The Self-Defense Seminar Market

A big portion of my income comes from conducting seminars and it has been for over 10 years. For me conducting seminars can be a love/hate sort of factor. It can be mostly a "love" type of point in that I appreciate the teaching, I adore meeting the persons, I appreciate the travel, but hands down the number a single reason is that I actually feel I'm assisting people. Exactly where the "hate" aspect comes in will be the perception lots of other men and women have of what I do, or possibly much more the perception that many people have of my business. Most of the seminars I do are self-defense seminars and when men and women discover what I do to get a living they automatically mentally lump me in having a large portion of the industry that is not focused on helping individuals and brush me off having a platitude.

Over the 25 plus years I have been in the martial arts I have located that the market of self-defense seminars isn't completely respected by either martial artists or by the general public. The purpose for this is that self-defense seminars happen to be around forever and many people have had a mediocre to poor expertise with them. When I ask folks about their expertise with them what I hear more than and over is that they're too high priced, they are too low cost so they cannot be any very good, they're also quick and also you can not find out something in an hour or so, the instructor wasn't competent (they either weren't knowledgeable, did not answer their questions, or they could not preform what they taught and produced themselves appear negative), and by far essentially the most common complaint is the fact that they did not study anything... or a minimum of something beneficial. I recognize just about every one of these complaints and I have seen them firsthand. When I was a teenager I went to much more than 1 self-defense seminar in my region and they were laughable at greatest.

The way I see it you will find two major troubles with self-defense seminars, and also the very first is that most instructors are not certified to teach them. The majority of the seminars I've observed over the last 25 plus years have been taught by some guy who features a black belt. Contrary to well-liked belief possessing a black belt does not necessarily qualify you to teach self-defense. One of my black belts is in Songham Taekwondo (ATA style); based solely on what I learned from the ATA I would by no means dream of teaching an individual self-defense. Most instructors with all the limited know-how gained in "just" getting a black belt find yourself teaching a karate class rather than a self-defense class, with strategies ranging from white to yellow belt level. Walking down the floor performing higher blocks, reverse punches, and front snap kicks will not be self-defense.

I believe a a crucial problem is the fact that people today in the martial arts confuse the martial arts with self-defense and see them as one and the identical. The factor is the fact that they're not; most martial arts schools teach their art as an art-form and concentrate on teaching a student their art-form as opposed to teaching their student to most effective techniques to defend themselves. I, for instance, have three black belts, I'm a "master instructor", and the major art I study focuses on self-defense and pretty much practically nothing in it truly is appropriate for tournaments... but the majority of what I teach through a self-defense seminar I discovered outside of my martial arts coaching.

Individuals want to understand a lot more than just the way to punch and kick, they need to know how criminals pick their targets, how they commit their crimes, where probably the most unsafe regions are and what the most dangerous circumstances are, and exactly how they must be aware. What is going to be of most benefit to men and women, particularly people who never intend on committing to typical education, should be to be educated on who criminals are, how they function, how you can spot them, how you can establish boundaries and deal with someone attempting to have too close to you, and after that the best way to bring about probably the most injury for the body with the least amount of effort. I've spent years and thousands of dollars studying this and I do not know any regular martial arts school that teaches it. Realizing the best way to do a higher block and throw a truly good side kick doesn't qualify you to teach an individual the way to defend themselves.

The other big challenge is that, from what I've seen, most likely about 95% of self-defense seminars are essentially not made to teach people to defend themselves. Most self-defense seminars are truly taught for marketing and advertising purposes. A lot of martial arts schools provide free of charge or low expense seminars to introduce people to their style of martial arts and then pitch them on enrolling in their frequent classes. These seminars are marketed as a indicates for an typical individual to study to defend themselves but in reality placing on a good quality seminar is not their intent. I've close friends who charge $25 for any one particular plus a half hour seminar and they commit most of their preparation time searching inside the mirror and operating on their sales pitch. As a fellow skilled martial artist I definitely have an understanding of thins, having said that, this does a massive disservice towards the general public, the martial arts, and yourself inside the lengthy run. If that may be the sort of seminar you happen to be going to hold then that is certainly fine but don't tell folks you will be going to teach them to defend themselves, be honest with them and contact it an "introductory martial arts seminar" or anything like that.

Yet another problem is some people hold seminars which can be just all more than the spot. I saw an individual get interviewed on Television who was pitching a 3 hour lengthy women's self-defense seminar she was holding. When asked for specifics she said the first hour was actually all about fitness and could be a fitness boot camp, the second hour could be self-defense, and also the third hour will be about mind/body knowledge so they could be doing yoga. That is definitely not a 3 hour long self-defense seminar and shame on her for pitching it as such.

While you will find men and women available in fact providing a public service, attempting to teach folks usable information, and in fact caring in regards to the well-being of their consumers this can be only an incredibly modest percentage of the instructors on the market who're holding self-defense seminars. When I design and style a seminar I say to myself, "OK, my teenage daughter is coming to me for an afternoon of coaching and right immediately after she is going to be violently assaulted. What does she have to have to know ideal now?" and then put pen to paper.

I understand the difficulty of producing a living teaching martial arts and advertising a martial arts college normally. It is actually not easy and there is a lot of competition. Most instructors set out wanting to share their fantastic art-form using the world and find yourself being a glorified day care center till they have to start dipping into their savings account to spend the rent of their college. Regardless of this we need to have to truthful with each our students and ourselves.

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