The Jiu Jitsu Game

This past weekend in our Jiu Jitsu competition training, I broke down the different directions that a match can go and what kinds of things you need to consider for each pathway. I thought I’d share it here to make it easier for anyone that wants help studying this at home and thinking about where you need to focus in your training.

Jiu Jitsu is a very complex game to play and approaching your training/matches with a plan can be really helpful, especially when entering a competition and hoping to increase your chances of winning! Enjoy!

Match Start - 4 Options

There are 4 main ways that a jiu jitsu match is going to start. It is best to be prepared for all 4! But also, go into the match with a plan for which pathway you would prefer the match take to get to the ground.

1. Takedown

• Plan your gi and no-gi game around stance, grip fighting, and your best takedowns, ideally in a cohesive system.

2. Takedown Defense and Counter-Attack

• Be ready to counter takedown attempts and capitalize on weaknesses in your opponent’s attack.

3. Pull Guard

• Plan what grips you’re trying to pull with, and what guards you might connect to. Have a clear system for sweeps, submissions, and retention.

4. Opponent Pulls Guard

• Train connecting guard passes together and reacting quickly when your opponent pulls guard.

Now, let’s break each of these 4 options down a little more. Option A is the ideal, option b is to help us prepare for when things don’t go as planned!

1. Takedown

1a. Your Takedown Worked (Top Position)

• Are you in guard? Break the connection and start passing.

• Already in a good passing position? Secure it and maintain control while passing.

1b. Takedown Fails

• Be ready to transition to takedown defense (Option 2) or react if your opponent pulls guard (Option 4).

• Alternatively, consider pulling guard yourself (Option 3) or reset your takedown strategy.

Tip: Don’t panic and stray to far from your gameplan just because it hasn’t worked yet. Your opponent hasn’t taken you down yet either, so keep looking for openings!

2. Takedown Defense and Counter-Attack

2a. Successful Defense and Counter-Attack

• Chain your attacks to your takedown defense. What submissions and positions are you transitioning to? Stay offensive.

Tip: Remember it’s often best to fully stop the takedown, and then transition into a good position to attack from. For example - sprawl to front headlock to the back is safer then attempting a guillotine in the middle of getting taken down. The guillotine could work but could also burn your arms and put you on bottom down by 2 points.

2b. You Got Taken Down

• Recover guard or work from your bottom game. Focus on sweeps or submissions from the bottom.

• Mindset Tip: Don’t feel like you’ve lost—reset, and stay active on the bottom.

Caution: While planning to just counter the takedowns and wait for your opponent to shoot or pull guard can be an effective way of getting to the top, avoid relying solely on this strategy, as it may appear passive and lead to stalling penalties, losing referee’s decisions, and overall not much happening in your matches means not much getting better either. Incorporate low-risk takedown attempts (snap downs, ankle picks, etc.) while awaiting your opponent’s next move.

3. Pulling Guard

3a. Successful Guard Pull

• You’ve got your grips and control. Focus on quick sweeps for points or go straight for a submission from the bottom.

Tip: Guard retention is key, but don’t stay defensive too long—make a connection to your opponent and attack!

3b. Opponent Broke Your Connection (Guard Retention)

• Switch to guard retention, regain control, and immediately get back to offense. Don’t stay in defensive mode too long.

3c. Guard Passed

• Don’t panic. Recover guard, then work toward sweeps or submissions from the bottom.

Tip: Remember jiu jitsu is a game unlike other sports and we have a move that wins the match at any time, no matter the score. You can be down 100-0 and win the match with a submission in the final seconds. There isn’t a move like that in other sports. Don’t panic! Stay focused on doing the next right thing.

4. Opponent Pulls Guard

4a. You Immediately Pass

• Pass during the guard pull, tighten up your top game and work toward a submission. Stay aggressive but not rushed and capitalize on your passing success.

4b. Opponent Successfully Pulled Guard

• Break his guard connection and begin passing. If already in a good passing position, maintain control and start working your pass.

* Submission Defense

• Your opponent caught a submission somewhere along the way, maybe even right from standing: stay calm and defend. Look to immediately connect to an offensive move or regain control once you’re safe.

Final Thoughts: It’s good to regularly analyze everything above to decide which areas you need to focus on in your training. During the offseason or early stages of a season, focus on your weakest links and try to start your matches with those areas every time so that they get stronger. As your next tournament draws closer, spend those final weeks mostly working your strongest game and fine tuning it for competition.

