Self-Defense &
Martial Arts Wisdom
For All

There is one thing that my martial arts training has taught me over the years, and that is to train for everything. As I’ve dove into many different martial art curriculums, and observed lesson plans from a vast array of arts, I’m amazed at two commonalities. The first is that…

In the previous article on defending against multiple attackers, I laid out the three main steps to help you survive through that situation. In a nutshell, you first look for an equalizer (i.e. weapon), zone around the attackers to create a “1 on 1” stack and then use “footwork” to…

Growing up in America, most of us envision fighting as people cocking back their fists and throwing a fury of punches. The problem is that most people are firing punches back at us, which leads to a lower hit rate, and a absorbing plenty of strikes yourself. Therefore, I would…

Growing up outside of Chicago, and raising a self-defense academy there, taught me a lot about terrain and self-defense. I would regularly take my classes outside to train, sometimes to get a breath of fresh air, but most of the time to teach them how radically different types of footing,…

Violent situations happen quickly. When there is a threat, one choice is to try to de-escalate it. If you do choose to do this, your body language will say more than the words coming out of your mouth. Especially if it is at a loud venue, where hearing is difficult,…

Too many people have gotten themselves in trouble for overreacting or “under” reacting when it comes to self-defense situations. In my experiences talking to a lot of people who have been attacked and in threatening situations, while also critiquing hundreds of hours of real life altercations caught on video, it…

Butterfly knives, also known as balisongs, are folding pocket knives with two handles that rotate around the blade. They were originally developed in the Philippines, where they are known as “fan knives” and have a long history dating back to the 1700s. Butterfly knives are often associated with illegal activity…

Last month we covered the use of a bat for offensive purposes, in the light of defending ourselves against an attacker. This month we’re going to talk about defending against an assailant who is wielding a bat. If you haven’t read the past article, it will also give you some…