Empower women, not make them feel vulnerable
History has taught a dangerous mindset implying women are too weak to defend themselves. An alternative narrative is available through Mu-shin Self-Defence.
In February 2022, London Mayor Sadiq Khan urged a cultural shift to help end violence against women. But the fact is, women must stand up to violence and challenge their vulnerability.
Mu-shin Self-Defence is committed to changing the narrative for women by enabling strength and technique that can be embedded into muscle memory to help to overcome a larger framed attacker.
Add to these instinctive skills the concept of ‘hysterical strength’ that when applied with intent and control can become a powerful weapon. Like the mother that used it to lift a car to save her son. The ability to eliminate ‘tonic immobilisation,’ (the freezing in the moment) that hinders speech and movement. Harnessing these powers along with technique and repetition mean that there is nothing to prevent a woman from protecting herself.
Think shieldmaiden and Lagatha, the viking queen depicted in the Netflix series ‘Vikings’ that showed women to be more than capable in the battlefield. Unfortunately, the rest of history paints women as defenceless and vulnerable – a dangerous mindset to teach women.
Not all threats promote inner strength
At Mu-shin Self-defence, we recognise ‘tonic immobilisation’ -is more likely to happen during an attack. One study of 298 rape victims found that 70% experienced significant tonic immobility. We work on stamping this out with any notion that a smaller framed person can’t protect themselves against a larger framed attacker.
To survive encounters similar to the tragic stories of Sabina Nessa and Zara Aleena, we must give women the instinctive skills and belief that they can win against extreme violence, and it doesn’t have to take years of training to achieve this.
The mother that saw her child trapped under the weight of a Chevy Impala was drawing on ‘hysterical strength.’ We have ‘mental restrictors’ that can prevent us from overexerting our muscles and injuring ourselves during menial day-to-day tasks, suggesting the average person generally operates at about 60% of their physical capacity.
Enter a ‘life-threatening’ situation. A boost of the hormone epinephrine, also known as the “adrenaline rush”, and you have what looks like superhuman power. Mu-shin Self-Defence does not claim to unlock this power but it provides the potential along with training drills and visualisation meditation to encourage women to tap into their inner warrior. Some women are aware of this, particularly those that have endured childbirth.
What if women were given a simplified, powerful combat system that teaches them the correct body movement, maximising their own weight behind each strike and directing strikes to vulnerable areas of the attacker. A training process that can embed those skills quickly, making them instinctive, and a way to eliminate tonic immobilisation and tap into hysterical strength.
Judgement Day for ‘bad’ men everywhere! Headlines would read “21-year-old nurse hospitalises serial rapist,” “mother of three breaks attacker’s nose,”. “Stalker gives up after hospital stay.”
This isn’t about creating more violent people. It’s about levelling the playing field and teaching women a mindset that empowers them to overcome the most vicious attackers.
How to Defend Against a Knife Attack?
Violence is a constant theme across the news. It’s glamorised in films, played out on game consoles, and sung about in rap songs. But what happens when we are actually faced with it?
Residents of a war-torn country, suffering domestic abuse, living in a rough neighbourhood – for these people, violence is a daily occurrence. Most of us are lucky that we may never experience it, especially in its most extreme degrees. But the ‘what if’ notion can make us feel vulnerable.
Self-defence and fitness with purpose are vital in moving us from potential victim to survivor, to even liberator! Mu-trained women will help to take one less pervert off the street, making it safer for others.
Sexual assault is on the increase The figures in this article make for a sobering read.
With an impending world recession driving poverty and stress, we are likely to see more incidences of violence.
How can we best prepare ourselves should we have the misfortune to experience it?
Mu-shin Self-defence is designed to defend against all types of confrontation -verbal and physical, with the emphasis on ‘realistic’.
Rear straight arm strangles’, and ‘knife thrust held out’ are still practised in martial arts and some self-defence courses. Both of these scenarios are extremely unlikely. A woman is more likely to be grabbed close from behind in the form of a bear hug or half nelson, and the most common knife attack involves the ‘grab and stab’. The attacker steadies the victim while rapidly thrusting the knife into them. To spend time rehearsing techniques against a strike that doesn’t happen is more than a waste of time, it’s dangerous since it neglects the necessary preparation for what does actually happen.
