Gain The Reach Advantage Over Attackers!

The Stun Master Telescopic Stun Baton comes with a Life-Time Warranty. It has three ways to protect you: a Light, a loud 120db Alarm and 800,000 volts of stopping power. Its rechargeable so you never have to buy batteries.

Its 21.5 inches long when fully extended, and only 13 inches when collapsed. The stun baton comes with a FREE holster for easy carrying. The full length of the metal part is electrified. If the attacker tries to grab the stun baton from you, he will be shocked. Now that’s what I consider great insurance at a small price.

A push of the trigger immediately expands the Telescopic Stun Baton and starts shocking. Just push it on the end to collapse. This isn’t rocket science so expect to behave like a Stun Master product – it’s very easy to do.

You shouldn’t worry about being shocked should the attacker be touching you. It can’t happen. The current won’t pass through the assailant and into you. They will shock through a 1/2 inch of clothing with no problem.

Are NY Laws Too Tight On Self Defense Products?

A large man attacked a 101 yr old woman in the lobby of her apartment building in Queens NY recently. Surveillance footage of the attack showed this very large guy – about 6′1″ or 6′2″ and about 260 lbs approach the tiny old victim (in a walker no less) and begin punching her repeatedly in the face. He knocked her down with punches to the face as he wrestled her purse away from her. The footage clearly showed the initial snatching of the purse, the punches, knockdown and him standing with his back turned away from her and going through her purse. I feel badly for her and 100’s – maybe more – women in NY who are assaulted or harassed to varying degrees, every day and need protection.

Now you may think I’m reaching here, but I viewed the tape several times and although this old gal was using a walker, she had “moments” when she could have easily reached a hand to the bar on the walker and released some high powered Mace Pepper Spray all over his face, eyes, mouth. One particular model has a “Velcro tie-down” for just such locations and may have effectively stopped the brutal attack that ensued. I’m talking about before she had taken several more punches flush in the face and been knocked down. This was possibly avoidable with a deterrent as mentioned above. Getting sprayed all over the face, at point blank range is a very painful experience. The lady was 101, but very alert and very sharp in an interview, she had a chance IMO. Sad!

Current NY laws which prohibit the sale of pepper spray to their residents should be changed to new legislation that allows the purchase of OC pepper spray by an adult for self defense purposes and increases the sentence of a “perp” using such products in the commission of an unlawful act, for example. I’m not a lawyer or a politician, but I do think that it’s short-sighted and not fair to prohibit such products as non-lethal OC pepper spray to residents of legal age. I can only encourage NY residents to write to their elected officials and ask them to introduce proper legislation regarding their legal right to purchase and carry certain non-lethal self defense products.

For Those Who Complain About Their Spouse

For those of you with under-appreciated wives, listen up! You talk about having a bad day? This poor guy who’s wife, an RN was allegedly having an intimate affair with a Doctor she worked with. Meanwhile she’s emailing the friendly “Doc” and looking on the internet for information on how to kill people, poisons, looking up the nearest pharmacy where she could cash the allegedly “forged prescription” for a tranquilizer that could knock over an elephant. She allegedly filled the illegal script written on a prescription pad from her Doctor friend and went after her husband of 5 yrs. – ending in his tragic, brutal death.

Prosecutors allege McGuire used a sedative, chloral hydrate, to disable her husband of five years and then proceeded to shoot him three or four times before dismembering him with a power saw and throwing him in the Chesapeake Bay. Now that’s cold!

The search for information about chloral hydrate occurred about a minute before a search on the Walgreens Web site for store locations. Before McGuire is alleged to have killed her husband, someone filled a forged prescription for the sedative at a Walgreens pharmacy near the preschool attended by the couple’s two children.

The couple’s HP PC was used to gather the incriminating evidence but the defense maintains that Mr. McGuire had made the queries that related to committing murder. Somehow that doesn’t seem to fit since the searches led right to his wife and of course, he’s in the Bay and she’s not – unless she saw him plotting and launched her own pre-emptive strike. I find that highly unlikely and look forward to seeing her convicted if guilty.

To read the rest of this bizarre murder mystery – being solved by “computer forensics specialists” online at Court TV.com

Is It Time for You to Leave?

It’s been my good fortune to have visited many martial arts training halls. I’ll use the generic “training halls” since almost every type of martial arts has their own name for their training facility. About 90% of these were/are very adequate in filling the most important criteria. They were clean, had a friendly, respectful teaching staff, taught solid martial arts and appeared genuinely interested in the student’s class experience including their personal growth. Again, most Head Instructors that I’ve met are to be commended on their skills as not only a practitioner but also as a teacher of the system they represent. Occasionally you’ll run into an obvious “bad egg” who is gruff, inhospitable and radiates a “get out of here” attitude.

