My goal here is not to offend anyone’s work but to address some concerns from the female perspective.

During an attack there are many factors that affect all of us at the same time. There is surprise, physical pain, adrenaline and that horrible thought and feeling that someone else besides you can decide if you will be breathing the next couple of minutes or not…Your nervous system is red-lined. You experience a faster heart rate and rapid breathing and an increase in blood pressure. An effort from your body to control and adjust to the experience of the fear during the attack is in full defense mode. Some people might notice sensations in the stomach, head, chest, legs, or hands. Now multiply those physical responses with factors from the threat you are dealing with. Maybe a gun or knife or a much larger person or multiple attackers.

No matter how good a martial artist or instructor you are (no matter how many times you have practiced your art), there is nothing that can compare with dealing with a real life threat. Nothing can replace the experience and test you and your abilities more than an actual attack.

We know that in some cases women are stronger than men. Yes, there are examples of men being weaker, but generally speaking let’s agree that for discussion, men are stronger. The aim then is to help women think differently and a bit more strategically. We don’t have to learn to beat someone down, we have to learn where we should be, or what we should do so we don’t end up in a situation where violence is likely to occur. We have to learn to speak up when we are not comfortable –being vocal will Alarm a perpetrator as well as bystanders. No one wants to attack someone that will fight back or someone that will make a lot of noise or attract attention. As with all predators, attackers prefer to go after the weak, sick and vulnerable. It’s a simple “Cost vs. Gain equation.

We should not accept our environment as it is, rather, we should shape it and learn where we should and should not be. We can influence a potential attack simply through posture and by thinking ahead. Begin with “I won’t be a victim,” and then don’t allow it to happen. I would also suggest you consider what kind of environment you wish to be in and avoid those you know to be questionable. We can prevent danger and create a safer place for ourselves and our loved ones simply by being smarter and more prepared than a potential attacker.

No one can offer you a 100% safe environment, someone can attack you because the opportunity to do it exists. By being trained and self-aware, you prevent or postpone an attack. According to statistics more than 2/3 of the attacks against women could be prevented if they were trained in simple and basic self-defense.

Women, are known to have strong intuition, something that alerts us or makes us feel that there is something wrong with a person or situation. Use it! Think in advance what actions you could take that would provide you more safety. While you are driving, shopping, at home, dating, clubbing etc.

Research online will find many self-defense courses available but, 99% of them are delivered by martial arts instructors with no other qualifications. Even fewer of those Instructors are women. From my personal experience attending many of those courses, I found that the students were treated, trained and handled like martial arts athletes or professionals, and the major effort of teaching was focused on the fight or fighting back instead of avoidance and predator profiling. So, from the first moment students get in the class they learn how to become the victim and get involved in an attack.

The truth is, Self Defense Instructors make their money teaching what they know, and what they don’t know, they leave to someone else. Most have no formal training in altercation avoidance or conflict resolution so they teach reactive methods rather than proactive planning.

Now, my questions are how a normal woman, a mother, someone who has never delivered a punch or a kick in her life can learn fighting techniques in one to six lessons?

And more important, how can she apply what she learned in the gym successfully on the street? How will she react to a real threat from an attacker who doesn’t look like or act like or smell like her Instructor? Who won’t stop short of hitting her in the face or grabbing her body or ripping her clothes?

I see Instructors teaching blocks, arm bars, headlocks etc….I am over 30,with experience in sports and martial arts and I still don’t have the flexibility to make a successful headlock with my legs, and I’m wondering how someone is teaching that and believing that a woman with no experience or practice will apply it in real life?

I have been asking instructors if those techniques work in real life and for some reason they all say yes.

These Instructors are missing some important facts:

• They are male
• They have been practicing for many years
• They teach in a safe environment usually chosen by the student

I find it more dangerous to teach someone something that she is not ready to apply in real life than not teaching it at all. Teaching and reinforcing a false sense of confidence could lead to catastrophic failure. Can you imagine what would happen if a victim kicked an attacker and because of her fear-adrenaline, she kicks wrong or hits the wrong target? If he stays on his feet, He will fight.

