Hello all, my name is JamesDraegun(pronounced dray-gun), though you can just call me James. I created this profile about a few weeks ago, and have been lurking on this site and reading a lot of the threads here (I love read, what can I say?), but haven’t posted here yet because I haven’t much time for anything but school, which just finished for me today! I’m 17 and a half years old, of stocky (medium size with broad shoulders) build (though not in decent shape yet… like 5’9’’ and 175 lb., and while not fat, not fit either), and have quite a few things to say…

To keep this part short, from mid elementary to freshman year in high school, I’ve been a bit of victim to lots of bullying, due to being the quiet, nice, don’t-fight-back type. I’ve only fought back once (In elementary, I had a kid twice my age pick on me constantly during recess, and one day I just snapped and fought like an animal, to this kid twice my age, size, and weight…I sent him home with several bruises and cuts (I was quite the biter J)). I felt bad what I did to the kid, and while my parents said it was the right thing to do, I stayed the quiet kid. Forward to middle school, (hell in a building for me), where it was even worse. At one point, (while on a bus) a kid had pushed me too much, and I lunged at him with an Intent to maim (and the bully had a pale face on when he saw mine), though three kids held me back. I instead told on him, and he got punished.

Dad decided he wanted to help me get my confidence back in myself, so at the age of 14, I began to work at the Teen Night Club he managed. Since I had to talk to teenagers (from 15-19 years of age) all the time and had to socialize with others, I became a lot more social (BTW, I would be called a ‘club host’, not a bouncer). I also got to see quite a few fights, and got to see another side of my dad (as I saw him get behind a fighting teen, get him a hold, and since the teen was too close to some stairs and some girls he was trying to hurt, my dad tossed him down an entire flight of stairs!). As my dad not only taught me the intricacies of club hosting, he also taught quite a lot of street smarts (and he knew quite a lot of that, working in the club/bar/restaurant business for a good 30 years (he’s 50 now)).

My dad, seeing how I was interested in self-defense, showed me to Tom (I was 16 then), our new next door neighbor, a friend of dad, and a serious (but great spirited) martial artist. Tom had been doing all sorts of different martial arts, but has recently been going to martial art class called: Krav Maga. Since me and my younger brother (who worked at teen night club as a big promoter, and was interested in martial arts, too) was interested, Tom took us over to a couple of free classes. Let me tell you, it was different than I expected, first off, the class was small (mostly about 5-6 people a day, not including the instructor), and the feeling of it was very informal, and not as strict as I thought of martial art classes. The class itself was fun, and it just clicked as something useful for self-defense, and felt like something I could enjoy for a long time.

After those first couple of days, me and my brother signed up, and we went to the class for roughly 3-4 days a week that summer, and went a little during winter, but had to cut it mostly out during these last 3 months, due to immense homework. But this summer, me and my brother, along with my dad, my friend (a tomboy), and another (tall TKDist that needs something to do over the summer before college starts up and he can then get back to TKD), we’ll be going to Krav MUCH more during this summer.

Even though I only took Krav for roughly 6 months time, it helped me in my confidence during that time as much as the Teen Night Club thing did…and has made me made a new long-term goal in myself (which I make very few of): to dig MUCH deeper in the world of martial arts, in as many ways as possible….

(I realize that this is long, but I’m a fast and long typer, so excuse the huge story…)
So, now that school is out, I’ll be able to visit this site a great deal more, and if anyone has any questions on Krav (like, how it is/works, what it feels like, etc.), street smarts (though don’t think I’m full of myself in either this or Krav Maga, “I’m by no means a master, but I’m by no means a fool” and I would love to answer any questions) or anything else about me, just ask….

Shalom.

Welcome to MT!

welcome dude.

Welcome! :)

Greetings! Welcome to MT.

I welcome you, but I must add that I hope as a martial artist you show more maturity and restraint than your father exhibited by throwing a teenager down a flight of stairs. That doesn't impress me at all. Quite the opposite, actually.

Welcome

Welcome! Glad you could join us! Happy Posting! :wavey:

Welcome and Happy posting
terry

Welcome! Thanks for coming out of the lurking mode and posting about yourself.

Hello and welcome.

Welcome to MT! Always good to see more younger folks on the forum. Hope you enjoy your stay. :)

:lurk: Glad you stopped doing that and joined with us! I'm looking forward to more posts from you! Welcome to MartialTalk! :wavey:

- Ceicei

I welcome you, but I must add that I hope as a martial artist you show more maturity and restraint than your father exhibited by throwing a teenager down a flight of stairs. That doesn't impress me at all. Quite the opposite, actually.
I prefer bouncing them off a wall myself, much more mature. :p

Anyways, welcome to MT James. From one old bouncer to one new bouncer.;)

Welcome to MT, James. :)

Welcome to the forum! Enjoy your stay and feel free to ask any questions you may have!:ultracool

Mike

Welcome!!!

