About Chelsea LaGrasse
Chelsea is a professional MMA fighter, personal trainer, and self defense coach. She has fought eight professional fights and three amateur fights. She trains in self defense, striking, and jiu jitsu. She is also a long time fitness and nutrition advisor. Her last fight was in January 2023.
Taking care of your own business
Around 2010, my daughter and I visited San Francisco. We were staying at a hotel in the heart of downtown San Francisco, and I needed some cash and located nearby ATMs. There were no “safe” inside ATMs nearby. I located an ATM on a street corner, and went there by myself to withdraw some cash. Having studied and taught self defense for many years, I was very aware of my surroundings, and as I started to use the street corner ATM, I immediately noticed a man in the corner of my eye. He was behind me, in my blind spot. I hit the eject button on the ATM screen, and then heard the man explain “insincerely” that he was there to protect me and watch my back.
I put my card in my pocket and proceeded to walk around the corner, and the man followed me. As I walked faster, he walked faster, so I turned to face him. I convinced him to leave.
Would you turn to face someone like this? He knew where my wallet was, because he saw me put my ATM card away, and he saw me as a money source. What if you were a woman? What if you were a woman of small stature?
In my experience, there are many experienced martial artists that generally do not prepare for this type of situation. They do not provide advice to students, athletes, or combat sports athletes on what to do in this situation. On the other hand, some put advice like this as a priority.
They want their students, daughters, sons, friends, and loved ones to have a set of strategies and tools to be able to handle a situation like this.
Chelsea is that type of martial artist. She does not limit her focus on the sport of MMA, but rather studies and teaches self defense. I found her on social media, and the more I watched her videos, I could see her attitude about self defense. She believes we all should and can prepare to defend ourselves, and that there will be times when someone else won’t be there to save us.
When it comes to self defense, there is no room for doubt or hesitation. One grows a certain type of attitude. And one prepares constantly to protect oneself and one’s loved ones.
Building bridges in the martial arts community
While I felt a connection with Chelsea’s priorities as a martial artist, we come from divergent martial arts worlds. My world started with traditional martial arts, with some street wise elements but with a striking emphasis. I practice and teach Kajukenbo. While we train in judo and jiu jitsu, our main focus is on striking, and we historically have not drilled matwork like many MMA gyms do. Historically, there has been a “divide” between my traditional martial arts world and the MMA world Chelsea comes from, but a divide that is being eliminated by many “bridges” formed as we all collaborate and work together more. This podcast is a good example of how these martial arts communities have more in common than they may realize, and I hope can be another one of those bridges.
The Coach Lone Wolf Blog and Podcast
We are a community of people who are interested in the ways innovators do their craft, protect what they build, and make their way in the world. Our guests and contributors include current and future entrepreneurs, intellectual property specialists, athletes, martial artists, inventors, artists, and others.
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