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I think these two quotes fit together very well. when teaching defense, especially for women, one of the first things to teach is situational awareness. being aware of your surroundings at all times. when driving through a parking lot to getting out and walking to the destination. awareness of who is around you at all times while out alone or in public in general. someone who looks clueless or occupied with no regards to their environment are far more likely to be picked out and targeted...teach confidence, awareness, and to walk tall and with purpose while also teaching the self defense aspect of techniques and fighting. just being aware can prevent someone from entering your space to the point of the original posts scenario and prevent having to face the "what-ifs" put forth thus far....

Sadly, the Hurricanes are 0-13 in Conference Finals games going all the way back to their last Stanley Cup in 2006. They haven't won a single game in the conference finals since then.

I don’t think that we’d ever see a PPV SB because the SB In itself generates quite a lot of money to go around to make whatever company happy. BUT…one never knows.

Where talking about keeping a distance at all costs, if possible. Last Friday, at around 1:35pm, here in North Las Vegas, at a gym, there was a mass shooting where a manager of the gym was killed, and several others were injured. The manager worked at that gym for 15 years. Yesterday morning, channel 5 showed a clip. In this clip, it shows the shooter walking into the gym and he was carrying what looked like a military rifle. As the shooter is entering the gym, a male customer of the gym is walking by the shooter on the shooters left. Mind you, the shooter paid no attention to that customer at all, shooter even told the two female employees standing behind the check-in counter that they better hid “because something’s about to happen bad”. That male customer that walked by the shooter KEPT HIS DISTANCE from the shooter by leaving out the front door quickly, but before he exited the gym, he quickly looked over his left shoulder at the shooter. The shooter and the male customer were not that far away from each other as they passed by each other. Shooter was shot by the police outside of the gym entrance; shooter died later at the hospital .

Yes, not just for BJJ. Few exceptions, like, Lt. and above, perhaps?!?

Keep in mind too that situations where someone is attacking or being threatening can be unpredictable. They can quickly escalate into total chaos. It is possible that the person is drunk and/or on drugs, meaning they can't be reasoned with and would have a very high pain tolerance. In those situations, you might have to break and arm, choke someone out, or do something else that makes them physically incapable of continuing. Also, the person who attacks might realize they are losing the fight and pull out a weapon. Or one of their friend's see's that the fight is taking place, and jumps in. Now you are outnumbered. Furthermore, legally it gets even more complicated because you can't know for sure how a jury will see the situation. If you injure or kill someone in self-defense, you could very well be tried for a crime and even if you know you are 100% in the right, the jury might not and could decide that you should face some legal consequences for the injury/death of the other person. I'd encourage anyone to avoid such situations if possible. Unless you or someone else in immediate and serious danger, get out of there as soon as you can, because even if you are defending, and win the fight, you can still lose legally. If you win legally, as stated above, it could become very traumatic. I would guess that it is something you carry for the rest of your life.

I would like to see the Stars win this series as well. I'd also like to see the Hurricanes win, but they lost 5-2 in game one.

This is very true, and hardly any self-defense/Martial Arts instructors ever address this. It is very real and it is very important to get the help if needed.

5/20/2025 TKD: 9:00 - 9:45 am. Video review and visualization study. I watched all the ATA forms videos, and from In Wha 1 and up I watched each video twice. I said the techniques out loud as they were being performed, noted the moves the kihaps were on. Aikido: 9:45 - 10:15 am. Video review and visualization study. I watched all the 7th kyu material videos, mentioning key points to myself on the techniques as I went. 6th kyu shomenuchi iriminage: Motivating by cuing on the striking arm and just placing the hand on the back of the neck. Then need to feed into the crook of the elbow. Remember to Tenkan! After the feed, raise the elbow up and add spiral pressure to the hip/small of back while doing tenkan to break balance. 6th kyu katatetori shionage omote: After initial step back and securing wrist, cut through using front stance, then step to them to make contact, brining straight arm on top of shoulder and alongside head. A single big step around then to confirm balance is broken, then cut down and across shoulders and step across (or through) the shoulders.

