This picture greatly captures the discomfort some women feel about violence and self defense, in this instance making them observe and work through some of the attacks they fear the most, a face grab/rear strangle.  You can see the uncomfortable body language from several women in this first repetition of showing them what the attack looks like. This demonstration was in slow-motion to allow them to observe the approach and mechanics of the attack.

Slow-motion training


Showing and practicing some reps in slow motion is a good way to build confidence and get beginners to learn and improve at an accelerated rate.  When you break things down slowly you have to be more conscious and deliberate with your body mechanics and you get to observe and feel the attack, rather than just “reacting” during training and not knowing what you did.  To keep the students safe while pressing their comfort zone, aggression, contact, and resistance should be increased as proficiency and skill increases,rather than going "full-bore" without having built a platform of relevant drills leading up to the higher-speed training.


Train smart & stay safe,


Evan D. 
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com
 

The majority of abusive relationships do not start as such. It is unlikely that you will go on a first date with someone who immediately strikes you as -in dire need of an exorcism- and say, “I like where this is going. Let’s go out again; may the torment begin!”  

Accounts from abuse victims show that generally these relationships begin with someone who is attentive, charming and considerate.  Keep in mind, most relationships are not abusive, and we should not let our suspicions and doubt poison a healthy relationship.  However, many of those in an abusive relationship do not realize it until it is too late.

There are a few warning signs that are useful to keep in mind as potential red flags when you first start seeing someone:

1. Over Compensating - Would-be abusers often begin a relationship with grand romantic gestures and gifts. Be sure that these are not being used to distract you from serious character flaws such as over-possessiveness, ego-centrism, and volatility.

2. Over Committing - When the grass is green it is natural to think about a relationship progressing towards something.  Progression should happen naturally and mutually. If your partner seems to be pressuring and pushing for a more committed relationship earlier than you feel comfortable with, it can be a sign that they want more control over you. Try talking things though with them calmly, if they do not make an attempt to understand you position and make a compromise, then it is a strong sign that the only one they truly care about is themselves.

3. Excessive Jealousy - It is human nature to sometimes feel insecure. Especially at the beginning of a relationship, you may feel a pang of jealousy over things that may otherwise seem perfectly normal. In a healthy relationship, trust should increase over time as you get to know one another and strengthen your bond. If your partner seems to be excessively jealous, despite your reassurances and compromises, then it could be time to reassess whether they truly want to be with you, or simply want to possess you.

4. Over Possessiveness - All too often possessiveness can be mistaken for concern. Be aware of whether their concern is genuinely for you, or they are using it as a front to control and dominate you. If your partner seems to want to know and control your every move, then it is a strong sign that they are attempting to isolate you from your previous life to have greater control over you.

5. Us vs. Them - An attempt to isolate you from your support group can be a serious power play combining possessiveness and jealousy. There are always exceptions to every rule and in some cases a significant other might be trying to remove you from abusive friends or family members, but if you do feel that this person is trying to isolate and remove you from healthy relationships this is a serious problem that requires resolving.

6. Resolution - Always try to discuss issues with your significant other once they become apparent. There may be genuine reasons behind their insecurities that can be easily and reasonably resolved. A partner willing to discuss issues openly without getting angry or defensive should be willing to make compromises for your benefit.  If they become confrontational when faced with your concerns, it is time to move on.  Though it may be hard in the short term, it is better to wait for the right person than stay in a situation that will inevitably get worse.

By understanding the type of behavior that leads to abuse you can help prevent opportunities for domestic violence and the cycle that leads to it.  For other resources regarding relationship “red flags,” here are a few other resources I recommend:

Gavin de Becker’s list of relationship red flags 

The Red Flag Campaign

A bit of awareness can go a long ways in empowering yourself or someone you care about to take action. If you found this article useful please share it with others.

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan Dzierzynski
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

 

This is a video analysis of a high-speed chase with multiple carjackings that occurred in the Denver metro area.  The original video is 54 minutes of speeding against traffic with multiple wrecks and carjacking attempts.  The key safety points from my analysis of this video are:

• Keep your doors locked when you are driving.  If a carjacking by force attempt is made, it is significantly more difficult for the person to remove you from the vehicle by force if your doors are locked and your windows are up.
  
• If an accident or aggressive action occurs that feels like it was on purpose, keep your guard up! Do not unlock or get out of the car until you know what is going on and that you are safe.
• Always consider your escape options.

