Upcoming Self-Defense/Gun Disarm Courses - Simple. Effective. Street Ready.

Simple, Effective, Street Ready. Self-Defense Courses Defend yourself against attacks no matter your size. I'm here to help you learn to protect yourself and your family in these streamlined, simple, effective, and street ready self-defense courses. Forced against a wall? Pinned on the ground? Gun in your face? Surrounded? We all hope these things never happen, but I want to see you ready if it ever does. Turn the impossible into the possible. Choose a course below, or save $$ by signing-up for one of our package deals before February 28th.  Core Defense Tactics Ground Defense Course Confidence Course Scenario Training Multi-Attackers Gun Defense/Disarms Personal Protection Package - save $50 (includes - Core Defense, Ground Defense, Confidence, Scenario Training) Guardian Protection Package  - save $75 (includes Personal Protection Package, Multi-Attackers, and Gun Disarms Course) Self-Defense Course Saturday, March 14th 9:00 am to 5:00 pm Core Defense Tactics ($50) Feel empowered and capable of defending yourself. The C.D.T Course is the introduction to self-defense through easy to remember techniques and movements. Learn how to defend yourself from the most common types of attacks found on the street - holds, grabs, chokes, strikes. Sign up for this course and get the skills to survive! This course is a pre-requisite for the Ground Defense Tactics, and Scenario Integration Course. Sign-Up Here Ground Defense Tactics ($50) Succeed when a stronger, heavier attacker has you pinned on the ground. Learn techniques to dismount them and win the day. These methods have been tried and tested in real combat and are sure to open your eyes to what most people find believe is an 'impossible' situation to escape from.  This course is a pre-requisite for the Scenario Integration Course. Sign-Up Here Confidence Course ($50) Setting boundaries is sometimes one of the hardest things for us to do. We'll give you the courage to stand your ground and make no mean NO! This course teaches you how to asses different situations (public harassment, unruly dates, etc.) and avoid problems before they start. This is a powerful workshop and often the most life changing of them all. Sign-Up Here Scenario Training ($50) This is where you cement all the pieces together - the most crucial part of the course. You'll have the opportunity to use all of the techniques and material from the other workshops on our fully padded instructors in a variety of scenarios: Kidnapping/Abduction evasion, Confined Quarter Egress, and Carjacking/Vehicle Assault. You will leave the course with a new found confidence after doing this! '  Sign-Up Here Save $50 by signing up before 2/28/15 Personal Protection Package Multi- Attackers and Gun Disarms Saturday, March 21st  2:00 to 5:30 pm Multi-Attackers Training ($50) You learned to defend yourself, now learn the strategies and tactics to increase your odds against multiple attackers. 'Core Defense Tactics' is a prerequisite to this course. Sign-Up Here Gun Defense / Disarms ($50) Effectively and confidently confiscate a gun from an assailant. The techniques in this workshop are simple, and easy to apply; meaning you will remember them if you ever need them. This is an invaluable skill to have in your arsenal. Sign-Up Here Save $75 by signing up before 2/28/15 Guardian Protection Package Taken any these course before? No problem, this is a great chance to practice your skills to make sure they stay sharp. +1 Share Tweet Forward to Friend Share Copyright *|CURRENT_YEAR|* *|LIST:COMPANY|*, All rights reserved.

Common Defense Tactics and Ground Defense Tactics

Self-Defense Courses

Use the tools you were born with to defend yourself.

Have you ever felt like you should know how to defend yourself? These courses will teach you top notch, simple, and effective techniques to defend yourself, without the need to take years of martial arts training. This is the bare bones of decades of martial arts knowledge and training, setup for effective street self-defense. Learn where to hit someone using what you have on you at all times (even at the beach) - your body.

Open to Women and Men. Must be 13 years of age and up. No prior experience or physical conditioning required.

Date: Sunday, February 9, 2014 - (see course times and descriptions below)

Course Fee: The cost of the course(s) are determined by you after you complete them. Pay whatever you feel the course and material are worth to you if it has made you safer.

