Black Belt Magazine

HOW SELF-DEFENSE DIFFERS FROM COMBAT SPORTS

I fell in love with the arts at age 7 after watching Bruce Lee in The Chinese Connection. I began my studies three years later with shorin-ryu karate while living in Okinawa. Since that time, I’ve studied numerous arts, including boxing, folk-style wrestling, jeet kune do, muay Thai, savate, escrima, pencak silat, krav maga, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and the Real Combat System.

I worked as an officer in a major metropolitan police department in California for 29 years, four of which were as a master instructor in my department’s Arrest and Control Unit. I’ve also been an amateur boxing coach, youth wrestling coach, kickboxing instructor, BJJ instructor and self-defense teacher.

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