It’s no secret that my love for fitness training and passion for human efficiency grew out of my martial arts training. It’s also no secret that I spent several years working as a full time Pub & Nightclub doorman.
Every now and again I run a self defence workshop, I almost always run one at the end of the year as this is when the streets go wild and the number of assaults rise as the silly season kicks in.
This year though will be a little bit different.
In my gym I have several people who work in the Social and Health services, who from time to time stay back after training to ask me questions about dealing with aggression and aggressive behaviour.
This means I have to lecture them on what we call “Non-Violent Conflict Management”
Lets be realistic for a moment. I’m 6′ 2″, 90kg, strong determined and trained.
Do the maths.
Do you think you could stop me without taking damage?
What if I was armed?
This is where the non-violent methods really stand. It’s the art of preventing the assault happening in the first place. It means that the 5’5″, 65 kg female doesn’t have to deal with me throwing her around like a rag doll.
Non-Violent Conflict Management is non sexy but it very often works and not just in a professional environment. It may be the key to preventing a situation from escalating into physical violence.
If you’ve taken one of my courses you’ll have heard me talk about the Self Defence Continuum, which is a fancy term that simply rounds up the basis of my teaching. The continuum is:
Avoid – Evade – Confront
The first two points, Avoid & Evade are where the Non Violent training sit, the third option, Confront is for when force becomes the only option.
So this is going to make up a good section of this years course. Most of the first day to be fair. This means on day one we’ll look into:
The Self-Defence continuum of Avoid-Evade-Confront
Non Violent Conflict Management
Situational Awareness
Body Language
The “Fence” concept
Introduction to the hard skills
Then on Day 2:
Quick review of day 1
Developing the hard skills
Determination drills
Intro to “anti-grappling”
It’ll be a busy 2 days, but valuable. With luck I’ll have with me on day 1 an expert in the field of social services who’s worked with young offenders and the mentally ill. Her presentation alone is worth the rest of the course.
For details on booking, follow THIS LINK
Regards
Dave Hedges www.WG-Fit.com & www.WildGeeseMA.com