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Feb 01
2007
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February 2007 NewsletterPosted by KMSF in newsletter, interview |
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From Barny's Desk
"Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out."
The first and probably the most important part of self defense is learning to listen to your sixth sense. If you feel like something is not quite right, take a moment to heighten your senses, look around your immediate area, and prepare yourselffor a possible violent situation. Very often you will avoid a situation before it even develops into a physical altercation simply by using good instincts. Cross the street, go into a store, mingle with a crowd, do anything to avoid being caught by yourself when you feel something is wrong. Remember your training and that defense is reaction and offense is a thought process.
Happy Valentine's Day
Barny
Announcements and Events
Valentine’s Day Special: 2 for 1 special on 1st month of membership and enrollment!
Sign up with a friend to get your first month fees of membership and the enrollment fee cut in 1/2.
Call 415-921-0612 for details.
Yellow Belt Test:
March 10th 1:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Orange Belt Test:
March 31st 1:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Survey Response:
We have all the surveys tallied that were returned to us. We are responding with some changes listed below.
Schedule Changes:
Immediately: Moving the Kicking and Sword class from 6:00 PM Wednesday night to 5:00 PM on Wednesday
March 4th: Adding Kicking and Sword class at 1:00 PM
March: We are adding Cross-fit – Monday & Wednesday at 5:00 PM
March: We are ading a Stretching and Flexibility class Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 PM
We have had requests for more Intro to Fight classes so we will run 2 at the same time:
February 5th - Intro to Fight 6 week class will begin on Feb 5th at 8:00 PM
February 22nd - Another Intro to Fight will begin on Thursday at 6:00 PM for 6 weeks
Facilities Changes:
As many of you have noticed there was a nice woman roaming around the school for a few evenings with lots of papers laid out on a table. She is the architect that is doing the drawings for our remodel. Our basic plans are:
These upgrades are a very large undertaking and will take some time. We are waiting for plans to return from the architect and are anticipating that the construction will start this fall.
Survey drawing winners of 1 hour of private training:
Mita Patel
Luke Jones
Peter Larentzen
Please note: We got a very small percentage of survey responses based on our total number of students. We still need your input, and we need as many people as possible to respond so we can make the best decisions on your behalf. You can always ask for a survey at the front desk, or use this link: Suggestion Box to use the web site to give us any feedback that you might have for us any time.
Congratulations to Gabe Khorramian - Program Director of the Year
This is from the KM National Training Center's newsletter. This award is for the program director who meets and overcomes the obstacles involved in finding new members for Krav Maga. A great system is nothing without students who want to learn, and those people sign up because of Program Directors like this year’s winner. This year’s Program Director of the Year is presented to Gabriel Khorramian of Krav Maga Official Training Center of San Francisco, CA.
Food as Fuel Seminar
Learn how to eat for peak performance, decrease your body fat and build lean muscle mass.
Do you have extra holiday weight hanging around, and not dropping off as quickly as you would like? Do you feel like you are working out, but not losing the weight and getting the results you want?
Come to learn the fundamentals for nutrition, including: what and when to eat, meal planning, supplements, and nutrition for long term health care.
Date: Saturday, Febuary 10th., 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Cost: $15 for members
$20 non-members
3rd Annual Knife Defense Specialized Seminar
Intro & Advance Training February 17 & 18.
Intro to Knife - Saturday February 17: 1:30-5:30
Learn to defend yourself against common knife attacks from basic angles and threats. Ice pick, straight and upward stab defenses, as well as off angle threat will be covered.
Advance Knife Defense - Sunday February 18: 2:30-6:30
Learn to defend yourself against knife attacks against a wall, hostage situations. All with greater stress and intensity drills.
In order to take the advance knife, the intro is a pre-requisite.
Only Intro: $75 Package Special for Both Days: $129
Space is limited
Interview: Instructor Mike Rhine
KMSF: What is your martial arts training history?
