Las Vegas Martial Arts Blog

Self-defense is a necessity. Crime and violence is on the rise and no neighborhood is immune from this terrible onslaught. Why take years to learn the basics of self-defense when you can learn some highly effective, deadly accurate moves in just a few hours. Practice them periodically and refine your knowledge.
Why Learn the Art of Self-Protection at Home?
1. Increase in your self-confidence.
The more you learn and understand the basics of self-defense; your self-confidence levels will increase. When your confidence goes up it will spill over into all areas of your life. People will notice a change in you. Your step will have more spring to it.
2. You work in areas where you have to walk alone at night to your car.
Most places women work at don t offer security guards to accompany you to your car after work; you are on your own. Attacks in parking lots and parking garages are increasing. Those are areas that are usually semi isolated and not well patrolled or lit. They re a prime place for attacks.
3. Reduce your worry so you can sleep better.
When people are plagued with fear and worry their sleep suffers. Lack of sleep creates anxiety, depression and a general bad mood. You get mad easy and your temper flares up quickly. Your relationship with your family and friends can suffer because of your lack of sleep.
4. Get more exercise.
Today our country has the most obese, out of shape and tired people, in the entire world. Heart attack rates have dramatically increased over the years. A lack of sleep can shorten your life span considerably. The exercise you get with our program isn t a lot. But we do find that people start to feel better about themselves as they start to put more effort in the exercise portion of their lives. This in turn leads to greater health.
5. You ll learn in your in your own home and at your own pace.
Most women today are very busy, as both husband and wife need to work to make ends meet. That just doesn t leave a lot of time to travel to a dojo to workout several times a week.
6. You can invite a friend to workout with you.
It really takes dedicated people to drive themselves and workout trying to accomplish a goal such as self-defense. The chore turns into a fun task when you have someone to share the experience with. Invite a friend over and both can learn the program together. It makes the process that much more realistic too. Having a real person to practice the moves on is the way to go.
7. Violent crimes are increasing and happening in all neighborhoods.
It doesn t matter where you live anymore; all neighborhoods are experiencing some sort of increase in crime. Granted, some areas are much safer than others, but the trend is still everywhere. You owe it to yourself and your family to prepare for any encounter.
8. Want to loose weight.
It s a proven fact, any type of activity is good for you and most activities will help you hold or even loose weight. I understand some people have medical problems with their weight and I m not talking to that segment of the population. The rest need to work in this area. How about being around to enjoy your grandkids?
9. No monthly fees.
With our program at PDS Personal Defense Systems you pay once and never have any monthly fees like you would have at a dojo or gym. Put the money you ll save into a new wardrobe as the weight comes off and you tone up.
10. How to instantly spot potentially dangerous situations and avoid them.
It ll surprise you, as you become more aware, how many dangerous situations are happening all around you. Learn to spot them and avoid them. If you can t, learn how to deal with them in your favor with self-defense.
11. You ll learn how to keep your mind active, alert, and open.
As your mind becomes more active, your senses start to open up and you ll naturally become more alert to dangerous situations. You ll spot them instantly and avoid them completely.
12. You ll learn how to be in control and stay in control.
As you practice you ll learn what control is, and when that happens you ll know how to stay in control. Sometimes in a panic situation it won t look like you re in control, but in fact you will be. If things happen to get out of control, you ll learn how to regain the upper hand.
13. You ll learn you don t have to be perfect to be extremely effective.
Unlike traditional martial arts, perfection isn t necessary. Execution of each move, geared to your particular body style, is what makes this system work. If a particular move doesn t feel right to you, keep the basic structure but change it to fit your body style.
14. You ll learn to function automatically.
As you gain confidence and skill, through the action of the mind training the body training the mind, you ll notice you re starting to just react to certain situations. Women who don t know how to react in panic situations tend to freeze up. Some will try to fight back but will actually only make the situation worse because they don t know how to effectively strike their attacker.
15. You ll learn how these techniques can be taught to every member of the family.
Once you learn the system, teach it to your family members. If they aren t interested in learning everything, teach them some of the most lethal and important moves.
16. You ll learn that self-defense is actually fun.
As you progress through the various lessons you ll start to enjoy what is happening to you and your training partner. You ll have a lot of fun as you progress in knowledge and understanding of women s self-defense.
17. You ll learn how to end every assault quickly and get back to safety.
An assault is generally won or lost in the first 5 seconds. You need to know the deadly moves to use during that time frame. If it drags out too long, you ll become too tired and won t be effective. Learn to strike quickly and precisely at the most sensitive pressure points on your assailant s body.
18. You ll learn about preventive defense, and how to stay out of compromising situations.
It s better NOT to ever get into a fight. By noticing bad situations before they come your way you start to understand the art of preventive defense. Drive away from a questionable area; don t walk through a crowd if it doesn t feel right to you.
19. Learn to trust in your instincts.
This area is ignored much too often. Pay attention to that inner voice all of us have even if it seems silly to you at times. It is always better to be safe, than sorry.
20. Learn to always smile and look at the good in all situations.
This doesn t mean you bury your head in the sand. It simply means start to become a positive person. Life is much too short to be a grump. Smile and enjoy what you have. If you don t have much, smile and know that it s up to you to move to a higher level in life.
The high paced world we are living in is becoming increasingly unsafe across all racial and class barriers. It is time to get the knowledge to fight back and regain our freedom.
For additional information about this course on women s self-defense and the revealing strategies and techniques for your personal protection, go to http://www.pdsPersonalDefenseSystems.com A free daily email about personal security is provided to all those who request it. The full course is available and ready to ship under the trademark of K & K Enterprises.
For more Details:
KenKeiscome@pdsPersonalDefenseSystems.com – (Email)
http://www.pdsPersonalDefenseSystems.com – (Website)
Ken s Korner Unleashed
http://www.pdsPersonalDefenseSystems.com/kenskorner.html
Get inside my mind; If you dare!
(888) PDS-2DAY or (888-737-2329) (Toll Free)
(559) 261-9606 (Secure FAX Line)