Even if the attacker didn’t originally have the intention to seriously injure the victim, he might lose his temper or use more force than intended.

Not all attackers retreat if  you fight back, some of them will fight harder and stronger.

More serious are knife and gun disarming techniques…Learning to disarm a plastic knife and gun can be catastrophically worse if the instructor has never used a firearm for his living. I have seen everybody participating in knife disarming, smiling and taking their time, doing it again and again….I’m not so sure if they would deal with it the same way if they had a real knife to practice with.

As a female I tried to apply some of the techniques I learned to real life.

Not all of them worked for me and I belong to the women who have a previous training in martial arts and sports, so it makes me wonder how it would work for a Mother or Grandmother?

I do understand the ”business part” of someone running a training course, but our responsibility as instructors starts with a loyalty to the people who are paying us to learn something that will save their life?

There are a small percentage of people who know what they are teaching and are doing it right. They have a background from law enforcement, martial arts and the security industry. They have gathered their experience and teach realistic techniques. There are people out there, professionals that are focused on teaching intelligence based tactics… brain vs. Braun. As women we must learn to think and out-think  We must search for Instructors that know how to teach us, and know what to teach us. And we must learn under stress. We must allow ourselves to be tested under extreme conditions and continue to train to not be victims.

Denida Zinxhiria

Founder & Worldwide Director

Athena Academy 

Nannyguards

http://www.athenaacademy.com

http://www.nannyguards.com

The criminal, a 27-year-old, who has been accused in the past for sexual attacks by other victims, had been released back into society due to a lack of evidence to convict him. He was described as a male with strange and abusive behavior toward women. The blame cannot be solely shouldered by the Greek Justice and Authorities for allowing this man to continue his abusive acts which ultimately ended the horrible murder of this woman.

I would like to raise the attention to fact that people in today’s society are failing to care about others or act to assist someone in distress. If one of the neighbors, hearing her first screams, had gone outside and yelled at the criminal or made his/her presence known might have assisted in stopping the crime which would have saved the poor woman’s life. Witnesses said they heard a woman screaming, but, they were scared to go outside and see what was wrong. Several just didn’t think it was something serious enough to investigate. It must be horrible for the family members and neighbors to know they could have saved this woman’s life if they had acted instead of hiding. This lack of action will most likely haunt the community for a long time.

We are obviously not responsible for the actions of criminals within our community, however, we are responsible for or actions or lack thereof. Being a responsible citizen that cares about his/her neighbors can save lives. You don’t have to be the hero that will stop the crime by physically engaging the criminal. You can be the hero by just paying attention and reporting suspicious or criminal acts. Let’s think about it, maybe the victim wasn’t our sister or daughter, but if it was, wouldn’t we pray that someone would act if they heard her screams for help and react fast enough to save her? I’m sure we all would pray for that.

Leaving the comfort of your couch and going out to see what’s taking place can save people’s lives. Criminals don’t want to be captured and usually will flee if confronted by witnesses. Making criminal aware that someone is watching is an extremely strong deterrent to their criminal activity and makes for a much safer community.

Denida Zinxhiria

Athena Academy Founder

Nannyguards Founder

http://www.athenaacademy.com

http://www.nannyguards.com

It’s that kind of self confidence that stops most people. They worry that they don’t know these moves well enough. What if they forget about it when the time comes? What if they don’t have the time to react properly?

To build you self confidence: practice, practice, practice. Practice at home on a pillow or on anything you can safely use. The point is just to get used to the movements so that you don’t have to think about them and they become a habit.

It is more than self defense using martial art when you think of the term self defense tactics.

The goal of self defense

It is not just about the technique but it understands its goals and applications.What comes to mind when talking of defending yourself is fighting your assailant using martial arts techniques in order to disable him or her.