MR: I didn't have any training background besides tennis, weightlifting and cardio work while I was working on the road a lot from 1987 to 1995. After I came back to the area I was working for my family, Barny mentioned that he had gotten into Chinese boxing, and he thought I might enjoy it. So I came down and tried it and fell in love with it immediately. As a big guy and weightlifter, I felt like it would help me with my speed and agility and it really did. It made me faster and more explosive and I was excited to be into it.
KMSF: How long did you practice Chinese boxing?
MR: Until they closed, about 6 years. Barny and I were going 5 days a week... as much as possible.
KMSF: How was the transition to Krav Maga for you?
MR: I think it was very easy for me. In the beginning, I wasn't that impressed with Krav, because the Chinese style is so open to change, so open to the moment, and you don't have to go through a sequential system. Like with Krav, you break the choke, throw the kick, hit with the elbow, and at the time I thought that was very confining. But over time as I learned more, it's not true. We learn to teach that way to help the beginners and once you get farther along in the system it opens up. Once I realized that with Krav, I fell in love with it too and I wanted to become an instructor.
KMSF: That's the experience I had with it. So why was that transition so easy for you?
MR: We were already very street oriented to begin with, the Chinese Boxing style we were taught was very aggressive and explosive, although the movements were different, Krav makes it simpler and easier to understand for anyone to pick it up. As a beginner you can only understand so much information before you are able to move on. One has to understand the basics before you can move on. With me already being advanced in Chinese Boxing, it bothered me a little in the beginning.
KMSF: It does seem a little similar to the problem with some traditional martial arts, where a student has to memorize a lot of prescribed movements. But the difference in the way that Krav does it is that they really place an emphasis on giving students a foundation for body movement, it's not just a bunch of fancy maneuvers that you may or may not use in a fight. They do a good job of providing building blocks.
MR: Absolutely, especially with teaching combatives first, and basic defenses against chokes for level one, all those things lead into other things you learn in the system. I always mention to my students, that they are learning this technique now, but down the road they will be using it in even more ways. I get a lot of students asking what about this or that situation, and I tell them don't worry about that now, down the road you will understand it more because of what you are doing now.
KMSF: So how do you feel like this kind of training has affected you on a personal level?
MR: Mentally, it has changed my life. Within three months of getting involved in Chinese boxing, I was a totally different person. Not that I didn't feel confident already, I felt strong physically, but it made me much more calm and focused and more relaxed in situations I couldn't control, situations on the street, just made me feel more relaxed and not threatened by anything, not defensive. It really helped with everything, even with my social life. It made me wish I had taken martial arts as a kid! I wish I had discovered what I learned when I was 10. I intend to have Marlee (Mike's daughter) take some martial arts and some ballet as soon as she can, for her balance and self confidence. When I was in high school I played a lot of tennis, it was my passion but I never thought of doing this type of training. The popularity wasn't there in the 70's and 80's so much as it is now.
KMSF: It does seem that martial arts training is a good basis for any other athletic sport. How old is your daughter now?
MR: 2 and 1/2.
KMSF: So how has being a Dad changed your life?
MR: In every way! My wife and I were looking at some pictures of us when we were younger, in high school, and in college, and I kept thinking that all these things we did don't mean anything compared to when Marlee came into our lives. Nothing is the same and I look back and its a blur, everything focuses on her.
KMSF: It definitely gives a greater context to martial arts as well. I think when you are dealing with self defense as a father, you are not just worried about yourself anymore, you are thinking about someone else now.
MR: Yes once I got married, everything changes I look at my wife and say I'm her protector, I would give up my life for her and my daughter, I wouldn't think twice to do that.
KMSF: Awesome, good people should have babies Michael!
MR: (laughing) Yes, all you good people out there, have a kid. Just be prepared for the tough times too, you know we have two labradors too, so between the dogs and the kid nothing fazes me anymore!
KMSF: So tell me a little about your career. I know you've done some interesting things in television and it sounds like you are getting back to doing some of that kind of work now right?