About The Author

Ken Keiscome has been studying martial arts since the mid 1970’s. His training includes karate, wing chun kung fu, and defensive knife and stick fighting. He is the author of the workbook for the PDS Personal Defense System and has narrated and produced several self defense CD’s. He believes that all women need to know a few lethal techniques to effectively defend themselves and escape to safety.
kenkeiscome@pdsPersonalDefenseSystems.com

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

Popularity: 1% [?]

People often send me emails asking me why I’m so hard on traditional martial arts — like karate, kung fu, aikido, etc.

Only problem is, I’m not hard on them.

In fact, I have nothing but respect for them — as did Bruce Lee and all the other street-fighting masters who have emerged in the past 30 years.

The street-fighting philosophy I teach literally has elements from some 30 different kinds of traditional martial arts. If I didn’t like or respect them, I wouldn’t be teaching them.

But at the same time…Bruce Lee had this saying: “absorb what is useful, reject what is useless, and add what is specifically your own.”

In other words, take a good look at what’s out there, extract what you can actually use in a street-fight — where there are no rules, regulations or referees — and leave all the fancy stuff out.

Like, for example, the much revered spinning high kick you see performed on TV and in the dojos all the time.

Totally useless in a real fight.

Don’t believe me?

Then go ahead and try it for yourself in a real fight.

Chances are you will either severely injure yourself, or leave yourself wide open to an attack.

Why?

Because unless you’re a phenomenal athlete, with an almost supernatural sense of balance, timing and power…and unless you perform your “super kick” at just the right angle and distance…you’ll fall flat on your face.

Happens all the time.

Reason why is because that particular kick — which is enormously popular in some of the traditional martial arts — was invented hundreds of years ago to kick people off their horses.

Not take out a thug in the back alley high on meth, with a knife in his hand.

You see, the violent criminals stalking our streets today are meaner, nastier and tougher than ever before in history. They have no sense of honor, fair play or morality whatsoever.

And to make matters worse, many of them also abuse mind-altering drugs and even steroids — making them almost immune to pain and pumped with an almost freakish kind of brute strength.

And so, to really defend yourself against these violent criminals you need fighting tactics that are “monkey simple” to learn, work almost automatically when you need them, and that can quickly do a lot of damage — whether you’re in shape, out of shape, or have any natural athletic ability whatsoever.

Bottom line:

When you’re in a violent altercation on the street, leave the fancy “Jackie Chan” moves and Van Dam roundhouse kicks for Hollywood where they belong.

Sifu Matt Numrich is one of only a few instructors with Full Certification in Bruce Lee s Jeet Kune Do, and also the Filipino Martial Arts. His students include everyone from Federal Air Marshals and military elites to small children and 65-year old ladies. Matt also offers free weekly street-fighting lessons by email at http://jkdondvd.com

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

Popularity: unranked [?]

It goes without question that, within the realms of martial arts and self-defense, there are literally hundreds of things that you can do to debilitate an attacker. From the various methods of striking different body targets with punches and kicks, to throwing, locking, pressure point attacks, and joint-manipulation techniques, each is effective in its own right.

But, when you ask the average person what they think is the most effective thing to do in a self-defense situation, the almost overwhelming answer is, “a kick to the groin.” In fact, in response to just about any “what-if” scenario involving being attacked, the majority of women default to this answer.

