Article re-written & Media re-edited for SEO by Safety Specialist Guruji Franklin Joseph
Safety Specialist Guruji Franklin Joseph, a Social Entrepreneur founded and serves as Chief Instructor of the Franklin Joseph Krav Maga Self Defense Academy in Bengaluru and Dharwad. ‘Dr. Safety’ a.k.a. Guruji Franklin Joseph is also the CEO of the Indian Institute of Strategic Threat-Intelligence Analysis and Combat Tactical Science.
Google Women Techmakers Corporate Self Defense Workshops
I, Ms. Priyamvada, an Advocate by profession, have trained in Krav Maga Israeli Self Defense with Guruji Franklin Joseph for a year now and have undergone significant changes in terms of my perspective, perception, confidence, technique, personality etc., both in terms of profession and personal life.
Recently, I had an opportunity to attend a corporate Self Defense (Bengaluru, India) organised by Google at Bengaluru, India as a co-trainer along with Guruji and his daughter, Ms. Krystal Joseph, who has trained with him from the age of 6.
It was my first experience as a co-trainer, and I found it to be a great one in terms of my own learning of psychology and the impact of training.
Initially I found the girls not that interested and was wondering why, then I realised it is due to the lack of awareness and more importantly, I could sense a state of denial in them that “nothing bad would happen to me”, which is a very normal mindset to have without training, as we are all socially conditioned.
Ms. Krystal Joseph and I slowly started with the introduction individually to the girls as to what is Krav Maga Self Defence (Bengaluru) all about, why we need it, the simplicity and basis of it, and taught them one or two basic techniques.
I noticed most of them were hesitant and we had to coax them to even get them to listen to what we had to say. Further, they were more sceptical since both Ms. Krystal Joseph and I are small built, lean and tiny in terms of social standards of personality. We realised this and capitalised on this with our training, and made a statement with our actions as to fitness, size, strength, nothing really matters in Krav Maga.. If we could learn it, anyone could, and I feel that was what got a few of them interested initially for us to begin the session with.
We told them that Krav Maga Self Defence (Bengaluru) is a very simple instinctive method which works against all kinds of real time crime situations. That it is about changing the fundamental mindset from “victim” to “warrior”. We gave examples of simple everyday scenarios like a hand grab. Though many were initially hesitant, slowly they allowed us to teach them the basic technique of a hand grab release.
Slowly, many of the girls started warming up to the idea and awareness. A few guys were interested as well. I could see it in their eyes, the initial hesitance, the surprise and wonder when they realized how easy and instinct based it is to learn Krav Maga Self Defence (Bengaluru).
I was excited to see most of them experiment the technique on each other even after the introductions were over.
I believe we made our efforts to raise awareness and hopefully, made a beginning in respect of changing mindsets of girls like us. It was a very interesting learning for me to note the drastic change in my own mindset.
I realised how necessary it is to spread awareness of the reality of society, both amongst the male and female population. As an Advocate and as a person, I could see the potential that such workshops would have on raising awareness and more fundamentally, in terms of social reconditioning of mindsets.
Final Words
I thank Guruji for this opportunity to let me do my bit for a cause, and I hope I get more of such opportunities, and I hope it changes lives.
This experience felt like a sense of contentment, and also as a mission.