NOTE: At Kaju AZ, we hold quarterly self-defense classes open to the public. Our next class is June 3rd, 2017, at our Mesa location. This class is FREE and for Boys and Girls ages 5-13 at 10 AM and then Women 14+ at 11:30 AM. Learn verbal & physical self-defense in a positive, safe and encouraging environment. Most of all develop a survival mindset! RSVP and we will save a spot for you! Call 480-755-3008 or email sifu@kajuaz.com. See the Facebook Event.
“You don’t look like you could defend yourself.” Hands down, to me the best compliment ever received. I look in the mirror every day and live my life in this body so I know exactly who I am. I like that others mistake me for an easy target. THEY ARE WRONG.
I was like everyone else many years ago. I sat on the bench while my husband and sons trained in martial arts. I thought I was content standing in their shadow and hoping and praying they would be around if a proverbial “bad man” came after me.
I had all the typical excuses: It will never happen to me. I am not in shape to defend myself. I live in a safe neighborhood. I WAS WRONG.
One out of six women in the country ARE victims of an attempted or completed rape. If you know five other women, one of your group will be raped. That could be me. It could be you.
I am not a marathon runner or obstacle racer and definitely can’t bench press 325. Guess what? It doesn’t matter. With the right mindset and knowledge of techniques capitalizing on my strengths of leverage, awareness, and surprise, I don’t need to be able to run 26.2 miles in record time or lift a car off myself. Neither do you.
I changed the stats for myself. I took control of my fears and I started self-defense training and got the knowledge to defend myself. Then I trained some more. And some more. I practiced over and over and developed a survivor mindset and awareness to be ready FOR ANYTHING.
I threw excuses in the garbage and now have the confidence to be able to do what is necessary to truly live our motto: Live Clean, Fight Dirty. What do I mean by “Fight Dirty”? This phrase gets misunderstood regularly by all kinds of people. What I mean is, if you are in the fight for your life, you need to roll out ALL the tricks and techniques for survival. What I don’t mean is to be a cheater or play dirty under any other circumstances.
So as Pitmaster says, I got good news and bad news: Those excuses don’t fly for you either. Burying your head in the sand thinking it won’t happen to you is WRONG. Thinking you can’t defend yourself because of your age, size or ability is WRONG. Not learning the physical and verbal tools and having the mindset to take care of yourself is WRONG.
How many more stories do you need to see on the news, on Facebook or hear from your neighbors before you realize you CAN and SHOULD learn to defend yourself? I truly hope this is the last one.
Aunty Jen
