ESP Biography

Self-defense is a rather overused term that has come to me anything related to fending off hostile aggressors. Unfortunately, many self-defense lessons miss a crucial part of maintaining personal safety: recognizing and dealing with a threat before it becomes serious. This class will focus on learning a set of relatively straightforward techniques for dealing with dangerous situations. We will cover the following topics roughly in the order they appear since this represents the gradual escalation of a threat (so hopefully if you do the first few well, you need not be as concerned with the latter): -how to diffuse threats before they manifest (eg-body posture, behavior), -how to identify when a dangerous situation arises (eg-how to identify a potential aggressor, gauging at what distance they are actually threatening) -how to extricate oneself from a dangerous situation before it escalates (eg-effective evasion techniques, when it is safe to run away) -what to do if combat breaks out (simple and effective combat techniques, how to open up the opportunity to flee) -how to handle a few specific scenarios (eg-dealing with a weapon, being seized) -If time permits, and if the students are interested, we might also go over some striking techniques (though actually becoming proficient would take far more time than we have available) Also, I am open to student suggestions, though bare in mind that if an activity is unsafe, we won't be doing it. Nothing we do will involve full combat, and no former training is required, though understand that some risk is always inherent in this sort of training. Provided all participants conduct themselves appropriately, I do not foresee any major problems, but please recognize that accidents can happen. That said, I will do my utmost to ensure everyone has a safe and enjoyable experience, and I believe that students will be safer in the future.