We all witness aggressive and bad drivers on a regular basis, but if somebody does something that blatantly targets you such as forcing you off the road, bumping your car on purpose, or forcing you to come to a stop, consider what your options are for escaping.  If someone then gets out the car and aggressively moves towards you, you might have to reverse and drive away, punch the gas, push their car out of the way (assuming your vehicle is capable of doing so), or in the event of deadly force, hit the person with your car and get to safety where you can call the police, when lesser force options are not available or did not work.

Always keep thinking and assessing!

If you found this useful please feel free to share it with others.

Train smart & stay safe!
Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

I’ve locked in two additional training locations for regular training.

Japanese Martial Arts studio- on Seminary road  (pictured above) in Baileys Crossroads/Falls Church VA.

JMA is a fully matted facility martial arts studio with great equipment.  Most of my weekend self-defense training events will be held at this location.

• 3-hour mens & women's self-defense seminars
• multiple-session courses
• specialty seminars- ground-fighting, restricted striking, multiple-attacker, etc
• Private lessons

Crossfit Falls Church- yoga room:

I will be offering private lessons as well as a new 4-session fast track course here.  What’s awesome about the fast track course is that it includes our full discussion on mindset and non-physical concepts, yet provides the physical training in a small group setting.  This means more drills, better reps, more coaching-per student, and faster learning!

Clients wanting a private seminar for your group- we do these anytime the JMA studio is not currently booked!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Happy Holidays!

Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense

When I give lectures to groups, one of the first things I talk about is the difference between software vs. hardware as it relates to self-defense.  Technologically speaking, hardware is the physical components of the machine and software refers to all of the intangibles that make the system function.  Both are significant in determining optimal performance. I find that this dynamic provides a helpful analogy for relationship between the two critical features every person requires for self-defense. 

Software is your mindset. Optimizing your mindset means getting your head right so that you can overcome your situation and get to safety without allowing fear or panic to set in and take the reins. 

Hardware is your physical capacity.  How well you move, how hard you hit, how effectively you can access and utilize a weapon, etc.

A lot of defense training focuses exclusively on the hardware.  This is a mistake.  Good hardware is rendered useless without capable software; the mindset and willingness to take action.  Self-defense skills, power, and technical proficiency are secondary.

Reprogramming your software:

My main goal in conducting my self-defense seminars is reprogramming the victim mindset to that of an attacker’s mindset, prioritizing being active, not reactive.

I can’t give you amazing ninja skills in a one-time session. That requires enormous software and hardware upgrades that develop over time with dedicated training and willingness to improve.

What I can do in a short amount of time is help reframe the way you think about violence and how you perceive a threat, as well as introduce you to concepts to help you access your inner rage.  Even if you never end up in a physical altercation or violent situation, recognizing a threat from a distance and getting out of danger is a useful non-physical skill anyone can adopt, regardless of physical capacity.

The obstacles of downloading new software:

So we just reprogram ourselves!  Easy, right?!  Unfortunately, there are some common hurdles to achieving an active, positive mindset.

1) Give yourself permission:

The first obstacle to attaining a sound, self-defense mindset is getting you to give yourself permission to fight and win.  Since we could first throw a block as toddlers, our social programming has ingrained nonviolence into our software.  It is socially unacceptable to hurt another person.  Many people struggle to overcome all of the mental and emotional barriers decades of social acculturation have placed between us and the extreme circumstances where it is necessary to utilize violence as a tool in order to protect ourselves.

2) Fear or doubt leading to hesitation:

In a recent session, a student who serves as part of an unarmed security team for a DC area church asked, “What if it’s in the moment of an attack and I am not taking action because of fear or doubt? What are some positive things I can think of to get motivated?”

I told him that in this situation, you are part of something bigger than yourself.  Your obligation is your personal safety and the protection of your congregation.  Your close-knit team has your back, and you have their back.  If it helps you get motivated, think about protecting innocent people in your congregation.

3) But what if…?

If you are in the moment, what choice do you have?  You have to accept what is going on and take action immediately!

Rebooting/updating this software to a more positive, active outlook takes some thought. An introduction to some useful concepts at one of our self-defense seminars can help lay the groundwork for you, but it is worth investing time and thought into it, as it can be an empowering and useful concept.

If you are interested in learning more about this and receiving this training hands-on, check out our 4-session fast track course in January 2015.
 
