|
Oct 01
2006
|
October 2006 NewsletterPosted by KMSF in newsletter, interview |
 |
From Barny's Desk
There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.
We can all follow the advice of the masters. If walking at night have a friend with you, only travel on well-lit streets, know your route and the public places that are open, walk close to the curb, if driving find your keys and have them in your hand before leaving the building... Even if you do all the right things there is no guarantee you can avoid a potentially violent situation. If you find yourself in a bad place think of it as an opportunity to get out of the problem before it becomes physical. Posture yourself in a non-threatening manner and try to talk your way through it. If it does become physical your training will kick in, fight back as if you were a crazed animal and get to a safe place as quickly as you can.
Barny
Announcements and Events
Women's Self Defense Seminar
November 4th and 5th
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM each day Saturday and Sunday
The Seminar is designed to train participants with simulated exercises that include the psychological and physical aspects of a real attack or sexual assault. Participants will learn environmental awareness as well as many defenses, both verbal and physical, that can be used when most needed in a confrontation. This women’s only seminar is a lot of fun, a terrific workout, and is a must for any woman.
Cost: $149 for both days
Sword/Staff Seminar
November 18th 2:00pm -4:30pm $28 members $35 for non-members
Class change: TRX/yoga to CrossFit
"In a nutshell, Crossfit is a collection of functional movements that are constantly varried, done at high intensity."
KMSF Instructor Kathleen Finnerty
The morning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays are changing from TRX/yoga to CrossFit. Kat attended the cross-fit instructor certification class recently and is really excited to start teaching this to our students.
This is from the official Crossfit web site(www.crossfit.com): "CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
This program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness. The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience."
The Sword/Kicking class
This class is changing from Friday 6:00 pm – to Wednesday 6:00 pm
The Gun Defense Seminar is sold out!
Keep an eye out for upcoming seminars and we will be sure to offer this curriculum again.
Intro-Fight 6 Week Series
Begins Mondays, October 23rd at 8:00 pm
Yellow Belt Test
Saturday October 14th
Interview: Nina Shirazi
Nina has been with us since the beginning of the San Francisco school, meanwhile she has also been going to college and earning several degrees. Recently we sat down for some Italian food and conversation about her life in and out of the SF Training Center.
KMSF: So what kind of degree do you have?
NS: Psychology. My Bachelor's is in pschychology with a minor in Human Sexuality. Then I got my Master's Degree in Integral Counseling Psychology. I finished that a year ago.
KMSF: Does that curriculum incorporate various modes of therapy?
NS: Yes. My Master's program wasn't strict Freudian or Jungian as compared to my Bachelor's program. It was exploring all types of theories, and discovering what works for you as an individual.
KMSF: What do you really want to focus on?
NS: I want to work with people again. I really miss working with autistic kids. It was one of my favorite jobs. It was so different every day and with kids, you really see their development. They're learning and absorbing everything. And that was fun, seeing them grow and learn. We did everything from teaching them how to ride a bike to teaching academic subjects.
KMSF: How long have you been doing Krav now?
NS: I signed up within a few days of my birthday, as it was my birthday present to myself, so it would have been early October 2002. Back at the Marina school.
KMSF: I didn't realize you went over there.
NS: Yeah, I remember seeing you while waiting for level one to begin, you sparring with Kennedy and some of the other old school guys.
KMSF: Hah, yeah, when it used to be easier to punch those guys. Now it's not so easy.
NS: Yeah, they're great to work with, that's how you learn.
KMSF: Awesome. So 4 years. You must be one of our longest running students. You and I chat sometimes about martial arts and psychology, is that something you think about in this school?
NS: I've always been an observer of people, but I would say in Krav class I just want to make sure I'm doing things right. I kind of immerse myself in it. Does that answer your question?
KMSF: Well a basic example is how things relate, such as in the way that self defense training might make you more able to handle stressful situations.
