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Seminars:  Effective Offense | Knife |Making your martial art street effective  Women's self-defense |  Private lessons |  Rates US/Canada | Rates overseas

Effective Offense
Before you can fix it, you have to understand the nature of the problem

What is effective offense? What are the fundamental elements you must master in order for your offense to be effective?  Elements, that if they are not there, rob you of power. What are the ways to generate power and how do you deliver it into an opponent? Just as importantly, what are the unconscious moves and mistakes that students make that undermine their offense? A comprehensive look at the nature of effective offense and what it takes not to lose energy. This is a very advanced technical class moving from underlying theory to practical application. Focusing on debugging common "errors" that have crept into defensive training (i.e. structural weakness, misunderstanding of range, coherent movement, offensive strategy and tactical deployment).

This is a teaching solutions class. It is of more use to instructors and senior students as it addresses mistakes beginners commonly make and presents solutions, explanations and drills. This class is tailored to the needs of the hosting agency, martial arts, LEO or Military.

Rates US/Canada | Rates overseas
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Knife
We do not teach "knife fighting:" That is a macho myth anyway -- and one that will get you killed.  What No Nonsense Self-defense knife seminars teach is how to survive the horrible  reality of a knife assault in a dark alley. Knife to knife "fights" are so rare as to be statistically meaningless, most knife attacks are assassination attempts, where only one person has a knife. It isn't a fight, it is someone trying to kill you. And we treat it as such.

Contrary to what many Filipino MA based, so-called "knife fighting" experts will tell you, you will *not* be attacked by a knifer in the way that they train you to handle. This is not to say that those sort of attacks can't happen, but rather they only originate from people who are trained in a specific manner. The way that a criminal or homicidal person comes at you is totally different. 

The criminal assault  is what you need to know how to handle. And that is what we show you. This is not a martial art, it is survival, pure and simple. And by survival we also mean in surviving in the courtroom after you have caused serious -- if not fatal -- damage to an attacker. 

Rates US/Canada | Rates overseas

Making your martial art street effective
Any martial art system can be used effectively for self-defense. What it cannot be effectively used for is streetfighting. Many people think that self-defense and fighting are one in the same. They are not.  There is an entirely different mindset for self-defense. You can create a successful self-defense strategy using  traditional  martial art movement and the proper mindset/strategy. It can and does work. 

What you cannot do however, is create winning tactics when combining sport martial art movement (sparring techniques) with a fighting attitude. We say this because the strategic goals of these mindsets are radically divergent. And if you try to apply them in a self-defense situation, you will find yourself stuck in the middle with no effective response. This is the source of much of the legitimate criticism about "traditional martial arts not being good for fighting." They're right, traditional martial arts aren't good for fighting. However, when combined with the right mindset they are great for self-defense.

This class shows you the external issues (non-martial art)  involved in a self-defense situation and the  issues that you  need to emphasize within your art to meet these challenges. Self-defense has its own requirements. You cannot use sport-based techniques with any degree of certainty of success in a violent confrontation -- especially if you try to stand and fight. This does not mean, however, that your art doesn't have effective self-defense elements. But they often must be brought forth, emphasized and tailored to work within legal parameters and against the sort of attacks you are likely to face in a Western environment. Eastern fighting arts do not work straight out of the box in this context. This class extensively deals with the realities of self-defense and the psychological, moral, social and  legal complications that will commonly arise from use of force/self-defense. This includes how the law will view your conduct prior to and after a violent incident. Unfortunately, your conduct on either side of a physical engagement will greatly influence if the police view it as self-defense or fighting. While this class doesn't give you legal advice, it does acquaint you with the issues you must consider and research your local statutes.

Rates US/Canada | Rates overseas
 

Women's self-defense
 This course is jointly taught by both Dianna Gordon MacYoung and Marc MacYoung. We developed the program together, we teach it together. 

The organization and presentation of the information is unique in that we  present both the female AND male perspective. We do this because we aren't teaching self-defense nearly as much as we are teaching life skills and rape avoidance. This is not a course on empowerment,  women's rights, fighting, or permission to do whatever you want to do, it is about commonsense and taking personal responsibility so as not to be raped.

WSD seminars are two days/seven hours (see below)
Cost is $1,500, plus travel expenses for two within the US/Canada.
$2000 overseas and travel/lodging expenses

Joint efforts are acceptable because it sometimes is difficult for one school/agency to muster sufficient numbers of participants. Two one-day seminars can be taught within the same city over a weekend with the various hosting agencies splitting costs and responsibilities.

The seminar host must supply "ukes" and protective gear for them (hogues and cups or "Redman" suits). Ratio: Maximum 10 students for each uke, five to one is preferred, however. An additional evening of training of volunteer ukes must be schedule the night before the seminar. We have to fly in on a Friday afternoon to teach the ukes that night.

US/Canada seminars  | Overseas Seminars

Private lessons in Castle Rock Colorado
Castle Rock is conveniently located at an equal distance between the Colorado Springs and Denver airports. Several hotels offer a selection of lodgings and prices. 

$50 an hour at the Castle Rock Rec Center
You pick the subject you want to learn

Lodging
Castle Rock Hotel information The Quality Inn Castle Rock has a exercise room that serves as a workout room

There are a couple more places to find inexpensive lodging in town
      Castle Rock Hotel 303-688-9728
      Castle Pines Hotel 303-688-1207

Hosting a seminar in US/Canada (amounts in US dollars)
Seminars run seven hours per day, plus one hour lunch break. All seminars and lectures are tailored to the needs of the hosting agency.  It is at the host's discretion as to whether the seminars are internal for the school/agency only or open to public. Limit approximately 30 people (if more, additional staff is needed.) If open, charge what you like, you pocket the profits after fees/expenses are paid. However, for open events a "private" Friday night training session ca be scheduled for no extra charge.

$1000 two days, plus travel expenses and lodgings
$1200 three days, plus same
$1,500four days, plus same
$2000 six days, plus same

Allow for arrival the day/night before the seminar. For weekend seminars, this means Friday afternoon arrival in case of  flight delays. Sunday night return is acceptable if convenient, if not, Monday morning departure is acceptable.

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