By Cranford Blackmon
(Update: Some of our programs have changed. Subscribe to our email list to stay up to date.)
“How do I protect myself?” “How do I protect my children?” 
These are very common and very important questions that every woman either has asked or should ask.
Well, I have asked the same questions about the women and girls in my life. If you have looked around the LaBCaF website, you know the reason I created this company. If you haven’t looked, please do. There’s lots of information about us, our classes, women’s resources, and more.
Here’s the answer to those very important questions: The LaBCaF Self-Protection Pyramid.
As you can see, our pyramid has 4 levels that all build on each other. They are in a particular order for a reason – to give you the absolute greatest number of ways to protect yourself and your children!
The base of the pyramid is our first class in the series – Situational Awareness 101 (Shecret Agent). It is an introduction to situational awareness. It is the first class because, without awareness, anything else you know about self-defense or keeping yourself safe becomes far less effective.
You hear about “situational awareness” from law enforcement spokespersons on the news after a terrorism event, a school shooting, an abduction, or sexual assault. But you never hear anything more about it, most importantly, HOW to be situationally aware. This class fixes that.
In 2 ½ packed hours, you’ll learn the 3 most important issues of awareness:
1) How to be more aware (without being constantly paranoid or afraid)
2) What to be aware of (the good AND the bad)
3) What to do when you become aware of trouble!
Without understanding these 3 ingredients, trying to be “situationally aware” can be like trying to cook a new dish by using a picture of the finished product rather than a recipe!
But that’s not all. This introductory class includes how to create a mindset that will give you a drastic advantage in escaping and surviving, even if you are seriously injured. On top of that, you’ll also learn a simple system to help you quickly make decisions in emergency situations instead of just freezing up and not knowing what to do.
The topics in this class are simple enough that anyone from young teens to seniors can start using them immediately in their everyday lives. But don’t let their simplicity fool you. These topics are the foundation of everything else we teach for a reason. Awareness can keep you out trouble and make you a person that criminals would rather not target in the first place!
The second level/course in the series – Fortress Building focuses on personal boundaries. Many women have asked us “How do I create personal boundaries?” and “How do I enforce my boundaries?”
This 3 – 3 ½ hour class covers exactly that, but on several different levels. Here you will learn how to identify and modify your personal boundary. This is the “safe space” you create around your body. This space is adjustable, depending on who you are with and where you are. You’ll learn how to adjust it and how to enforce that space.
As you might guess, “awareness” is very important in maintaining your personal boundary. So, we are going to cover a few more aspects of awareness to build on what you’ve already learned about situational awareness; things like increasing your “awareness bubble” using your body’s natural electrical system (it sounds complicated, but it’s not), and even how to send out non-verbal signals that say “leave me alone!”
After that, you’ll learn how to create boundaries around your workplace and your home. You’ll even learn how to create a boundary of safety around your vehicle while traveling.
Part of creating boundaries around your home is identifying how to make your home (whether it is a dorm room, apartment, or house) a more difficult target for criminals WITHOUT having to spend thousands of dollars on equipment. We’ll teach you about some of that stuff you can buy, but we’ll also show you LOTS of things you can do for free! Keeping bad guys out of your house (and away from you and your family) can be much easier than you thought!
The third level of the LaBCaF pyramid – Legs and Brains is where we begin introducing you to escaping from a bad situation, especially an attacker. Although we’ll focus mainly on getting away from criminals, you’ll see that MANY of the things you’ll learn in this enlightening 8-hour class can be applied to danger of all types.
One of the first things we’ll do is to learn EVEN MORE about how to be aware. Yes, awareness is SO important, we teach you more and more about it in every class!
Early in the day, you’ll learn how to collect useful information on the bad guy and the situation that can help you. But that same information is a great help to the police in capturing the bad guy you were dealing with. We’ll also show you how you can learn a huge amount of information even when you are scared out of your wits!
You’ll also learn about your body’s built in systems to help you survive and how your body responds to fear. This includes why it does certain things when you’re afraid, and how to overcome those things (like shaking or becoming nauseous).
We’ll go over the different types of criminal predators, what they want, and how to respond to them.
Then we’ll get into things like how to hide effectively, whether you are in your house, in the woods, or in a metropolitan area like downtown Atlanta or Chicago. You’ll learn how to use things in your environment to help you hide, to help you avoid, delay, and even stop a bad guy who is chasing you. You will also learn some great methods to assist you in finding help, even if you are lost in the woods!
Then you will learn how to use your body in the most effective way possible to do things like climbing up and over something; how to land more safely whether you are jumping off a balcony to escape a fire, falling out of a tree, or even after someone has pushed you down on purpose. You’ll learn how to shove or push something (or someone) with more power than you realized you had!
This is a day full of not only learning how to use what is always around you to escape, but also how to increase your chances of escaping and surviving ANY dangerous situation, whether it is a natural disaster or a criminal trying to hurt you or your kids.
You may have noticed that in these first 3 courses, we haven’t taught anything about actually “fighting!” There’s a very good reason for that: It is MUCH easier to avoid or escape a bad guy than it is to defeat him in a fight. That is why we teach so many ways to NOT have to fight someone.
