Self-Defense Classes in the Phoenix East Valley

2010-04-08T12:50:00.000-07:00

Knife Defense training at self-defense
clinic at the University of Wyoming.

Teaching self-defense to individuals or groups who have never trained in self-defense can be very rewarding. To see people discover how to use their elbows, the palms of their hands, their feet, their knees, their body weight for the first time is rewarding. To see the expression on people's faces when they use a successful technique for the first time is a tremendous boost to an instructor.
Over the years, we found that using a similar technique for a variety of attacks is best for the novice. This makes it easier for their muscles to remember how to defend. Muscles? Memory? Yes, in traditional karate we teach students that they have muscle memory, and to be successful in self-defense, you cannot think, you have to learn to react.

One of the simpliest and more powerful weapons we have are our elbows. Thus it is much easier for students to learn how to use their elbows against a variety of attacks - such as wrist grabs, lapel grabs, chokes, strikes, etc. Complex techniques are useless to the lay-person: few will ever remember how to defend themselves using complex technqiues during a stressful situation when they are attacked.

All people should have training in pragmatic self-defense. It has been said that an armed society is a polite society.

If we all were trained in hand to hand self-defense, I suspect the number of attacks would decline. Imagine listening to the 10 o'clock news & hearing about a small, thin, young woman being attacked by a large male, and during the attack the male was incapacitated by focused strikes leaving an injuried thug for the police to pick up and take into custody. Or if a sleazy politician was bruised by his aid while trying to grop her or him. If we were to hear these stories on the nightly news, our society would become more polite and there would be a dramatic decline in attacks.

Statistics from several years ago reported ~25% of all college women will experience some form of sexual assault by the time they graduate! If we started teaching our children traditional martial arts in public schools, they would become experts in self-defense, obesity would decline and most people would learn to respect one another. We need to change our schools environment and start sending our kids and family members to train in traditional martial arts classes and keep them there! Or better still, bring martial arts to the schools as they do in Japan and in some places in India.

University Students take advantage of
free self-defense clinic taught by Hall of
Famer Soke Hausel and sponsored by
grants from ASUW

This may sound extreme, but it can be very beneficial in learning proper self-defense, self-confidence, making sure that you are always prepared, and keep you in good shape for life. Remember all of those hours you put into the gym in a aerobics class – if you instead did this in a karate class, you would be in better shape and also be able to defend yourself, and it could be just as fun.

Wouldn't you feel much better walking across campus at night, or to the bus stop, or just getting into your car at the grocery store if you had trained in martial arts all your life. You would realize, without thinking, that your car-keys are an effective weapon, or your geology book could leave a sizable indent on someone's hand, or simply using a cross-sissor strike (a very simple technique developed by a Chinese female centuries ago by watching white cranes) on someone's neck, they would fold like a paper doll and collapse to the ground.

Group photo of graduates from a University Self-Defense
class. Many reported this was the best class they had during
the semester.

Science shows that you can burn about 1100 calories per session of martial arts training compared to 500 calaries for many aerobics classes. Yet you have the benefit of also learning how to defend yourself. If you train well, you can also become a martial arts instructor and use martial arts as a second career or a fall-back career in case you lose your job.

With proper training, you can learn to defend against most attacks, but it requires commitment. You must practice, practice practice. In martial arts, we talk of Mushin. The art of not thinking. You must get to the point where you can defend yourself by NOT THINKING. This can only be done by constant training.

If you think you can learn to defend yourself by attending aerobic kickboxing classes, you are sadly mistaken. A few years ago, I was asked to teach kickboxing at Gold’s Gym. The women were surprised by my tactics – I unplugged the stereo and asked if any of them could defend against a simple grab of their wrists – none could. I then proceeded to teach them how to defend against a multitude of grabs using techniques that were very similar to one another. And I was shocked that the previous instructor had misled them by telling them they were learning self-defense.

Self-defense requires continual training. Of all of my students, several of my female students have been notable standouts. These people made a lifetime commitment to training in martial arts. All it takes is one attack to change your entire life – so you must always be prepared for that one attack.

Two of my favorite yudansha students. Here,
Katie places Kris's face into the mat with a simple
arm bar. Katie was just one of several female students
I taught over the years who looked to be frail & cute,
but she loved to work over the guys. One of my other
students actually quit training in jujutsu because he was
affraid of Katie.

One needs proper guidance in martial arts from a well-trained and legitimate instructor. Sport martial arts tend to teach techniques that lack focus and power, just by the nature of competition. It is common knowledge that one will defend in the manner that they train. So to be able to defend yourself – you must train hard and train with considerable power and focus. The one major benefit in sport martial arts is the teaching of reaction to movement, which is hard to duplicate without kumite (sparring). So there must be a trade-off, unless one is willing to practice full-contact martial arts. If you can learn to react to movement with very powerful blocks, strikes and kicks, you are doing very well.

My recommendation is to visit the school you might be interested in, and watch a class and talk to the instructor. Does the instructor seem to be personable and competent? If not, look elsewhere, you must be able to get along with your sensei (instructor). This is one of the more important aspects of martial arts.

