R.A.V.E.N - WOMEN'S SELF DEFENCE

R.A.V.E.N. is my baby; it is my pride, my joy and my very own company, developed by our own Linda de los Reyes.

R.A.V.E.N. (Rape And Violence Extinction Now) was officially founded on March 11, 2003. The company was created out of what I perceived to be a sheer necessity.

Having attended a few “Female Self Defense” courses myself and not liking what I experienced, I felt I had to do something about it so others wouldn’t go through some of the nonsense I did. While I appreciated the fact that some admirable individuals were out there holding such important courses, I felt that most of the techniques they were showing were not realistic and nor could they be easily pulled off under stress; by the average everyday female.

In good conscience I could not turn a blind eye. There were experiences I myself had had early in my teenage life that definitely would have ended differently if I had some informative training available to me.

When I initially started my investigation into Female Self Defense I was surprised at the lack of female instructors. Even the courses I had started with were all taught by males. I began to think how a course of this nature should be one that would encourage discussion and questions from females. In my mind, a course of this sort should be warm and conducive to conversation so that queries could be answered and fears eased. How open to discussion could some females be if the person leading the course was of the same sex most likely to harm her? Don’t get me wrong, I know a lot of male instructors and they are absolutely terrific. It’s just that when I got right down to it, I felt this was a course that needed a woman’s touch. Women love to open up to other women. Who better to teach females about emotional and physical responses to fear and stress (that will work for a female) then an actual female herself?

When I decided it was time to get a move on and start something of my own, my first step to forming my own company was to join forces with the highly respected “American Women’s Self Defense Association”, otherwise known as A.W.S.D.A. out of Lindenhurst, NY.

I obtained my instructor certification under A.W.S.D.A. and then began to help teach some of the Co-ed Self Defense courses at the Kombat Arts Training Academy in Mississauga, along with Joey de Los Reyes the head instructor (and one of four owners along with myself, Greg Cappuccitti and David Lanyon), of the Martial Arts club. This is the location where the R.A.V.E.N. courses are now held on a quarterly basis. While I know that self defense is very important for both males and females, I made a choice and decided that the path I wanted to take was in teaching females and parent/child programs.

For more information about RAVEN, please click here (www.ravenselfdefense.com).