If you found this article useful please share it with others on social media.

Evan Dzierzynski
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

This is something that happened to me in college about 12 years ago.  At the time I was 19 and knew nothing about self-defense, fighting, or what I would later learn was intuition.  My friend and I were heading to catch the bus back to campus from a party (probably a random house party, cringe) on a street called Brent Road, a rowdy street at the time which was a prime location for house parties at NC State University.  It was dark, probably about midnight, and we were in a dimly-lit secluded area.  By the way, this is how every campus-wide alert email begins that is followed by somebody getting robbed or attacked. 

As we were walking I could see three guys up ahead, tall, shady-looking, wearing hooded sweatshirts with the hoods drawn over their heads, walking three-abreast in our path on the sidewalk.  I felt uncomfortable as distance closed, their group walking slower than the two of us.  When we tried to walk past them their leader blocked our path, poked my buddy in the chest with is finger and calmly said, in street-speak, “give us your cash.” 

I didn't see a weapon, but I reacted immediately.  I was gone. I bolted across the wide two-lane street and was immediately on the other sidewalk.  Then my conscience hit: “Oh shit! I just ditched my friend back there with three guys.” I didn't know the first thing about fighting, but now I was checked-in and ready to go.  So I bolted back across the street ready to do something, though not knowing what to do.  When I got back to the group, the alpha-mugger had lowered his hood and was laughing; he had spotted us walking from afar and thought it would be a good prank. It was one of our fraternity brothers.  My buddy was in offended disbelief that I had ditched him and I felt pretty guilty and embarrassed about doing so.  I had reacted instinctively, before conscious decision-making was possible.  My instincts had grabbed the wheel.

Reflecting back after years of experience teaching self-defense, I am aware of plenty of pre-incident indicators that something wasn't right: late at night, not the greatest area, 3 guys with hoodies up walking unusually slowly, and having an uncomfortable feeling.  To sum up that night, there were red flags in every component of the situation: the environment, the advancing strangers, but most importantly – my gut.

However, my not knowing what to look for or how to listen to my intuition left me unable to proactively avoid or address the situation prior to contact.  Years later, this experience has become a valuable teaching example of what a fight-or-flight reaction can feel like, but at the time I didn't understand why I ran.  Why did I run? Not, why did I ditch my friend, but why was running my selected option?  Here’s a consideration that makes sense to me after many years later of training. Running was my default option because it was the only option in my skill set and the only thing I had ever practiced!

I am a firm believer that your options are a product of your experiences, training, and prior knowledge.  If you imagine these three components as overlapping spheres where they intersect is what you are likely to have as elements that can influence your potential actions/options, with the fight or flight response always present and capable of taking the wheel.  Without understanding the pre-cursors to violent behavior and not having any trained physical responses, I ran!  Today, I would like to think that my knowledge, training, and life experiences have grown significantly have providing me with more pro-active options, such as identifying the threat and getting the hell out of there before contact as well as relevant, rational options if other physical action was required.

So, for my friends that think I'm safe if I hang out with Evan- while that could be true, you better be able to out-run me, just in case.

Feel free to share any fight or flight experiences you have had, even if they are embarrassing like mine!

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan D
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

We are offering a 2-hour women's self defense class at Ballston Crossfit on Saturday January 10th from 3:00-5:00pm.   
 
We will begin the session with a discussion on becoming less of a target, understanding situation awareness, listening to your gut instinct and intuition, and learning about the psychological and physiological effects of fear and how to overcome fear in an escalating situation.




Other personal protection concepts covered:

• Verbal scenario: assert yourself using Ask-Tell-Make for dealing with unwanted creepy male encroachment
  
• Learn to strike!  Practicing simple striking mechanics
• Learn to defend against some common attacks!
• Practice under pressure: we will simulate some of the grabs/attacks wearing protective gear, allowing you to practice what you have just learned under stress

You may bring one supportive MALE with you to this training event for FREE

Click on our Upcoming Training page to register

Prompted by recent attacks on realtors, I have recently conducted several personal safety seminars for local real-estate offices designed to address some safety considerations.  Although these personal safety concepts are written particularly for those in the real estate industry, they can apply to any type of home services or sales jobs where a service provider or salesperson goes on-site for work in a non-public location.






