Self-defence & awareness

As part of our martial art, Maynooth Taekwon-Do School teaches self-defence and awareness to all our students. In conjunction with Elite Defence Systems, we also teach courses to small groups: male, female and mixed. An introductory course can be delivered in a single day over a number of hours, or as shorter classes over a number of weeks.

Courses are led by our Chief Instructor, Mr. Gareth Curran, who is highly trained in self-defence and combatives. He holds international certificates in counter-surveillance and anti-surveillance, including situational awareness and behavioural profiling, skills that are directly applicable to self-defence, personal protection and awareness training.

Regardless of the delivery method, a large emphasis is placed on the awareness part of the programme, since it is through an increased level of awareness that conflict is most easily avoided. We look at the difference between social and asocial violence and the methods and tactics for dealing with each one. We examine the effects of adrenaline on the body and how the “adrenaline dump” that occurs during a confrontation can be controlled, allowing the most effective and efficient protection techniques to be used against an attacker.

While every effort can be made to avoid confrontation, it is not always possible, no matter how much awareness a person has. In such cases it may be necessary to use your body as a weapon against the correct and most appropriate targets. We discuss these target areas, the tools to use against each one and the most effective way to strike. More advanced courses are also possible, dealing with attacks involving knives and other weapons commonly used on the street.