Although such defense might eventually cause you to engage and fight your attacker and such actions could result in hurting the person, its goal is just not that.Your survival in a potential or actual attack is what this defense intends to do.

This means that you will have to do everything even before a potential attack occurs to prevent that from actually occurring.

The phases of self defense

Self defense is not all about involving in a fight but its goal is for one’s survival.Is is consist of three phases.These are pre-engagement, actual engagement and the disengagement.It begins in pre-engagement phase.Nobody exactly knows when an assailant starts to attack.Minimizing if not totally preventing the occurrence of such an attack is the utmost importance to employ some self defense tactics.Places where an attack will most likely to happen is an example of it.Avoid a place that is isolated and you know has a potential stage for attacks.

Some experts suggest that you make it a habit to stay out of reach of a person to whom you are conversing.When talking to strangers drag along a friend even if it is uncomfortable to them for this will benefit you.You should still be cautious even if you have your friends around you.You should be alert and prepared at all times on what is the necessary thing to do.If confronted by a potential assailant, appear confident and talk to him in a loud authoritative tone of voice.

If the person still pursues his ill intentions against you, you may choose to run away to escape from him or you may choose to fight especially if you know self defense techniques.Another phase is the engagement.If you fail to prevent the person who accosted you from attacking it is time for you to defend yourself.There might not be enough time for you to think of any tactic to use so you just have to apply the techniques you learned from self defense.Do what you have to do is the tactics.

Always remember it is not your goal to kill your assailant but just to stop him from doing you harm.Stepping beyond the limit will be violating the law and you will be in trouble answering it.Disengagement- the last phase.If the person whom you just disables might have companions that may in return attack you as well and getting out of the scene is an immediate necessity.Lastly, applying sound self defense tactics you learned in your self defense class could save your life especially in tight situations.

Bruce Strong is a fan of martial arts. By training himself with the different self defense techniques, he is equipped with different close combat training. To learn more about self defense video, inform yourself about self defense training.

Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the Devil. (Ephesians 6:11)

Satan does not rest and you must be prepared for battle everyday. Your flesh is weak, but you must be strong in the power of Christ. How do you receive enough strength to stand against Satan? You must realize that the power of Christ is within you. The Holy Spirit supplies us all with the very power of Christ to withstand the advances of Satan. Once you understand that God is with you, you can rely upon Him to supply you with the tools to reject Satan’s advances. Rely upon the Spirit of Truth to guide you every hour of every day.

Put on your armor!

Share today’s message by clicking on one the social media buttons below: Twitter; Facebook; StumbleUpon, Google+, Pinterest, or E-Mail.  “Then He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation.” Mark 16:15 HCSB

I’m in the 7th IMPD Recruit Class.  Starting on day one, the class was composed of ~75 members- 10 females, 66 males, mostly Caucasian. During the first week we had 6 drop out (1 female, 5 males). At all times while at the academy we are required to carry our pink D.O.R. forms (Drop on Request).  When you want to quit, you simply sign that form, turn it into the Class Commander and walk out the door (Was I expecting a bell like in G.I. Jane? Yes. I’m still slightly disappointed this didn’t live up to my Hollywood expectations.)

My typical week starts with a 5am wake up call, arriving at academy by 0600. Our class assembles at the beginning of the day for inspection at 0700. This usually involves officers yelling for boots not being shined enough, or somebody forgetting the IMPD mission statement. Which leads to 10-15 minutes of getting smoked with pushups, leg lifts, etc.  This is followed by classes, some of which include: Combatives and Defense Tactics, Criminal Law, Tactical Communications, Community Policing, Emergency Vehicle Operations, Firearms Training, Report Writing, Canine Unit, Oral Communications. Some classes are instruction based, others are practical applications/scenarios training.  During our 5-10 minute breaks in between classes, we usually do pushups or pullups  (By the end of our training, our class as a whole must complete 10,000 pushups and 2000 pullups together. If even one person is missing- they don’t count.) The day typically ends at 1800, which I follow up with either a two hour derby practice, or 3-4 hours of homework, studying, polishing boots, ironing uniform, preparing meals for the next day.

