Wed, 11 Jun 2014 21:09:10
I was talking with a guy who is a Krav Maga instructor. And I thought of something which had occurred to me several times before - isn’t it amazing how many people spend so much time learning how to defend themselves from physical attacks? I wonder why people don’t spend so much time learning how to defend themselves from verbal attacks. After all, the last time I was involved in physical fight was 23 years ago. The last time I was involved in verbal fight was 90 minutes ago - a disagreement over what time myself and the Krav Maga guy should have turned up for an appointment - we lost!
So on Tuesday I’m going to give a 90 minute seminar on Verbal Self-Defence. The seminar’s free and it’s the last of these “Late and Over-Budget” evening seminars that I’ll give (I might do an online version of this last seminar as well as the “in the flesh” version).
What will we cover in the seminar? Well, in the spirit of “Training from the Back of the Room” which is one of my inspirations for my approach, here’s the “4C’s” outline for the seminar.
Just take a minute to think about some verbal attacks that you have suffered - what was the result of those verbal attacks? What would be different if you could defend yourself more effectively from those kinds of verbal attacks?
Luke Archer’s concept of creating “imbalance” in your opponent.
Luke Archer’s concept of returning your opponent to balance.
Luke Archer’s concept of inserting a moment of thought between the stimulus and the response.
Suzette Elgin Haden’s concept of “Blamer mode”, “Computer mode” and “Leveller mode.” It’s not about you - a Buddhist approach to self-defence and Harry Frankfurt on Bullshit.
What did you learn? What can you do next?