MR: I got out of college in 1987 and started working with a production company that specialized in sports. Through them I worked on many different sporting events, everything from skiing to professional football to the Olympics. I did up close and personal stories with athletes, traveled all over the place covering events like the US Open tennis tournament, the Olympics, even figure skating. I never thought I would know as much as I know about figure skating. I ended up working as a producer for NBC leading up to the Olympics in Barcelona. I was given wrestling, whitewater kayaking and canoeing. So within 6 months I had done stories on the top wrestlers of the time, like John Smith from Oklahoma State, and spent time with his family. Also Alexander Karelin, the great Siberian greco-roman wrester, and worked with Russ Helickson who was the head coach at Ohio State, he taught me a lot the rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan. When I was at the Olympics I got to spend a lot of time with these athletes which made the experience that much more exciting and something I will never forget. After Barcelona, I came back to San Francisco and started working for a PR firm that focused on sports called Jerry Diamond Public Relations. Jerry said he needed a PR guy to work with Penske racing, so within two weeks of getting home, I was on a racetrack with Team Penske working in Indycar racing. I was able to set up media days and work with the drivers. I got to go to the races, spend time at the Indy 500 and gain a lot of new experiences. At that time, I also became the head of PR for the new professional roller hockey league, it started with 12 teams and grew to 24, called Roller Hockey International (RHI). With RHI I got to fly from city to city and set up the PR for each team. It was a lot of fun.
KMSF: Sounds like fun and potentially stressful!
MR: Well, the stress I really found was working on the Olympics when you're on a deadline and on a few hours to turn around a whole days coverage of wrestling, as you're cutting in the edit room the master controller is calling you, it was right out of Broadcast News where I was running through the hallways with the tape to get it on live to the East Coast feed. That to me was stressful. But mostly it was a lot of fun. I loved sports, I got to do what I wanted to do, that's what made it so special. I had years of it until 1995, when my Dad passed away and my Mom asked me for help with the family business, at 77 Maiden Lane Salon and Spa. I got to take over the advertising and public relations. From there I became a consultant and started working for other people and companies and my life changed. I went from traveling all the time to being at home and having a social life again, training in martial arts, going out on dates, and eventually meeting my wife and all those other things that can come with not being on the road all the time.
KMSF: Tell me about your latest career change.
MR: Well without getting into to much detail, it's early on, but I have a partner in Los Angeles and we are starting up a film and television production company which will be producing some shows. We don't know what's going to come of it yet, it usually takes a couple years to get these things going and we're in the early stages of it. We each had story ideas that we loved, and we started working together and writing and realized that this is what we wanted to do. We want to take it to the next level to direct and oversee the productions and/or sell the ideas to the bigger companies and distributors. We have a long way to go but we're very serious about it and we're very focused. At the same time I have become the director of advertising for Storyopolis Art Gallery and Bookstore in Los Angeles which started as a small job and keeps getting bigger and bigger.
KMSF: Sounds like you have a full plate!
KMSF: Best of luck with that! Well, is there anything else you would like to add, anything you'd like to say in particular to students?
MR: My three main focuses when I get a new student is footwork, vision and developing power. And I hope they learn from that. I love teaching beginners. I like seeing someone come into the school with no background and watch them get better and better and more confident. I've been around since the beginning of this school, so I've seen people go through the entire system who are now probably more advanced than I am in Krav Maga because they are so into it. I love that, it's awesome to see.
Things Smart Girls Do
This list was sent to me by one of our long time students. It's a few valuable common sense preparations a woman can do to stay safe. Really these are for anyone, but it's especially good for women trying to make sure they don't end up in a tough spot.
"Good instincts usually tell you what to do long before your head has figured it out."
The first and probably the most important part of self defense is learning to listen to your sixth sense. If you feel like something is not quite right, take a moment to heighten your senses, look around your immediate area, and prepare yourselffor a possible violent situation. Very often you will avoid a situation before it even develops into a physical altercation simply by using good instincts. Cross the street, go into a store, mingle with a crowd, do anything to avoid being caught by yourself when you feel something is wrong. Remember your training and that defense is reaction and offense is a thought process.
