Perceptions of Violence

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 29th Oct 2012

Throughout our lives we receive an education in violence, whether from situations we’ve experienced first-hand or from secondhand accounts concerning friends, acquaintances and friends of friends, news reports and other media sources (such as TV shows and Movies). From these we build “models of violence”. These models are templates that we use both subconsciously and consciously to compare what we see before us, to what we believe, or what our models believe violence looks like.  These models help us predict and evaluate whether certain situations (deserted alleyways, lonely streets etc) and/or people (those wearing hooded tops, having tattoo’s etc) pose...Click To Read More

The Dynamic Risk Assessment

Gershon Ben Keren

Sun 21st Oct 2012

Denial Human beings have a very simple way of coping with high stress situations; we deny them. Rather than accepting the reality of our situation, we tend to ignore our predicament, denying that we are in any danger at all. Our instincts may tell us to run or get out of a place but we will immediately look for and accept any reason that will allow us to stay put; however tenuous, ridiculous or patently dangerous it may actually be.  A statistic that should be in everybody’s head is 6:36. 6 minutes and 36 seconds, is the average length of time that...Click To Read More

Self Protection: Gaining Defense In Depth

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 15th Oct 2012

No safety system can offer full and comprehensive protection unless it works in conjunction with others. A passenger jet has many different safety systems that work together, monitor each other and offer backup should any of them for whatever reason fail. A pilot also has human/manual processes and procedures that they can follow should an emergency occur. If you look at any ancient castle or fort you will again see that many different systems and structures were designed and put in place, to work together in a collective and collaborative fashion e.g. there may be a moat/ditch, a set of...Click To Read More

The Right Balance of Training

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 8th Oct 2012

  Japanese martial arts, such as Karate break their training down into different components e.g. Kihon – the practice of the basic, Randori – free practice, Hojo Undo – Supplemental Training (Weights, Resistance Work, Makiwara Practice etc), Shiai – competition/free fighting. They recognize that for a person to improve and develop they must train and practice in many different ways. I was training two kids on Saturday who had hand-eye co-ordination issues, so we had to do specific drills to start to improve that before we were able to really work on the form of blocking and striking. We all have...Click To Read More

Habituation

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 1st Oct 2012

Dealing with aggressive and violent people is a frightening prospect. Not so much from a technical perspective but from an emotional one. As I always stress, 99% of assailants on the street will assault you with their best attack – the one they hope will end the fight there and then – and not plan or be prepared beyond that. This is why a push followed by a large swinging right is one of the most common types of assault. A street fight is rarely a highly physical technical affair, which is why we concentrate so much on basic movement,...Click To Read More