Model Mugging

Model Mugging or Impact is a form of self-defense training that better prepares women (and, less frequently, men) for real-life attack situations.

Techniques and Training

Model mugging techniques include both de-escalation skills and physical defense skills.

Model mugging-style training involves students role-playing and sometimes fighting through a variety of assault scenarios. Students are taught physical defenses, methods of avoiding or defusing potential assaults, verbal defenses, and decision-making under the pressure of such situations.

During the simulated assaults, heavily padded instructors, often referred to as muggers, accost, grab, or directly attack a student, who may respond (if they believe a physical response is appropriate for the situation) with full-force attacks to the padded instructor. The emotionally charged nature of the scenarios combined with the full-force nature of the fighting tend to create an adrenalized state similar to that of someone facing a real assault. The adrenalized nature of the training is intended to teach the student how to think clearly and respond in adrenalized situations.

History

In 1971, a woman from Palo Alto, with a black belt in karate, was raped and beaten. Following the assault, her peers began to question why a trained martial artist was not physically or emotionally prepared to handle an attack. Over the next fourteen years, an ever increasing group of individuals nationwide developed a new form of self-defense by researching police records, speaking to survivors and perpetrators, as well as experts in education, psychology, sociology, martial arts and physiology.

The program was founded by Matt Thomas and later developed by Danielle Smith with Julio Toribio as well as Sheryl Doran and Mark Morrison.

Bay Area Model Mugging (BAMM) was the first organization incorporated, in 1985. Model mugging techniques are now taught by a variety of organizations, both profit and non-profit, primarily in the United States and Europe.

The name of the style was changed from "model mugging" to "Impact" in 1989.

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Techniques and Training

History

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