Can you imagine trying to fight a bad guy while also protecting your 2-year old AND your 6-year old? What about those of you who have physical challenges? Whether your challenges are related to having children with you, your age, physical problems, or other type of handicap, it is ALWAYS easier to avoid bad people than it is to defeat them in a physical fight.
No matter what you have seen women do to bad guys on television shows or in the movies, those things are, for the most part, not likely to happen in the real world. Even with YEARS of martial arts training and a grueling fitness program, it probably won’t happen like what you see in the movies. If you would like to read how martial arts works in “self-defense” for women from a woman who has years and years of training (and teaching) in various martial arts, click HERE.
Now I’m most definitely NOT saying that you CANNOT win a fight against a bad guy trying to harm you or your children. Quite the contrary. I am just saying that it is much much easier to avoid that fight.
Here are some questions you may be asking yourself now:
“How can I fight off an attacker?”
“How can I stop a rape?”
“How can I stop an abduction?”
“How can I fight an attacker without using a gun?”
“How can I fight off an attacker if I am handicapped?”
“How do I fight an attacker who is much bigger than me?”
These are scary and important questions to ask. You might not even be asking “how.” Your question might be more along the lines of “is it even possible to stop an attacker?” My answer to you is a resounding YES.
The top of the LaBCaF pyramid is capped by our Claws and Fangs class covering ALL those questions. This class is the only one restricted to attendees who are 18 years or older. Why? Because I created this class to teach women how to STOP a criminal from killing, raping, torturing, or abducting them or their children. You can’t stop that kind criminal with shouting or shoving or any of the other fancy (or worse, technical) self-defense “techniques” you may have learned at the local fitness center or from a well-intentioned martial arts instructor or even a local law enforcement class for the community. Honestly, you may use something you learned in a class like those to help you get away. But that doesn’t mean you are out of danger, or the attack is over.
What you DO need, is the ability to inflict enough pain or injury to an attacker that he is no longer ABLE to continue what he was trying to do to you. That generally means doing something that breaks bones, takes away the ability to see or breathe, to cause severe organ/tissue damage or blood loss, to cause unconsciousness, or worse. You must know how to change the attacker’s situation to a point that he is now worried about his own life.
You need to be able to do those things whether you weigh 90 lbs or 290 lbs; whether you are 18 or 78; whether you have all your limbs or you use a wheelchair to get around. With no disrespect to any of those other places that teach “women’s self-defense,” I feel confident in saying that they don’t and can’t teach these things. But we do.
In this class, you will learn to exploit every weakness of a man’s body AND his mind. You’ll learn what to expect from your body in a real fight for your life. You will learn how to use your body’s tools. You will learn how to turn practically ANYTHING into a tool/weapon that can be used against an attacker. And, believe it or not, you’ll learn all of this in one day.
Can that really be possible? It most definitely can. How do we do that in one 8-hour course?
When I created this course, I didn’t want women to have to study and practice for years before being able to successfully fight off an attacker. That meant it had to be extremely effective, but it also had to be extremely easy to understand AND remember. Instead of starting with fancy moves and complex techniques, I decided to start with everyday things that most women already do in their everyday lives. So there is no learning NEW moves or strange body positions.
Practically everything we teach in the Claws and Fangs course, you have already done. But we are going to show you how to apply that knowledge you already have, to a brand-new situation. That’s why we can teach you a whole world of how to stop/disable an attacker in one day. You aren’t learning new things, you’re learning to look at what you already know in a new light.
And don’t worry about having to wrestle with each other in the class. We’ll do some demonstrations with volunteers, but participating is completely voluntary. The principles are so simple, and the moves are already so familiar, that even if you only watch what we teach, you could still use it just as effectively. And you can use it as soon as you see it, NOT after years of costly practice.
Our system of teaching is very different. It is so different, most people can’t grasp what it is that we are teaching. They expect single move techniques or kick boxing or martial arts moves. But, in my experience as a law enforcement officer, soldier, and air marshal, that kind of “self-defense” education is NOT what is most likely to save your life. Women are generally attacked far differently than how men attack other men. With that in mind, you might understand why all those “fighting styles” and combat maneuvers, designed by men to fight other men in “hand-to-hand combat” aren’t really effective for women trying to stop a sexual assault or stopping someone trying to kidnap their child. Even the men I explain our system to, can’t seem to grasp how it is better or more effective than the stuff they learned and then try to teach women.
But it is better. It is very different, and very effective.
1) Learn to be effectively aware. 2) Learn to create and enforce boundaries around your home, your car, and your body. 3) Learn to escape and evade criminals and other dangerous situations. 4) Learn how, as a last resort, to stop an attacker with pain and injuries that he cannot overcome.
If possible, take our courses in order. Look at the pyramid again. It is built that way, and in that order, for a reason. It is to give you the greatest opportunity to be safe in your everyday life, no matter where you are. It is to give you and those you love the greatest chances of escaping and surviving any terrible situation.
Whether the danger is from a criminal, a natural disaster, terrorism, fire, or any other danger that threatens your well-being or your life, what you learn going through the four levels/classes of the LaBCaF Self-Protection Pyramid will make you, and your family, far safer and far more likely to overcome the challenges you are facing, whatever they may be.
Looking forward to making you and your family safer,
Cranford