You can sign up by emailing me at - masterbrown@noreastermartialarts.com or going to our website here - http://noreastermartialarts.com/workshops.html

Thank you,
Randy Brown
Head Instructor/Owner
Nor'easter Martial Arts & Fitness

Common Defense Tactics Easy to remember techniques and escapes that can save your life.  Learn simple, and highly effective self-defense techniques to get out of the most common types of attacks - grabs, holds, chokes, strikes. Leave feeling empowered and capable of defending yourself if the need arises. This course is a prerequisite for our Ground Defense Course, and Scenario Integration Course. Sunday, February 9, 2014 - 11:00 am to 1:00 pm

Ground Defense Tactics The 'Ground Defense Course' teaches you to succeed when a larger and stronger attacker has you pinned on the ground. Learn techniques to dismount them, control them, disable them and win the day. These have been tried and tested in real combat and are sure to open your eyes to what most people think an ‘impossible’ situation. This course is a prerequisite for our Ground Defense Course, and Scenario Integration Course. Sunday, February 9, 2014 - 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

WOMEN'S BJJ CONTINUED

Great News!!! - Women's BJJ class has been a huge success on Friday nights. Everyone is doing great - learning, sharing, having fun. This Friday, June 28th WAS the last scheduled class for the summer, BUT...everyone in the class, and the new additions, wants to continue training. So, we're slated to continue Women's BJJ as a regular class for the foreseeable future.

Thank you all for the support. Please get the word out so we can continue to grow the class. The more women that know how to leverage their bodies and realize their true potential, the better!

FYI - The class is FREE to try.

Xiao Da - The Truth on Effective Strike

Effective Strike (Xiao Da), is the Kung Fu principle of striking to vital targets, or targets that have more destructive impact than other areas of the body.  This is a common concept in many styles of martial arts.  I recall the first time I showed up for Tae Kwon Do/Hapkido class back in 1991, my teacher said - "want to kill a man, hit here, here, here, or here."  I was stunned.

I thought to myself - "WOW!  Cool!!!"  Followed by later thinking - "wait...why would you tell someone that in their first class?  Isn't that dangerous information to hand out to strangers?  After all even US Army Basic Training Hand to Hand Combat didn't teach us that!".  I chalked it up to him just being half psychopath since he spent most of his life training elite South Korean Special Forces Soldiers in Hand-to-Hand Combat.

It was some time later in my martial arts career that I realized why this information wasn't so dangerous after all.  The reason is simple. If you don't train it, you won't use it.  Effective Strike is a skill like any other. It needs extensive practice and proper training in order to be effective in real combat, or in other words - to manifest itself under stress.  In said Tae Kwon Do class, we never used finger strikes, throat chops, or did any sort of training that incorporated strikes to these vital areas; we simply kicked, punched (less), blocked, and smashed our shins and forearms on one another till bruised an battered.

"Knowledge doesn't make you a badass. Training makes you a badass."

Brachial Stun

Train Like You Fight, Fight Like You Train
 
I like to use the terminology - train like you fight, fight like you train.  In our training, the constant focus of hitting to Effective Strike targets is crucial to making this habitual.  There is no time to think in a fight. One must react and react appropriately; which is the whole objective of proper training.

So when should you learn this skill? Ideally the sooner the better, especially for smaller fighters.  Smaller fighters lack the power that a larger or heavier opponent can produce, so this skill is crucial for us. Being able to hit someone in a targeted area means that your strikes pack more bang for the buck.

With that said, one needs to learn how to properly punch first, before focusing on Effective Strike. Trying to perform Xiao Da from Day One, gives the brain too much to focus on at one time.  A beginner should be more concerned with proper striking, blocking, guard principle, and defense first. 
Once properly introduced, aim for these targets with every strike in your arsenal.

After you have learned it, you can then veer off to other non-effective targets that may lure or distract your opponent; creating what we call Open Doors to the effective targets we want.  This is necessary because an opponent with a good defense will 'require' you to 'open doors' in order to perform Effective Strike.