NS: Well here's the thing, the job I'm doing is definitely like that. I do notice that my breathing gets very shallow, and when I get out of there I want to stretch out and breath deeper! Basically in the beginning, it was very simple why I joined Krav. I never had any self defense training before. The closest thing I had to it, was a friend in high school had gotten some free lessons for two at a karate school in Walnut Creek. Then I moved to the city in late 1999 and I just wanted to learn self defense, street safety. I read an article about Krav and it looked very straight forward, no rules, and I said, 'That's me, I want the bottom line'. I just wanted to learn self defense.
KMSF: Do you remember your first class?
NS: Yeah, it was fun. Barny took us through some warm-ups, some fighting stance, some punches and kicks. I loved that about the old school, the classes were small and Barny is great with detail. He gave me a lot of feedback on what I needed to correct.
KMSF: So what you got you started in sparring? Not a lot of women choose to do that.
NS: Hah, yeah, you weren't taking it easy on me either. That was the way to learn though, sucking it up. It was a little more than two years ago.
KMSF: Have you been in any situations where you thought you might need to use your self defense skills?
NS: Mostly close calls, a few situations that could have been worse. In a bar I had a guy come up to me, clearly drunk, wouldn't leave me alone. I pushed him off me a few times, but he kept trying to come back. I was still pretty new to Krav. The third time he ended up draping his arm over me, so I gave him a quick cross to the Adam's apple. He fell back, and that was that. But I have never had to fight back full force or anything so I've been lucky. It's important to me to be aware of my surroundings, and to balance not feeling threatened and defensive all the time.
KMSF: I have had another student say that, when he started training at first it stressed him out and made him hyper-vigilant. Once he started thinking about it, he realized how vulnerable we all are. We need some kind of happy medium between being aware yet not paranoid.
NS: Yeah that's not a good way to live. Thankfully I have not had to use it in a serious situation, and it's great insurance to have. As far as getting into sparring, when I went up to Level 3 we had to start sparring. I was sucking at it at first, you were pretty tough on me. I was in there with a lot of big guys that had been doing it for a long time, I was just more on the defensive. It took me a long time to get over that.
KMSF: How did you react to getting hit the first time?
NS: I was just nervous about it, I was thinking I can't get hit! Then as I started to get more comfortable, I realized you're going to get hit even if you're the best fighter in the world. I realized I don't just have to cower back and be defensive, I can go in with confidence and do something, throw a combination, and if it doesn't work, find another way. So I have been going with that and I love it now!
KMSF: Isn't it fun to hit somebody?
NS: Yes, (laughing) absolutely.
KMSF: Yeah most of us are pretty civilized, we normally don't want to hit anybody. It's easy to explore the mind set of being aggressive when you work with pads, but when you are in front of someone in a sparring situation you worry about upsetting them.
NS: Exactly, then you're actually making contact with the person.
KMSF: Yes, I see it in people getting started, especially women, they don't want to hit someone. I say you have to let yourself want to do this, to hit the target. If you don't then you will get hit yourself, because it takes 10 seconds for this other person to realize you don't want to hit them and they have to respect the fact that you will. It takes a while to get past that, plus the worry about making someone angry.
NS: Yeah that was what I experienced in the beginning! I didn't want to make someone angry. You do it with respect to your partner. I've always had a good experience with that here. I pretty much want to shake hands or hug people afterwards and say 'Good job!'. That is a big part of it. I noticed that when I started to branch out a bit and start hitting, I hit softly, thinking, is this ok? Can I really do this? Of course if you are working with someone more advanced they're not just going to pound on you, they're going to work with you and help you out. And if I'm the one who is working with a beginner I'm going to work more on their level. It is nice to work with someone who is better than you, or on the same level as you because you don't have to worry about them. One of the best things I did was doing the bucking and rolling drill with teacher Mike and one other big guy, so I thought if I can do it with those guys, it's all good. You learn so much working with all different levels. Hey, you want to hear my first bloody nose story?
KMSF: Oh yeah sure!
NS: I didn't get the bloody nose, I gave it! I haven't had one and I plan to keep it that way.
KMSF: Arright then, I want to hear that story.
