Commentary from Instructor Dave Hebler

Your mindset is as important as the defense itself. What is meant by this is that once you decide that you must defend yourself physically, you must do so with total commitment and with absolute aggression. Ignore everything that the assailant does and concentrate only on your offense. Paying attention to what the assailant does will force you to operate from a defensive position, which doesn’t work very well. Now realizing that asking you to ignore a man who is violently assaulting you is expecting a lot, but if you concentrate and operate in as aggressive a manner as possible, it can be done and it is necessary for success. The table is turned and now the assailant must react to your moves if you are being aggressive and it is hard to fight backing up and even harder to fight falling down. When the assailant suddenly has to deal with massive doses of pain and fear, he is not going to be conducting his assault. The effectiveness of being aggressive cannot be emphasized enough! It is one of the fundamental keys to self-defense. Everything turns in your favor when you seize the initiative and take control of the situation.