After I had been teaching martial arts for about 30 years, I taught a clinic to a group of taekwondo black belts. These people ranged from 1st degree black belt to 5th degree black belt and all of them taught at various martial arts schools in western Wyoming and eastern Idaho. They all were very good martial artists and we had a great time training - at noon when we took a break, the owner of the school where the clinic was held, handed out IB profin to all of the class members - they were putting a lot of energy into training – but none of them had ever trained in street self-defense prior to that clinic! They had a wonderful time learning to use their hands for self-defense and two even became my students.

Self-Defense training for members
of the UW ROTC program

Taekwondo is a great martial art, but many of the sport clubs focus too much on their kicks and competition - which is fine if this is your intention. But there are also traditional taekwondo clubs that essentially practice Shotokan and or Shorin-Ryu karate, which can be a powerful martial art. Still, few arts can match the tremendous kicks in taekwondo - but we also have hands. In karate, it is nearly the opposite of taekwondo as one focuses much more on their arms for self-defense.

So how does one identify traditional martial arts from a sport martial arts? If you start training in a dojo (school) and you see many trophies, you are in a sport school. If you hear music during training, you are in a sport school.

Soke Hausel has taught very popular self-defense clinics at
the University of Wyoming, University of New Mexico,
Arizona State University, various private schools and dojo,
EMT personnel, Church groups, Political groups and more.

I was told by one student about a sucker punch - the only time he had ever been decked. The attacker came up to him to apologize, grabbed his hand to shake & threw a hook with the other hand while he was distracted by the apology & handshake. This could happen to anyone. So, it is best that you train for such situations over and over.
If you are interested in traditional martial arts, research the internet for starters. Personally, I would look for schools with considerable Okinawan/Japanese lineage; but this is my personal bias. Schools like Shorin-Ryu, Shito-Ryu, Goju-Ryu, Wado-Ryu, Kyokushinkai, Shotokan are usually good.

Successful self defense requires good physical fitness and constant practice with force (must be able to react without thinking). Martial arts teach self confidence, physical fitness, focus, and respect. As a result, we often receive groups from around the world who are interested in learning our system of martial arts along with many beginners.

We call this technique - cowboy pole
dancing. The attacker is quickly
immobilized and forced to ride his
own arm as his head is driven into the wall -
see how this works at
ARIZONA SELF-DEFENSE

One must continue to practice the rest of their lives. We especially focus on women's social groups, church groups, airline attendent associations, clubs, sororities, teachers, etc. We teach them to use some pressure points to aid in self defense.

The human body has nearly 400 pressure points (i.e., a point below the ears, temple, eyes, soft area behind collar bone, base of neck, groin). We also train our female martial artists to use any weapon available to them and strike some of these points. For instance: 1. car keys, 2. key chain, 3. pen, pencil, 4. fingernails, 5. spare change, 6. rings, 7. glasses, 8. shoes, 9. umbrella, 10. Mace, hair spray, 11. pocketknife, fingernail file, 12. book, brief case, purse, magazine, 13. student I.D., credit card, 14. comb, hair brush, 15. manrikigasari (chain or rope), 16. belt, 17. Even your cell phone – it has edges that are hard and can be put to use. But the best weapons available for any martial artist or person are those that God gave us: open hand, palm, fist, back fist, fingers, knuckles, elbow, knee, foot.

To find the right instructor – look at the instructor’s diplomas. Search the internet for information on the school and the instructor, talk to some of the students, watch a class, see if you feel comfortable with this person. There are no international committees that require registration of martial arts instructors, so check out the instructor where you plan to train.

The Arizona School of Traditional Karate is located along the south edge of Mesa and northern edge of Gilbert, Arizona. The Arizona School of Traditional Karate focuses primarily on adults and families.

For more information – see:
ARIZONA TRADITIONAL KARATE TRAINING

SHORIN-RYU KARATE

SEIYO-KAI INTERNATIONAL
VISIT OUR DOJO IN MESA, ARIZONA
Map to Dojo

Our center is open to the public. Learn the traditions of Okinawan Karate & Kobudo & how we are trying to make this world a better place, one person at a time at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.

We introduce meditation, philosophy, Japanese and martial arts history in our karate & kobudo classes at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate.

Our class schedule at the Arizona School of Traditional Karate is as follows:

Tuesdays

6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Karate Kihon & Kata

7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Shorin-Ryu Kata & Bunkai

Wednesdays

3-4 pm Family Shorin-Ryu Karate & Kobudo
4-5 pm Shorin-Ryu Kids Karate (by invitation only).
6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Self-Defense & Jujutsu.
7:50-8:20 pm Samurai Arts (Iaido, Yari, Naginata, Hanbojutsu)
Thursdays
6:45-7:50 pm Shorin-Ryu Kobudo & Bunkai
7:50-8:20 pm Advanced Kobudo & Bunkai
Fridays-Saturdays
Special Clinics (see our Calendar or Newsletter)

Even though our address is 60 W. Baseline Rd, we are actually at the NE corner of MacDonald - just off of Baseline in Mesa.

We offer clinics and semimars for businesses, associations, clubs, social groups, church groups, sororities, teachers associations, etc. You can call us at 480-545-5578 to schedule a class, clinic or seminar for your group. Our prices are reasonable such that your group could schedule its own 1 hour or one day self-defense clinic for as little as $15 to $25 per person for ten or more. We reserve the right to refuse training to anyone.

We have some of the lowest rates in the East Valley.
Contact Us

Self-Defense & Traditional Karate for Women & Men

Self-Defense Classes in the Phoenix East Valley