The safety concerns for realtors and service providers who travel to homes that stand out to me are:

• Meeting an unknown person alone in a vacant property
  
• Being alone while showing an open-house 
  
• Encroachment and confrontation from an occupant (homeowner, renter, squatter, etc.)
  
• Showing or visiting a home in an area known to have high crime rates
  

I was relieved to hear that some of these are not common practice, particularly meeting a new client alone in a vacant property.  There are several preventative safety protocols that can be taken to mitigate risk, such as notifying your coworkers and family members about your schedule and locations, showing open houses with another person present, and meeting your clients publicly before taking them to see properties. However, I was informed that real-estate agents do not always have the luxury of having another person present at an open house, and anybody can just drop in.  

A few realtors in a recent seminar expressed that at some point in their career, they had a bad feeling about someone they encountered while working or commuting to work.  The most important piece of advice I have with respect to on-site jobs is listening to your instincts and intuition.  If something doesn't feel right before entering a property, don’t go in.  If something feels off when you’re already engaged at a property, make an exit.

Understand that attacks can be deception-based or immediate ambush based.  Deception-based meaning that they attacker could be acting as potential buyers wanting to view a house with the aim of getting you into a secluded, vacant house with the intent to assault or rob you.  The physical attack itself is still an ambush; an attacker could attack on first contact or when he thinks you are unaware, for example, when you have your back turned unlocking a door.

The first thing to watch is where the person directs their attention.  The person you are dealing with should have their attention mostly centered on the product or the service!  Your client should be focusing on exploring the environment, and not primarily fixated on you. 

One thing you can do if you feel uneasy is to set up the expectation that you will not be alone.  If you do end up in a situation where you are forced to meet someone alone at a vacant property, you can set up the expectation that someone else will be arriving.  For example, you could say,

“Please don’t be alarmed when someone else walks in.  One of my colleagues is showing this house to a couple and he’s a few minutes behind me.”

Anyone who does not have bad intentions will not think twice about this statement.  It will not register with them and will not matter. However, pay close attention to any behavioral changes or responses to this statement and listen to your gut instinct.   Any change in behavior should be a clear indication that something is not right.  If your statement makes them uneasy, this is a huge red flag.  You have stated that the two of you will not be alone for long, and a potential attacker does not want other people present. 

Promptly after saying this, you should contact (by text or call) an emergency contact (partner, office worker, local authorities) to let them know that you are in a position that you feel unsafe.  If you have an emergency strategy for contacting help in place ahead of time, all you are doing is implementing the plan.  If you haven’t preemptively made a plan, you cannot expect others to quickly grasp that you are in need of help.  Keep in mind that your safety is in YOUR hands.  If you need to make an exit, do so.  If you are attacked, fight!

Remember that you are the expert in your line of work.  You understand what normal behavior looks like, so trust your gut when it tells you something is not “normal.”  When something is not right be vigilant, and when necessary, take action to remove yourself from the situation.

Train smart & stay safe!

Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

NOVA Self Defense offers self-defense and personal safety training for real estate agencies and other corporate entities in the Washington DC and the surrounding areas. To set up a training event please email: [email protected]

After we teach our seminars we solicit feedback from the participants asking them three things:

1. Please summarize your experience.  What did you learn/like/find most useful?
2. If we had one more hour what would you like to learn?
3. How can we improve this course?

One student wrote: “Create space.  Be on offense.  ATTACK the motherf-er.”  
 
My coaches and I agree that we could not have stated our course summary or the definition of physical self-defense better in so few words.  One of the challenges with offering a self-defense seminar is the prioritization of information and concepts to be taught since there are limits to what you can cover safely with a large group in a fixed amount of time.  We always emphasize mindset as the first and most important aspect of personal protection.  With respect to physical skills, we teach simple gross-motor strikes and try to get as much practice possible to ingrain the mechanics in a short amount of time.  We look at our training as a catalyst for causing change and growth, hopefully leading to further education, training, and practice, and questioning ideas, rather than one seminar being an end-all-be-all to training.  This idea is analogous to hiring a fitness coach or attending an Olympic lifting seminar.  You could learn some extremely valuable concepts in a seminar or weekend training event, but what you do with those skills after the session is over will affect your personal growth and how much you improve your skill-set.  Showing you a push-up once doesn't mean you are done with push-ups.  The same goes for combative principles.

Below are some excerpts from our 9/27/2014 3-hour women's self-defense course reviews:

“This was great!  I thought the lecture and attack from behind was most useful.”  