Happy Valentine's Day
Barny
Announcements and Events
Valentine’s Day Special: 2 for 1 special on 1st month of membership and enrollment!
Sign up with a friend to get your first month fees of membership and the enrollment fee cut in 1/2.
Call 415-921-0612 for details.
Yellow Belt Test:
March 10th 1:30 pm - 5:30 pm
Orange Belt Test:
March 31st 1:30 pm - 6:30 pm
Survey Response:
We have all the surveys tallied that were returned to us. We are responding with some changes listed below.
Schedule Changes:
Immediately: Moving the Kicking and Sword class from 6:00 PM Wednesday night to 5:00 PM on Wednesday
March 4th: Adding Kicking and Sword class at 1:00 PM
March: We are adding Cross-fit – Monday & Wednesday at 5:00 PM
March: We are ading a Stretching and Flexibility class Monday and Wednesday at 6:00 PM
We have had requests for more Intro to Fight classes so we will run 2 at the same time:
February 5th - Intro to Fight 6 week class will begin on Feb 5th at 8:00 PM
February 22nd - Another Intro to Fight will begin on Thursday at 6:00 PM for 6 weeks
Facilities Changes:
As many of you have noticed there was a nice woman roaming around the school for a few evenings with lots of papers laid out on a table. She is the architect that is doing the drawings for our remodel. Our basic plans are:
- Room 2 will be enlarged to be about 10 feet longer
- Room 3 will become about the same size as room 1
- The lockers and showers will be incorporated together with bathrooms
- A room downstairs will be reserved for exclusively grappling
- Another room will be made downstairs as a cross-fit room.
These upgrades are a very large undertaking and will take some time. We are waiting for plans to return from the architect and are anticipating that the construction will start this fall.
Survey drawing winners of 1 hour of private training:
Mita Patel
Luke Jones
Peter Larentzen
Please note: We got a very small percentage of survey responses based on our total number of students. We still need your input, and we need as many people as possible to respond so we can make the best decisions on your behalf. You can always ask for a survey at the front desk, or use this link: Suggestion Box to use the web site to give us any feedback that you might have for us any time.
Congratulations to Gabe Khorramian - Program Director of the Year
This is from the KM National Training Center's newsletter. This award is for the program director who meets and overcomes the obstacles involved in finding new members for Krav Maga. A great system is nothing without students who want to learn, and those people sign up because of Program Directors like this year’s winner. This year’s Program Director of the Year is presented to Gabriel Khorramian of Krav Maga Official Training Center of San Francisco, CA.
Food as Fuel Seminar
Learn how to eat for peak performance, decrease your body fat and build lean muscle mass.
Do you have extra holiday weight hanging around, and not dropping off as quickly as you would like? Do you feel like you are working out, but not losing the weight and getting the results you want?
Come to learn the fundamentals for nutrition, including: what and when to eat, meal planning, supplements, and nutrition for long term health care.
Date: Saturday, Febuary 10th., 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Cost: $15 for members
$20 non-members
3rd Annual Knife Defense Specialized Seminar
Intro & Advance Training February 17 & 18.
Intro to Knife - Saturday February 17: 1:30-5:30
Learn to defend yourself against common knife attacks from basic angles and threats. Ice pick, straight and upward stab defenses, as well as off angle threat will be covered.
Advance Knife Defense - Sunday February 18: 2:30-6:30
Learn to defend yourself against knife attacks against a wall, hostage situations. All with greater stress and intensity drills.
In order to take the advance knife, the intro is a pre-requisite.
Only Intro: $75 Package Special for Both Days: $129
Space is limited
Interview: Instructor Mike Rhine
KMSF: What is your martial arts training history?
MR: I didn't have any training background besides tennis, weightlifting and cardio work while I was working on the road a lot from 1987 to 1995. After I came back to the area I was working for my family, Barny mentioned that he had gotten into Chinese boxing, and he thought I might enjoy it. So I came down and tried it and fell in love with it immediately. As a big guy and weightlifter, I felt like it would help me with my speed and agility and it really did. It made me faster and more explosive and I was excited to be into it.
