'I Got My Kicks in LA' - Lisa Scheff's Fierce Fight

From Impact Bay Area's Executive Director Lisa Scheff:

"In January, I was lucky enough to join the LA Impact chapter for part of their annual staff retreat.  I love seeing what other chapters are doing with the same basic self-defense principles, and I came back full of new ideas. LA uses some different techniques than our chapter, which made fighting with their suited instructors extra challenging.

What do you do if you land a hard hit and . . . he doesn't let go or back off? The answer, of course, is you look for another opening and that's exactly what I did. It was really gratifying to discover that even when my go-to techniques weren't working I could find a way out of the situation! 

You probably notice that the suits they are wearing look quite different from the ones our instructors wear. These suits are "gladiator style", meaning that the head and chest protection are attached to each other. The suits were designed as an alternative for instructors with different body types. We are teaching more classes than ever now, and as our equipment gets more wear and tear we are going to be replacing many of our suits this year. We are looking at purchasing some of these new suits for a couple of our instructors to try out.

I am excited about all the new ideas and new opportunities for collaboration with our sister chapter to the South 2014 has brought already. I hope you will stay in touch, come fight at a Public Celebration if you are a Basics grad, and come take a Basics class if you haven't already. And, February is Teen Dating Violence and Awareness Month. If you have a teen girl in your life, give her the best Valentine's Day present ever and send her to an Impact Teen class! We have classes in the South Bay and San Francisco this month."