The Power of "No" 

I used to laugh at videos of self-defence classes

where you'd see a bunch of people (often a women's

only class) where they'd have their hands up shouting

"No!" or "Stop!" and then would wail manically on some

pads or a man in a padded suit.

And, OK, I still might have a giggle. 

But back then, esp when I was super proud of how

tough and macho my training was, I didn't understand

or appreciate the power of 'no'. 

So, it turns out, after teaching this stuff for over 10 years

and practising it myself for way over 20 years, at the

heart of all this fighting business is a really basic and

particularly unsexy concept: boundaries. 

Learning to disarm knife- and gun-wielding attackers

is super cool. And chops to the throat and stuff. 👍

But the truth is, if deep within you, due to any number

of reasons (social conditioning, childhood experiences

etc), you haven't REALLY given yourself permission

to exercise a "No", then none of that stuff will manifest

"on the day". 

Trust me.

This is why you can learn to hit hard and fast really 

quickly. Hard enough to put a man to sleep instantly.

But when you have someone confront you

verbally on the street, you feel completely out of your

depth.

I'd be turning blokes into ninjas all day (physically). 

Then they'd go home to a girlfriend they were scared

to be honest with, or go to a job where they got 

nervous every time the boss was around. 

And I was exactly the same. 

If you want to be a REAL bad ass, you have to 

be capable not just physically but... yes... 

emotionally! 

In this next session, we'll be developing both. 

It'll be a full-on sweaty session as always, but with 

some little adjustments on what we're focusing on

within ourselves while doing it. 

See you there, tough guy (or girl) 😉