There are much easier ways to learn how to defend one’s self than dedication to learning and advancing in a martial arts system. That takes a long time and it’s mostly “uphill” – meaning lots of sweat and hard work. How much easier to buy a self defense product like Mace pepper gel or the even easier and more pleasant to learn deterrent, a handgun. The thing about possessing martial arts skill is that after considering many scenarios, we come to the conclusion that we are armed and dangerous at all times. You may have a grocery bag in each arm and a crying to in tow, but if confronted by an enemy, it’s easy to simply groin kick them then toss your groceries at them and escape with the little child back to the safety of the grocery store. Joe “the purse snatcher”, will be so shocked at this sudden, painful counter-attack that he’ll be long gone, having beat a hasty retreat, before you’ve located an employee and explained that you need them to call “911″ for help. Same thing with being caught in a shower or anywhere unexpected. With martial arts training and skills, you’re always armed but you usually don’t shower or sleep with your .357 magnum strapped on. You never know under what conditions an assault may take place – so I recommend that people who have thought about it – and especially women – spend some time taking self defense classes. It can only help you so long as you don’t train in one of the 10% of training halls that don’t fulfill the criteria for a good place to train, as mentioned in the first paragraph.

So what kind of martial art or training hall should I choose to pick up some solid self defense skills? That’s a great starting place – you’ll want to visit and observe a class at any schools in your area. Only then will you be able to make the best choice and avoid the charlatans and the “smoke and mirrors” clubs who lure you in with the pretty dragon painted on the wall or the exotic, classical Chinese instrumental CD playing softly in the background. It’s easy to confuse a new prospect coming in for lessons and cause them to believe that they have just landed at the Shaolin Temple – housing martial arts secret skills passed down through the ages and now available to you! I have a special place in my heart for the fakes and shake down artists out there – you know who you are!

Ok, lets try to sort it out, here are some things to be leery of. Never – Never sign up or take martial arts until you’ve seen at least a couple of classes! I have never met an honest “commercial” instructor who won’t allow this or better yet – offer to allow you a free week or month of classes with no strings attached. This is a good sign and will allow you to get an idea of your prospective Instructor – plus allows you to chat with other students and see their skill levels and get a feeling for how you might fare, in say six months or a years time. You’ll also get a strong indication of how they feel about the teacher or teaching staff. Never listen to a pitch from an instructor who promises you great things or points to golden plated “plastic” trophies as if to illustrate how good he or his students are – and then steers you toward a confusing array of payment plans. Don’t sign any contracts if you would get a month for free or other incentive. No amount of pocket change is worth putting up with a charlatan for 6 months or a year because you wanted to save $50 – $100 over a period of time. Pay the monthly dues until you’re convinced that you belong there. Never take a system because it looks pretty or because the Instructor looks – good or tough. Keep one eye – make that 1 1/2 eyes peeled on the students. Are they happy there? Do they seem to have higher skill levels according to the degree of ranking or belt color that they wear? This is a much better indicator of how you may find yourself feeling in 3 months. Talk to fellow students!

Don’t fall for the places that are “home brew” systems. I have known a few teachers who make it up to say Brown Belt and possess skills – up and disappear for a couple of years, only to re-surface as 6th, 8th, even 10th degree black belt masters. They will often have a very sketchy lineage (martial arts family tree) that can’t easily be checked out. They will often be the Head of their own styles – self promoted – and may or may not contain a hodge podge of martial arts techniques – tossed in a blender and then named: “The Way of the Gentle Tiger” or the “Karabe Ryu” dojo, “The Blind Three Legged Phoenix”. Just some crap that the inept “Founder” has written and pronounced in an Asian language and sounding mega-cool! In 98% of these encounters – get out as quickly as possible – the thief is already in the room! I tip my hat to the 2% of extremely knowledgeable and skilled martial artists, who for their own reasons, have created styles of martial arts that have withstood the test of time and actually – in some cases are now mainstream martial arts in their own right. Remember they are the 2% of the pie you may sample when finding your style to train in. I could go on but due to time constraints, let’s leave you with these tips on choosing or remaining in, a particular martial arts school.

Good luck – remember to use the same care in choosing a martial arts school that you would in buying a car – you’ll probably do pretty well!

Some people I come in contact with in the realm of “self defense” are consumers of our great self defense products. Others are practicing martial artists, who do run and lift weights as an adjunct to their self defense instructions. Many choose to do this at home or in the training hall. Others, like to work out in the gym for the sake of privacy and diversity of training devices available. This funny little piece was donated to give us a smile from one of the latter, who like all the gear available in a gym, without having to store it all at home. Thanks Steve!

Heart Smart is obviously not an athlete or interested in bulking up much. He is thin and middle aged and spends most of his time at a leisurely pace on the treadmill. He occasionally lifts very light weights. His large collection of hospital/medical related tee shirts is a dead give away that he had a “close call”.

Hydro fights a constant battle with dehydration during his workout. Often a younger man or 20/30 something woman, they are never more than a few steps from their supply of life-sustaining water. They favor receptacles that carry huge volumes of water like empty gallon milk jugs, two-liters and Coleman thermoses adequate for decanting lemonade at the company picnic.

Fatso is pretty much a lost cause. He is obviously in pain and not enjoying himself. I give him two weeks. Fatso favors sweats in unlikely and ugly colors (burnt orange, forest green) and black concert tee shirts for his workout. Please wipe your sweat off the machine Fatso.