Here’s a short list of reasons why the groin is not the “perfect” target, nor is it the end-all-to-beat-all martial arts or self-defense technique:

1) Small Target - No pun is intended here. What I mean is that, when compared to other targets of the body, the groin is a relatively small target. Unless you are directly in front of a person with there legs open and feet at-least shoulder-width apart, hitting this target gets more and more difficult with every variable. And, “almost” getting your target, especially this one, is a sure way to make your attacker more angry and dangerous!

A much better target would be the inside of the legs. The femoral nerve runs the length of the leg and, coupled with the weaker bone-structures of the knees and ankles, making the inside of the thighs, knees, and calves really great targets. Here, you’re attacking a target that’s much larger and therefor requiring less precision on your part – something that will be very difficult under pressure – and you get the secondary benefit of making it practically impossible for him to chase after you.

2) Your Attacker’s Childhood Training - Every time I conduct a rape prevention seminar and this topic comes up, I ask one of the men present, “how old were you when you realized that this was not a good place to get hit?” Invariably, the response is somewhere between two and six years old. Now, we men know this. That’s probably why men don’t think of kicking an attacker in the groin first…or at all.

However, ignorance of this fact cause women to believe that it will be a surprise when they attack this target. When the truth is that, unless you set your assailant up to be “surprised”, chances are he’ll be looking for this. But, even if you are able to get in a good strike, you have to be concerned with…

3) Automatic Defensive Response - This is connected with your autonomic nervous system and causes a natural body response to protect and cover a target that is being attacked. Again, ask any guy to duplicate his reaction to a shot to the groin. Chances are that you won’t see the typical comedy response from the movies. Instead, what you’ll see is him bending over forward as his body instinctively pulls the groin away from danger and simultaneously drops the torso to cover it.

What does this mean in a self-defense situation? After all, don’t you want him folded in half with his face at knee level?

Of course. But…

…you don’t want your face in the path of his head when it flies forward!

Can you imagine what it would feel like being smashed in the face with an incidental head butt that you caused?!

4) Positioning - While this is related to the first area of discussion, what I mean here is that, the groin may be nowhere to be found. Again, in my programs designed especially for women, I cover the most common street attack in rape scenarios. This is where the woman is grabbed from behind and literally pulled off her feet behind her into an alleyway or waiting vehicle. In this scenario, it will be difficult enough to stand, let alone kick something behind you that’s moving. Add to this scenarios involving lying down or while seated and the problem starts to become more clear.

Remember, your assailant has been wary of being hit in this area since early childhood. He knows that his victim, especially if it’s a woman, will probably go for this target. So, he is very likely to position himself in a way that removes the groin as a target altogether.

While the groin is a viable target, and a good way to damage any attacker, it should not be seen as the best or “only” target to go after in a dangerous situation. Learning just this one technique for protecting yourself is akin to relying solely on a gun for defense and then being attacked when you’re not armed.

Of course, you are free to do whatever you want. That’s the great thing about being “all-grown-up.” You are free to choose. Remember though, if you make the wrong decision in a self-defense situation, it could be the last choice you ever make.

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder and director of Warrior Concepts International. He regularly conducts seminars and training programs for individuals, corporations and groups on both principle-based self-protection and unleashing human potential. He is the author of the books “The Karate-Myth” and “Controlling the Fight,” as well as the videos “Danger Prevention Tactics” and “The Cutting-Edge: Surviving a Knife Attack.” He can be reached through his web site at http://www.warrior-concepts-online.com

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

Popularity: unranked [?]

The most surprising statistic that most karate and martial arts teachers discover is the one that tells them “why most of their adult students quit shortly after enrolling.” In fact, the greatest percentage of adult dropouts from martial arts classes occurs within the first 100 days!

This has sparked some groups to investigate the reasons behind this phenomena. Surveys have been conducted both in the United States as well as in Canada. Additional inquiries may also have been conducted in places like Europe and Australia as well.

What the researchers found was, to them, incredible. They found that, by and large, the number one reason for adult students dropping out of their programs was…

…no real-world self-defense training early on in their training!

“How could this be?”, was the question. The researchers were stunned. After all, they were martial arts teachers and they certainly taught self-defense as a part of their classes.

How could these adults say that they weren’t being taught real-world self-defense techniques?

Perhaps, the problem was not that “self-defense techniques” were or were not being taught. Because, even after these studies were conducted and karate programs started to “import” third-party self-defense packages into their product offering, adult dropouts remained high.

Maybe the problem was in perception. Maybe students just couldn’t see how the “stylized” movements of a centuries-old system could be applicable against a street attack against a stiletto or ‘Saturday Night Special’-wielding assailant.