Founder, Stuart Kirby says, “There is always an opportunity cost to denial!”.
Thanks to the lack of censorship on YouTube, a search for ‘real knife attacks’ makes it harder to deny what an actual knife attack looks like.
Search ‘real fights’ and ‘violent attacks’ and ask yourself if a martial arts or self-defence syllabus would be effective?
Is Violence On the Increase?
Females are more likely to be victims of rape or violence than experience a car accident. If that doesn’t indicate a need for change, what will necessitate a wake-up call?
Violence seems to be a significant part of life, whether we are administering it, fearing it, suffering from it, or glorifying it. It isn’t going away.
Is Violence On the Increase?
As a martial artist and self-defence instructor, and now the founder of Mu-shin Self-defence, Stuart Kirby, has studied violence for over 38 years. His fear of violence drove him to train in martial arts from the tender age of 8, to avoid being a victim of it.
Over the last few years, Stuart has questioned how prepared his students would be in a real life street attack.
Research into the most effective way to deal with violence highlights the works of former US Navy Seal Tim Larkin, who became the author/creator of Target Focus Training.
Larkin’s controversial approach to self-defence teaches students to lay injury upon injury until the attacker is ‘non-functional.’ His method has received praise in some parts of the world and has even been used to train special forces, police and security services.
In stark contrast, he was refused entry to the UK in 2012 by the then Home Secretary Theresa May, as his content was seen to promote violence.
His book ‘How to Survive the Most Crucial 5 Seconds of your Life’ highlights the absolute need for a self-defence system that repeatedly focuses on powerful strikes to vulnerable areas until the attacker can no longer harm a victim.
The 258-page justification for using the ‘tool of violence’ against a violent attacker could be translated as a ‘kill or be killed’ guide.
Stuart Kirby goes on to say, “there is logic and scientific reasoning within Larkin’s theory. Hysterical strength is accessible to everyone, and the ability to stop an attacker before they tap into it. Many self-defence techniques are practised briefly and are too weak to end an attack.
At Mu-shin Self-Defence, we train quality over quantity, with zero grading syllabus so there’s no danger of overloading the parietal lobe (the part of the brain that stores our motor memories). The advantage is that the techniques are more likely to effectively embed into muscle memory and become instinctive. A higher degree of perfection will be achieved since there aren’t as many techniques to master.
Self-defence Weapons
In the UK, carrying any kind of weapon is illegal, even in the name of self-defence. Instead, many flock to martial arts training and self-defence courses. How well does this prepare them against the varied levels of aggressive confrontation, particularly physical violent attacks?
This kind of attack requires a different kind of defence. Credit to Larkin who clearly distinguishes between the standard’ playground spat, bar fight, and road rage incident for which he terms ‘anti-social’. He distinguishes the severe violent attack as ‘asocial’ and usually instigated by a psychopath.
Larkin warns that even an antisocial confrontation can easily escalate to a violent end. The worst case being the ‘one punch killer’ scenario where a drunken slap leads to someone ‘hitting the deck’, resulting in a fatal concussion!
Larkin maintains that fighting is never a good option since it can progress to death. If avoiding a fight is at all possible, this is the route he suggests. His message is clear: control the ego and go home safely to loved ones. Did Theresa May miss this very important message? This is the message that Mu-shin Self-defence agrees with and will share far and wide.
How to Escape an Attacker
If the walk or run-away option isn’t possible, skill and power are needed to get the attacker into ‘non-functional’ status, making it safe to run.
Larkin offers examples from the US prison system, with videos showing extreme acts of violence to illustrate just how ugly and uncoordinated it is. Nothing like the perfectly executed flying kicks of Jean Claude Van Dam or the wrist throws of Steven Seagal from the 80s blockbusters.
Larkin argues that no one has used the ‘tool of violence’ more effectively than those incarcerated in the US prison system.