“I learned a lot about protection and the importance of moving forward and not being on the defense.”

“Definitely the in-person experience [was most useful].  I had read and listened to TED talks on self-defense, but practicing made it so much easier to solidify basic principles in my head.”   “It was pretty comprehensive, so I wouldn’t have anything major to add.”

“This was a great experience.  I was hesitant to sign up but really gained useful information.  The awareness and options to prepare yourself when you think you may be attached were very helpful.  The open-handed, open-elbow arm hold to keep people away was a very useful concept.  I also had always thought about breaking your hand in a fight, but had never considered an open hand as a good alternative.”  “I thought it was really great and will highly recommend it to friends.”

“I think the most useful parts were (1) experiencing what an attack might feel like so I won’t be caught too off-guard, and (2)learning the basics of how to move [an] attacker away with open fist [with a] >90-degree elbow.  Good ‘basics’ course.”

“Great experience!  Trainers put a lot into the 3 hours.  Practicing each move was key!”  “Thought it was very good.”

“Throwing punches and learning how to separate yourself.”

“Create space.  Be on offense.  ATTACK the motherf-er.”  “It was great.”

“I would say my experience was extremely helpful and certainly boosts my confidence to going/dealing with college next year.  The most useful concept was the live-action part at the end.”

“Relevant/practical concepts and techniques.  Good intro to self-defense.”

“The coaches were very knowledgeable and conveyed the message to become an aggressor very well.”

“Great overview of basic concepts – especially incorporating the psychology piece, turning into the threat and the open palm 90-degree angle arm move”

“A few ‘signature moves,’ so to speak, that I can use right away – over 90-degree hand open with arm, shrugging to help block a choke, hammer punch, etc.”

Train hard & stay safe,
Evan Dzierzynski
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

ASK-TELL-MAKE is a concept a woman can use to deal with unwanted help or attention from an insistent, pursuing man.  In a recent women’s self-defense class I had my girlfriend Liz lead a verbal scenario that Lee Morrison showed us during a private lesson, where a male pursuer offering to help a woman with her grocery bags.  In this scenario the woman feels uncomfortable with this person or her environment and does not want his help. 
 A simple solution for an option for dealing with this situation is:

ASK-politely
TELL-firmly
MAKE-as rude as possible



In the scenario, the man approaches the woman while she is loading groceries into the trunk of her car and says, 

“Hey, mind if I give you a hand with your bags?”

ASK- politely

She replies: “No thanks, I’m fine.”  In the first iteration, she says this politely.  Her tone is asking him to leave and she extends the palm of her hand out as a physical and psychological barrier expressing that she does not want him to come any closer.

Following up his denied attempt the man pushes with more with persistence,

“Come on, it’s no problem, let me help you out.”

TELL- firmly

In the second iteration she emphasizes being firm with her response, puts both hands out as a barrier and says, “I said, no-thank-you, I’m-fine.”  In this instance she pronounces the words more deliberately, as if the person does not understand English and she is irritated by his persistence. 

An important point that Morrison made was that anybody pushing beyond this second attempt has an agenda.  Street criminals and sexual predators use deception as a tool to get what they want.   A sexual assault/rape-type scenario does not always start with a physical assault or an aggressive escalation.   Many times it starts with a verbal engagement attempt.  Tactics can include saying things to convince you of trusting them or by using “forced teaming,” which is when a person implies that he has something in common with his chosen victim, acting as if they have a shared predicament, which they do not.

In the third instance, guy pushes even further, gets into her personal space and grabs for her bags,
 “I'm just gonna grab these and you can thank me later.”

Gavin DeBecker cites a similar example in the Gift of Fear, where a rapist who was attempting to coax his victim into letting him into her apartment and after initially resisting and said, “You know, there is such thing as being too proud.”  Understand that this third attempt could happen in several ways, including a play on your ego such as the examples above or the man getting into your space and grabbing your belongings, insisting to help by force.

For this example there are two main scenarios with respect to proximity. He has either closed distance completely and encroached on her personal space, possibly grabbing her belongings to help out against her will or has not completely closed the distance into her personal space.

MAKE- as rude as possible

In our class example the man encroached into her physical space grabbing her belongings, so she then shoves him and backs up to create space, yelling, “I said, back the f**k up! I don’t need your help!” 

