Don’t Be This Guy
October is National Bullying Prevention Month.
When I was a school owner, I was high profile in my area. I had a cable TV show, I was a returning guest on local talk shows, and local reporters would call me on a regular basis to see if I had anything going on.
As you can imagine, when a bullying situation made the headlines, I was called for interviews and comments.
Of course, being a marketer, I would always schedule an anti-bully/anti-abduction seminar for the community.
These events were packed. In fact, one time, I had to do three back-to-back seminars in one day because over 200 people had enrolled.
There was one problem though. I had no idea what I was talking about. You couldn’t Google “anti-bullying skills.” You had to go to the library or bookstore and even then, there was little material.
So I did what most instructors did then and do now. I simply taught, what I thought were, basic self-defense techniques. There was no plan for the family to follow. There was no strategy for the students to implement.
There was no substance to what I was teaching. It was a basic defense against a push and a get to the groin along with a wrist escape or two.
Because I was a good speaker/teacher and the local martial arts star, no one questioned it because they had nothing to compare it with. So, I was able to scoot by.
Don’t be that guy.
Today, it’s a different world. If you are doing anything remotely similar to what I just described you should be beaten with a shinai.
With resources like COBRA-Defense, there is no excuse for not being the local expert on the topics of anti-bullying and anti-abduction.
So, let’s take a moment to help you evaluate your bully program.
What is your program’s source of information? Is it based on YouTube videos? Yelling, “Get back!”? Using martial arts techniques? Not enough.
You have to ask yourself, “Who deals with bullies day-in and day-out? Teachers? They often will defer responsibility. Black belts? I’ve met plenty of black belt bullies, but having a black belt has nothing to do with dealing with bullies.
Law enforcement and prison guards deal with bullies of the worst kind; Adult bullies who are merciless. Chris Sutton, the founder of COBRA was a street cop, sheriff, and maximum-security prison guard for juveniles.
These are bad people. Not only did Chris have to deal with these people, but he had to write out reports on each incident.
In time, he started to notice some patterns and solutions that he has included in the COBRA Anti-Bully Program. (SelfDefenseBusiness.com)
That is a solid source of information.
2. Is the program realistic?
If the title is, “Bully-Proof” then you know the program is not realistic. Anyone can be bullied. No one can be bully-proof. You can teach people to become bully resistant, but not bully-proof.
3. Does the program have specific strategies and tactics on how to inform the school, teacher, and/or workplace employer of the situation in a manner that motivates them to help bring the situation to an end?
If your program just suggests, “Tell the teacher,” that’s not enough. Nor is it helpful.
I could go on but, you get the idea. In today’s world, if you teach a “mouthful of nothing” anti-bully seminar, it’s going viral. People love nothing more than pointing out false and misleading advertising.
You can get a copy of my book, How to Stop a Bully Without Violence or Confrontation at AntiBullyPlan.com. It’s the COBRA system with my own contributions.
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