Was this useful for you? Share this with a training partner that might also find it helpful!

PMA 865

We are so excited to announce an idea that we are launching today that we’ve been sitting on for years!

About 10 years ago, we switched up the focus of our blog to focus on what we call “The Martial Arts Way of Life.” Since then we have been writing on this blog about the “8 Aspects of the Martial Arts Way of Life.” We got the idea for these from the Kosho family crest which used an octagon to represent the 8 aspects of their Kenpo system (which we come from). We have altered the aspects slightly to fit modern times, but they for the most part stayed the same. The 8 Aspects of the Martial Arts Way of Life are:

1. Health/Fitness

2. Meditation

3. Philosophy/Mindset

4. Yoga/Stretching

5. Nutrition

6. The Stand Up Arts

7. The Grappling Arts

8. Self Defense

We have also written to you in the past about “The 5 School Principles.” Handed down for generations, these are 5 qualities that we would like to see instilled in all of our students:

1. Effort

2. Etiquette

3. Sincerity

4. Self-Control

5. Character

So, here is the idea. A few years ago, we realized that we had an 8 and a 5, and just needed a 6 in the middle to complete the “865.” For those that don’t live in our area, that is our area code which is special to the Knoxville natives as it spells “VOL” for the Tennessee Volunteers. We decided to create the “6 Rules of the Mat” to go along with the “8 Aspects of the Martial Arts Way of Life” and the “5 School Principles,” and together these 3 will make up the “PMA 865.”

The 6 Rules of the Mat:

1. Humility

2. Positivity

3. Receptiveness

4. Respect

5. Sportsmanship

6. Hygiene

We are very excited about using these to better structure the character development program already present in our programs. We feel that launching something like this will help make these more memorable and highlighted for our students. There are so many important lessons to be taught with these different aspects, rules, and principles.

We don’t have a logo designed yet, so if any of our students have some ideas for that, please send them in! Maybe one of you can even create the PMA 865 logo! We will begin teaching these with the new quarter that begins this week and have the curriculum outlined for the rest of the year. Knowing what our “mat chats” are focused on can help you reinforce these habits and lessons at home:

July 6-9 - Health/Fitness

July 13-16 - Meditation

July 20-23 - Philosophy/Mindset

July 27-30 - Yoga/Stretching

August 3-6 - Nutrition

August 10-13 - The Stand Up Arts

August 17-20 - The Grappling Arts

August 24-27 - Self Defense

August 31-September 3 - Effort

September 7-10 - Etiquette

September 14-17 - Sincerity

September 21-24 - Self-Control

September 28-October 1 - Character

October 5-8 - FALL BREAK

October 12-15 - Humility

October 19-22 - Positivity

October 26-29 - Receptiveness

November 2-5 - Respect

November 9-12 - Sportsmanship

November 16-19 - Hygiene

November 23-24 - Effort

November 30- December 3rd - Etiquette

December 7-10 - Sincerity

December 14-17 - Self-Control/Character

Continuing with that schedule, we should be able to hit the 8 Aspects of the Martial Arts Way of Life and the 6 Rules of the Mat 2x/every year and the 5 School Principles 4x/every year. We are working on using our attendance tracking to also keep track of which lessons our youth students are present for and have different levels of a “PMA 865” patch that can be earned.

We have been teaching the actual martial arts techniques from a rotating curriculum for decades now. We continue to update the curriculum year after year, and know that this is the best way to make sure our students all learn what they are supposed to learn, in the most efficient order of learning it. There is no reason that the character development portion shouldn’t be done this way too!

We are so excited about “PMA 865” and love how we can attach something so good and positive for our students to our hometown. This is going to be one more way we can continue to provide the absolute best martial arts instruction available!

Thanks for reading!

PMA's COVID-19 Phased Reopening Plan

On May 1, 2020 businesses all across Tennessee will be allowed to reopen after being forced to close down due to the coronavirus pandemic. In 89 counties (including Anderson), gyms will be included and allowed to reopen with specific guidelines to make sure that employees and customers are safe. While PMA is not technically a gym, we align ourselves most closely with this category of businesses, and martial arts instruction was specifically listed in the guidelines for group fitness classes put out on April 28.