Someone exhibiting this type of behavior might not back off with just being firm.  So in the third instance she is going to as rude as possible and adds for emphasis to her message by saying, “Back the F**K up!” The shove occurs only if the man has encroached on her physical space and she backs up to create space after shoving him, in case that she puts him into fight-or-flight mode to stay out of striking range.  The goal is flight-get him to leave.   

Going as rude as possible is important since:

• You potentially draw outside attention to your situation, not that other people will help, but the potential pursuer may not want this attention and might flee.
  
• You are asserting that you are not a passive, easy target.
  
• You are getting yourself amped up in case this situation ends up going physical.
  

We have observed that many ladies that participate in this verbal scenario are hesitant to take the third stage to the required intensity of asserting themselves aggressively and using profanity.  If being rude and aggressive is difficult for you, it is something that requires practice.  If you have a friend or family member willing to work with you, role play this scenario with them and see how it feels. Make each repetition of the third stage more assertive and loud.  This is something that can be cultivated with practice and proper role-playing. 

Verbal assertiveness can deter undesired attention since predators are generally looking for easy targets.  However, this example does not delve into the escalation where extreme, physical measures are necessary to deal with the escalating violence.

We practice role-playing ASK-TELL-MAKE scenarios all of our women's courses.

NOVA Self Defense offers responsible, realistic self-defense training in Washington DC and surrounding areas.
For information on our upcoming courses click here.

Evan Dzierzynski
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach

If you found this article useful please share it with others.

We are excited to be hosting several visitors to our women’s self-defense class this Thursday at CrossFit South Arlington. 

Five Jamaican visitors from various sectors related to gender-based violence in their communities: a civil servant, police commander, social work educator, non-profit training officer, and university student services manager, will be traveling to the US under the sponsorship of the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs for a 21-day study project where they will be exposed to important initiatives and organizations that support the eradication of gender-based violence for women, youth, and the LGBT community. They will participate and/or observe my women’s self-defense class this Thursday. 



The focus of Thursday’s course will be an introduction to the problem:

• What types of violence are women likely to encounter?
  
• We will demo and discuss some scenarios with respect to utilizing your voice as a manner of assertion for sexual harassment and other unwanted-attention type of situations
• Give a short introduction on mindset
• Learn some simple, physical self-defense skills

This intro session will be a short introduction to some new training concepts that we will be integrating into our 3-hour women’s self-defense seminar which will be held on Saturday September 27th.

If you would like to attend please email me at [email protected] to reserve your place, $20 cash. Event details can be found here: http://www.novaselfdefense.com/upcoming-training.html

Caution: violent video.  This is a video of escalating violence that evolves into a multiple-attacker situation.  I want you to watch this from the attackers' perspective, rather than that of the victim.  Watch it twice if necessary.  There is a lot of content in this video in understanding violent behavior and how people initiate assaults. 

In bullet-point format you see all of these things:

• Verbal anti-social aggression with threats of violence
• An attempt of verbal de-escalation, though it failed
• Encroachment of space, presumably ego-based violence
• Two person-encroachment with secondary man initiating the ambush
• A one-sided multiple attacker beat-down

First watch the escalation phase, verbal altercation back and forth with a guy who had his shirt off (Attacker 1) or took it off in a posturing attempt.  Then watch how the two guys positioned on him.  Victim pushes attacker 1's face, at this point Attacker 2 initiates the physical assault, off-angle, straight punches while the victim is distracted, as soon as he pushes Attacker 1 away.  

What follows at this point is in line with what Lee Morrison mentioned at his seminar with respect to multiple attackers, an asymmetrical display of violence against the victim, where a third man jumps in as well, with all participants kicking and stomping him in the head when he is down. 

This is an important video to analyze because it shows a serious situation anybody could get caught in.  Close proximity with an escalating situation.  Letting your ego get the best of you and saying the wrong thing early in a confrontation lead to an escalation of violence in a close-proximity location could lead to a much bigger problem. Even if you do everything right, you still might have to fight for your life.  If you do, hit as hard as you possibly can with intent.

