Universal Martial Arts Academy (UMAA) is hosting a “Queer Self-Defense Workshop” at El Rio, 3158 Mission Street this Sunday, July 28 from 1pm to 2:30pm. The workshop will cost $15.00 per person, but this ticket price will also include admission to “Salsa Sunday.”
“CCOP supports and applauds all efforts to bring additional training, information and safety tips to the LGBT community throughout San Francisco,” said Ken Craig, Vice Chair of CCOP.
Craig is director of volunteer training and emergency services liaison for CCOP and has created and led numerous CCOP sponsored free self-defense seminars over the years. Craig has more than twenty five years of experience in the martial arts field, and holding Grand Master rank in the martial arts of HapMoosaKi-Do, YongChul-Do and TaeKwon-Do.
“Hearing different voices, seeing different techniques and exposing yourself to different self-defense concepts is essential for the average person as they don’t spend enough time with instructors to allow a qualified instructor to tailor techniques to that individual. Within martial arts training, we have years do tailor techniques to suit each person based on their height, weight, strengths, weaknesses, aptitudes and so on. In self-defense classes and workshops by contrast, you only see the student for a few hours if your lucky, and you have to impress a lot of information on a lot of students in a small amount of time,” Craig continued.
“Some techniques will work wonderfully for most people, and a few people will find everything easy and effective, while a few will find everything difficult and cumbersome. It’s the nature of teaching and learning. To overcome the small amount of time available to us, we strongly recommend that all of our CCOP self-defense participants check out different self-defense courses, different instructors and different concepts.”
“Once they have the basic principals down, they can begin to fill their defensive technique toolbox with various ideas and concepts from multiple different sources, and that will be the most effective thing for everyone, whether you are a self-defense beginner, or an experienced martial arts Grand Master such as myself.”
Pre-registration for the seminar is highly recommended as space will be limited. To register follow this link : UMAA Queer Self-Defense Workshop.