NS: I haven't seen this guy again, it was about a year ago. He was very new and he came in very aggressive, like a punching machine. So I said 'Ok, if that's how it going to be, I gotta to play up to that level' and never mind the feeling it out kind of thing. So I caught him with a good jab while he was coming in which made the impact even more. As we kept sparring I saw the blood start to pour out. I thought to myself 'Oh my God I did that!' Part of me felt bad like I hurt him, the other part, was saying 'My skills have really improved!' I was able to defend so much faster than before. When he left to clean up and came back, Barny happened to come by. I don't know how much this helped the guy's ego either when Barny said 'Did you do that to him?' I said yeah and he goes 'Arright!' and then walks out. I felt a little conflicted, I'm not out to hurt anybody but on the other side he going really hard and so I said 'Fine, lets fight hard then.'
KMSF: Yes, I finally realized I had to call it out as an issue. People don't realize that they are the ones that raise the level of intensity, there is this escalation process where the person who is not aware of themselves goes too hard, then they get hit too hard and don't understand why. Plus when you are tense and you get hit, it hurts more! So I try to warn people about it that sooner rather than later.
NS: Yes, I felt a little bad, but I was proud of myself for doing what I had to do. I wasn't angry, or anything. I was very calm about it.
Strategic Thinking
stra·te·gic adj.
1. Of or relating to strategy.
2.
a. Important or essential in relation to a plan of action: a strategic withdrawal.
b. Essential to the effective conduct of war: strategic materials.
c. Highly important to an intended objective: The staff discussed strategic marketing factors.
3. Intended to destroy the military potential of an enemy: strategic bombing.
I think we can all agree that definitions 2a and 2c are the most relevant to all of us. Some of us are more inclined to be strategic thinkers than others, but it ought to be of some interest to anyone who is concerned about personal safety.
In order to avoid situations where your personal safety is threatened, or to get out of them as best you can, strategic thinking is a skill we all need to work on. It can be learned like anything else. Another factor that might motivate you is this: the people that are out to get us in some way or another, generally use some kind of strategic thinking to select their targets as well. Obviously this might exclude random un-premeditated attacks and sudden violent outbursts, but there are still some strategic elements to those types of scenarios as well.
An example of a basic criminal strategy could be this: an aggressive thief wants to rob people of wallets, and so he selects a part of town and begins looking for people who satisfy several of his strategic criterion: they must be alone, appear to have some money, it's a plus if the potential victim isn't paying attention somehow (on a cell phone, listening to headphones), and it's usually going to be at night time to avoid detection.
We have to maintain a counter strategy to this risky scenario. So much of it is common sense, but even the most savvy urban citizens among us have probably found themselves in a tight spot before. We ought to know where we're going, who we're meeting and when, exactly how to get there, not walk home alone if we're too inebriated, and all the other things we wouldn't want our sons and daughters doing. However, it can easily get more complicated, as in the case of multiple attackers, or situations where you might be protecting a friend, a child or spouse.
You can use games to develop your strategic thinking ability. Probably the most prolific intellectual example is chess. Of course the are many others, and sports are included. A good activity will encourage you to plan several moves ahead, and be enjoyable.
There are plenty of books on the subject, such as ancient texts from feudal times like Musashi's "Go Rin No Sho" (Book of 5 Rings) or "The Art of War". Nowadays, doing a search on Amazon for "strategic thinking" nets over 9000 results, many of them about business but also some interesting titles like "Strategic Thinking in Criminal Intelligence" or "The Art of Thinking".
It's usually no more than planning ahead, but it's worth considering how strategic thinking could be used by you to avoid situations that could put you or your loved ones at risk. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and as M always used to say to James Bond: "Always have an escape plan."
APA: strategic. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 01, 2006, from Dictionary.com web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strategic
There is no security on this earth; there is only opportunity.