Stay safe & hit like you mean it,

Evan D
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach

Below is an excerpt of a write-up from Brian Leiberman of Krav Maga Institute NYC

“In his book The Gift of Fear, Gavin De Becker writes, “Of course, if it is in their heads now, so was it then. What they mean is that they only now accept the significance. This has taught me that
the intuitive process works, though often not as well as its principal competitor, the denial process.” De Becker is referring to people he interviewed, who were a witness to or victim of a violent
encounter. In retrospect, they realized that their intuition had correctly warned them of an impending danger in the minutes prior to that very event, but they had ignored their brain’s warning
system. He concludes that our gut instincts are not acts of chance, but instead our brain and our body’s subconscious reaction to a collection of abnormal stimuli in our environment. He goes on to
explore the experience of those who, unlike the others, did follow their “sixth sense.” One person narrowly avoided a robbery at a convenience store, deciding to suddenly exit the shop just minutes
prior to the attack. While our body senses danger afoot, often times we tend to dismiss these feelings as paranoia because the threat is not staring us in the face. Regardless of what we read in
the news or hear from others, we often accept the reality that bad things happen to others and reject the possibility that it can happen to us.

Krav Maga is, in every way, the exact opposite of denial; it is the embrace of the innate intuition that De Becker describes. What is quite amazing about Krav Maga’s philosophy is that the self-
defense process does not begin with the physical counter to an attack. Instead, it begins with the recognition of a potential attack. The training very much conditions one’s body to proactively
respond to a dangerous situation. Thus, the most ideal situation is a confrontation that can be avoided entirely. By its very nature, the training forces us to accept the possibility that we are in
danger and to thereafter begin planning, or in some cases executing, a response. In the case that we fail to recognize the threat early on, we must react immediately to an attack already upon us.”

By Brian Lieberman


My thoughts:

Gavin DeBecker’s book,The Gift of Fear, is the first book I advocate clients read when they want a greater understanding of the pre-cursors to violent behavior and how to address and understand your intuition.  What I like about this write-up is that they are taking the pre-cursors to violence into consideration in their training and decision making; acknowledging and recognizing a potential encounter before it happens means you are thinking quicker and responding quicker. I agree and also advocate that training should always be more than just a physical response.  It's extremely important to add threat recognition and emotional content into your training to make it feel more realistic and to add context to the what and why of what you are instilling in your students. 

I recently traveled to Chicago to attend a seminar on Urban Combatives put on by Lee Morrison. Morrison is one of the most highly regarded names in the industry and for good reason, he takes what works, and drops what doesn't, and continuously evolves what and how he teaches.  He didn't re-invent the combative wheel; he cites works from the best names in the industry and what he has learned through personal experience.  I learned an incredible amount of information and have not even worked through 1/4 of my audio recordings from the seminar.  I also had the opportunity to do a private lesson with Lee teaching my girlfriend, to enhance her training and also get insight as to how he teaches women's classes, and what he would place emphasis on for a short training session. Much to follow with blog posts on ideas in the near future!




Upcoming training:

• Women's self defense 1 hour intro: Aug 21st, open to public
  
• Men's combatives Thursday Aug 28th is open to public

• 3-hour in depth women's self defense class, September 27th
  

Train smart & stay safe!

Evan D. 
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead Coach

Over ten years ago I started my first official martial arts class as a student at NC State under Master Robert First & Elizabeth Roman in a martial arts style called Cuong Nhu.  Cuong Nhu is eclectic martial arts system that utilizes elements of Shotokan Karate, Wing Chun, Judo, Aikido, Tai Chi, Vovinam, and Boxing (hard and soft styles of martial arts).  I was always intimidated to start training martial arts, so getting me to actually try a class took about 6 months of persuasion from a friend that was in my major, on top of the 5-10 years of hesitation when I never took that first step.  Showing up to that class was one of the best decisions I have ever made.  There are two things that make Cuong Nhu an exceptional martial art.  Number one: its people.  Some of the best friendships and best people I have ever met were people I met through Cuong Nhu.  Secondly, it truly is a progressive and open-minded martial art.  The head of the style and high ranking instructors are open to change and improve their teaching methodologies and principles over time.  They WANT you to go out into the world to train in other systems, discover things they are unfamiliar with, and bring that knowledge back to the style for the greater good.  Their philosophy of growth and open-mindedness and the pursuit of continued evolution in training is what sparked my path for self-defense knowledge, leading me to discovering and training in the S.P.E.A.R. System several years later.  This pursuit of improvement is what today leads me to continuously experiment with new ideas as I integrate new concepts and evolve what and how I teach to make people safer. 