At PMA, we are both excited about the prospect of being able to open back up for classes, and also cautious to not jump ahead and put our students and their families at unnecessary risk. Here is our plan for opening back up:

PMA’s COVID-19 Phased Reopening Plan

In closing, the last couple of months have been a rollercoaster of emotions for us as your martial arts academy and as a small business. The longer that we remained closed, the more students that dropped their memberships. Some dropped their memberships because they had lost their jobs and could not afford to continue to pay their tuition, and a few others dropped that did not see the value in the online training we were providing. It is a very discouraging sight to see your student count dropping week after week after spending so many years building it up.

However, for every 1 student we lost, there were 10 others that were unbelievably supportive. We had some extremely dedicated students who watched every video we uploaded, attended every zoom class, and scheduled 1-on-1 sessions with me. We had students who could not access the video content due to their own internet or technology issues, or just don’t enjoy that method of learning, but sent us messages saying we could be closed for a year and they’d keep paying their tuition because of what PMA means to them. And all different levels of commitment and support in between.

We will always remember 2020 because of this pandemic and how much it shook our world and changed our lives. But the memories for us will be highlighted by these messages and signs of support from you - our incredible PMA family. Thank you.

Now, we are excited to see things heading towards the direction of us eventually being able to train as we did before. Until then, let’s continue to be diligent with our health and safety.

We will see you on the mat, either physically or virtually, whichever you prefer!

Sincerely,

David Corrigan

Owner/Chief Instructor

Progressive Martial Arts Academy

The Dangerous Risk of Not Training

Last week I was talking to one of our adult students that will be turning 50 this year. We had a funny conversation that comes up fairly often when teaching martial arts about how he could beat up his former self. This student didn’t start training until his late 40s, but now that he has been training for a few years, the skills he has acquired would enable him to defeat his 30-year-old, stronger, faster, younger self in a fight.

The important thing to take away from this is that with every passing year one of two options is happening:

1. You are training martial arts. In this scenario, the percentage of people in the world that would beat you up in an altercation is decreasing year after year. Or depending on your age, at the very least it isn’t increasing as quickly as it would be without training.

2. You are not training martial arts. In this scenario, the percentage of people in the world that would beat you up in an altercation is increasing year after year.

It’s as simple as that.

Sometimes, when talking to someone over the age of 35 or so, they make the assumption that their time to train has come and gone. In all actuality, that is never the case. No matter your age, 35 or 75, it is important to train for self-defense (and so many other benefits).

While you should always try to avoid a fight, through training you are increasing your chances of being able to survive an attack.

Sometimes people say they will just keep themselves out of situations that they might need to fight. That’s really good - I will too! Unfortunately, sometimes there are situations we cannot avoid. As we’ve discussed in previous entries, men can avoid many altercations as long as they check their ego and alcohol consumption. But not all.

And if you are a woman, you have an even more important reason to train, as there is a much greater chance that you could be targeted in an abduction or sexual assault.

So, how would 50-year-old you fare against 30-year-old you? I can GUARANTEE that 50-year-old you will be much better off if he/she is consistently training.

See you on the mat!

Tournament Recap - NAGA Atlanta 2018

Our kids had a great weekend in Atlanta! There were so many hard fought battles and great memories made. With each tournament, I am more and more impressed with their effort, skill, and most importantly - character. I couldn’t be more proud as their teacher!

We posted videos and pictures all of last week on our social media pages, so I thought I’d gather them all up here in one place for you in case you missed some!

---

Connor (in grey rash guard) slaps on a perfect Anaconda choke in his first match of the day in the Advanced Kids division! He went on to use the same choke with the same result in the finals!

---

Connor gets his second anaconda choke of the day. I haven’t seen a kid go to sleep in a tournament before, so having it happen twice in the same tournament was pretty crazy. For those concerned, both kids were okay!

---

6 month’s ago, Grace had to face a big challenge when she stepped up to fight in a boy’s division at her very first tournament. She lost her matches at that tournament, but came back with tremendous experience to build off of - today she picked up two submissions and earned first place in her division!

The wins and medals aren’t why we do this. These competitions for kids help them learn so much about themselves and how to find the spirit and confidence to persevere through such difficult challenges. We had many great performances this weekend - in both wins and losses. And Grace was one of our stand outs!

---

Look out because here she comes.

This was a big tournament for Maggie. She has improved so much in the last few months, but primarily in one area - starting off strong and bringing the fight to her opponent for the full match.

She demonstrates tremendous skill, heart, and effort in this clip (including a textbook guillotine escape), but what you don’t see are the hours of hard practices she put in to get there. She made huge strides in class with her training partners, and decided she was going to fight differently this tournament.

This is Maggie!

ps - she loved training to this song so we had to throw that in the video.