Greetings and welcome to MT from a former bouncer..

Welcome to MT :)

~Tess

I welcome you, but I must add that I hope as a martial artist you show more maturity and restraint than your father exhibited by throwing a teenager down a flight of stairs. That doesn't impress me at all. Quite the opposite, actually.

Oh, I didn’t realize that that situation would sound different on paper, so let me explain it shortly:
A guy had gotten into an argument with (presumably) his girlfriend and a friend of hers, and the guy showed no common thought as he decided he should attack them instead of talk. He slapped (hard) one of the girls, and pushed the other. My dad and two other club hosts where there in a snap, as my dad got behind and grabbed the teen, while one club host took care of the girls, and other held the crowd back from dad and the teen (since what would you want to do if you saw a guy hit a girl? Ugly it would escalate too). Dad took the teen to the lobby, all the time talking to the kid, trying to calm him down, be his buddy you know? The kid didn’t want to hear any of that, and flail and cursed like life depended on it. Dad was then in the lobby, with his back to me and the cash register, his front to the entrance to the club, his right to a wall, and his left to stairs (two sets of them which curve up, with a landing in the middle of them, leading to the downstairs and outside, since this club is inside and upstairs). The teen then kicked my dad’s bad knee, and then the teen was starting to get out of his grip, and while there was club host just coming inside the place and starting to go up the first set of stars, dad knew he wouldn’t be here in time to help, so: up and over! The teen flew down the entire first flight of steps without touching a single step. The club host downstairs picked up the relatively unharmed, but dizzy and shocked teen and escorted him out…
If anything, I’m surprised that my 45-something dad, who I have never seen in an conflict, has nothing to look at physically, (being 5’9” and only weighing 130-140lbs, though not all muscle) be able to restrain and throw an 18-year-old 5’11’’ teen outweighing my dad by a good 30-40lbs…and seeing this on my first day of work, yes, I was impressed.. Sorry Martial Tucker for the misunderstanding, as I didn’t realize what that situation sounded like on text.

Oh, and thanks to all the welcomings, its nice to find a forum as comfortable as this one. :D (In our club, we treat teens as adults, and they show there appreciation by acting quite nice. And for those that act inappropriate, we treat them just like an adult (in a sense, like we aren’t to go as hard on them, but you get what I mean), and from what I’ve seen lurking here, Martial Talk has a similar attitude, which is nice, trust me, I’ve been to some pretty bad forums before).

Also, its cool to see there are other ‘bouncers’ here as well, so I have a question for you guys: are you called bouncers where you work (or used to work, from what it sounds like), or are you called something else (like how we call ourselves ‘club hosts’)? And, (just out of curiosity), what martial arts have you trained in, and have you used it a lot?

Also, its cool to see there are other ‘bouncers’ here as well, so I have a question for you guys: are you called bouncers where you work (or used to work, from what it sounds like), or are you called something else (like how we call ourselves ‘club hosts’)? And, (just out of curiosity), what martial arts have you trained in, and have you used it a lot?

One of the bigger clubs I worked at labeled us "Floorwalkers"..It was either bouncer or security at all the other places.

Welcome aboard. Not too many Krav Maga folks here, from what I have seen, but it's certainly nice to hear about one's experiences with the system.

Congrats on venturing out of lurkdom! lol Welcome to MT...Happy posting and Enjoy! :)

Welcome aboard. Not too many Krav Maga folks here, from what I have seen, but it's certainly nice to hear about one's experiences with the system.

Thanks! The reason for not many U.S. Krav Maga'ers could be b/c its a new (compared to many other MAs) system, but also because of the price...Krav classes seem to cost more so than other martial arts in general: in Kentucky, I know of a TKD area that costs $30 a month, but if you go to NKU and become part of the TKD club there, its only $15 dollars a month; there's a Karate (don't know which form) that has classes ranging from $40-50 to even $60 a month; but Krav classes (in general from word of mouth and personal experiance) can cost from $70-100 a month!
When Krav becomes more common (though that could be a long time), it will decrease in average cost, but for now, I'm paying (due to bringing in a few other people to the class) $60 a month, but I believe its worth every penny if you ask me! :D