I'm in favor of any kind of legitimate defensive tactics instruction being mandatory. It wouldn't have to be limited to BJJ. When I hold my defensive tactics sessions, they are pretty much mandatory for just about everyone in the department to attend. There are always a few exceptions though.

As a former Dallas resident, I gotta say "GO STARS!"

Might as well include this too, the West Finals between the Oilers and Stars beings Wednesday night. Here is the full schedule for that series. Game 1: Oilers at Stars, Wednesday, May 21, 8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 2: Oilers at Stars, Friday, May 23, 8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 3: Stars at Oilers, Sunday, May 25, 3 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 4: Stars at Oilers, Tuesday, May 27, 8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 5: Oilers at Stars, Thursday, May 29, 8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS * Game 6: Stars at Oilers, Saturday, May 31, 8 p.m. ET; ABC, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS * Game 7: Oilers at Stars, Monday, June 2, 8 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, SN, CBC, TVAS * * If necessary

I hope you are correct, I don't like the idea of a PPV SB.

First game of the East Finals starts tonight between the Panthers and Hurricanes. Here is the full series schedule. Game 1: Panthers at Hurricanes, Tuesday, May 20, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 2: Panthers at Hurricanes, Thursday, May 22, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 3: Hurricanes at Panthers, Saturday, May 24, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 4: Hurricanes at Panthers, Monday, May 26, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS Game 5: Panthers at Hurricanes, Wednesday, May 28, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS * Game 6: Hurricanes at Panthers, Friday, May 30, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS * Game 7: Panthers at Hurricanes, Sunday, June 1, 8 p.m. ET; TNT, MAX, truTV, SN, CBC, TVAS * *-if necessary

NANI!!???? They CANNOT go 100 percent!!!! I train in sambo/judo and believe me, you cannot go 100 percent. In fact BJJ fighters get tons of injuries and ground fighting can be brutal because some people cant control themselves and spaz out big time trying to power through the next move. In judo and Sambo, you have to breakfall like a million reps for very long time and have EXCELLENT conditioning, you have to be very strong and flexible to endure all the turns, twist and high impact throws. This is not something you gain just walking to a grappling gym even if its a more of a lax ground style absent of big throws and takedowns. Also you can easily pull a muscle when you are defending submission attempts and getting suddenly reversed or countered in submission exchanges and scrambles. If you train with Japanese and Russians, they take conditioning VERY SERIOUSLY and are stringent with making sure students are well trained in the basics to keep themselves safe from the chaos of grappling and the intensity that comes with it. BJJ culture has a tendency to, how do I put this, glamorise what they are offering...

Obligatory: I am not a lawyer, and you must refer to the laws in your country/region/state/locality/etc, because they can be VERY different depending on where you are. Where I live, now, use of force in self-defense is justified if the victim sincerely believes there is a credible threat to their safety or the safety of someone else. This means that, in your hypothetical scenario, use of force is justified if you sincerely feel that your safety is threatened by the aggressive man invading your personal space. Generally, deadly force is only justified to stop grievous bodily harm or death, so it would not be appropriate to, for example, stab the aggressor in this scenario, unless they were larger/stronger, supported by a group, or had a weapon of their own, and you felt that your only way to stay alive was to end their life. You may have to testify to this in court. It's also important to bear in mind that, legality aside, maiming a person or ending their life with a weapon is VERY traumatic, and you will almost certainly need mental health services after the fact. As for the techniques or weapons you use, there is generally a force continuum that should be in place in your self-defense skill set to appropriately deal with threats, because if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, and if all you have is a firearm, everything looks like a target. People like to say "there are no rules in the streets" and "better to be judged by 12 than carried by 6," but there ARE rules--they're called "laws"--and if you end up in prison, you didn't make it home safely, which is the whole point of self-defense. The force continuum that you use is going to vary based on your training, but for me, I like to group things as follows: Low-risk threats (verbally abusive, escalating speech, shoving, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or restraint using pins and joint locks Medium-risk threats (punches, kicks, headbutts, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or strikes, throws, joint dislocations, and strangleholds to disable/knock out attacker or deescalate threat level High-risk threats (significant physical disadvantage, group violence, weapons, etc.) - Escape and evasion, or purpose-built and improvised weapons, strikes, throws, joint dislocations, and strangleholds to potentially kill or disable/knock out attacker or deescalate threat level Now, escape and evasion isn't always possible, and sometimes even when it is possible, it may not be the best course of action, such as in the case of a home invasion where you need to protect your family from the threat. Additionally, everyone's lines between those levels of threats will vary, based on a number of factors, not the least of which will be physical characteristics and level of training. The more physically gifted you are, or more well-trained you are, the more intense a threat generally needs to be for you to consider it an escalation. Someone who is 5ft tall, 100lbs, with zero training, could see a threat as high-risk that someone who is 6ft tall, 200lbs, with 10 years of training would consider to be a low-risk threat. Of course, your level of awareness is also going to come into play, because someone with a heightened sense of awareness could notice a knife in someone's pocket, or someone circling to get behind them, raising the threat level to high, while someone with a lower level of awareness might completely miss those things and mistakenly believe that they are in a low-risk situation.

