Category: General

Fighting isn’t just fighting in boxing, muay thai, MMA or any martial art. Meaning, it’s not merely throwing out punches or practicing your defense. There is so much more depth and meaning to these sports & arts. It goes beyond the physical and seeps its way into your daily life. It helps you grow not […]

When discussing the topic of “Self Defense”, there is oftentimes the tendency to only mention the physical elements of defending oneself. You will hear experts and instructors alike discussing martial skill, specific techniques, things like drawstroke from a holster, reload skill, how to escape a choke and why this method is better than that and […]

Most of us are familiar with the idiom, “the straw that broke the camel’s back”, the idea that it may only take a small thing, when added to many others, to cause an extreme reaction or response. It is often used as a mechanism to explain, extreme acts of violence, where the trigger that caused […]

In many potentially violent situations, where de-escalation is appropriate, the incident needs to be brought under control quickly i.e., there isn’t the time for a protracted discussion on the rights and wrongs of what has happened etc. If somebody is highly emotional and in a volatile state, this needs to be addressed immediately, however not […]

Victimology is the study of victimization. It looks at why some individuals are targeted and not others e.g., their relationship with the perpetrator of the crime etc., and what the emotional and psychological effects of being victimized may be. In many ways, victims of crime have become largely “invisible” within the Criminal Justice System, as […]

Often people will look at risk as existing on a spectrum, of low to high e.g. sitting in your living room watching TV is a low risk situation/environment, whilst going for a walk in a bad neighborhood late at night is a high risk activity, etc. There is some logic to this, however the danger […]

Wherever possible, I try to be scientific in my approach to self-defense and personal safety. I try to take an evidence and research-based approach to the study of violence, rather than other people’s well-intentioned good ideas about what they think violence looks like. When I am speaking with fellow professionals who are expressing ideas based […]

With many of us previously being on lockdown due to COVID-19, I thought it interesting to see how the stay-at-home advisory may have affected different types of crime, by comparing the incidents of various offenses in May, with those of previous years. When looking at any crime statistics it is worth reminding ourselves of certain […]

The question of, “How could COVID-19 affect crime rates?” probably isn’t one that many people are thinking about at this time, which is understandable, however it is worth understanding how disease, pandemics and our responses at all levels have the potential to increase criminal activity both in the short and long-term. This brief article looks […]

Back in March, I had to suspend all plans for our women’s self-defense program for a few weeks and also suspend our regular in-person training classes, to try to help slow down the spread of COVID-19. I apologize for writing article in relation to the pandemic, however I’d urge you to stay with me and […]