KMSF: How long did you practice Chinese boxing?
MR: Until they closed, about 6 years. Barny and I were going 5 days a week... as much as possible.
KMSF: How was the transition to Krav Maga for you?
MR: I think it was very easy for me. In the beginning, I wasn't that impressed with Krav, because the Chinese style is so open to change, so open to the moment, and you don't have to go through a sequential system. Like with Krav, you break the choke, throw the kick, hit with the elbow, and at the time I thought that was very confining. But over time as I learned more, it's not true. We learn to teach that way to help the beginners and once you get farther along in the system it opens up. Once I realized that with Krav, I fell in love with it too and I wanted to become an instructor.
KMSF: That's the experience I had with it. So why was that transition so easy for you?
MR: We were already very street oriented to begin with, the Chinese Boxing style we were taught was very aggressive and explosive, although the movements were different, Krav makes it simpler and easier to understand for anyone to pick it up. As a beginner you can only understand so much information before you are able to move on. One has to understand the basics before you can move on. With me already being advanced in Chinese Boxing, it bothered me a little in the beginning.
KMSF: It does seem a little similar to the problem with some traditional martial arts, where a student has to memorize a lot of prescribed movements. But the difference in the way that Krav does it is that they really place an emphasis on giving students a foundation for body movement, it's not just a bunch of fancy maneuvers that you may or may not use in a fight. They do a good job of providing building blocks.
MR: Absolutely, especially with teaching combatives first, and basic defenses against chokes for level one, all those things lead into other things you learn in the system. I always mention to my students, that they are learning this technique now, but down the road they will be using it in even more ways. I get a lot of students asking what about this or that situation, and I tell them don't worry about that now, down the road you will understand it more because of what you are doing now.
KMSF: So how do you feel like this kind of training has affected you on a personal level?
MR: Mentally, it has changed my life. Within three months of getting involved in Chinese boxing, I was a totally different person. Not that I didn't feel confident already, I felt strong physically, but it made me much more calm and focused and more relaxed in situations I couldn't control, situations on the street, just made me feel more relaxed and not threatened by anything, not defensive. It really helped with everything, even with my social life. It made me wish I had taken martial arts as a kid! I wish I had discovered what I learned when I was 10. I intend to have Marlee (Mike's daughter) take some martial arts and some ballet as soon as she can, for her balance and self confidence. When I was in high school I played a lot of tennis, it was my passion but I never thought of doing this type of training. The popularity wasn't there in the 70's and 80's so much as it is now.
KMSF: It does seem that martial arts training is a good basis for any other athletic sport. How old is your daughter now?
MR: 2 and 1/2.
KMSF: So how has being a Dad changed your life?
MR: In every way! My wife and I were looking at some pictures of us when we were younger, in high school, and in college, and I kept thinking that all these things we did don't mean anything compared to when Marlee came into our lives. Nothing is the same and I look back and its a blur, everything focuses on her.
KMSF: It definitely gives a greater context to martial arts as well. I think when you are dealing with self defense as a father, you are not just worried about yourself anymore, you are thinking about someone else now.
MR: Yes once I got married, everything changes I look at my wife and say I'm her protector, I would give up my life for her and my daughter, I wouldn't think twice to do that.
KMSF: Awesome, good people should have babies Michael!
MR: (laughing) Yes, all you good people out there, have a kid. Just be prepared for the tough times too, you know we have two labradors too, so between the dogs and the kid nothing fazes me anymore!
KMSF: So tell me a little about your career. I know you've done some interesting things in television and it sounds like you are getting back to doing some of that kind of work now right?