Self-defence For Women
Young women leaving for university or a gap year to travel will benefit from learning tactical self-defence moves that can be applied to real-life situations. Some martial arts and self-defence courses could equip her to fare better in a bar fight, but would they provide the necessary physical and mental training to deal with a 200-pound testosterone-charged man?
This is where Larkin’s point is valid. Self-defence training should focus on making an attacker non-functional with less time spent perfecting a kick high enough to dismount a horseman (though useful during the Korean mediaeval period of 1392).
Taekwondo, karate, and judo have all featured in the Olympics, and these athletes would stand a very good chance of defending themselves in all situations. Still, the average karate-ka (student of karate) training twice a week is trying to cover an extensive syllabus to achieve the coveted black belt.
This type of training is great for learning the art, getting fit, becoming disciplined, and learning how to use your body efficiently to win against an opponent but it typically takes around 4 years of consistent training to achieve the 1st degree black belt. The question is, how prepared are they for an unprovoked violent attack?
Mu-shin Self-Defence aims to get people instinctively attack-ready in the shortest time possible. 90 minutes is our shortest masterclass. In that time, students learn the combat system and the drills to continue to improve and embed the techniques into muscle memory. Students have access to review videos and visualisation meditations to ensure this processing of embedding to muscle memory is successful.
Young women leaving for university or a gap year to travel will benefit from learning tactical self-defence moves that can be applied to real-life situations. Some martial arts and self-defence courses could equip her to fare better in a bar fight, but would they provide the necessary physical and mental training to deal with a 200-pound testosterone-charged man?
This is where Larkin’s point is valid. Self-defence training should focus on making an attacker non-functional with less time spent perfecting a kick high enough to dismount a horseman (though useful during the Korean mediaeval period of 1392).
Taekwondo, karate, and judo have all featured in the Olympics, and these athletes would stand a very good chance of defending themselves in all situations. Still, the average karate-ka (student of karate) training twice a week is trying to cover an extensive syllabus to achieve the coveted black belt.
This type of training is great for learning the art, getting fit, becoming disciplined, and learning how to use your body efficiently to win against an opponent but it typically takes around 4 years of consistent training to achieve the 1st degree black belt. The question is, how prepared are they for an unprovoked violent attack?
Mu-shin Self-Defence aims to get people instinctively attack-ready in the shortest time possible. 90 minutes is our shortest masterclass. In that time, students learn the combat system and the drills to continue to improve and embed the techniques into muscle memory. Students have access to review videos and visualisation meditations to ensure this processing of embedding to muscle memory is successful.
Knife Attacks
The benefits of studying martial arts are clear – improved discipline, fitness and overall well-being, to name a few. Instructors and students should prioritise skills that help them to be violent attack ready, and wearing a black belt is not always an indication of this. Martial arts have a grade awarded system that requires completing a vast syllabus of techniques.
Unfortunately, this can create a barrier to instinctive reaction. Not everyone wants to invest so much time in a martial art, so having an alternative fast-track programme means anyone has the chance of becoming attack ready.
Take a look at our article on self-defence and the martial arts.
At Mu-shin Self-Defence, the goal is to make everything instinctive. Fortress masterclasses promote this by focusing on core techniques that are easier to learn and based on three principles of power; hips, loading and footwork.
As Larkin suggests, Mu-shin Self-defence targets vulnerable areas, so powerful strikes to the right area mean a much smaller person can escape a larger, violent attacker.
The masterclasses are 90-minute, or 3-hour and 5-hour courses, but the key to making the techniques instinctive is reviewing the video and visualisation meditation.
Students can use these resources as much as they like, but Mu-shin SD recommends at least twice per month.
Horrid news about violence in the media should serve as the ultimate motivator.
The visualisation meditation provides mental rehearsal and helps overcome the ‘freeze in the moment of attack’ syndrome, known as tonic immobilisation. A set of adaptable and powerful techniques are embedded in muscle memory (subconscious programming) quickly.
For those that enjoy this type of combat training, Mu-shin Fitness serves as a weekly fitness programme covering a wide range of attack scenarios, including multiple attacks. The programme also includes review videos with cardio and HIIT workouts.
Achieve fitness goals and get instinctive at kicking ass!
Everyone needs a go-to response in the face of danger and violence.
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