Reality Defense

This Monday I visited Reality Defense. It was an first introductory class and so we went over some of the basics of what self-defense is. Thank you to Troy Coe who let me come in to his school, and Thank You to Jeff Barto who taught me my first class- I really appreciate it! We covered the basic myths of self-defense.
1. It won't happen to me
2. Someone Else will protect me
3. If I don't Fight back... they won't hurt me
4. I studied Martial arts already, I'll be fine
         -Most martial arts are 99% competition and exhibition, and 1% Self-Defense
5. Weapons Are the Answer
         - Having a weapon and knowing how to use it doesn't ensure your safety by any means
6. Only the Strong Win
         - The ones who win are not necesarilly the strongest
All of these myths discourage people from learning to defend themselves properly.
Also We went over the founding concepts of Reality Defense
1. Survival Concept- do anything you must to ensure your survival
2. Maximum Resistance
3. 9 second rule, you want the fight over in 9 seconds
Next we went over the position that you should assume when you get into a conflict
- strong side forward with your body squared up with your opponent and your backhand is near your chin and your front hand is about shoulder high, so now whenever you block you mirror your opponent.
But when it comes down to it everyone needs to be able to defend themselves. During this class we went over some basic parrying blocks and maneuvers.

We went over the 4 forms of defense.
-Blocks and Parries
-Evasive Footwork
-Body Evasion
-Stop Hitting
Finally we went over two versions of a straight jab, sight lined and unaligned. A sight lined jab keeps the elbow of the punch in towards the body so the opponent only sees the fist, and must rely on depth perception to see it coming, so their reflexes are slowed. When you punch an opponent you must penetrate 6 to 8 inches to make sure that you do damage. The information we went over in this class is very important for my project, providing a baseline for which i can base the self-defense capabilities of other styles on, I cannot wait to go back for more lessons from reality defense.
Thanks
Mr. Waaler