D. J. Stephens - Self Defense Why even bother?: How, why and what to learn to defend yourself

Copyright 2022 by DJ Stephens

All rights reserved.

Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file with the Library of Congress

Paperback ISBN 979-8-9866888-0-0

Ebook ISBN 979-8-9866888-1-7

No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from the publisher or author, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law.

In order to maintain their anonymity in some instances I have changed the names of individuals and places, I may have changed some identifying characteristics and details such as physical properties, occupations and places of residence.

Printed in the USA

T his book is dedicated to my dad. Not only was he my first self-protection instructor, but without his guidance and supervision, I'm sure that instead of teaching people how to protect themselves against criminals, I would have become a criminal myself.

To my mother for having the wisdom and hindsight to prepare me to deal with all sorts, classes, and races of people. Its because of her that I'm able to do what I do.

Also, to my students. They are the reason that I'm able to wake up in the mornings with a smile on my face. They keep me going. Without them, there would be no me.

Thank you all. You have all my love and gratitude forever!

Y ou're smaller, weaker, and slower than the average bad guy. Why even bother trying to defend yourself? Why not just give up and let the bad guy decide if you or your family live or die? Picture that.

Before we get to the issue at hand, I want to tell you how I became the person I am today. I was born in Washington, D.C., during the 1980s. Anyone who knows anything about our nations capital or any inner-city neighborhood especially during the 80s or early 90s knows that things could get pretty rough. There was always a fight. It was nearly impossible to grow up without witnessing or being involved in some level of violence at some point in time during your upbringing.

I was not poor by any stretch of the imagination. I also wasn't rich. I wasn't known as a street-fighting legend. I was affiliated with the neighborhood gangs, but I wasn't in any of the gangs. In D.C., whatever neighborhood you lived in, that was the gang you would be affiliated with. I was just a guy in the neighborhood who knew how to defend himself when needed.

Growing up in the D.C. area at a young age, I realized the importance of knowing how to defend myself. I was always intrigued by martial arts. On the weekends, we watched a television series called The Action Theater. Every week, this show premiered a different martial arts movie: Five Deadly Venoms, Enter the Dragon, Fighter in the Wind, The Samurai Warrior, and so on. Eventually, I was able to convince my mother to enroll me in Jhoon Rhees Taekwondo Institute. Jhoon Ree is considered the Godfather of the way American martial arts schools are run today.

My father was a former professional boxer who also trained fighters in the D.C. area at a gym called Finley's Boxing Gym. So, as I was learning to kick from Jhoon Rhee, I was also learning to punch from my dad. It didn't take me long to realize that training for sudden violent situations is unlike training for a boxing match or a Taekwondo tournament.

My brother and I used to do what we called a play fight. I remember several mornings or nights when my brother would hide behind doors or tables and ambush me when I wasn't expecting it. We would wrestle and fight for minutes at a time. Afterward, we would analyze the different things that happened during the encounter: things we should or shouldn't have done. The next day, I would sneak up on him and repeat the process. We learned to do this without actually hurting each other. We would react to a punch that was thrown as if it were a real punch. We became, I guess you would say, great actors. Little did I know, that training would help me in training years later. We would sometimes pull out boxing gloves and spar, seeing if our strategies worked in somewhat real-time. We would go out and body punch and slap box other guys in the neighborhood. Now and then, an actual fight would break out. Learning to control your emotions was part of the training.

I've always had a passion for teaching. Everything I learned from Jhoon Rhee, my dad, and the training with my brother, I would go out and teach and instruct anyone interested in learning. Teaching made me better at doing. To this day, I can't own a technique or a skill unless I've taught it. Pretty soon, I found myself training younger kids in the neighborhood. I turned my grandmother's garage into a fighting gym with a punching bag, speed bag, weights, and all. Watching the young ones get better quickly became the highlight of my evenings. To this day, nothing else gives me more fulfillment than watching my students grow. I often tell people that I am passionate about martial arts and that teaching is my purpose.

In my mid-teens, my mother wanted me to have the same advantages, training, and schooling as the kids who were brought up in more upper-class neighborhoods, so she enrolled me in a private school. There, I was exposed to and made friends with a variety of different kids from all sorts of backgrounds and cultures: upper class, middle class, lower class, white, Hispanic, Asian, etc. Although I went back and graduated from a D.C. public high school, Theodore Roosevelt, I remained friends and stayed in contact with a few of my private school buddies even to this day. Soon after graduation, I moved to Bethesda, Maryland, to an area called Glen Echo. Glen Echo is pretty much as upscale as you can get in the Maryland area. My family had held on to the property that was awarded to us after slavery. That was where I lived for the next fifteen years. The reason why I bring all that up is that no matter what school I attended, what friends I made, or which environment I lived in, the need to know how to protect myself was still important, if for no other reason but peace of mind.

Over the years, Ive trained in many martial arts systems: Taekwondo, Krav Maga, Jiu Jitsu, Boxing, etc. The training I received in those systems helped me to prepare for violent encounters, and now I want to pass my knowledge on to you. However, the art or system is not nearly as important as the training or mindset. What I would like to teach you is what I have learned, observed, and trained in for over thirty years. This is not a book to teach you to punch here and kick there. This is not a book to go over pressure points or vulnerable areas in the human body. Although those things are important, this book will help you understand self-protection, not only how, but also what, from whom to train, but maybe even more importantly, why should you even bother?

W hat is self-defense? Self-defense is defined as a countermeasure that involves defending the health and well-being of oneself or another from harm. Legally, it is described as the right to prevent suffering from violence through the use of a sufficient level of counteracting force or violence. In the streets, self-defense is simply called doing what you gotta do. Its important to know that what you may consider self-defense may not hold up in a court of law or a jury of your peers. On the one hand, it is imperative that you know the law before you act. Then there is also the popular phrase that says, Its better to be judged by twelve than to be carried by six.