It’s certain that students were not seeing and hearing what they thought they should in order to believe that they were getting what they needed to survive such an attack. Even if these students don’t know what ‘that thing’ really looks like, their gut-level feeling was that, “this stuff isn’t going to work.”

Maybe the problem – what adult students are looking for – is in something even more crucial to learning self-defense against violent attackers. And maybe this “thing” was easier to identify by novices than by trained instructors who had been indoctrinated into sport systems.

Maybe what was lacking in all of these programs was something the real experts like to call…

…Experience!

Regardless of the subject, it’s fairly easy to see when someone has experience with the information they have, isn’t it? I mean, experience in actually applying that information to produce viable, proven results. As the old saying goes, “those who can – do; and those who can’t – teach.”

And, what adult students are looking for is someone who “can” AND “teaches” others how they can as well.

Now, this isn’t to say that most martial arts instructors don’t know their arts and the techniques and skills that come with them. Most certainly do. And these people are very good at what they do.

However; there is a huge difference between knowing how to ‘perform’ a skill – any skill – and being able to apply that skill in a particular context. And self-defense is no exception.

No matter how hard they try, most martial arts and self-defense instructors will not be able to convince most adults that they know what they’re talking about without the experience to back it up. Adult students are not children. They have seen far too much in there lives to let these less-than-able instructors slide.

And with the new threat of terrorism being added to the ever-present concern with crime, most adults have no desire to learn martial arts for purely ascetic reasons. They want – no, they demand – and rightly so, that the person they place their trust in, not to mention their very lives, knows what he or she is doing.

So, what’s an instructor to do if he or she lacks actual real-world experience? Should they rush right out and get into a few fights? Should they go hang out in the seedier side of town and wait to be mugged, raped, or beaten?

No, of course not. But, they can, like their students, go in search of real experts – people who have “been there” and who can help them learn what they need to know in order to help the people who come to them for this type of knowledge.

Of course, this may require that they suck in their pride and get a check on the old ego. But, as everyone knows who has been in an actual violent confrontation with a dangerous attacker, you need to “check your ego at the door” if you’re going to survive.

Teaching self-protection skills to others is a huge responsibility. And one perhaps that’s too great for a lot of people who are teaching for purely personal reasons.

There is another option available, however; just in case the primary one is totally unacceptable. And that option is simply to…

…stop trying to teach self-defense if they’re not qualified.

By all means, an instructor can, and should, continue to teach his particular style of martial art. But he should stop trying to convince intelligent, grown adults, that he knows what he’s talking about with regards to surviving a violent attack if he doesn’t. He should remember that people are placing their lives in his hands every time he open’s his mouth, or demonstrates a technique. I’m not sure whether or not many instructors have thought about this. But they should.

After all, most martial arts instructors teach honesty as one of the major tenets and character traits of a black belt master and leader. Wouldn’t this be the “honest” thing to do?

The moral here is that, if a martial arts or karate teacher wishes to teach self-defense – if he or she wants to get and retain adult students looking for this type of training for the long-term, they really have no choice but to do what they must.

They, like every other information-based professional, are in business to provide a service. They must decide what that service is and whether or not it includes real-world self-protection against violent attackers who don’t follow the rules of fairness and respect found in martial arts schools and karate tournaments.

They should also know this…

…no company, whether it’s a furniture store or a martial art school, stays in-business very long if it can’t give its customers what they want and need. Their clients and students may never tell them that they don’t believe or trust them. But, rest assured that if they’re not getting what they’ve paid for, they’re gone.

As a final thought, and one that I live by. What if, some day, “I” must depend on one of my students to protect me from a dangerous assailant for whatever reason. Wouldn’t I want to make sure that what he or she learned was really going to work?

I know I would!

Jeffrey M. Miller is the founder of Warrior Concepts International, a Pennsylvania-based company specializing in helping private, law enforcement, and corporate clients to develop time-tested and proven self-protection and personal development skills that work in the real-world. He is the author of the highly acclaimed, educational video, Danger Prevention Tactics. His latest book, “The Karate-Myth” shows the reader why most martial arts and self-defense programs don’t work and how to insure your safety in today’s violent world. For additonal information about having this internationally-recognized expert as a guest or keynote speaker for your organization’s next meeting, or to sponsor a seminar with Mr. Miller, you may contact him through his web site or by calling WCI in the U.S. and Canada, at (570) 988-2228.

Tags: Wing Chun, Kung Fu, Las Vegas Kung Fu School, Las Vegas Wing Chun School, Lo Man Kam, Lo Man Kam Wing Chun, Martial Arts Self Defense

Popularity: 1% [?]