A Kickass Self-Defense Program That Empowers Moms
Jarrett Arthur launched Mothers Against Malicious Acts to teach moms to defend themselves and their kids. Photo: Jarrett Arthur
There’s no need to travel to the Middle East in order to defend yourself like an Israeli solider. Just ask – or train with – Krav Maga black belt instructor Jarrett Arthur. Now based in L.A., the New York native wasn’t looking for new career, or even a new workout when she landed in her first Israeli Defense Forces-inspired class. “It was actually my mom who saw fliers for Krav Maga. She said, “You know, you’re going back to school. You should really know how to defend yourself.”
Since that fateful day, Arthur has risen through the ranks (though she explains, the belt system is a bit different than other varieties of martial arts). While training men, women and children for more than a decade, the former Krav Maga program director and lead instructor developed M.A.M.A. (Mothers Against Malicious Acts) so moms can protect themselves and their young ones from harm. Her mission is to arm individuals with ability to instill self defense and security for their loved ones, but building confidence and feeling empowered are some nice residual results. Here, Arthur tells us how she started, how she got hooked (no pun intended) and how training has kept her clients safe in the real world.
Why is Krav Maga so important to you?
At this stage, honestly, it’s everything. It’s my career. It’s my hobby. It’s my passion. Krav Maga is not a sport. There are no Krav Maga competitions. It’s a self-defense system, and I think that is what spoke to me on such a deep level from the beginning. This was really something that was so practical, so empowering. It was a great workout, also. It was so impactful for me, that I made the decision pretty quickly that I wanted to bring the benefits of Krav Maga, and the confidence that comes with training in it, to as many people as possible. Pretty much, every waking minute has been getting people to take at least one class. It’s completely transformative.
Why is it an important skill to learn?
Certainly, crime is out there, but it’s not likely that you’re going to be a victim of a violent crime – thankfully. This is one of the reasons why, I think, women don’t train in self-defense. There’s a lot of, “It’s probably not going to happen to me, so I don’t need it.” The truth is, training the students I’ve taught over the last 10 years – hopefully you’ll never be in a situation, and even if you never have to use real-life application to defend yourself – especially for women, there is something really primal. The knowledge, the confidence that you can be in the absolute worst-case scenario. I don’t think there is anything scarier than thinking about another human being that wants to target us and do us harm and do our family harm. That is completely terrifying.
Have your students applied your teachings to real-life threats? I’ve had several clients [who have]. I had one client who was actually attacked walking home from a bar late at night in L.A. and she was grabbed from behind from somebody who was going to try to push her into her apartment building. She was unlocking the door. She had trained with me, and she just responded instantly with a defense called a bear hug – from behind. She dropped her weight by bending her knees. She started striking and screaming for help. She landed a few good strikes. Between that and yelling for help, the attacker ran. He took off. That was an incredible story to hear after the fact. [I’ve heard] half a dozen students have stories of being in situations where it probably would have escalated to something serious had they not had the confidence and the training to stand their ground.
What would have happened had she not been trained? Often we see people who are untrained get a freeze response. You hear about it all the time when you hear about people who have been attacked or assaulted or threatened. “What was the first thing you did?” “I didn’t know what to do, so I froze.” That is the thing that we want to work out of. You may only have a few seconds to respond to make a difference in that situation. We want people to respond right away and respond aggressively. That is the best opportunity that you have to get away and survive.
Have there been instances of women who have stood their ground and protected their children thanks to training they’ve received?
One woman was at a gas station and had an infant in the back seat of the car. She was approached by somebody who was acting erratically. He was yelling at her and was basically walking up to her in a charging sort of way. She had actually trained with me the day be fore this happened. We had trained getting into a stance, having your hands up, eye contact, confidence in a non-escalating way, and using your voice, “Stop. Back Up. Get away from me.” She did that. He stepped back and came forward again. She did the same thing. This guy came to the decision that she was not somebody to be messed with and ended up walking away and leaving.
What moves are for beginners, and what are some moves that are more extreme?
For instance, when you’re a Level 1 student, what a white belt would be in a martial arts system – you’re learning your stance, how to punch, how to kick, how to elbow, and basic self defense. It’s what to do if somebody chokes you. What to do if you find yourself on the ground. How to get back to your feet. I train on how to defend from somebody who is trying to stab you with a knife. It’s a military system at its core, so it even goes up to how to defend against someone with a hand grenade – really crazy military stuff like that. We don’t want to waste anybody’s time – we want to give you the most practical self-defense tools that you would need as quickly as possible, so we’re looking for skills that would be most practical to use.
You developed M.A.M.A. (Mothers Against Malicious Acts). How did that come about?
A mom came up to me and told me a story how she was in a pretty bad area of Los Angeles and went to a casting call for her kid. There was a stranger acting erratically on the street, and her kid said to her, “Don’t worry, mom. I know Krav Maga. Get behind me, I’ll protect you.” We had a good laugh about it because the mom said, “The truth is, I would obviously never let my child do that, but I thought it that moment: my kid probably is better able to protect me than I am myself!” She said it in a light-hearted joking way but there was something underneath it. I said to her, “Why don’t you come in and take a Krav Maga class. Where I was teaching at the time, the Krav Maga classes were co-ed, really fast paced, really intense. She said to me, “No. There’s no way I’m going to take a class. I don’t want to work with men I don’t know. I’m not in that kind of shape. I take yoga.” It dawned on me at that moment that there really isn’t an opportunity out there – for particularly moms – but also women that don’t want that kind of bootcamp/militaristic approach to self-defense training taught by a big, huge Navy Seal – like super aggressive. It turns a lot of women off and it can be taught in a way that is less abrasive and less intimidating. It occurred to me that there needed to be an offering, specifically for groups of women.
What is the difference between mom-defense and self-defense?
The truth is that there was nothing out there that is specifically for moms until I came up with M.A.M.A. Moms have a unique challenge because self defense is for yourself. It’s all based on aggressively getting away as quickly as possible. That’s great, until you have a toddler, until you have an 8-year-old with you, until you have a kid in a stroller or a kid in a Baby Bjorn strapped to you, or you have two kids or three kids. Now you’re not necessarily worried about self-defense, you’re actually essentially being a bodyguard. How do you defend yourself, but more importantly: how do you defend your kids? Where do you position your kids? How do you hold an infant and strike back? How do you keep yourself safe when you’re loading your kids into the car or out of the car? What if you have multiple kids? What if someone’s targeting your kids when you’re with them? That is essentially the M.A.M.A. self defense program and it goes one step further as well.
Besides moves, what does the program involve?
It teaches you the most important self-defense lesson to teach your kids and teach them in a way that doesn’t scare or intimidate or traumatize them. That’s another big obstacle. Oftentimes, parents know they should be teaching their kids about personal safety and self-defense. They either don’t know what to teach, other than “Stranger Danger” which is better than nothing or they do know what to teach them, but they’re worried about scaring them by talking to them about it. There are very practical ways to teach kids about safety for all different age groups without scaring them and I know it’s really important to do that. We want our kids to be safe.
