Seminar teaches practical self-defence

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This article was published 09/01/2020 (2286 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A new type self-defence seminar in Brandon is aiming to teach people the practical side of keeping yourself safe in day-to-day life.

Called Defence Lab, instructor Justin McDonald said the seminar is about making people feel safe in the Wheat City.

“Brandon is not safe, period,” he said. “I have been here for almost eight years total now, and in the last five years I’ve noticed it has gone downhill. … Brandon specifically has got this aura about it — there is just this feeling of people I feel like are not safe.”

The two-hour class will teach participants beginner-level skills like how to properly and safely strike someone, how to defend yourself if you are grabbed from behind and how to safely fall and get back up again.

“I would say that self-defence skills now are not just a good idea — the violence that current society has presented to us on a daily basis is ever-constant, so at this point having yourself in some kind of well being … that’s paramount,” he said.

McDonald and fellow instructor Eric Stewart are hosting a seminar on Sunday to introduce people to the program. He said it’s not about making money, but trying to keep people safe in Brandon and get people into the program.

“I don’t want money or anything, I just want to help people who are smaller … it doesn’t take much for a 100-pound girl to turn a 300-pound dude into putty if she hits the right target,” he said.

Defence Lab courses are more concept-based he said, rather than being “niche” like some martial arts. The program also promotes general physical fitness, things like working out and doing pushups at home.

While McDonald has been involved with other martial arts, such as jiu-jitsu and the Westman Self-Defence Club, he said the type of moves he now teaches appeal to him most because of how easy they are. He and Stewart first met when McDonald was in the military when the two were practising a sword-based martial art.

“(Defence Lab is) not like traditional martial arts, teach there’s this exact technique for this exact niche situation, but in reality that never happens and so the chances of being able to pull off those techniques you learn in certain schools are damn near zero,” he said.

“I had been in fights in high school where I had been attacked and I tried using traditional martial arts and they don’t work … I got my head smashed into a metal pole in the gym room because I tried to do a technique my instructor showed me.”

Defence Lab is based on the idea that if you are attacked you will be attacked by multiple people, McDonald said, so it becomes easier to defend yourself if fewer people attack. The classes also teach how to fight back in a variety of situations, like being pinned against a wall or sitting at a table.

Defence Lab has hosted other seminars in Brandon, such as a women’s safety-focused class at Brandon University, but McDonald said the aim is to introduce people to the style and classes.

McDonald and Stewart are hosting a seminar on Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Ukrainian National Hall on Stickney Avenue. The cost is $20 and people can register through the group’s Facebook page. 

 

» dmay@brandonsun.com

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