Success Stories

For about one year, there was a man who was always standing outside my office building when I’d arrive at work. It looked as if he was waiting for me but I just ignored him, telling myself it was silly to be scared since he never spoke to me or even approached me. Then one morning, he came up to me in the lobby of the building and asked to buy me a cup of coffee. When I declined his invitation he got angry and began to insist, saying things like, “Come with me. You have to talk to me.” Though he was eventually escorted out by the building’s security officers, the incident shook me up. A week after the…

I stopped, and as I was taught in my classes, I went to zero. I felt my body completely collect itself as I put my hands out to show the assailants that I would cooperate. I kept thinking of my training and what I would do if they got close enough with their weapons. I was waiting for my opening. …

Here was my opening, and my mind and body said “GO.” Like my training taught me, I went with 100% commitment to stay alive.

I stepped to the right, he stepped to the right. I stepped to the left, he did the same. It was just one of those stupid sidewalk dances, until I stepped again, very clearly, to the right and he followed me again. I had a quick moment of thinking “yuck, this is weird, you don’t want to be here.” And then my Prepare skills took over.

I took the Prepare three (3) hour introductory self defense course at my health club. I loved the program and got a tremendous amount out of only one session. I utilized the skills that I learned in a life threatening situation just days later. I was walking through Central Park on my way to work at 9 a.m. I had consciously decided against listening to music because I wanted my awareness skills to be as strong as possible. This choice enabled me to hear the loud, clear scream of a man far away and directly approaching me at a very fast pace. The man appeared violent and out of control. Even though I was very scared in the moment, I DID…

I could feel his presence coming up behind me. I decided to just turn and confront him. Being in a public, populated environment, where any type of commotion would be noticed and dealt with by personnel, I knew I had options. For example, I could just yell “The brown haired man in the turquoise velour shirt is following me,” or “Back off; stop following me!”

It was a typical late afternoon subway ride, at 3:30 p.m. on a Thursday. I got on the C train at 23rd going downtown. The train was almost full of seated passengers and a handful of people were standing. A man came onto the train with a large black canvas bag, and the telltale white cords of an iPod in his ears. He stood directly across from where I was seated, near the train door he entered. He proceeded to rummage around in his bag vigorously, which seemed to be filled with something large, wrapped in white plastic bags. A brief thought passed through my mind – the reminder to alert the MTA if you see any suspicious bags. He occasionally…

Last week at a relative’s home I encountered an unpleasant type (ya know the ones who give you the uh oh feeling ;)). This was not my first encounter with this person and as soon as I saw him I froze. And then as I was about to close the bathroom door to hide he jumped in the doorway and started yelling and saying that he was going to get me and I better get ready for round 2…my first instinct was to shut down, close my eyes and let it happen. And as I struggled to close the door I remembered PREPARE. I waited a moment, took a deep breath, let go of the door and took a step…

My friend was walking in front of me and the minute he passed her he grabbed me around the waist. I screamed “GET OFF” and gave him a knee to the groin. He then let go of me … Prepare really helped me out in this situation…

I feel very strongly that my son’s training was a huge influence in his decision to put a stop to Mike’s attacks and especially to report him. I’m sure the outcome would have been very different without his class. I had cried in the police station that night, not so much because it had happened, but because Chip had handled it so well.

While I was at a party in an apartment in Brooklyn, an angry neighbor forced his way in to complain out the noise. Armed with a hammer and a large carving knife, the neighbor confronted the owner of the apartment. The owner immediately attempted to deescalate and agreed to lower the music if the neighbor would calm down. Unfortunately, several of the party-goers were intoxicated and were escalating the situation by shouting their annoyance at the neighbor. As the arguing became heated, the neighbor pointed the knife at the owner. At that point I tried to deescalate but the neighbor was too focused on the other escalating voices. As attempts to deescalate the situation failed, I weighed my options and…