PLEASE INTRODUCE YOURSELF...

Hello everyone, my name's Mike, and i'm from Cumbria (North UK).

I bought Richard's £30 Phase 1 pack a couple of weeks ago.

I'm 20 years old, currently live in a rented flat with my girlfriend, and come from a family that was always aspiring to be middle class
I'm also the eldest of three brothers. I'm a clever person, but a low acheiver, and my interests include psychology, mechanics, car science, and generally finding out 'what makes things tick'.

Last year I started training at Catterick in Yorkshire with the Army, and lasted all of four weeks before asking to leave! I'm back on track now and have used my good GCSE grades to get a place on a Foundation Degree course doing forestry at a local Uni.

I'm a naturally fit person (gradually getting less fit..), and used to play a lot of sports in school as well as riding a Downhill Mountain bike (two summer trips to the Alps included, chairlifts galore ). Since coming back from Catterick excercise has slumped and i'm hoping to join every sports club possible when I go to Uni.

About a year and a half ago I started going to judo classes once a week, but entheusiasm waned and I stopped after a few months. Therefore i'm not trained in any martial arts, but have had my share of fights and scraps over the past 5 years (averaging about 2 per year come to think of it..). In the past two years these have all been aggressive acts by me on other people, and all of them involved me drinking. mostly it's a case of 'aggressive defense', or [mentally] '.. enough is enough'.

Obviously i'm quite fresh out of school, and during time in school it seems I was always trying to stay out of someone's way. Since I was young (under the age of 11 at least..) i've always had an irrational fear of getting into fights, culminating in nerves so bad that I have nearly passed out a couple of times when having a stand off. Proudly though i've never backed down (or run away) despite this.

I actually developed a very good set of skills allowing me to bluff when my back was against the wall, as well as manipulate an aggressor into going away or being interrupted. This helped most when I was cornered by a heavy about a year ago in a remote car park, who mistakenly thought i'd hidden a good moneysworth of drugs nearby (I hadn't hidden any- but try convincing HIM that!). Brown trouser moment indeed.


I think I bought the dvd pack (after a lot of deliberation) because I couldn't see why I shouldn't.
Until I listened to the NLP/Psychology of Violence CD's it had never occurred to me that it isn't actually necessary to be terrified before a fight.

Prior to coming to this website i'd been surfing YouTube looking at how to fight properly, and having seen a couple of Richard's clips I read up on the material here. I am very interested in the psychology and the physics of violence, but have fully taken on board that it's not necessarily a good thing to become a 'violence nerd' so i'm only going to take on board what's in the material provided here.

As long as I can find enough time to progress through the material it will be an upwards spiral. That is my intent with this.

Nice to meet you all, especially Richard, who up until now has been a voice coming from my headphones (a very .. odd.. sensation when you're half asleep). I probably won't be posting much, but i will definately be listening. Apologies for the essay, i'm waiting for the gf to get back from a night out and i've had my wank, so i've got plenty of time to spare

Honestly though i'll accept money for the market research value of that post.
Mike

hiya Mike,
that was as original as i've heard in ages. welcome

Hi Mike

interesting post...

next time, save it for when she gets back in



welcome to the forum

Well, I finally bit the bullet & registered!

I have been lurking on the forum for over a year now. Found Richards vids on youtube in late 2007, from which I moved to reading the info on his site, before migrating to reading the posts on this forum.

To be honest the youtube vids made me want to get back into some form of realistic self protection & in feb of 2008 I started at Devon krav maga, here in my home town of Exeter. So that is now a year and a half of training after a near decade break.

I have been loitering in the back ground of this forum for so long that i feel I know most of you regular posters in person, as it were, & it is so gratifying that the questions i wonder about & the queries & notions i have concerning good self protection are so often voiced by one or the other of you.

As a quick aside, Roadkill, hope you are recovering well. No, you dont know me but I still wish you all the best with your recuperation from such a serious operation.

Rich G. Love the material both physical & psychological which your producing. I am going to take the plunge when finances allow & get my hands on some of your recent training videos. Thanks for the youtube tasters, they are bloody useful

The concepts & approaches that Rich teachs, researches & that you all discuss have been a paradigm shift for me, to be honest. There is no magical technique, no invincible style, there is only practicality, awareness of self, others & situation & simplicity of response. Ohhh & pressure tested practice & lots of repetition of the same. I am fortunate that where I train is very open to this.

Regards to you all where ever you are

Matt

Blakops, welcome into the light

Welcome Matt

Hey Everybody.

ARod here. (not the ball player).

I trained in BJJ and MMA for a while, I even fought once in a mma fight.. I still train on and off, but primarily I am going to the gym and jogging these days.

I am working on my getting back in shape, and also working on the mindset that comes with fighting and being prepared to fight.

Richie's material is hardcore and very motivating. Though I've been out the game for sometime, I feel mentally stronger. Just knowing how "easy" someone can be knocked out, etc makes you feel safer..

I've always been afraid of violence, and I had a rough upbringing in a rough neighborhood.

