Less than 1%

back in June we were in New York again for Fight Like A Girl re certification and new course material added to our class formats. While in NY I heard an interesting statistic, not sure if it is empirical, but it does sum up a good amount of anecdotal truth; less than 1% of the US population know anything of real fighting or combatives. Which probably attributes to why most bad guys will break off an attack if there is significant resistance put forth by the person who is being attacked. Criminals prefer easy targets. While at Rape Escape's East Coast Academy I ran into two guys who do Sayoc Knife Fighting as their primary martial art. I thought I knew something about knife fighting (mostly to run away!). This further confirmed that there is quite a bit to knife fighting that I don't know alot about. Thankfully there is probably less of that 1% statistic of the population that knows anything about the real use of bladed weapons. Ironic that the next course I was getting a certification in was the 3rd module in the Women's Empowerment Series - Defense Against Weapons.

Defense Against Weapons, known by its short name DAW, addresses real life situations where the attacker is using a weapon to augment his techniques. In the course we address the following issues:

• Weapon psychology and dynamics of blades, guns, clubs, and flexibles (strangulation).
• Defense against being choked whether from the defensive position or from being straddled on your chest.
• Defense against an attacker holding a knife against your throat either parallel or across your neck.
• Defense against being stabbed
  
• What to do if you are attacked from behind with a weapon
  
• What to do if the attacker is hitting you with a club
• What to do if the attacker is holding a gun to your head (or any part of your body)
• What to do when all else fails
  

All of this done with the same 'watch/ then do' training philosophy that is used in Fight Like A Girl coupled with stress inoculation training with the Redman Suit. We have already scheduled DAW & Fight Like A Girl Classes at North Canton Community Education and Green YMCA. By the middle of August we should have some classes scheduled with our other venues as well. In any case if you have questions or comments please send them. And above all....

Stay Safe!