MR: I got out of college in 1987 and started working with a production company that specialized in sports. Through them I worked on many different sporting events, everything from skiing to professional football to the Olympics. I did up close and personal stories with athletes, traveled all over the place covering events like the US Open tennis tournament, the Olympics, even figure skating. I never thought I would know as much as I know about figure skating. I ended up working as a producer for NBC leading up to the Olympics in Barcelona. I was given wrestling, whitewater kayaking and canoeing. So within 6 months I had done stories on the top wrestlers of the time, like John Smith from Oklahoma State, and spent time with his family. Also Alexander Karelin, the great Siberian greco-roman wrester, and worked with Russ Helickson who was the head coach at Ohio State, he taught me a lot the rivalry between Ohio State and Michigan. When I was at the Olympics I got to spend a lot of time with these athletes which made the experience that much more exciting and something I will never forget. After Barcelona, I came back to San Francisco and started working for a PR firm that focused on sports called Jerry Diamond Public Relations. Jerry said he needed a PR guy to work with Penske racing, so within two weeks of getting home, I was on a racetrack with Team Penske working in Indycar racing. I was able to set up media days and work with the drivers. I got to go to the races, spend time at the Indy 500 and gain a lot of new experiences. At that time, I also became the head of PR for the new professional roller hockey league, it started with 12 teams and grew to 24, called Roller Hockey International (RHI). With RHI I got to fly from city to city and set up the PR for each team. It was a lot of fun.
KMSF: Sounds like fun and potentially stressful!
MR: Well, the stress I really found was working on the Olympics when you're on a deadline and on a few hours to turn around a whole days coverage of wrestling, as you're cutting in the edit room the master controller is calling you, it was right out of Broadcast News where I was running through the hallways with the tape to get it on live to the East Coast feed. That to me was stressful. But mostly it was a lot of fun. I loved sports, I got to do what I wanted to do, that's what made it so special. I had years of it until 1995, when my Dad passed away and my Mom asked me for help with the family business, at 77 Maiden Lane Salon and Spa. I got to take over the advertising and public relations. From there I became a consultant and started working for other people and companies and my life changed. I went from traveling all the time to being at home and having a social life again, training in martial arts, going out on dates, and eventually meeting my wife and all those other things that can come with not being on the road all the time.
KMSF: Tell me about your latest career change.
MR: Well without getting into to much detail, it's early on, but I have a partner in Los Angeles and we are starting up a film and television production company which will be producing some shows. We don't know what's going to come of it yet, it usually takes a couple years to get these things going and we're in the early stages of it. We each had story ideas that we loved, and we started working together and writing and realized that this is what we wanted to do. We want to take it to the next level to direct and oversee the productions and/or sell the ideas to the bigger companies and distributors. We have a long way to go but we're very serious about it and we're very focused. At the same time I have become the director of advertising for Storyopolis Art Gallery and Bookstore in Los Angeles which started as a small job and keeps getting bigger and bigger.
KMSF: Sounds like you have a full plate!
KMSF: Best of luck with that! Well, is there anything else you would like to add, anything you'd like to say in particular to students?
MR: My three main focuses when I get a new student is footwork, vision and developing power. And I hope they learn from that. I love teaching beginners. I like seeing someone come into the school with no background and watch them get better and better and more confident. I've been around since the beginning of this school, so I've seen people go through the entire system who are now probably more advanced than I am in Krav Maga because they are so into it. I love that, it's awesome to see.
Things Smart Girls Do
This list was sent to me by one of our long time students. It's a few valuable common sense preparations a woman can do to stay safe. Really these are for anyone, but it's especially good for women trying to make sure they don't end up in a tough spot.
- Memorize (don't rely on your cell phone contact list!):
- the name of a reliable cab company and a personal cab driver, if you're lucky enough to have one (and know what hours he/she works).
- the number of your local police station; not 911 but just their station number. Know where the station is.
- at least one credit card number and the security number and expiration date; risky for the shopping addicted among us but good to have access to money if needed.
- Make sure a friend knows where you are going, who you are going with, and when you expect to return.
- Know where you are going and how to get back on your own, if you don't know the area then use an online map service to print out your route home.
- Carry hidden cash somewhere; preferably not a single large bill but ones, fives and tens.
- Know what stores around you are open late or 24 hours. Show your face there every so often.
- When you're on a date with someone you don't know well yet, check your coat separately.
- And, of course, make sure your cell phone is always charged.
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