So I enjoy this material, it makes me less fearful, more powerful, etc.. I look forward to learning and sharing with you guys...

www.arod.org if you'd like to get a better perspective on the ARod here.. hehehe.. take care....

hiya ARod,
welcome

Intro -

Male, mid 30's located BC, Canada. Training history RBSD & Senshido concepts, taking from both what I find works for me in pressure testing. Previous experience in the security industry. Came to this board from selfprotection.lightbb. and liked a lot of the vids/topics posted.

hiya mate. welcome, Unclouded.

Alright lads , im Chris just found the forums so thought id pop by and say hello .

im 23 , from the south ( or saaaaf ) of england been training mainy cardio but ive been watching the youtube vidos and got me really interested . absolutely shite about writing stuff about myself so ill leave it there .

Howdy Chris. Nice to have another southener on here

Greetings Gents,

My name is Daniel, 36, also from the Saaaaf, and as my handle I especially created for you chaps might indicate, I don't train half as much as most of you, except for IN MY MIND. They say it's 50% mental anyway, haha.

Started judo at 9, karate 11 and tasted jujitsu 17 and then 19. Always found most trad schools to be clueless as to reality. Knife defence with X-blocks, compliancy etc. Trained with the heavy bag on my tod over the years, being a hermit on his quest for Wisdom. I'll let you know when I have anything for ya!
Done Aikido and Taiji yet even the hardcore Aikika rely on punches and headbutts in a jam! Yet I still love to harm-onise, it gives oneself a chance to "negotiate" with miscreants.

Love Richie's open minded devotion to truth... sometimes too open!

Training in my own way, fusing everything I have ever seen and liked, from Taijiquan and Silat to "Attackproof"'s no technique approach. I get bored with drilling so I like to mix things up. Oooh, baaad discipline! That's me!

Specialty: now that would be telling! Expect the Unexpected... though the elbows are an obvious pair of points

SoisIneedingtohavenospaces, saidtheOfficialHypocrite?

Hi guys, just joined up, I've been a fan of Rich's videos for a while now and finally decided to join the forums.
I've always been fascinated by the psychological aspect of a fight, be it using body language to make yourself a harder target or ways to overcome that paralysing fear I seem to always get when I'm in a situation that may become violent... really interesting stuff and Rich... you do a fantastic job of explaining it, it's really helping, keep up the good work!

I'm from the North, Newcastle to be exact, but I recently emigrated to Canada, and now live in Vancouver BC, I train at a small Bjj club called Northvanbjj, I got bitten by the Bjj bug and have been training hard ever since, I've done a few years of kickboxing and judo too, Judo is still probably my fav

Anyway, thought I'd just check in, hopefully I can pick up some tips from you guys that have a bit more street experience / knowledge, as I'm severely lacking in that department and I don't want that to come back and bite me in the arse at some point!

Cheers lads!

greetings bigsteve...

Hi, I'm Rob. I started training in karate 34 years ago...very quickly realised it wasn't the best thing for helping save your a$$ in a street fight. Over the years I've been on self defence courses, far from them being any good, they were teaching you how to get yourself killed!

I stumbled across Richie's website by sheer luck..bonus I think! I've just received my first DVD (knife offense) very pleased, am just about to order some more. One thing that is seriously overlooked in the majority of self defence courses/ martial arts training is the psychological side to being involved in real, not choreographed violence.

Got lots of martial arts experience, bit of street stuff too but there's sh^t loads I don't know..I think I will be learning a lot from Richie's DVD's and this forum!

Welcome Robbie, I'm sure you'll like it here

Many thanks for the welcome, sure I will

Chris/Daniel/BigSteve/Robbie,

crikie, were've i been?...
greetings, nice to hear your backgrounds.
now, back to training

Hello all,

I've been lurking in the forum for quite a few months, finally decided to register. Actually, it's the first forum I've ever registered on. Love the breadth of topics and depth of insight here. Thanks to Maija for telling me about this.

My background's mostly in Aikido, and I teach it, but it's the self-perfection, not self-protection part of my training. Did JKD for a few years, Paul Vunak lineage, so in empty hand we worked a lot on getting to clinch range from various entries, then working headbutt-knees-elbows. Also did a little kali stick and knife stuff (which I really enjoyed) as part of the JKD. My instructor stopped teaching JKD and is now teaching sport BJJ, so that's what I'm doing now. I like training BJJ, but I know that's definitely not where I want to be in a real fight.

Looking forward to learning and sharing,
Karen


Oops, meant to say it's ONE OF the first forums I've registered on . Second actually. Hey, I was distracted by the toddler

hiya Karen,
welcome. having Maija as your lead in is keeping good company indeed. and it sounds like
some nice training variation you've explored.
looking forward to your insights


JKD always interested me early

Hi Karen and welcome to a fellow go with the flow, joint locking, pain inducing practitioner...

Hi Karen, 'sup? nice to see you here

Hello Karen, Congratulations, dont tell this lot but this is my first ever forum as well, sssshh

& hello to everyone else recently come onboard. Now we can have really big discussions

M: (Knock)
A: Come in.
M: Ah, Is this the right room for an argument?
A: I told you once.
M: No you haven't.
A: Yes I have.
M: When?
A: Just now.
M: No you didn't.
A: Yes I did.
M: You didn't
A: I did!
M: You didn't!
A: I'm telling you I did!
M: You did not!!
A: Oh, I'm sorry, just one moment. Is this a five minute argument or the full half hour?