June 19th, 2002

Street wise Self-defence Seminar 

Streetwise a FREE seminar for the public.

The afternoon started with Sergeant Farley of the West midlands Police Force giving a short talk on local crime stats and general tips on avoiding trouble.

Following this Sensei Martin Blakeway took the group through a short warm up and then explained some theory & psychology of self-defence. Stance and basic techniques followed before the group was split into three manageable size groups. 


Sensei Steve Pride & James Lloyd took their group through wrist locks, and defence from grabs to clothing, wrist and arms. 
Sensei Andrew Docker with the help of Marc & Matt Allen explained & taught techniques to use to defend rear attacks. This included elbows, backfists and back kicks. 
Sensei Martin Blakeway took his group (with the help from James Eccles) through simple effective blocks including outer & inward palm blocks, forearm block and the importance of the "fence" - defence stance. He combined these with palm heel strike the use of the forearm.

The afternoon simply flew by - every 35mins the group rotated and were taught by the next instructors and their techniques. 

As the afternoon came to a close Sergeant Paul Farley (wearing full riot gear) reinacted a mugging scene and showed how the police restrain their criminals. He then gave a talk on reasonable force and citizens arrest. Rounding things up nicely.

The final part of the afternoon was a great demonstration on how it can be with regular practice - Sensei Steve Pride defended against armed & unarmed attackers in the form of Arron Dovey & John Skeldon. He showed the devastating techniques of Chongshin Do including throws & takedown techniques to restrain, disarm and control your attacker.

All in all the group enjoyed the session and all left with a new insight in how to deal with attacks from different situations. Many thanks to all who was involved.

Public comments -
Excellent - very informative and clear useful to practice in safe environment.

Fantastic - In such a short time I have had my eyes opened.

Very good relaxed atmosphere, made to feel really welcome. Learned allot.

I learned plenty of things I did not know - was surprised at the effectiveness of even the simplest technique. Very informative.

Very Good - Excellent - a good range of different things.

Very interesting especially the fact that the instructors made it fun to do. Learned allot leaving me better prepared.

Very good - good balance of information and practice. Very user friendly! for all ages & abilities - well done.

Informative, well planned - enjoyable. 

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