Ear Claw

How to train Effective Strike
This varies based on whether or not you have a training partner.  I did not have a partner to use when I wanted to integrate this into my fighting so I took colored price stickers used in yard sales, and I plastered them on my heavy bag in the general target areas on the human body.  I then practiced various combinations striking to these targets.  To test them, I sparred with other people.

For those with a partner I recommend a great technique called 'Walk the Body' passed down to me from Master Puyot. Walk the Body has one person standing still (in their fighting stance is fine) while the other practices slow and very low power combinations to targets on their partners body. As you grow comfortable with the targets, the complexity increases by having your partner put their hands up in a defensive fighting position. Following that, you need combinations that the partner blocks so you can open doors to the targets you wish to hit using Effective Strike.

Note: this is not a fast paced exercise and requires patience, cooperation, and hours of practice to become second nature. It challenges your critical thinking skills once you add the complexity of combinations versus defense. Done properly however these strikes will become automatic and ingrained in your skill set.

Knee Break

DIM MAK - The fallacy of pressure point based combat.
Early in my training I met people, and still do from time to time, that have little knowledge of martial arts, but they talk about Dim Mak (pressure point striking) from books they've read, or videos they've watched, or even some Hollywood movie.

You can find videos online of teachers knocking out students at demonstrations to show Dim Mak, and all the supposed power one can have over other human beings by hitting them in these targets. People are fascinated by this and very enthusiastic. I can understand why...the idea of knocking out someone else with such ease! The mystery is alluring. Unfortunately, while some of these are legitimate strikes to real targets, some are incredibly finite and difficult to get to.

Kidney Strike

In a previous article, Size Matters - In Chin Na I discuss 'gross' versus 'fine' motor function in combat - high precision striking is less reliable when we are under stress, AND when our opponent is trying to hit us back. That's the live, active, and moving opponent that is also trying to take YOUR head off component.

This complicates things and makes it much more difficult to perform a finite strike to a small target area. So unless you're Luke Skywalker firing your torpedo at the Death Star, give up on the idea. In addition, a human being under the affects of adrenaline in combat (never mind the affects of drugs), is more resilient to these strikes. It really sucks when you're in the thick of it and your silver bullet doesn't really kill the werewolf!

This is why it is better to learn multiple targets, strike in combinations that you would normally throw, and cover your bases in case you miss the first target.  Meaning, you missed but it still hurts them like hell!!

Solar Plexus

Head Targets

• Throat - Crush the larynx making it difficult to impossible for opponent to breathe
• Side of Neck (Brachial Stun) - Knock out blow, or excrutiating pain at the least
• Back of Neck (Occipital Lobe) - Knock out blow
• Jaw - Break or Dislocation. Extreme pain.
• Nose - Pain. Bleeding. Watery Eyes causing reduced vision.
• Eyes - Loss of sight. Extreme pain.
• Ears - Tear them off for extreme pain.
• Temple - Knock out blow. Extreme pain. Disorientation.

Body Targets

• Shin - Extreme pain and discomfort.
• Knee - Break/Dislocation. Extreme pain. Loss of Mobility.
• Outer Thigh - A solid kick to this target can cripple a fighter and make them think twice about closing distance.
• Inner Thigh (Femoral Nerve) - Identical to the Outer Thigh, this target causes excruciating pain.
• Groin - Extreme pain and discomfort. Potentially cripple opponent.
• Bladder - Pain and discomfort. Possible bladder release. (you figure it out)
• Rib - Break. Extreme pain and discomfort. Possible breathing effects.
• Kidney - Potential knock out as well as extreme pain.
• Liver - Knock out blow. Extreme pain/discomfort.
• Stomach - Knock out blow. Extreme pain/discomfort.
• Solar Plexus - High concentration of nerves. Also the meeting point of the heart, liver.
• Collar Bone - Break. Extreme pain. Loss of use of arm on that side. Harder target to hit and not effective on everyone. 

Temple Strike