Protecting Your Fingers

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 25th Feb 2019

There are certain things we can sometimes forget to protect. When I first started training and grappling with BJJ guys, I found that they often became vulnerable to leg-locks e.g. knee-bars and ankle-locks, etc. During my time practicing and competing in Judo, I’d trained some SAMBO, where these types of attacks/submissions were commonly used, but weren’t so well known (at the time), in BJJ. That’s all changed now but at the time, most practitioners would leave their legs open for attack. In reality-based self-defense, I see many people leave their fingers vulnerable and open to attack. Fingers need to be...Click To Read More

Mental Illness & Violence

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 18th Feb 2019

Recently, I’ve been doing a fair amount of work surrounding risk prediction, and mental illness. There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding concerning mental disorders and violence, with many people having an unnecessary fear of those who suffer from such illnesses. This is not to say that certain disorders, such as schizophrenia, don’t have an association with violent behavior, however the majority of sufferers don’t ever engage in violence, and it may be that other non-clinical factors – that may have been present before the disorder developed – are more important when predicting future physical aggression. In this article,...Click To Read More

Laughing In The Face Of Danger

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 11th Feb 2019

There are different types of humor that we use in a variety of ways e.g. there is affiliative humor, that we use to create bonds, and enhance existing friendships, there is aggressive humor, that is used to promote and reinforce the identity of the individual, such as when somebody makes fun or mocks something somebody else has done, and there is self-defeating humor, that although potentially injurious to the individual, is used in a self-deprecating way to establish a lower position in the pecking order, so as to be accepted by those above them, etc. Humor is also used as...Click To Read More

Gaining Access

Gershon Ben Keren

Mon 4th Feb 2019

I have written about burglary before, but it is not a subject I cover a lot. I also have been reading a fair amount of “top tips” pieces recently, about who burglars are, how they commit their crimes, etc. Some of which are good, and some of which are woefully off the mark. Generally, I try not to provide tips and rules, as these can easily be gotten around, when criminals become aware of what the general public are being advised to do e.g. if the tip says to check a person’s ID, before you let them into your house,...Click To Read More