Train smart & stay safe,
Evan D. 
NOVA Self Defense
Owner/Lead coach
www.novaselfdefense.com

Watch this video (caution violent video); this one was especially disturbing because this can happen to anyone.  There tends to be a serious lack of situational awareness that happens in subway trains, and this is an extreme case.   It’s not a matter of “I’m in a good area” if someone is cracked out on drugs or just plain crazy and attacks you while you are minding your own business eating a can of Pringles.

The man in the video erred on multiple counts; here’s a review of his actions/inactions:

1.      He did not acknowledge any of pre-incident indicators of the potential threat (very disturbing growling, unorthodox motor patterns, her lunging toward him)

2.      He did not do anything at all to actively defend himself while she was choking him, had her fist cocked growling at him, and punching him.

3.      After her assault ended and she walked away he re-engaged and assaulted her.

So, if you see somebody freak out and what appears to be a scene from Paranormal Activity or an Exorcist movie, it’s time to put the Pringles away get ready to take action.  Remove yourself from the situation if possible by getting on another train, move to a different part of the train, or contact security, and pop-the-top and free up your hands BEFORE anything critical happens.

Also, it is important to understand a reasonable use of force since you will likely have to articulate how you responded to the threat if the police get involved.

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan D.
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com

We were featured by the WUSA the DC local CBS news station twice in 30 days for providing self-defense tips for the community. Most recently was a story about teaching our children to fight back.

The video for the story can be found here:
http://archive.wusa9.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=3582884801001

Caution: violent video: What pre-contact cue was the most relevant "tell" of his attack prior to shifting his weight to sucker punch the victim?  What I like about this video being blurred is that it makes you focus on the attacker's movements rather than what the victim is doing.  When you watch this video pay particular attention to the attacker's body language.  

In this case it was the looking around and seeing if there were any witnesses of concern, for example, people who may jump in to help the victim, stop or identify the attacker, cops or security guards. I find it valuable to view these types of videos in the context of, "What can I learn from this," rather than, "He should have done X,Y,Z."  Anybody can play computer-chair quarterback and call plays from a safe position (and in doing so, you don't learn anything), but what is more important is learning a small take-away from viewing attack videos. In this case, if someone looks around for witnesses, consider that it may be time to get moving, whether that's moving in to slam the guy or sprinting to safety.

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan Dz
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense

  

We travel on-site for corporate self defense seminars  Learn something useful and have fun while doing it. Our presentations are fun, engaging, and provide great information and training.  If you’re going to get out of doing work for a few hours, you might as well make it fun and worth your while! 

If you think your office could benefit from this call or email me and we can set something up!
[email protected]
919.302.0440

Several times at seminars I have had an attendee say, “I’ve been told that if I’m being attacked I should yell FIRE and people will run to help me out.” 

I can usually tell that the person asking me about this does not want to think about dealing with an attack themselves and is hoping for an easy way out. The main reason I do not support yelling fire is the Bystander Effect.





The bystander effect, or bystander apathy, is a social psychological phenomenon that refers to cases in which individuals do not offer any means of help to a victim when other people are present. The probability of help is inversely related to the number of bystanders.

Counting on random strangers to rush to your aid means you are assuming people will be present and able to hear you, capable and willing to rush in to help you, and capable of stopping the attacker(s) or causing them to flee.  That’s putting a lot of eggs in one basket.

Assuming others will step can also be a means of passing the buck on taking your personal safety into your own hands. People who think I don’t need to be aware or have training because *someone will help me* are not as aware or proactive with getting education and training, and handling the issue themselves if the situation is presented

Even if a good citizen sees a person who is being attacked and the person is yelling fire, there is a disconnect in processing the information.  Has a stranger ever confronted you and yelled something absolutely crazy?  Yes, they have.  And what did you first do when your processed this strange information?  You likely hesitated, froze, took an additional second going “huh?” to process what was just said.

Yelling in general: From personal experience in teaching I’ve seen some individuals hit significantly harder when we forced them to yell during force-on-force drills and scenarios.  However, when forced to yell, other people clam-up from feeling uncomfortable and insecure to the point where they were not striking effectively during the same drills.

If you hit harder when you yell, scream your heart out!  If yelling takes all of your focus and makes you unable to effectively fight back, then don’t bother with it.  

Train smart & stay safe,

Evan Dzierzynski
Owner/Lead Coach
NOVA Self Defense
www.novaselfdefense.com