Latest

Prepare for the Fight: It’s all a Game!

Well, I was totally wrong. I have told my students to stop referring to violent attackers as adversaries for over two decades. But in researching and understanding the mechanisms and processes that unfold in a high stress situation, I’ve come to learn that everything is a competition – and your attacker, whether…
CONTINUE READING

Checkmate: Parent Your Kids

My youngest son was asked to memorize a poem for school, and I thought this assignment would be a great opportunity for us to work together. However, the school made the requirement that the poem must be a published poem not written by the students. Not allowing the assignment to derail my…
CONTINUE READING

Paper Tiger

When I grow up, I want to be a Paper Tiger – said no one ever. Yet, there are some – at least within the Houston area – that are on track to be exactly that. I recently received a report written from one of my newer instructors – after he had…
CONTINUE READING

Power Up: Krav Maga’s Lego Analogy

I decided to post a video this week of “Liz” – a MASTERCLASS student at Krav Maga Houston – who has been actively involved in this specialized class format for a couple months now. I started Liz (and her cohort) with inside defense to a right straight punch – lots of them…
CONTINUE READING

Happy Easter & Required Reading

Happy Easter to everyone. This Easter I’m reading a fascinating book by Timothy Keller entitled, Hope in Times of Fear: The Resurrection and the Meaning of Easter. Some have called Keller the C.S. Lewis of our time, and this book (although I’m only half through) is more proof of this claim. Whether…
CONTINUE READING

What a TURD!

I never wanted to be known for coining the acronym TURD, even in a self-defense context, yet here we are. Violence seems to be normalizing in first world, digital economies, where it has been more recently seen as a viable means to display one’s displeasure (or commitment) – depending on the context. …
CONTINUE READING

Master the Basics

Moving quickly, I continued prepping for a 12-student carbine class on a crisp, sunny February morning at a private shooting range tucked in somewhere between Austin and Houston, Texas. The class was set to launch in approximately 45 minutes at 0900 hours sharp. Time was not on my side. With staple gun…
CONTINUE READING

What is a Life Well Lived?

Shifting gears this week…here is something on which to think. A life well lived is a life filled with purpose and meaning. Did you know that a single human cell contains more instructions than all the books in the Library of Congress? To put this into perspective, that’s over 39 million books…
CONTINUE READING

Featured Event

Instructors

Mask Mandate Quandary

Here in Texas, the COVID-19 restrictions are being lifted this week. As martial artists and instructors, specifically in states currently lifting mandates, we must thoughtfully consider our response. No matter how you respond, there are large segments of your student base that will be upset. That’s what leadership is…making difficult decisions based…
CONTINUE READING

Holiday Retention and Fun

Every year, around the holiday season, student attendance can become sporadic for obvious reasons. If you teach any of your programs in a manner that requires the class to move (more or less) as one unit, you might consider implementing some “holiday fun training” into your curriculum to ensure those that attend…
CONTINUE READING

I Can’t Do That…yet!

Kids Grow When Encouraged to Apply Effort to Any Problem, Reenforcing That It’s Effort That Gets Results. In the United States, it is common to hear the well-intentioned phrase, “Oh, you’re so smart,” or some variation of this statement, reinforcing in our children what Stanford University Psychologist, Carol Dweck, considers to be a…
CONTINUE READING

The LASER Process: Convert More Leads

Lead Tracking, Management, and Conversion is Critical Part of Developing Your Business. We’ve recently begun tracking our promotional efforts by getting more serious about how we measure and manage our lead stream. While this process directly applies to managing a self-defense school, the process can be adapted to almost any business paradigm.…
CONTINUE READING

M&P

Futuristic Weaponry

There Seems to Be No End to the Innovation Being Poured Into Weaponry. Over the next decade, advancements in modern warfare will look as if they belong in a science fiction film. Expect to see some dramatic technological changes emerging in our mission to protect our soldiers, the homeland, U.S. citizens and…
CONTINUE READING

The Beginning of the Beginning: My Krav Journey

Krav Maga has Changed the way I Approach Life for the Better I have trained in Krav Maga for two and a half years, and in that time, my life has changed drastically. Simply put; Krav saved me. Unless you knew me before I began Krav, you would not understand that statement. If…
CONTINUE READING

Joint Lock Flow Drill

People are often surprised when I introduce our basic joint lock flow drill. The surprise comes from a lack of consideration (or knowledge in the case of relatively new students) around our weapons take-away techniques. In their purest format, Krav Maga weapons take-aways are joint locks that have been repurposed. The basic joint lock…
CONTINUE READING