Joe Sampieri Heads Renzo Gracie’s Muay Thai Program There are two excellent Muay Thai programs available in New York City. One is Phil Nurse’s “Wat,” in downtown Manhattan and the other is Renzo Gracie’s Muay Thai Program headed by Joe Sampieri. As you might expect, you have to be highly skilled if you are going to teach at Renzo’s, and Joe is ...more

Women As Warriors: Mellisa Soalt To be effective in self-defense, you cannot just defend-you must attack back. For a female, this is the ultimate reversal: You become the huntress, not the hunted; the predator not prey. You summon and unleash all your life forces-courage, will, wrath, cunning, physical powers-and use them ...more

The Golden Second - 10 Lessons in Crime-Fighting During counter-mugger operations with the SFPD, where I served as a decoy "old man" who was physically attacked some 256 times, I became aware of the existence of the split second in hesitation just before the mugger starts his assault. My role was to serve as a decoy, a seeming ...more