PeaceWalker Blog

  If you've been around a little while, regardless if you train at the local academy, gone to some workshops, are a PeaceWalker Member or simply read these emails, you know that this community values perseverance. You hear me continually say "Keep Going." Although this sentiment may sound trivial, cliché' even, it bares weight that is quite profound.  Here's a great example of that:  This man was born in 1809.  In 1816, at age 7, he was forced to work because his family was expelled.  In 1818, he lost his mother.  In 1828, he lost his sister.  In 1831, he opened his first business and went bankrupt.  In 1832, he stood in the legislative elections and lost.  In 1833, he borrowed money   to open another business and went bankrupt again.  In 1835, he met a wonderful woman. He falls in love with her, they get engaged, and she dies.  In 1836, he entered a dark period of his life: deep depression.  He remains bedridden for ...

Last year this time, after a rather warm run (Temps in the mid 90's...), as per my tradition, I stopped by the Subway that is a couple doors down from the Krav Academy to get my dinner before teaching class. As soon as I walk in I see, or rather feel something... A disturbance in the force so to speak.  There is a rather strange looking man ordering his sub from the young sandwich artist girl who looked like a cross between a deer in the headlights and someone walking on eggshells. The man looked to be in his late 50's, possibly homeless, maybe not...He was dressed in a dirty jean jacket, jeans w/nylon cargo style shorts over them. He was bald with longer hair in the back of his head, almost 80's style 'rat tail' if you can remember what those were. His graying goatee and thick eyebrows were dyed a bright pink / red. The dye stained his face giving him the look reminiscent of the Joker who just escaped from Arkham.  He didn't act like he was on drugs so much as ...

Just got back from New Jersey yesterday. I was out training w/Jack Hoban. Most of you have heard me talk about Jack before, but for those who haven't heard of him...   Jack is a former Capt. in the USMC and one of the guys responsible for creating MCMAP as well as their  Warrior Ethic program. He is the president of Resolution Group International (RGI) that teaches conflict resolution to military, LEO's and other organizations. Jack's also a very accomplished instructor in a traditional Japanese martial art called Budo Taijutsu.  I've been training with Jack for going on two decades now... I'm also one of RGI's founding instructors, so we've hung out a lot together the past decade or so teaching police and others from all over Jersey and beyond.  I stay in touch and get out to train with Jack as much as I can.  A lot has changed in Jack's life since Covid, one of those changes is that he recently moved to Hawaii (half the year anyway) and is 'snow-bi...

  A little while back  I taught a workshop at Temple Emanuel, a Jewish Synagogue here in Grand Rapids, MI. (Pictured above) Jenn Franson was kind enough to help me inspire these wonderful young people. We all had a great time training together, training, telling stories and helping uncover these kid's Protector Identities.  They were taking it all in when I told them the story about the reason why I named my organization PeaceWalker.  That name comes from a quote from Imi Lichtenfeld who was the first Krav Maga instructor in the Israeli Defense Force.  Imi was quoted saying, "The reason we train is so that one can walk in peace." I took that quote and got the term  " PeaceWalker"  out of it .  Molding Clay... It's important that we lead and mentor people.... Especially young people.   I was talking to Tim one of our Instructors at the local academy. He was telling me about this 17 year old Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor who goes to compe...