F.A.S.T. Defense

[jonathanazel]

Hey Everybody,

Has anybody had any experience with F.A.S.T. Defense? There is a seminar in my area coming up, and I was thinking about trying it to supplement my KM training. It’s fairly expensive, so if anyone could tell me anything about it I would be greatly appreciative.

Thanks!

-Jon

PS – Here’s the website: http://www.fastdefense.com/

[whatever]

Hi,

Yes, it is great, try it.

[armitage]

Funny you should mention this – my wife and I signed up for one on the 31st March, and I was just thinking of posting on this forum to see if anyone else had any experiences with it! Looks like a good way to supplement what I’ve learn in Krav, build confidence, and help the wifey get started in self-defense (it’ll be the first time she’s tried any type of self defense or martials arts course).

In any case I’ll post a review once we’ve done it! 😀

[jonathanazel]

Thanks for the info!

Armitage – I’d love to hear about it, when you get a chance!

-Jon

[maskedkat]

Last fall, I attended a 3-hour FREE workshop. It was a blast. It was oriented toward women who had no prior training, but a bunch of us from KM went to have the opportunity to try our skills on the big dude in the padded suit. All of the instructors were KM folks. Let us know how it goes!

[armitage]

Unfortunately the course my wife&I were due to go on has been cancelled due to lack of numbers 🙁 The good news is that Bill Kipp, the system’s founder, is visiting the UK and doing a course on the 9th May, so hopefully we’ll be able to make that one! Apologies that the review is going to not appear for another month or so! 😉

[jonathanazel]

Armitage –

Please let us know how it goes after the seminar. I’m hesitant to sign up until I hear a review from an objective source. My main concern is that a lot of it focuses on non-physical self-defense, but I generally don’t have that problem due to my physical stature. I’m curious about how much actual combat training is involved.

Thanks!

-Jon

[somersetkravmaga]

FAST Training in the UK

Yes Bill Kipp is in the UK in May 07.

I am doing the FAST instructors course as I think it compliments Krav really well. Guess some of you may be meeting me as a Bulletman soon 😀 Some of us are hoping to do some of the seminars with Bill and will be playing the ‘bad guy’ or Bulletman.

We are running a FAST seminar in Bristol on April the 22nd at Krav Maga Bristol, see the link below. 2-3 places left I think

[armitage]

Jonathan – will definately write a review covering the positive/negative aspects of my experience, and will also see how my wife finds it, so you get both a \”beginner\” and a \”semi-experienced\” (although I use that term loosely for my own background!) perspective.

Somerset – thanks for the info, and although we’d love to come, the bank account is stretched a bit thin for this month and my work committments may conflict – but thanks for the invite anyway 😀

[somersetkravmaga]

Hi

No worries all the places are gone. Really looking forward to the instructor training though, its supposed to be great and to meet the man himself (Bill Kipp) here in the UK 😉

[armitage]

Okay, well my wife&I got back from the FAST Defense seminar just a couple of hours ago and we both had an awesome time! All the instructors were great, but special Kudos to Bill Kipp as he is a great inspiration.

I’d say that it was about 50/50 between learning the verbal descalation and the physical aspects – suffice to say that despite having seen some of the scenario videos before going, it was still v tough actually being on the spot and experiencing the situation! Learning to deal with the adrenaline dump was a big thing for both of us, and there was great support from all the other people there.

Fighting the Bulletmen was another whole new experience, as it really showed how much principles matter over technique, and how messy a \”real\” fight can be. They were also doing multiple assailent drills for the more advanced students, which was great to witness (especially seeing Lee Morrison, an ex-doorman and experienced fighter, take on no less than 4 at once! That guy has some serious explosive power!). I was also impressed in particular by a couple of the other students, one of whom came in a business suit, and handled the attacks extremely well, and another guy who I think was in his 60s or 70s, but definately put us young-uns to shame with his aggression and power when the bulletmen came calling!

Overall, both my wife and I were very, very impressed with the experience and would thoroughly recommend it to anyone. I’d say that everyone stands to gain something regardless of their experience in other martial arts, and everyone there definately went away having learnt a lot more about their capabilities and weaknesses under pressure. Another great thing was that all the scenarios were videotaped, and we got to watch the playback at the end (and buy a copy on DVD), to see how it all went down, and for future reference – when our copy arrives I may see about putting up my scenarios for a bit of show n tell! 😉

Finally, it definately did my wife a world of good (and made me so damn proud) when one of the instructors came over afterwards to personally congratulate her on an excellent defense (he was her attacker in the suit) 😀 !

I think that this system is a great addition to Krav Maga, and I plan to continue my training in both when I get back to Colorado in a few months.

[jonathanazel]

Armitage –

Thanks very much for the thorough review! Sounds like a great experience, or at least very productive :). I’ll definitely be signing up for the next one.

Any tips on how I should go about preparing, or do you think it’s better to just go in \”fresh\”?

Thanks again!

-Jon

[armitage]

Jonathan – no preparation is really necessary, but I’d suggest watching some of the videos available on youtube to get an idea of what it’s like – in particular there are these two from the session I was at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6TcFV-Ru7A

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sznNjNq5a7E

Those two are both Lee Morrison, the ex-doorman/bodyguard who teaches Self Defense in Southampton, England – I put both there as the first shows his groundfighting a bit better, and the second one you get to see his brutal headbutt 😉

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1b7MjgfSR4&mode=related&search=

That one is the \”old guy\” who was pretty awesome.

There’s a whole bunch more up there – just look up \”FAST Defense\” and you should be able to see a variety of clips, including some weapon drills, verbal desecalation etc.

Also if you go to http://www.fastdefense.com and http://www.fastdefence.com then there’s a bunch more clips there too.

I’d just say if anything, practice doing explosive knee/palm strikes, and using The Fence against an imaginary opponent – despite doing that though, I still found it incredibly intense when I was actually there!

Best of luck and hope you really enjoy it! If any clips go up of me or my wife, I’ll be sure to let you guys know 😉

[maskedkat]

Cool!
I loved the FAST women’s workshop I did last year. It’s incredible how the adrenaline surges when you see that big scary bullet man coming at you.

Loved the head butt!!

[jonathanazel]

Great videos! Really appreciate you taking the time to post that.

It looks awesome; very real. I’m sold. Will post a review next month :).

-Jon

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