TINA FORBUS - (Graduate who successfully defended herself against an emotionally disturbed, 6ft, 250 pounds, assailant armed with a knife, even though she had only taken the basics course. She is 5 ft 4 inches and weighs less than 115 pounds) "I am thoroughly convinced that it was Matt Thomas’ Model Mugging training that saved my life."

CLARE MONTEER - (Executive Director, Monterey Rape Crisis Center) "Model Mugging is not just a highly effective self-defense course, but it has also helped former victims to become strong and regain confidence in their ability to look after themselves."

GENEEN ROTH - (Author and Seminar Leader - Breaking Free, The Courage to Heal’) "Most of the women I see professionally have spent years wanting their thighs to disappear, their hips to melt away. They feel nothing for their bodies but contempt and disgust. Model Mugging teaches us something we all need to learn: Women’s bodies are not decorations; they are strong, they are powerful and when they are violated, they can be deadly."

DENNIS EVANS, MD - (Psychiatrist) "The course provides a very powerful psychodrama which, in a supportive environment, facilitates emergence of issues and then mastery of them. This takes therapy out of the oft times abstract armchair into a very real and practical experience."

CAPTAIN DONALD FUSELIER - (Carmel Police Department, Police Academy Instructor on Officer Response to Victims of Sexual Assaults) "The sense of personal empowerment that this training brings to its graduates is beyond value. The program gives women a strong sense of their own power and the ability to protect themselves from harm. Model Mugging is the only self-defense course I would ever have my wife or daughter take."

ROBERT BISHOP, Ph.D. - (Program Director of Executive Security International, the world’s top private body-guarding academy) "Model Mugging should be mandatory training for any martial artist or law enforcement officer who would benefit from facing their own fears. More than any other training, it gives one a realistic sense, emotionally, mentally and physically, as to what it is like to engage in mortal combat. It is taught with compassion, humor and skill. I am extremely grateful to Matt for teaching my daughter to protect herself "

LT. COLONEL JACK CHUE - (Helped design new physical, mental and hand-to-hand combat courses for the U.S. Army Special Forces-Green Berets) "Transformation at the deepest level requires at least these events:

1. An experience of safety so as to allow great risking,

2. An experience of success so as to encourage more risking,

3. Acknowledgment that the success comes from one’s own power and nowhere else.

The Model Mugging program achieves these extraordinary events over and over again."

JERRY ROBINSON - (President of Health for Life) "One hears that developing the Warrior Spirit requires years of martial arts training or at the very least, a pilgrimage to the Far East. Not so. Matt Thomas has found a way to develop it in a weekend. Poignant, uplifting, primal and above all empowering. Model Mugging confronts you with the reality of mortal combat and teaches you to survive."

THERESA SALDANA - (Actress, Founder of Victims for Victims) "After my attack, I lived with so much fear. Model Mugging gave me a tremendous feeling of self-confidence and healing."

PENELOPE SALINGER - (Graduate) "Model Mugging has been one of the most challenging and powerfully tranformative experiences I have every voluntary undertaken. It taught me more than techniques. It reminded me that I am always capable of more than I had thought. It held up a mirror before me, gently forcing me to acknowledge my own courage."

Studies on Victim Resistance: There has been numerous studies conducted on the outcomes and results of women’s resistance during a violent assault, specifically rape over the past couple decades. Since the early 1970’s statistics from a variety of sources, including the Department of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics, have held that between 60% and 70% of sexual assaults against women were unsuccessful primarily due to female taking some type of protective measure. The intended victims most often did not have prior self-defense training but yet were able to stop or end the assault two thirds of the time.

Even though most of these studies lean towards the advocacy of resisting an assault, we have difficulty with the studies because they appear to place numbers and percentages on a specific situational problem that is different for each assault. Studies conducted on physical resistance cannot adequately consider the three variables involved in a sexual assault. Model Mugging is based on giving women the proper and tools and options to realistically apply in various situations.

Out of the 4 women (3%) who did not stop the assault, two were confronted by armed assailants (one assailant used a gun and the other used a knife) and under the circumstances, these survivors were intimidated by the weapon and chose not to fight back. These two women did not take the weapons training which deals with an armed assailant. The third woman was hit over the head with a club-like object, knocked unconscious and fondled but not raped. The fourth woman was racially attacked on a transit bus and was physically beaten but not raped. However, in her situation she apologized for bumping into her assailant as she got on the bus when he punched her in the face. She recovered from the blow and was able to shove him off the bus and yelled for the bus driver to close the door. The bus driver refused and the assailant reentered the bus, dragged her off by her hair and severely battered her. It is unfortunate that this woman did not apply the skills taught in the course but instead chose to use only enough force to escape from the initial assault and then presumptively relied on help from someone else.

Those graduates who chose to protect themselves defeated their assailants by forcing them to flee or incapacitating them. Out of the 144 women who did fight back, 58 (40%) forced the assailant to flee and 86 (60%) won by knockout. (This data should be interpreted with caution because it relies on self-reporting.)

Proper training provides women with the best and most appropriate viable options to choose in self-protection. During an individual assault, it does not matter what the statistics are in the latest study on the effectiveness of resistance. In the end it all comes down to what you can do against the assailant and the conditions that are imposed upon you!

Model Mugging is based on researched that provides you with the knowledge and experience to apply proven skills to violent conditions commonly imposed upon women.

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