Oh, I didn’t realize that that situation would sound different on paper, so let me explain it shortly:
A guy had gotten into an argument with (presumably) his girlfriend and a friend of hers, and the guy showed no common thought as he decided he should attack them instead of talk. He slapped (hard) one of the girls, and pushed the other. My dad and two other club hosts where there in a snap, as my dad got behind and grabbed the teen, while one club host took care of the girls, and other held the crowd back from dad and the teen (since what would you want to do if you saw a guy hit a girl? Ugly it would escalate too). Dad took the teen to the lobby, all the time talking to the kid, trying to calm him down, be his buddy you know? The kid didn’t want to hear any of that, and flail and cursed like life depended on it. Dad was then in the lobby, with his back to me and the cash register, his front to the entrance to the club, his right to a wall, and his left to stairs (two sets of them which curve up, with a landing in the middle of them, leading to the downstairs and outside, since this club is inside and upstairs). The teen then kicked my dad’s bad knee, and then the teen was starting to get out of his grip, and while there was club host just coming inside the place and starting to go up the first set of stars, dad knew he wouldn’t be here in time to help, so: up and over! The teen flew down the entire first flight of steps without touching a single step. The club host downstairs picked up the relatively unharmed, but dizzy and shocked teen and escorted him out…
If anything, I’m surprised that my 45-something dad, who I have never seen in an conflict, has nothing to look at physically, (being 5’9” and only weighing 130-140lbs, though not all muscle) be able to restrain and throw an 18-year-old 5’11’’ teen outweighing my dad by a good 30-40lbs…and seeing this on my first day of work, yes, I was impressed.. Sorry Martial Tucker for the misunderstanding, as I didn’t realize what that situation sounded like on text.

Oh, and thanks to all the welcomings, its nice to find a forum as comfortable as this one. :D (In our club, we treat teens as adults, and they show there appreciation by acting quite nice. And for those that act inappropriate, we treat them just like an adult (in a sense, like we aren’t to go as hard on them, but you get what I mean), and from what I’ve seen lurking here, Martial Talk has a similar attitude, which is nice, trust me, I’ve been to some pretty bad forums before).

Also, its cool to see there are other ‘bouncers’ here as well, so I have a question for you guys: are you called bouncers where you work (or used to work, from what it sounds like), or are you called something else (like how we call ourselves ‘club hosts’)? And, (just out of curiosity), what martial arts have you trained in, and have you used it a lot?

James,

Let me repeat my earlier "Welcome" to MT. I appreciate your taking the time to put your earlier post in a more proper context, and I am impressed by the mature way that you handle criticism. Maybe it was just me, but your first post sounded to me like a kid overly impressed by an inappropriately violent father, and you seemed to relish the fighting aspect of being a bouncer. To be quite frank, I felt that in your first post, you came across as a bit of a punk kid/wannabe bouncer. After reading your subsequent posts, it appears that perhaps I misjudged you.

I was a bouncer for several years (back in the '70's) in a pretty nasty place. I've seen really good, and really bad bouncers. I had the reputation of being a "peace-maker" and tried to avoid violence always. That being said, the one time I really "lost it" was when a guy hit one of our waitresses and knocked her over a table. That guy ended up spending a week in the hospital, so I will say that I understand the emotions involved in the situation you mentioned.
Regardless, thanks for the background info, and again, welcome to MT. It's a really friendly place with lots of great info.

Welcome to MT. Nice to see another B5 fan.

James,

Welcome aboard!

Rob

I have a question for you guys:
1. are you called bouncers where you work (or used to work, from what it sounds like), or are you called something else (like how we call ourselves ‘club hosts’)?

2. And, (just out of curiosity), what martial arts have you trained in, and have you used it a lot?
1. We were called bouncer, doorman, or security. Depended on where I worked.

2. Kenpo. It worked well for me. Although I did have to make some adjustments as Kenpo tends to focus more on gaining control of a conflict through striking. However, Kenpo is flexible enough, and gives you enough of an understanding of body mechanics, to allow you to use less damaging techniques.

That being said, the one time I really "lost it" was when a guy hit one of our waitresses and knocked her over a table. That guy ended up spending a week in the hospital, so I will say that I understand the emotions involved in the situation you mentioned.
I would love to say the guy learned a valuable lesson, but somehow I doubt it, as those type of people usually don't. Probably the only person that learned anything was yourself.

I also tended to use verbal persuasion of many sorts to resolve a situation. I only became physical when I had exhausted all other options, or I wasn't given a choice. One establishment I worked at, calling the police wasn't a viable option (complicated and difficult to explain). So we were for the most part on our own. So if someone won't leave, we had to carry them out ( or bounce ;) ).

welcome

Welcome and happy posting, James! Talk away!

Hello there! Welome to Martial Talk. Don't worry, you'll enjoy yourself.
See ya around!

Greetings and welcome!