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Having studied martial arts for over 30 years I have seen the good and the bad sides, along with a lot of ego driven self defence instruction that would simply not work.  Not long after qualifying as a Krav Maga instructor I had an interesting conversation with my mother about past self defence courses that she had attended and how she was unable to remember anything from them, so I questioned further as to why this was.  Quite simply it was due to the volume of techniques being taught and the complexity of them.

At this stage I took her through 2 techniques that could be used in any number of scenarios... within minutes they were working for her and I was in some pain!  I then looked at my karate classes, paying particular attention to some of the smaller, less confident and least aggressive members to assess how they changed in our self defence sessions.  The results were the same.  A change in mindset and a simulated stressful situation caused a surge in adrenalin and some simple techniques worked time and time again.  Often they were not performed "correctly" as per the text book, but it did not matter... they worked!! The tables were turned and the victim became a fighter, the attacker became ineffective and weak.

I have therefore put together several programmes concentrating upon just a few techniques, with a lot of physical scenario practice to ingrain the principles of how not to be a victim into all those who take part. 

In Autumn/Winter 2014 we held our first course for women only, lasting 12 weeks.  This was a great success with over 20 ladies (aged 14 to "a fair bit older") completing the full course and giving feedback that they really enjoyed the course. 

For our next two courses (one for ladies and one for teenagers), we have again gained support from Everyone Active (donating the venue) and while I (along with my team) will be donating our time to the course.  I hope that this will be successful and becomes a regular event in the St Albans calendar as the more people we can train the better. 

In order to benefit more than the 40 people that will be able to attend, we are also looking to raise some money for Refuge.  I often see people raising money for charity by taking on some task and gaining sponsorship, well lets commend the ladies that take this step to complete my course.  

It will be hard work and they will all need to dig deep to complete the training involved, so please show your support for them by donating!  Include the name of the participant in your donation to show that you respect them for their decision to make this change in their life to become safer, and their courage to embrace the unknown of what I have in store for them.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.