Who are the leading instructors in self-protection?

Who are today’s leading instructors in self-protection?

In the UK, the likes of Geoff Thompson and Peter Consterdine pioneered teaching about self-protection. What was pioneering was how they based their teaching on a wealth of first-hand experience (as opposed to dojo experience). Is there anyone like Geoff and Peter who’s teaching nowadays?

Has self-protection further evolved? I think knife crime in the UK has increased since Geoff and Peter’s days. CCTV is another difference since their time. What else has changed and who’s now teaching contemporary self-protection based on practical experience?

 

I also believe UK is not as violent as it used to be. Things were rather bad in the 90's and early noughties. Maybe it's because of all the CCTV and technology now available to track down those responsible?

 

Really?

It is worse look at Londons current murder rates especially around knife enabled crime

look at the Daily attacks on police officers and ambulance staff

Best advice Stay aware , disengage, create distance and let the professionals deal with it (If they can )

I have had the pleasure of partaking in Johns scenario training and it is an excellent bolt onto ones regular training.

It puts your skill set to as realistic a test as you can get ..an eye opener for some and a reinforcement of others and their training.

Adrenilne and pressure testing lead to gross motor skills being utilised with the finer techniques being forgotten or just not used by many.

The streets have a feral feel to them at the moment with life being cheap and carriage of weapons on the increase.

MAPers be safe and come to the 2019MAP meet where some self defence work will be available to all

 

John Titchen is one name that you hear on MAP a lot and that you really should hear more elsewhere

We work together a lot on topics and I value his input greatly

 

The stats say otherwise. But London is a particular problem. Other parts of the country have experienced lowering of crime.

 

I work on the streets it is worse
Statistics are an indicator that the government and local authorities utilise to their own needs
Look at what the chiefs of Police are saying to central government
People aren't bothering to report crime , low level crime is written off after first report, victims of violent crime are taking themselves to hospital to avoid authorities

So sorry buddy I have to disagree with you

Smurf

 

Recorded violent crimes have more than doubled in the last three years in the UK.

Coincidentally, the number of British police officers is at a 30-year low. I wonder if that could have anything to do with rising crime

 

Todays example of a less violent society

 

There appears to be a difference between England and Scotland then. I do believe Scotland as a whole has way less crime then England...The below stats have also been my experience. You could't walk through certain areas of Glasgow in the 1990's now there isn't an area people can't walk through because it's considered unsafe. Sure, there's been a short term surge in violent crime but the overall longer term trend is definitely down. However, police are way under resourced now....it's a joke. You hardly see any police on the streets anymore.

Recorded crime in Scotland: 2016-2017 - gov.scot

 

You never said Scotland !!!

 

@Mitch, @Simon and @Smitfire each are also very knowledgeable when it comes to self-protection.

 

Ah, sorry. Should've made it clearer. I live in Edinburgh. From Glasgow. Moving to Scottish Borders soon.

 

I, in no way, should be mentioned in the same sentence as others. I'm just an average Joe trying to make sense of it all.

People already mentioned I'll not comment any further other than saying I wholeheartedly agree with their inclusion here.

Some people I like (in no particular order and for a variety of reasons)....

Iain Abernethy. He's obviously known for his kata bunkai stuff but he's also very closely linked to Geoff Thompson and, in particular, Peter consterdine and everything he does has strong legal underpinnings and context. He's very hot on being clear about your goals, training for those goals and not mistaking skill in one area as automatically transferring or being applicable to another (The by-product myth).

Lee Morrison. Lee may not be everyone's cup of tea but to my mind he is blunt, rough and straight to the point but clearly knows his onions. Very pragmatic, very stripped down but very effective stuff.

Tony Blauer. One of the first guys to hit on using the flinch response combatively and others have taken that and expanded it. Now you can see flinch responses and spear type stuff all over the place. But I still like blauer's take on it.

 

You're right, England and Wales still haven't got up to the late 90's and early 00's crime spike rates, including London's homicide rates.

In that time I was living in Reading and Bristol. You had the Yardie invasion, drive-by shootings on pubs, armed foot patrols, riots in the streets... both towns certainly feel safer now and appear to reflect the statistics.

We'll soon be back up to those levels and beyond if public spending continues the way it is though.

 

From the statistics I have observed, it certainly *was* improved based on 80s/90s crime levels. I follow the stats in my area (Reading) and it has been creeping up again, and rapid increase this year.

A surprising increase coinciding with reduced Police spending? You don't have to be a genius to work that out; I played plenty of SimCity when I was younger to know how that panned out.

Anecdotally I have had most of my altercations in 90s, and early 2000s barely anything in the mid to late 2000s, and the last 3 years a handful of incidents that I was able to diffuse without violence (proud to say that) based on things I have learnt from Self defense theory.

I haven't trained with, but following online content by UK self defense coaches John Titchen, Iain Abernethy, and our very own @Simon shows how these names stand out in the Self defense world. Prior to that I studied a fair amount of Geoff Thompson's work.

Knife crime appears to be on the rise in Met region, based on statistics, from what I read this appears to be largely gang on gang related.

I would hope that this would influence other clubs, but there is still a large portion of rubbish around inherited from years ago, it's almost like there is one VHS/betamax that they all studied from released in the 70s, and accepted as golden within these clubs.