We can all follow the advice of the masters. If walking at night have a friend with you, only travel on well-lit streets, know your route and the public places that are open, walk close to the curb, if driving find your keys and have them in your hand before leaving the building... Even if you do all the right things there is no guarantee you can avoid a potentially violent situation. If you find yourself in a bad place think of it as an opportunity to get out of the problem before it becomes physical. Posture yourself in a non-threatening manner and try to talk your way through it. If it does become physical your training will kick in, fight back as if you were a crazed animal and get to a safe place as quickly as you can.
Barny
Announcements and Events
Women's Self Defense Seminar
November 4th and 5th
2:00 PM - 5:00 PM each day Saturday and Sunday
The Seminar is designed to train participants with simulated exercises that include the psychological and physical aspects of a real attack or sexual assault. Participants will learn environmental awareness as well as many defenses, both verbal and physical, that can be used when most needed in a confrontation. This women’s only seminar is a lot of fun, a terrific workout, and is a must for any woman.
Cost: $149 for both days
Sword/Staff Seminar
November 18th 2:00pm -4:30pm $28 members $35 for non-members
Class change: TRX/yoga to CrossFit
"In a nutshell, Crossfit is a collection of functional movements that are constantly varried, done at high intensity."
KMSF Instructor Kathleen Finnerty
The morning class on Tuesdays and Thursdays are changing from TRX/yoga to CrossFit. Kat attended the cross-fit instructor certification class recently and is really excited to start teaching this to our students.
This is from the official Crossfit web site(www.crossfit.com): "CrossFit is the principal strength and conditioning program for many police academies and tactical operations teams, military special operations units, champion martial artists, and hundreds of other elite and professional athletes worldwide.
This program delivers a fitness that is, by design, broad, general, and inclusive. Our specialty is not specializing. Combat, survival, many sports, and life reward this kind of fitness. The CrossFit program is designed for universal scalability making it the perfect application for any committed individual regardless of experience."
The Sword/Kicking class
This class is changing from Friday 6:00 pm – to Wednesday 6:00 pm
The Gun Defense Seminar is sold out!
Keep an eye out for upcoming seminars and we will be sure to offer this curriculum again.
Intro-Fight 6 Week Series
Begins Mondays, October 23rd at 8:00 pm
Yellow Belt Test
Saturday October 14th
Interview: Nina Shirazi
Nina has been with us since the beginning of the San Francisco school, meanwhile she has also been going to college and earning several degrees. Recently we sat down for some Italian food and conversation about her life in and out of the SF Training Center.
KMSF: So what kind of degree do you have?
NS: Psychology. My Bachelor's is in pschychology with a minor in Human Sexuality. Then I got my Master's Degree in Integral Counseling Psychology. I finished that a year ago.
KMSF: Does that curriculum incorporate various modes of therapy?
NS: Yes. My Master's program wasn't strict Freudian or Jungian as compared to my Bachelor's program. It was exploring all types of theories, and discovering what works for you as an individual.
KMSF: What do you really want to focus on?
NS: I want to work with people again. I really miss working with autistic kids. It was one of my favorite jobs. It was so different every day and with kids, you really see their development. They're learning and absorbing everything. And that was fun, seeing them grow and learn. We did everything from teaching them how to ride a bike to teaching academic subjects.
KMSF: How long have you been doing Krav now?
NS: I signed up within a few days of my birthday, as it was my birthday present to myself, so it would have been early October 2002. Back at the Marina school.
KMSF: I didn't realize you went over there.
NS: Yeah, I remember seeing you while waiting for level one to begin, you sparring with Kennedy and some of the other old school guys.
KMSF: Hah, yeah, when it used to be easier to punch those guys. Now it's not so easy.
NS: Yeah, they're great to work with, that's how you learn.
KMSF: Awesome. So 4 years. You must be one of our longest running students. You and I chat sometimes about martial arts and psychology, is that something you think about in this school?
NS: I've always been an observer of people, but I would say in Krav class I just want to make sure I'm doing things right. I kind of immerse myself in it. Does that answer your question?
KMSF: Well a basic example is how things relate, such as in the way that self defense training might make you more able to handle stressful situations.
