Master the Art of Managing Violence: Christopher Thompson on Self-Defense, Survival & Dragonfly Academy

Christopher ThompsonInstructor Thompson of Dragonfly academy of integrated defensive arts and My self defense studio..Salutatuons! I'm instructor Thompson, a firearms instructor, range safety officer, certified firearms specialists ( allows me to testify in court on firearms and ammunition) and a martial arts instructor. I have twenty seven years in as a teacher, and a practitioner of 31 in Ed Parkers Kenpo.To keep it brief in 2014 a student of mine was brutally, murdered with a knife. He wasn't just a student. He was a family friend and ever since and for more than a decade, I have been studying, creating and building solutions that were not generally known and much of which wasn't even publicly available. As a student first I started cross training in everything I could possibly find. Looking for a solution to how to stop a knife attack. At the time I thought I knew, I was wrong! I promised his parents who were friends of mine that I would always keep his name alive in the bravery of his actions trying to stop someone who just and took the life of his best friend in front of him. I went to Kali, Muay Thai and firerarms. I've spent every day since studying in practicing on how to survive a stabbing event. I run a couple of companies and with my business partner. Those words, " a stabbing event" belong to my colleague Michael. His own experiences were similar to mine, and what he says is, knife defense doesn't exist. There's simply surviving a stabbing event! We created Dragonfly academy of integrated defensive arts. Specializing in managing violence, and specifically on a mission to help serve marginalized communities like LGBTQ+, indigenous and native population, and groups that face targeted acts of violence. We built this to help save lives, because self defenses is for everyone! But not everyone has equal access, our mission is to help those who really need it survive! Our mission is for those groups but our work is for everyone. We want to help as many people as we can and ensure they understand what survival looks like across the spectrum. Because violence and self defense training are not one thing, they're both many things!