After my 24 weeks of training, I’ll have completed 960 hours of instruction. I truly believe IMPD has one of the best training academies in the nation.  Within our 6 months, our class will complete approximately 3 years of college education, and enter the Field Training Program which further prepares us to hit the streets equipped, safe and confident.  We have Fridays off, but have “voluntary” physical training at 0900- which consisted of Fran this morning (21-15-9- Thrusters and Pull ups-65#- 5:36, my pull ups sucked- but at least I’m off the band.)

I end my week completely ready for the break, and could probably sleep a good 15 hours straight- but the weekend is when I need to catch up on other life matters- like remembering I don’t need to come to the position of attention when Mr. Smackhouse walks in a room or turn corners at strict right angles while at the grocery store.

Before we play, you’ll need a little background information. First- I’m a klutz.  I’ve clearly established grounds for this assertion in an earlier post.  Secondly, part of my police academy training includes combatives and defense tactics.  This class incorporates two weekly sessions that are 4-5 hours each.  This is not your community center’s self defense class.  The combatives instructors demonstrate offensive and defensive moves that recruits then “practice” on each other in combat scenarios.  This will eventually lead to a 2 minute and 4 minute  fight as part of our testing.  Thirdly, my skin is a tough little cookie. I don’t bruise easily, which sometimes frustrates me regarding roller derby because I never have impressive war wounds.  The first notable bruise I received as a Naptown Roller Girl resulted from my own clumsiness, not a hit on the track (I was in the bathroom at practice, and the holy fear of JRoller (our coach) and missing any part of our scrimmage left me in such a hurry that I slipped on my skates and hit my leg and head on the toilet.  I can’t exactly brag about a bruise resulting from the loo.)

With those facts in mind, let’s move on to the game. In ”Bruiseopoly” you must correctly identify if the origin of the bruise (depicted in the photo) resulted from:

a.) roller derby

b.) police academy

c.) my own clumsiness

d.) an attack from a rabid animal

Let’s play!

If you guessed B, you are correct! These bruises resulted after day two of combatives training when I was paired with one of the boniest recruits in our class. It’s all fun and games until a 90 lb recruit officer stabs you with his elbow. Let’s move on to photo #2

Did you answer A? Good job! This is what is affectionately known as “rink rash” in roller derby world.  It’s the burn a skater gets on her skin after falling on a skating surface, and this is a fairly mild case.  The next photo isn’t actually a bruise, a  mere flesh wound, but let’s see if you can guess the origin:

If you said B again, you are correct sir! This minor mark resulted from our first handcuffing class at police academy.  My partner underestimated the thickness of my wrists and cuffed me a little too tight, pinching the skin.

And the answer is C.  This resulted from an incident with a sink while hopping around in the early morning hours trying to put on pants.  I have more at-home accidents while trying to put on pants than any other endeavor (for most other Americans it’s tripping over their pets-which causes over 86,000 injuries a year, resulting in over 240 trips to the emergency room every day. Lesson learned: watch out for that goldfish.) Let’s move on to your final opportunity:

Did you guess D?  Incorrect, I did not face a rabid squirrel this week. The answer is B.  This resulted from partnering with a 300 lb recruit officer during another combatives training. He just looked at me and I bruised up, or maybe it was the time he pressed his entire body mass on me after a double leg takedown.

Congratulations! You’ve now played your first game of “Bruiseopoly”. You successfully identified the origin of my bruises without killing your oxen or dying of dysentery. As the weeks progress, we’ll play again. You can look forward to guest appearances by Bob Barker, Wayne Brady, Regis Philbin, Darrell Hammond as Sean Connery, and if SNL doesn’t pan out for Betty White, I’ve offered her the co-hosting position. Until next time..