NS: Well here's the thing, the job I'm doing is definitely like that. I do notice that my breathing gets very shallow, and when I get out of there I want to stretch out and breath deeper! Basically in the beginning, it was very simple why I joined Krav. I never had any self defense training before. The closest thing I had to it, was a friend in high school had gotten some free lessons for two at a karate school in Walnut Creek. Then I moved to the city in late 1999 and I just wanted to learn self defense, street safety. I read an article about Krav and it looked very straight forward, no rules, and I said, 'That's me, I want the bottom line'. I just wanted to learn self defense.
KMSF: Do you remember your first class?
NS: Yeah, it was fun. Barny took us through some warm-ups, some fighting stance, some punches and kicks. I loved that about the old school, the classes were small and Barny is great with detail. He gave me a lot of feedback on what I needed to correct.
KMSF: So what you got you started in sparring? Not a lot of women choose to do that.
NS: Hah, yeah, you weren't taking it easy on me either. That was the way to learn though, sucking it up. It was a little more than two years ago.
KMSF: Have you been in any situations where you thought you might need to use your self defense skills?
NS: Mostly close calls, a few situations that could have been worse. In a bar I had a guy come up to me, clearly drunk, wouldn't leave me alone. I pushed him off me a few times, but he kept trying to come back. I was still pretty new to Krav. The third time he ended up draping his arm over me, so I gave him a quick cross to the Adam's apple. He fell back, and that was that. But I have never had to fight back full force or anything so I've been lucky. It's important to me to be aware of my surroundings, and to balance not feeling threatened and defensive all the time.
KMSF: I have had another student say that, when he started training at first it stressed him out and made him hyper-vigilant. Once he started thinking about it, he realized how vulnerable we all are. We need some kind of happy medium between being aware yet not paranoid.
NS: Yeah that's not a good way to live. Thankfully I have not had to use it in a serious situation, and it's great insurance to have. As far as getting into sparring, when I went up to Level 3 we had to start sparring. I was sucking at it at first, you were pretty tough on me. I was in there with a lot of big guys that had been doing it for a long time, I was just more on the defensive. It took me a long time to get over that.
KMSF: How did you react to getting hit the first time?
NS: I was just nervous about it, I was thinking I can't get hit! Then as I started to get more comfortable, I realized you're going to get hit even if you're the best fighter in the world. I realized I don't just have to cower back and be defensive, I can go in with confidence and do something, throw a combination, and if it doesn't work, find another way. So I have been going with that and I love it now!
KMSF: Isn't it fun to hit somebody?
NS: Yes, (laughing) absolutely.
KMSF: Yeah most of us are pretty civilized, we normally don't want to hit anybody. It's easy to explore the mind set of being aggressive when you work with pads, but when you are in front of someone in a sparring situation you worry about upsetting them.
NS: Exactly, then you're actually making contact with the person.
KMSF: Yes, I see it in people getting started, especially women, they don't want to hit someone. I say you have to let yourself want to do this, to hit the target. If you don't then you will get hit yourself, because it takes 10 seconds for this other person to realize you don't want to hit them and they have to respect the fact that you will. It takes a while to get past that, plus the worry about making someone angry.
NS: Yeah that was what I experienced in the beginning! I didn't want to make someone angry. You do it with respect to your partner. I've always had a good experience with that here. I pretty much want to shake hands or hug people afterwards and say 'Good job!'. That is a big part of it. I noticed that when I started to branch out a bit and start hitting, I hit softly, thinking, is this ok? Can I really do this? Of course if you are working with someone more advanced they're not just going to pound on you, they're going to work with you and help you out. And if I'm the one who is working with a beginner I'm going to work more on their level. It is nice to work with someone who is better than you, or on the same level as you because you don't have to worry about them. One of the best things I did was doing the bucking and rolling drill with teacher Mike and one other big guy, so I thought if I can do it with those guys, it's all good. You learn so much working with all different levels. Hey, you want to hear my first bloody nose story?
KMSF: Oh yeah sure!
