Model Mugging or Impact is a form of self-defense training that aims to better prepare women (and, less frequently, men) for real-life attack situations. Model mugging training involves students role-playing and sometimes fighting through a variety of assault scenarios. Students are taught physical defenses, methods of avoiding or defusing potential assaults, verbal defenses, and decision-making under the pressure of such situations.
During the simulated assaults, heavily padded instructors, often referred to as muggers, accost, grab, or directly attack a student, who may respond (if they believe a physical response is appropriate for the situation) with full-force attacks to the padded instructor.
The emotionally charged nature of the scenarios combined with the full-force nature of the fighting tend to create an adrenalized state similar to that of someone facing a real assault.
The adrenalized nature of the training is intended to teach the student how to think clearly and respond in adrenalized situations.
History: The program was founded by Matt Thomas and later developed by Danielle Smith with Julio Toribio as well as Sheryl Doran and Mark Morris.
Its inspiration was the 1971 rape and beating of a karate black belt in Palo Alto. Several of her peers began to reasearch ways to better prepare people to withstand, physically and emotionally, violent attacks. They used a holistic approach, interviewing survivors and perpetrators, experts in the fields of education, psychology, sociology, martial arts and physiology, and through the examination of police records.
In 1985 Bay Area Model Mugging (BAMM) became the first incorporated organization to teach the Model Mugging techniques. They are now taught by a variety of organizations, both profit and non-profit, primarily in the United States and Europe. The name of the style was changed from "model mugging" to "Impact" in 1989.
What is Impact: In 1971, a woman from Palo Alto, with a black belt in karate, was raped and beaten. Following the assault, her peers began to question why a trained martial artist was not physically or emotionally prepared to handle an attack. Over the next fourteen years, an ever increasing group of individuals nationwide developed a new form of self-defense by researching police records, speaking to survivors and perpetrators, as well as experts in education, psychology, sociology, martial arts and physiology. Their efforts resulted in a unique form of self-defense that better prepares women for real-life attack situations. This method of self-defense came to be known as "model mugging".
In 1985, a group of Northern California instructors incorporated to form Bay Area Model Mugging, Inc. In 1989, instructors nationwide agreed to change the name of the style from "model mugging" to "Impact". Shortly afterward, our local organization became known as BAMM IMPACT Self-Defense. We became a nonprofit agency in 1995 to bring courses to women and girls who could not otherwise afford them. Finally, we changed our name in 2003 to Impact Bay Area, aligning ourselves with the worldwide Impact organization.
Adrenal Stress Training (FAST) course available for women. This program has been evolving since 1971.
Short, Intense, yet Effective. This is the Most Empowering Class You Can Take!
MODEL MUGGING Women's Self-Defense is a system designed for crime prevention, self-defense, personal safety, and empowerment. Women learn how to protect themselves from a single unarmed assailant (basic self-defense course), armed assailants, and multiple assailants. When taught by certified instructors, Model Mugging Self-defense is the most advanced and safest self-defense program available for women, both physically and emotionally. Model Mugging will impact your life.
Model Mugging Self-defense is based on over 35 years of research, science, and developmental evolution. The elements of rape crisis advocacy, crime prevention, criminal profiling, and the martial arts have all been intertwined into the most complete and comprehensive, "street" practical, self-defense program in the world.
This self-defense course is designed for the specific needs of women. Since 1971, tens of thousands of women worldwide have already taken this course and report it was the best course they ever took!!!
Model Mugging is much more than just learning how to fight back. The emotional growth and increased self-confidence women receive is incredible. Lives are turned around in less than 20 hours of intense martial science instruction, while combining Eastern and Western training methods. Model Mugging can reduce the chance of assault by 95%.
In the decades we have been teaching the System, we have noticed that as a woman’s confidence increase, she can simultaneously identify and avoid situations in the first place that might normally involve physical conflict. Most graduates step right out of the victim pool and subtly maneuver as “hard targets.” Women with higher self-confidence and self-esteem are more aware of coercive strategies and con techniques as well as situations common to physical assaults. Women who are prepared in the 4 steps to self-defense [see below this bucket] know how to recognize and then effectively respond to potentially dangerous situations can more safely enjoy a happier and more fulfilling life.
The Paradox of self-defense demonstrates the more prepared you are to defend yourself, the less likely you will ever have to.
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