Krav Maga Lake Norman

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This is why we teach how to handle parking lot disputes. Funny that no other supposed self-defense schools in the area do.

This month's student spotlight goes to Ken. Why? Because he puts a bunch of younger students to shame.

Ken's so old he was around when the Dead Sea wasn't even dead, and he used to have coffee with Jesus.

He turns up on Mondays and Wednesdays, does the beginner's class, then the Kali class, then the advanced class. I've got students a quarter of his age who come to a class once every 2 weeks.

PS: He wanted to get better at breakfalls, so he bought an old mattress, threw it on his garage floor, and went to work.

Be more like Ken

NUMBER 6: Mindset is the most critical skill to learn.

There are 3 things you need to win a fight: (Four if you're going to war with weapons)

They are: Techniques, Tactics, and Mindset.

Of those 3, mindset is hands down the most important because without the correct mindset, your techniques and tactics won't get used at all.

It's one of the reasons we hear of so many black belts getting their arses kicked in street fights. Beautiful techniques, not so effective mindset.

Hell, most instructors can't even define it. And, if you ask them how they train it, or instill it into their students, they'll stare at you blankly or make up some gibberish.

Mindset isn't optional. It's the deciding factor.

It can be trained. It's not something you have, or you don't.

At our school, it's not an afterthought or not thought about at all. It's built into everything we do.

PS: It's the reason ALL Special Forces selection is about mindset. To the uninitiated, when they see the grueling physical endurance requirements, they think it's all about being in shape.

News flash, all the candidates are in prime physical shape when they attempt selection. They won't quit because they're not in shape physically. They'll do so because they don't have the necessary mindset.

NUMBER 5: If everyone trained, there would be no violent crime rate.

James Reid, a black belt in Australia, told me this when I'd just joined the school. "Imagine everyone in the city was a black belt; there'd be no violent crime.

That always stuck with me.

People overseas have probably never heard of Kennesaw, Georgia, the town, where, by law, every household is required to own a gun.

Now, it's been passed around the internet that when that law was introduced, it caused an 80% drop in crime overnight.

Here's the reality: the law was never enforced despite being passed. Sheriffs didn't go door to door and make sure people were in compliance, so not everyone did go out and buy a gun.

But, the year before the law was passed, Kennesaw had 1 homicide, 4 armed robberies, 55 burglaries, 9 aggravated assaults, and 3 r**es.

The following year: zero homicides, zero r**es, zero armed robberies, and only 19 burglaries.

It wasn't about the law or the guns. It's the message it sent to the criminals. Here was a town of people who criminals had to assume were armed, with the blessings of local law enforcement.

Once that assumption set in, predators (as I mentioned in yesterday's post) went looking for easier pickings.

Now, swap "guns" for "training."

Imagine an area where criminals couldn't assume anyone was an easy target. Where the default assumption was: This person might know what they're doing.

Now, momma didn't raise no fool. I don't think I'm going to get every household in Lake Norman to enroll in my Krav school. But every person who walks into that school shifts that perception just a little bit more.

We become a community that collectively looks like more trouble than it's worth.

That's why that one is in the creed.

NUMBER THREE: Dangerous People Are Harder To Stop/Kill.

This one should be fairly obvious, but apparently not to the huge pool of victims walking around every day.

Predators aren't looking for fights; they're looking for prey. The weaker the prey is, the more likely the predator is to attack it.

Bullies in schools aren't picking on the head of the wrestling team.

All crime, whether it's burglary, assault, r**e, murder, road rage, or carjacking, begins with selection.

Martial arts schools don't teach this, i.e., how to reduce someone's risk of being chosen in the first place.

Read the Greyson/Stein study for the science on this. Human predators, in the study, passed over some small women and chose bigger men as victims. Their decision was based on how the victim carried themselves.

Dangerous people walk with confidence, scan their surroundings, and look like they can handle themselves, ergo they get passed over.

If they do get attacked, they're far more capable of inflicting serious injuries on their attacker, which almost always results in the bad guy breaking off the attack.

We were talking about this last night in class. How many fights I was in on the door that stopped the instant the pack realized I was trained.

The second they'd see a roundhouse kick to the head, a double leg footsweep, or a shoulder throw, they'd back off. It's fun when both sides are belting one another, and all they're getting is a black eye and a fat lip. Once they realized the stakes had been raised, the men got separated from the boys fairly quickly.

Another reason being dangerous is good. Dangerous people are not out of shape, so again, they are harder to stop. And that's not just from an attack, that's being more resistant to disease and injury.

How many times have I heard doctors say, "He's got a very good chance of survival due to him being in such great shape." And let's not forget, almost everyone who died from covid had comorbidities. The single biggest killer was being obese.

If you were healthy and in shape, you walked it off; if you spent years neglecting your health, you didn't.

We teach both at Krav Maga LKN. The training will get you in shape, and you'll learn the physical moves to make you a more formidable opponent.

PS: It's always fun to see the reactions at networking groups when someone asks, "So, what do you do for a living? "I make people more dangerous." :)

Kids and self-defense. What's the right age to start, and what does the science say?

See in comments

NUMBER TWO: The lies you tell, and no, that's not what the police are for.

All day, every day, people find out I teach self-defense, and they pipe up with the amazingly stupid statement, "I don't need to learn that, that's what the police are for."

I'll go over the psychology of that idiocy in a minute, but let's cover the police angle first.

No, the police are not there for your protection, Gladys.

• The Supreme Court ruled the police have ZERO obligation to protect you. (Castle Rock v. Gonzales; 2005). They established a precedent stating that police departments have no affirmative obligation to protect citizens.

This stemmed from a case in which a woman had a restraining order (those are as much use as chocolate teapots) against her husband. He kidnapped the 3 kids. She called the police repeatedly, and they did nothing. He then murdered the kids. The court ruled she had no constitutional right to the enforcement of that order.

How about Uvalde, Texas, where the police stood outside the school while the gunman was inside murdering children. How did that logic work out for everyone?

• The police are reactive, not protective. In other words, they deal with crime AFTER the fact. So after you've been r**ed, beaten up, or robbed, they'll come and take a report. They are NOT your personal security detail.

• Here's the real reason people say drivel like this. They're terrified, but they won't admit it. The idea that they could be a victim of a violent crime is genuinely frightening.

Rather than do something about it, it's easier to outsource it to a 3rd party, someone with a badge and a gun, and pretend the problem is solved. It costs them nothing and requires no intellectual honesty or courage.

• Learned Helplessness: They've convinced themselves they can't defend themselves, so, instead of being honest, they build a worldview where they don't have to. It's not weakness if it's the government's job, right?

• The Ostrich Effect: If they don't think about violence, maybe it won't happen. Taking a class with someone like me forces them to confront the reality that bad things can happen to them. That's uncomfortable, and it's just easier to live in denial.

So, that's why our number 2 statement on the creed is "Your security and safety are your responsibility."