NS: I didn't get the bloody nose, I gave it! I haven't had one and I plan to keep it that way.
KMSF: Arright then, I want to hear that story.
NS: I haven't seen this guy again, it was about a year ago. He was very new and he came in very aggressive, like a punching machine. So I said 'Ok, if that's how it going to be, I gotta to play up to that level' and never mind the feeling it out kind of thing. So I caught him with a good jab while he was coming in which made the impact even more. As we kept sparring I saw the blood start to pour out. I thought to myself 'Oh my God I did that!' Part of me felt bad like I hurt him, the other part, was saying 'My skills have really improved!' I was able to defend so much faster than before. When he left to clean up and came back, Barny happened to come by. I don't know how much this helped the guy's ego either when Barny said 'Did you do that to him?' I said yeah and he goes 'Arright!' and then walks out. I felt a little conflicted, I'm not out to hurt anybody but on the other side he going really hard and so I said 'Fine, lets fight hard then.'
KMSF: Yes, I finally realized I had to call it out as an issue. People don't realize that they are the ones that raise the level of intensity, there is this escalation process where the person who is not aware of themselves goes too hard, then they get hit too hard and don't understand why. Plus when you are tense and you get hit, it hurts more! So I try to warn people about it that sooner rather than later.
NS: Yes, I felt a little bad, but I was proud of myself for doing what I had to do. I wasn't angry, or anything. I was very calm about it.
Strategic Thinking
stra·te·gic adj.
1. Of or relating to strategy.
2.
a. Important or essential in relation to a plan of action: a strategic withdrawal.
b. Essential to the effective conduct of war: strategic materials.
c. Highly important to an intended objective: The staff discussed strategic marketing factors.
3. Intended to destroy the military potential of an enemy: strategic bombing.
I think we can all agree that definitions 2a and 2c are the most relevant to all of us. Some of us are more inclined to be strategic thinkers than others, but it ought to be of some interest to anyone who is concerned about personal safety.
In order to avoid situations where your personal safety is threatened, or to get out of them as best you can, strategic thinking is a skill we all need to work on. It can be learned like anything else. Another factor that might motivate you is this: the people that are out to get us in some way or another, generally use some kind of strategic thinking to select their targets as well. Obviously this might exclude random un-premeditated attacks and sudden violent outbursts, but there are still some strategic elements to those types of scenarios as well.
An example of a basic criminal strategy could be this: an aggressive thief wants to rob people of wallets, and so he selects a part of town and begins looking for people who satisfy several of his strategic criterion: they must be alone, appear to have some money, it's a plus if the potential victim isn't paying attention somehow (on a cell phone, listening to headphones), and it's usually going to be at night time to avoid detection.
We have to maintain a counter strategy to this risky scenario. So much of it is common sense, but even the most savvy urban citizens among us have probably found themselves in a tight spot before. We ought to know where we're going, who we're meeting and when, exactly how to get there, not walk home alone if we're too inebriated, and all the other things we wouldn't want our sons and daughters doing. However, it can easily get more complicated, as in the case of multiple attackers, or situations where you might be protecting a friend, a child or spouse.
You can use games to develop your strategic thinking ability. Probably the most prolific intellectual example is chess. Of course the are many others, and sports are included. A good activity will encourage you to plan several moves ahead, and be enjoyable.
There are plenty of books on the subject, such as ancient texts from feudal times like Musashi's "Go Rin No Sho" (Book of 5 Rings) or "The Art of War". Nowadays, doing a search on Amazon for "strategic thinking" nets over 9000 results, many of them about business but also some interesting titles like "Strategic Thinking in Criminal Intelligence" or "The Art of Thinking".
It's usually no more than planning ahead, but it's worth considering how strategic thinking could be used by you to avoid situations that could put you or your loved ones at risk. Prepare for the worst, hope for the best, and as M always used to say to James Bond: "Always have an escape plan."
APA: strategic. (n.d.). The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Retrieved October 01, 2006, from Dictionary.com web site: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/strategic
del.icio.us · digg this · spurl · reddit · furl this