---

Ty had some of the toughest matches of the day, and was our vote for the MVP this tournament. He won with mental toughness and good position. I’ll share a couple of videos so you can see the intensity that his opponent’s brought, but has one of our parent coaches said - Ty has ice water in his veins.

In this match he has to overcome a tight Kimura submission, fight back to tie it up before time runs out, and then win in overtime. Please excuse the camera being off occasionally, we were a little preoccupied with the match!

His mental fortitude was they key element, and his physical preparation in the months prior to this are what seals the deal. All of those early Saturday morning practices doing their job…

---

Here’s another quick one! Grace gets her second submission of the day with a back take from the closed guard and a Mata Leao (Rear Naked Choke).

---

Alex demonstrated excellent top control and continues to showcase more control and confidence with every tournament. Our team is full of kids that are extremely coachable. We’ve built a great relationship between our coaches and kids, and you can see it in how well they receive guidance and make adjustments mid-match.

This relationship is built on respect, openness, and trust.

---

Aiden worked really hard on his strategy and position over the last few months and executed it so well in this match.

Watching the whole team takes such big leaps forward from tournament to tournament is an amazing process to be a part of.

---

Here's a longer highlight of PMA's whole team - we have a little bit of each kid in this video. Our team took 21 competitors to this tournament, with 1 teammate that missed out this time (Mack), as he was in Houston competing with his robotics team at the world championship!

There is footage from both wins and losses in this video. Our kids know that the coaches are just as happy with a win or a loss as long as we get two things - they have fun and give us a perfect effort. And in that regard, we were 21 for 21 this trip.

These kids will remember how tired they were for a few weeks, they’ll remember their matches for a few months, but they will keep the memories of their time together with their team forever!

The Competition Team came back and celebrated last week, and they are right back on the mats training! A little tired, a little sore, but ready to go.

And we had them pose for one last picture with their medals and swords from another incredible trip!

The Rules of Normal Eating

We teach our students that there are 8 aspects of the martial arts way of life:

1. Fitness
2. Meditation
3. Philosophy
4. Yoga & Stretching
5. Health & Nutrition
6. Striking Arts
7. Grappling Arts
8. Self-Defense

A complete martial artist should be putting energy into each of those 8 aspects of their training.

Today, I have a quick video to share with you in one of the areas that is most difficult for people and is often one of their biggest roadblocks to success - nutrition.

In our nutrition and lifestyle coaching program we teach 25 habits over the course of a 1 year program. You spend 2 weeks working on each habit and receive daily lessons (online) that will help you with your current habit. Two of the most important habits in the program are eating slowly and stopping before you are overly full.

This video hits on these concepts. As Dr. Koenig reinforces, this stuff is SIMPLE but not EASY.

Let Your Guard Down: Don’t Be Afraid Of Imperfection

Being successful in any aspect of life does not mean always being right, always winning, and always doing things by yourself.

It is okay to not know an answer. It is okay to lose. It is okay to ask for help. It is even okay for these things to happen when others expect them not to.

This barrier that people put up and think is making them appear to be all-knowing and perfect, is actually the thing that not only adds unnecessary stress and anxiety to their life, but keeps them from reaching their goals.

The mindset we should strive to develop is giving a perfect effort, but being okay with a less than perfect result. Trying is good enough, and then we can learn from and build from our experience. You don’t have to pretend you know something that you don’t. You don’t have to be afraid of losing or making a mistake.

On the mats, this mentality pops up and every student would get so much more out of their training if they could eliminate it. Every time I see a higher rank begin “coaching” their training partner at the slightest sign that the lower rank student might be doing something well, inside I am cringing and shaking my head in disappointment. Don’t do this. It’s okay to lose to or get help from a student that is a lower rank than you. It only means that this student is also receiving good training - it does not mean that anything is wrong with you.

In fact, you will get better by allowing these circumstances to happen and getting the most out of them.

Your fear of losing is putting you in a position to lose more.

More growth comes from situations that we don’t know what to do, accept that, and then learn from it, than when we put on an act as if we know what to do.

You are not perfect, and you never will be. Neither am I, or anyone that I have ever met. Except my wife, of course. (Hey b!)

You will not get things right on the first try, but try anyway.

You will not know every answer, don’t pretend like you do.

You will need help from other people who have experienced what you are experiencing, don’t be afraid to ask for it.

FAQ: Why Do We Train Barefoot?