So I saw Ian yesterday at his dan grading (he was grading for nidan). I asked him about that sokusen geri -- the third time, Gushi sensei hit him hard. Of course, Ian, being the good Uechi Ryu karateka he is, kept a stolid face. Gushi leaned in and whispered, "That hurt, didn't it?" He definitely nodded. It turns out he had a bruise on that thigh visible from across the room (his mom noticed too.) Fortunately being the young guy he is, he recovered in a few days.

Not a bad idea!! Thanks, Brian!!

When I owned/operated my dojo full-time, I’d train each morning several hours before my first class of that day. Often times, I’d squeeze in some training between classes. Most of the time, if I wasn’t going to be teaching on the floor, I’d be taking care of my daily duties, whether it be paperwork, making phone calls, working in my MA supply store, or who knows what. That’s why I always insisted to my students and instructors that there’s ALWAYS time in the day/night to squeeze in training. No practice makes a MAist very dull.

Are you in favor of the departments making BJJ mandatory?? I agree that the department should find the BJJ instructor AND pay for the training. Which if I’m not mistaken, anything made mandatory as far as training is concerned must be paid for by the employer, or at least claimed/written off in one’s tax return form.

I don't think the Super Bowl will ever by pay-per-view. The NFL makes too much money selling the rights to the Super Bowl, and networks pay it because they can make it back in advertising.

If you wait and watch as the game gets closer, you might be able to find some tickets at reduced prices. Just keep an eye out.

When you are looking at matters like this, from a legal standpoint, then you have to consider what a reasonable person might do in this situation. Not necessarily consider what skills he has or doesn't have. What is a reasonable response to someone entering your space unwarranted? To push them away or strike them? If you felt fear for your safety, then yes. The key is CYA - Can You Articulate you actions after you take them. You are very focused on what actions one should or should not take in a scenario such as this, but what you should be more focused on is if you can articulate why you took the actions you took against this aggressor. I'm the same way, and it's what I teach in my Defensive Tactics sessions. Too many bad things can happen while backing up. For one, you probably aren't able to see where you are going and what you might be bumping into or tripping over while backing up. You might run yourself into a wall, limiting your movement; you might step off a curb and get hit by a car; you might trip on something and fall on your back, inviting a ground fight you may not want. These things in themselves are all dangerous, and add to it the variable of an unstable individual acting towards you in a threatening manner, and it adds up to not good all the way around. Agreed. This is the amount of stepping back I teach in DT. Drop step back into a good base, and from there, everything else should be forward or at angles.

I'm not sure how popular JJJ was in the US prior to the advent of BJJ anyway. I know Wally Jay had a following, but I don't know how many traditional Jui-jitsu schools there were in the US.

That's an awesome training experience, @aurik. You are right about doing the same things from someone else's perspective; it helps you to see the same things in a different light and brings on new thoughts and methods of doing things. Sometimes you don't need to learn something different, just the same thing differently, to open avenues of growth. It's really cool how he pulled Zach aside to work with him. Awesome for him.