Fremont Self Defense Workshop Addresses Knife Attacks

With the headlines detailing the rise in violent crime and a local home invasion having taken place in nearby Newark just a few weeks ago, realistic self-defense is a concern among many local residents.

One of the most common weapons that a potential victim of violent crime might face is of course, a knife.

Unlike a gun, a knife is very “intimate.” Though obviously a gun is more dangerous, the assailant who draws the knife usually doesn’t intend to ”bluff” his or her victim. Rather, that assailant intends to get in close and personal. It is a frightening scenario, facing a determined assailant who invades your personal space, grabs you, and then repeatedly and rapidly drives his or her blade into you (“shanking” being the colloquial term.)

Unlike the movies, or even some traditional self -defense classes, which show a knife-armed attacker simply doing one or two slashes and the martial artist easily grabbing the wrist and flicking the attacker over his or her shoulder, in real life, knife attacks are fast, intense, and scary.

The reality is, if you are faced with an attacker with a knife, you will get cut. However, it is also realistic (and documented) that with the proper training, with realistic scenarios and training methods involved, the intended victim can come out of it alive (cut, to be sure, but alive and even victorious.)

Duke Dudley will put his 40 years of martial arts training, as well as his decades of real world experience working as a bouncer, to the service of those who will be attending his “Knife Combat And Knife Self-Defense Workshop” at his studio, Duke’s Martial Arts Center, located at 40667 Fremont Boulevard, in Fremont, CA on Saturday, June 20, 2015 from 12:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.

“We’re not doing flashy and we’re not doing the movies. We’re keeping it simple and realistic.” Duke Dudley says that with a friendly, yet business like smile, his easy going nature contrasting sharply with his imposing frame. He is over his 6’ 2” but he can move with ease, no doubt due to his decades of experience in the martial arts of Philippine Escrima, Muay Thai kickboxing, Korean Hapkido, Tae Kwon Do, Judo, Boxing, and Krav Maga.

”I lost a close friend of mine to a knife attack decades ago and I want to make sure that no one has to go through that. We also want to make sure that people come away with a realistic expectation of what will happen when you face someone with a knife.”

Basic techniques adapted from Escrima and Krav Maga will be employed. Escrima is the martial art of the Philippine Islands, renowned for it’s realistic approach to knife, bladed, and stick fighting. It’s so effective that U.S. military personnel are frequently sent to the Philippines for instruction and the Philippine special forces currently use it in close quarter combat situations in their ongoing battle with Muslim extremist groups in the country’s southern regions. Krav Maga is the Israeli system of self-defense, first formulated during World War Two to train Jewish partisans to fight the Nazis. It is now used to train the Israeli military in hand to hand combat when dealing with that region’s numerous encounters with insurgents.

Knife sparring (with hard plastic blades for safety) will also be a part of the training. “If you don’t know how to use the knife against a resisting opponent, you can’t defend against it. But, we also keep it safe. Ironically enough, weapons systems, as effective and potentially ’deadly’ as they are, are also among the safest martial arts to practice because you wear protection and of course, you use safer, simulated practice weapons.  We want to prepare you, not injure you.”

For those interested in the workshop, go to the event’s Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/events/987698924596345/

Online registration is open at:

https://clients.mindbodyonline.com/classic/home?studioid=38371

For any questions, contact Duke Dudley at (510)-(510) 252-1131.