This is a common question we get from new students. What is the deal with not wearing shoes!? Do I have to take my shoes off?

The practice of training martial arts without shoes goes back really far but actually has a much more logical purpose to it than just tradition. While it is traditional in most of the arts we teach to train without shoes, it is not uncommon to look back in history and see some arts that train with shoes on.

In many Chinese arts, practitioners often chose to wear shoes and most believe this to be because of the rocky or uneven land that they would sometimes train on. Whereas maybe on the island of Okinawa or the beach in Brazil, students were training on soft sand or grass and would choose to train barefoot. Practical.

And hey - we know Bruce Lee’s shoes were an iconic part of his image, so he obviously wore shoes often when training!

You could even argue that it is beneficial to train with shoes on so that you know what it feels like if you have to defend yourself while wearing shoes. And it is definitely different! For this reason, we take out students outside and train with shoes on sometimes.

So why do we choose to go without?

The two most important reasons are hygiene and safety.

1. Hygiene

We ask that students wear shoes to and from the dojo and remove them just before stepping onto the mat. We teach Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and spend a good amount of our time grappling on the mats, and therefore need to keep them sparkling clean.

In fact, the mats you train on at PMA are some of the cleanest you will find around the world because we put so much focus on this. Some of our students and teachers that have visited other academies around the world report that they often are training on layers of dust, hair, and dirt!

Please clean your feet, wear shoes to the dojo, and remove them just before stepping onto the mat to keep as many germs, dirt, etc. off of our mats as possible!

*Please remember to throw some shoes back on if you are going back out to your car or something! And if you see a student coming in from outside barefoot, consider giving them a gentle reminder to help keep the mats clean. You can send him to this link to read up if needed! 

And if you want to wear the official flip-flop that most students in Brazil wear to and from class, get yourself a pair of Havaianas! The added benefit of a flip-flop is you can slip it on easily when using the restroom or stepping off the mat to run out to your car during class. Even running into the restroom barefoot in the middle of the class will bring germs back onto the mat.

2. Safety

With kicking and grappling being taught, getting hit with a shoe does much more damage than a bare foot!

Training without shoes enables us to make a little more contact on our kicks with each other, and have far fewer accidental injuries when grappling because we aren’t being hit with any hard heels or steel-toed boots!

Now, with all of that being said, some students need or prefer to wear shoes. When that is the case, there are some safe shoes that you can wear and train martial arts. We just ask that you follow a couple of rules:

1. Only wear your training shoes on the mats. Never wear these shoes off of the mats or you start bringing in all of the junk we are trying to keep off the mats.
2. Wear the right shoe for the job. While practicing striking arts, you will need a shoe that is designed to allow you to pivot your foot freely. If you wear a shoe with too much grip, over time you may find yourself with a knee injury. While practicing grappling arts, we ask that you wear a soft shoe, designed to keep your partner safe - such as a wrestling shoe! These are not good for striking. They are designed to grip the mats more effectively, which gives you the ability to drive your weight into your opponent more effectively and your foot not slip out from underneath you.

For striking, below you will find the shoe we recommend. When I was a kid, my father’s academies did not have mats on the floor yet and students trained on concrete, or industrial carpet and these were the shoes that they chose for training - 

https://bushidomartialarts.com/products/bushido-shoe

For grappling, any wrestling shoes should do the trick!

In closing, I personally have grown up training barefoot, and I love it. Getting to feel the ground beneath you while training strengthens your balance and stabilizer muscles that will help prevent injuries when you have an occasional misstep or step off of a curb funny. I now hate wearing shoes!

See you on the mat! With clean bare feet! 😉

Listen

Hearing is, of course, one of our primary senses, but I recently watched (and listened to!) a TED talk that got me thinking about the importance of how we listen. Take a look if you’d like:

It seems as though we are losing our ability to listen, and it is hurting our ability to fully comprehend and understand other people, other concepts, and other ideas.

For the past week, I’ve been observing people in conversation as much as I can and watching how many of them genuinely listen. Sadly, it is usually evident that while one person is talking, the other is more concerned with what they are going to say, or what is going on in their world, than what the person speaking is saying.

Try it out with yourself first, and you will see yourself planning what you are going to say before the person you are speaking to is done. Before you know it, you will be impatiently waiting for them to hurry up and stop talking so that you can start talking.

That, of course, is normal.

What is happening in our world and our mind is what is most important to us, but we are missing out on opportunities to connect with those around us more fully, build more meaningful relationships, and accomplish more amazing things. We can’t do any of these things if we don’t understand each other.