Roy, as in Siegfried and Roy, has a Charles Atlas body, an angular jaw line, a deep tan and bleached blonde hair. He favors miniscule shorts and tank tops. You only see Roy once in a while; the assumption is he spends most of his workout time elsewhere at really hard core gyms. No way is Roy straight.

Alexi is nearly bursting out of his skin. Barrel-chested, he lumbers through the gym in two layers of baggy sweats with all the cuffs and collars cut off. He sports a variety of elbow wraps, knee braces, gloves and belts. Alexi seems to spend most of his time standing around in that uninhabited corner of the gym with the really heavy weights and incomprehensible racks and bars. Today’s workout consists of 3 sets of 3 reps of 500#.

Fifi is a beautiful and delicate creature in her mid 20’s. Her brand spanking new workout ensemble is perfectly coordinated in pastel shades and she is a pleasure work out within eyeshot of. She favors the treadmill and low impact circuit training when she’s not walking laps of the gym with her nose in the air. She’ll “workout” for a couple weeks; until she realizes that this is not a good place to find a rich husband, and be gone.

Put “Head Hunters” On Notice!

I have decided to type my posts into a word processing document, thus having an original and giving Google time to work out the kinks in their “new” improved Blogger software. Errors have been rampant and there have been no improvements IMHO but we’ll give them a shot for now. That said I am re-writing the post that vanished as I was working on it last night. Hurry up Google – no one wanted the changes and support is not responding to inquiries! Having said that let’s get busy!

I spend a lot of time online keeping up with everything directed at e-commerce and all that it entails, such as reading a variety of current forum posts and coding websites. A lot of time gets spent doing research, and part of that takes me to the martial arts forums where members get as zany as in a SEO forum. Arguments and disagreements are rampant naturally, anywhere thousands of martial artists come to post their questions and opinions. I tend toward spending most of my time in the “Traditional Martial Arts” sections where knowledge seems to be on a much more even keel than say, “MMA” sections where Joe Blow could kick the c**p out of John Blow….and the threads go on and on. “My Dad can kick your Dad’s butt”! “No he can’t, yes he can, no he can’t yes he can….and so on!” Not my cup of tea at all.

While in one of the sections, one of the more active posters was a young 23 yr. old man who’s profile displayed him in mid-air while performing what appeared to be a jump spinning round kick with the right leg chambered to kick and the left about a foot from the ground and dangling. Of course this left his groin wide open and offering a HUGE bull’s-eye for any competent fighter to exploit. Further, leaving him exposed to being snatched out of the air and spiked about a foot below the floor by any competent grappler, be they Brazilian style, traditional judoka or a wrestler. He was “cruising for a bruising” as they say, since I’ve seen this happen many, many times. His profile said he was a “kick boxer”….hmmm? So I thought I’d drop him a line. If you ever read this “kick boxer” plz check your email or just read a copy that I’ll paste below – it’s important!

The E-Mail:

I looked at your profile and saw you were an up and coming martial artist. I also see that you reference yourself as a kickboxer. What kind of fighting is that exactly? You see, I’m a geezer – 30+ yrs as a student and teacher of martial arts. When I was a bit younger than you (21-22) I lived in Okinawa and got to watch and begin to try some pretty good stuff. Once back in the US, I decided to begin formal instructions in Okinawan karate. I found Okinawan schools (2) within driving distance and continued with that style along with other systems, which I began to add over the years. The only full contact fighting we could do outside our dojo was PKA style, in a boxing ring, no leg kicks, no knees, elbows, headbutting, or any Thai boxing goodies that I had trained in. Aside from all these restrictions, there was no grappling or submissions allowed, as in UFC – Pride – Vale Tudo etc.. All of my black belt students cross train in Muay Thai or Boxing and Gracie Jiu Jitsu or other Brazilian schools, in addition to completing their Shorin Ryu karate training. I have had a few “ground and pounders” too over the years – wrestlers all of their lives – from about 10 – 12 yrs old until finishing HS or College. Teaching them to submit an opponent, or escape and stand back up and strike – they were/are perhaps, more lethal than the Brazilian trained guys. Do you do any of this?Your jumping kick looks very nice and very strong but I hope you know it would get you hurt badly against a trained fighter – even a trained street fighter. Just thought I’d tell you, to save you the pain of getting counter-kicked in the “family jewels” by a decent counter striker. Or, worse yet, caught in the air by a grappler and power bombed about a foot below the ground. You do have a pretty kick though!! If I were your teacher I’d turn that into a “flying knee” and close that groin area up – plus they’re very unexpected and if you miss you’ll be ok – if you connect – well, they’re going to sleep! Good job! – plz remember – you seem like a good young martial arts student and I hope you’ll accept my good advice in the spirit of one martial artist to another.

End of Email

So here’s a shorter version of the “lost post.” Head Hunters – You’ve been served! What you choose to do about it is of course, up to you!

There are points in our lives when a wise man asks himself, for better or worse, “How did I get here?”, and consequently learns a life lesson.