Defend Yourself 101

This article considers the following for young adults out looking for fun ( and hopefully older folks too):

Myths Your Parents Told You
Street Myths
Dojo Myths

Your hometown may be a peaceful and beautiful place to live and to raise children, but if you travel, whether for business or retirement pleasure, some destinations you reach are not so hospitable. A stout cane may be the only weapon allowed as a carry-on on every aircraft since 9-11. That is because it serves a legitimate purpose other than self defense though it is very useful for that purpose.

During a class on cane defence for seniors, I got Joe, my BulletMan to give the class a rush. Here is one tough lady giving her all!

This was a Raising Canes class at Silver Threads. 

Kangeiko training is hard winter training. It is training of the determination and the will.

In our dojo it goes like this: You don’t have to do kangeiko but if you start, you must commit to doing it all.

For one week in January, the heat is turned off every night after class. At 5am Sempai arrives and opens the doors and windows.  At 5:30am, before breakfast, there is a 1 hour class, no talking, no teaching, just hundreds and hundreds of technique repititions.

Then all go home for breakfast, then on to school or work.

At the end of the week, the whole crew loads up and goes out to one of our West Coast beaches, where they train a bit, walk in the ocean and then meditate under a water fall for as long as they can stand it.  Ambient temperature of water and air - just above freezing.

For a whole year, everything else looks easy compared to this week.

Here are the pictures of one year’s last day:

Joe is our trained BulletMan and has the suit to prove it.  He has hosted training sessions for seniors self defense, women’s self defense, work groups, dojo groups and the like. It is a great method to create group solidarity within a company.

Here are a few pics from a dojo session:

The ax hand or striking shuto is a very strong move. It can be used in many ways and I’ve shown a few. It performs well in combination with other techniques.

Martin Cooper is the bloke who first tried to teach me to slap correctly. The motion is so simple yet the impact is very concentrated.

As you can see, it does not depend on a big wind up nor a lot of muscle. Coops is a big guy but his slaps did not hit big, they hit deep inside. Sometimes he hits with the palm-heel and sometimes the whole hand. It is practiced skill, not strength, that allows him to have such a small movement effect such a large impact.

Martin has hit me like this, on my chest. It took my breath away, all the way to my toes.