This past weekend, thousands of young people marched all over our country, and lots of discussions are going on around the topic of gun reform. It seems as though the most crucial component we are missing though is listening. If I take a minute to look around on my social media networks at what people think of these issues, it is crystal clear that no one is listening to anyone with a different opinion than their own. We all feel as though the only way to win is to yell our personal opinion as loudly as we possibly can.

What happens?

All of the people that feel the same way as we do “like” it and “share” it. And all of the people that don’t feel the same way comment back, yelling as loudly as possible how they feel about it.

Arguing is not the problem.

Arguing can be so beneficial to solving problems and coming up with fantastic solutions. But arguing is worthless and futile when no one listens. When we listen, arguing can lead to resolutions.

Of course, it is entirely natural to believe what you think is right, but typically the answer to a lot of our problems is found somewhere in the middle and less on one side or the other. 

We have to recognize that so much of what we think  (and as pointed out in the video, so much of how we listen) is influenced by filters such as culture, values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations, and intentions. Pay attention to how you may listen to what someone says and instinctively have reactions against what they are saying sometimes before even thinking it through.

These are serious discussions that we need to be having. Which means now more than ever, if you want to accomplish things, resolve conflicts, have better relationships with everyone you encounter in life (hey, and even master your martial arts!), I encourage you to "empty your cup" and listen.

Confidence Developed Through Training

I’d like to share with everyone a message I received from one of our female students this week. Afterward, be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom for an important announcement!

“Random fun story:

Last night I was the designated driver for a part bachelor party and part everyone get together for dinner and drinks. We parked in a random, not particularly well-lit garage. At the end of the night, the guys decided to continue the festivities and catch an uber back home.

So I was going to drive myself and another girl home. Her husband was not keen on us going home by ourselves. Honestly, I got annoyed and was trying to insist that we were fine.

Long story short, after thinking about it later, I realized that while of course, bad things could have happened, I felt capable of defending myself. I mean had the guy walked us to the car, I was more equipped to fight back than he was!

I’m not a fearful person, AT ALL! Mostly, I am just stubborn.

But last night was the first time I felt confident because of my skill set.

It was even hard to catch that I felt that way. I had to think about it for awhile because my actions were not any different than normal. I always would have resisted help because I’m just stubbornly independent and just would’ve believed that nothing was likely to happen.

In the deep parts of me, however, there is something slightly different now about how I feel about it.”

These kinds of messages are some of the most fun for me to receive. I have also talked with female students after something physical actually happened, and while of course, I am incredibly proud of them for capably defending themselves, I would have much-preferred nothing ever happened.

We were talking last week about one of the differences between men and women training martial arts. Both will receive the confidence like in the story above in feeling capable of defending themselves, but it is a much more important skill set to develop for women.

Why?

For men, the majority of situations that we could find ourselves in could be avoided by not getting drunk, and keeping our egos in check. For example, I know that chances are much smaller that I’ll ever be in a street fight because I feel totally secure in walking away from some angry person that’s had a bad day (or life) and is taking it out on me.

We know that walking away from a fight is the best answer, for many reasons, but one of the most obvious is that you never know what could happen. The opponent could pull out a knife or gun for example and change the whole scenario!

For women, however, they are preyed on much more frequently than men. They can feel just as strongly about walking away from a fight and still be much more likely to be attacked than their male counterparts.

Therefore, we view empowering women with awareness, self-defense skills, strength, and confidence as one of our most important jobs.

Female Black Belts at PMA!

---

With that said, I’d like to announce our next free women’s self defense seminar on Saturday, April 28th from 3-5 PM!

As a treat for our blog readers, this is the first place we’ve announced the seminar because these fill up really quickly. You can reserve your spot now at the link below (it’s free, but a $20 deposit is required to hold the spot).

This edition of our popular women’s self-defense courses is going to focus on worst-case rape scenarios. We will spend the majority of the seminar on the ground learning how to survive and ultimately get away from the attacker.

It is open to ages 13 & up as always, but parents should keep in mind the mature content of the seminar when registering their children and we will require that a mom or female legal guardian participate in the seminar also.

Due to the content of this seminar, we will need to limit it to just 20 participants. Tell your friends, and don’t wait to sign up! Once we email this out to our database, it can sometimes fill up within a few minutes.

More info and register online:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/evade-escape-now-to-gain-safety-a-womens-self-defense-seminar-tickets-44235078310