WMCTV Channel 5 News Coverage
Our Mid-South Krav Maga Self Defense Center is in the news again most recently on Action News 5 last night. The special report was titled:
Taking Back Our Neighborhoods: Down the Barrel of a Gun
By Ursula Madden - bio | email
MEMPHIS, TN (WMC-TV) – Self-defense instructors will tell you never fight for your property, but if the attacker wants your life, fight back.
If someone pulled a gun on you, would you know what to do? What if that gun was touching your forehead? Or if you were forced to kneel down, execution style? It may seem like a no win scenario, but Krav Maga instructor Patrick Terry says there are four steps you need to know, that can help you get out alive.
“It will not matter, where ever the gun is on me, this redirection is what will save you,” Terry said.
The first step to staying alive is to redirect a gun away from you. Next, move the gun to the attacker’s body. Then, try to get aggressive by striking the attacker.
“I want to shut down the command center that’s behind that weapon,” Terry said.
Now that you’ve redirected the gun, gotten control of the gun, and made an aggressive counter attack, it’s time to take away the gun. But, according to Terry, remember that once you decide to fight, you have to commit and follow through.
“Nothing else matters,” he said. ‘If I choose to attack this gun, what matters is this. And it matters until I have this gun until the fight is over.”
The same principles work if someone pulls a knife, or a long gun. Terry says you can’t train every what-if scenario, but he says the principle guidelines can help you get out of potentially any deadly situation.
You can learn more about fending off attacks by viewing the videos on this page.
Copyright 2010 WMC-TV. All rights reserved
Click Here to see the full coverage Including Videos
The Commercial Appeal Interviews Rick Pollan
Great Work Rick! One of our long time members and now new instructor was recently interviewed and featured in a success story article in The Commercial Appeal. Click here for the full article.
Here are excerpts:
As Rick Pollan settled into his adult life, he also settled into his sofa every night after work and ate whatever he could get his hands on until bedtime. Topping off at 5-foot-5, the 47-year-old weighed in at 200 pounds, was borderline diabetic and suffered from acid reflux and high blood pressure.
“I really felt like I was dying. I couldn’t tie my shoes without having to hold my breath,” said the Cordova resident.
Instead of undergoing surgery to correct his acid reflux, he decided it was time to make a change.
“I didn’t want to have to resort to surgery, so I made up my mind to try to do something to get the weight off,” said Pollan, the owner of Pollan Electric Co.
At first he was successful working out at home and watching what he ate, but after losing 20 pounds he found it difficult to drop any more weight.
That’s when he found Mid-South Krav Maga, a martial arts studio on Poplar that specializes in Israeli self-defense.
“I’ve always been interested in martial arts. Krav Maga is hand-to-hand combat, real self-defense for real situations in the real world, where you may have guns, sticks or multiple attackers,” Pollan said. “It’s not a lot of mumbo-jumbo with fancy kicks, and you don’t wear uniforms with fancy belts.”
He also liked the idea of having a different place to go after work rather than his home with the call of the sofa looming over him.
Pollan began training for one hour five times a week at the studio near the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, and “the weight just started to fall off.”
Eventually he was able to bump it up to two-hour training sessions, and after close to four months, Pollan got down to a lean 145 pounds.
“I was very serious about getting the weight off,” he said.
So serious that he also cut his calorie intake to 1,200 calories a day.
“I laid off the Cokes and pizza, and ate a lot of (Kelloggs) Special K cereal, Egg Beaters, drank a lot of water and ate a lot of Ezekiel bread because it doesn’t have any flour,” he said.
That wasn’t the hardest part.
Describing himself as someone who always wants to take it to the next level, Pollan committed to becoming a trainer, and for one week he trained for eight hours a day, seven days a week.
“That’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life,” he said.
Since earning his certification in February, Pollan feels like the effort has already paid off.
“I like to help people achieve what I achieved,” he said. “People who are struggling with their weight or who have no idea how to defend themselves, I get to watch them transform. I see their confidence level really come up, and I can sympathize with them.”
“I really think Krav Maga saved my life,” he said.
Rick Pollan
Age: 47
Hometown: Cordova
Workout choice: Krav Maga, an Israeli self-defense system.
Gym: Mid-South Krav Maga, 2869 Poplar, 327-0297, midsouthkravmaga.com
Advice: “Get off the couch. Stay active. Eat to live; don’t live to eat.”
by: Lesley Young/Special to The Commercial Appeal
Rick Pollan (left), 47, went from 200 pounds to 145 thanks to Krav Maga self-defense at Mid-South Krav Maga on Poplar Avenue.
Did you See Us in Memphis Magazine?
Last Winter, Mid-South Krav Maga Self Defense Center was featured in Memphis Magazine:
A woman — not 100 pounds soaking wet — is standing in the middle of a studio with her eyes closed, surrounded by six men and another woman. The people in the circle take turns attacking this woman with various choking techniques. Each of them, one by one, is deflected aside in a matter of seconds. The woman, you see, is practiced in Krav Maga.
The brainchild of Imi Lichtenfeld — a native of Slovakia trained as a boxer and wrestler — Krav Maga (Hebrew for “contact combat”) was created in the 1940s as a tactical defense skill set for the Israel Defense Forces. Now taught by the likes of Patrick Terry here in Memphis (at Mid-South Krav Maga in East Memphis), Krav Maga is based less on techniques than on principles. Its most distinguishing element from martial arts? There are no rules. Read The Complete Article on Memphis Magazine…
Congratulations New Instructors
Last week – Mid-South Krav Maga hosted Krav Maga Worldwide’s first Phase A Instructor Course of 2010. 24 Participants from around the country traveled to Memphis for their first phase of training to become Krav Maga World Wide self defense instructors. The course was a great success. Participants learned for 4 of some of the best Instructor Trainers in the country including the director of instructor development Kelly Campbell. All worked through the long hours of physical training, battled fatigue, practiced teaching skills and even survived bad weather conditions on the commute with iced roads. We are so proud of how hard they worked and that all 7 who finished the week and tested PASSED! Our center maintained a great training environment for all trainees and the awesome fitness level of our participants was noticed and commended by the trainers.
Congratulations to our newest Instructors – Ryan Robertson, Chris Vlautin, Rob Yahn, Larry Coffee, Rick Pollan, John Covington from Memphis and Chris Hollingsworth from our Nashville location. We look forward to having all our great members and guests benefit from their new skills and unique teaching qualities.
We Are Expanding Back to Bartlett
We are excited to announce our return to the Bartlett area with the expansion of our program at the Bartlett Recreation Center. To begin, classes wll be held on Mondays and Wednesdays at 6:00pm starting February 15th. We will start our BRC program with Level 1/Beginner classes at first. We then plan to quickly add both advance classes and classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays as participation allows. The BRC is located just 1 block South of HWY 70 just off of Appling Rd at 7700 Flatherty Place (Just behind the Bartlett City Hall and across from Appling Middle School). Our primary instructor for this location will be Michael ‘the Rocket’ Glen Jr.
Your membership with Mid-South Krav Maga is valid at any of our locations. Come try one of our self defense and fitness classes at this phenomenal facility with one of Mike’s awesome classes. Tell your friends and collegues and even better bring them for a free visit.
Click Here for our latest schedule at the BRC.
