1st lesson free
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Lito
- Rate $75
- Response 1h
$75/h
Contact
1st lesson free
- Martial arts
- Self defense
Hello! I am a retired 29-year police officer who is a self-defense oriented martial arts instructor with 40+ years of experience. I teach the most effective skills for real-life self-defense.
- Martial arts
- Self defense
Lesson location
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At Lito's house: Ventura
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at your home or a public place : will travel up to 30 mi. from Ventura
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About Lito
Hello! My name is Lito and I'm a lifelong self-defense-oriented martial artist who is highly skilled in mixed martial arts (MMA), specifically boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay Thai, adapted & modified for real-life street self-defense situations. I’m also very proficient with weapons (i.e. pepper spray, expandable baton, knife and handgun) and weapon defenses. Alongside that, I'm a retired police officer who served with a major metropolitan police department for 29 years. I spent 19 of those years working the streets in uniformed patrol and four years as a Master Instructor in my Department’s Arrest & Control Unit (i.e. our self-defense unit). With that said, I have successfully handled countless volatile and violent situations using verbal de-escalation skills and physical combat skills, both as a police officer and private citizen. I’m mentioning all this to substantiate my credibility through my background and real-world experience in dealing with interpersonal conflict and violence in their various guises.
Through my experiences, I've become well acquainted with the interpersonal dynamics of when, where, why and how bad people attack good people, criminally and egotistically. I've learned what genuinely works and what doesn't when it comes to efficiently defending oneself against such attacks in realistic, practical and legal ways. In conjunction with that, I have 40+ years of teaching/coaching experience in various capacities and am very adaptive at teaching these strategies, tactics, and skills to any man or woman (18 years old and older) who is able, willing and committed to learning them.
On a closing FYI note, here’s a bit more on my martial arts background and perspective. I have trained in Shorin-Ryu karate, Japanese kickboxing, Western boxing, folkstyle/freestyle wrestling, jeet kune do, eskrima/arnis, muay Thai, savate, pentjak silat, krav maga and Brazilian jiu-jitsu over a 50+ year timespan. I am an instructor in several of these arts and successfully competed in some of them. Nonetheless, what I’ve learned is that credentials and sporting success have little bearing on real-life self-defense prowess. When it comes to personal self-defense, real-life experiences and observations have borne out that less is more. You don’t need to learn a ton of tactics & techniques. A few mastered is far superior than being mediocre at many.
Based on my observations and experiences, the two arts that have revealed themselves to be the most physically efficient for real-life self-defense are boxing and wrestling (with only a few specific elements needed from each one). After these two arts, a few specific elements from Brazilian jiu-jitsu and muay Thai follow in a secondary role as back-up/support systems. I found that all the other arts I studied (along with the many others I’ve investigated and dabbled in), while interesting and fun, were not real-life applicable or needed. If you are intrigued to learn more, take me up on my free first lesson, I will elaborate further on this and provide deeper context to prove my points.
Thank you for your time. Take care and have a good day.
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About the lesson
- All Levels
- English
All languages in which the lesson is available :
English
If you (man or woman) are interested in learning the most practical and effective system of personal self-defense for real-life situations, you've come across the right person to teach you. With that said, let me give you an overview of my system and how I generally conduct a lesson.
I call my system Core-4 Protective Offense. It is a proactive self-defense system that encompasses the four realms of personal self-defense: threat recognition, situational control, physical engagement and aftermath management in an integrated manner. It realistically deals with crime-based attacks (i.e. battery, ADW, robbery, kidnap, rape, attempt murder, etc) and ego-driven confrontations (e.g. verbal dispute gone bad, looking at someone wrong, bumping into someone, taking someone’s parking space, cutting someone off in traffic, etc) involving single aggressors, multiple assailants, bystanders and weapons.
In addition to teaching students the essential skills in each realm, I educate students on the law & self-defense, and go over the considerations, concerns, consequences and outcomes that are associated with using variable degrees of physical force to prevail in a self-defense situation.
In terms of the tactical & technical skills of my system, they center around the development of “soft skills” - i.e. awareness, assessment, avoidance, verbal deescalation & boundary setting skills and “hard skills” - i.e. street-adapted unarmed combat skills derived from boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai and distinctly effective “special” tactics, along with street-adapted armed combat skills employing pepper spray, expandable baton, knife and handgun; as well as unarmed & armed weapon defense skills.
A hallmark of my system is that it is proactively strategic & tactical in nature, with a foundation built on purpose/objectives, mindset & fear control; all of which keep you one step ahead of your adversary(s) to decisively resolve a self-defensive situation as efficiently as possible.
Regarding my general training and lesson structure, I tailor things to each student’s capabilities based on his/her aptitude and attributes. Moreover, I also take into account the different dynamics between women’s self-defense situations and men’s, adjusting the applicable elements accordingly. With that said, I use isolation training to technically hone skills and an ecological approach to tactically honing them by using scenario training to simulate real-life situations as much as possible to develop functional skillsets. I use a variety of training equipment and protective gear to facilitate this.
Generally speaking, especially in the beginning stages, I start out a lesson by going over the important concepts & principles of each realm so that they are fully understood and ingrained. Afterwards, I focus on each realm individually and use a variety of technical & tactical instruction & drills, using various pieces of equipment and protective gear as needed, to learn, practice, master and functionalize the skills I teach a student. Speaking of which…
I provide all the training equipment and protective gear we use for training. All you need to bring to your lessons is yourself, along with a bottle of water and a hand towel. In terms of what to wear, please dress in your regular, everyday attire, including footwear (which are optimally flat shoes, not high heels or flip-flops). I have you train in your everyday attire to get you acclimated performing in them. It is of benefit to normalize as many real-life variables that you can in training as it will translate well in real-life situations.
I made a bold claim at the start of this section. Let me prove it to you with a free 90-min to two hour introductory lesson, where I will give you a thorough overview of my system and teaching methodology. In the process, I will provide the rationale and evidence that support the skillsets I teach. I guarantee that at the conclusion of your lesson, you will be much more knowledgeable about real self-defense than you were before.
Here’s another bold claim; I guarantee that what I advocate and teach is significantly different than what every other martial arts/self-defense instructor on this platform teaches. If you genuinely want to learn how to realistically protect yourself in real-life self-defense situations, try the other instructors then come to me. I guarantee that you’ll see and understand the differences…then you’ll train with me if you are serious about personal self-defense.
On a final note, you do not have to be fit and in shape to learn efficient, realistic self-defense. It helps, of course, but it is not a necessity or prerequisite to becoming competent in self-defense. I just need your time, effort and commitment to develop real, functional skills that I assure you will serve you well.
Thank you again for your time. Take care and have a good week.
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Rates
Rate
- $75
Pack rates
- 5h: $375
- 10h: $750
Travel
- + $$20
free lessons
This first lesson offered with Lito will allow you to get to know each other and clearly specify your needs for your next lessons.
- 1hr
Details
* The free first lesson I give is between 1.5 to 2 hours long.
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My rate for private one-on-one lessons is $75 per 1.5 to 2 hours of instruction (duration depends on what I’m teaching you on the day and the flow we’re in). Lessons will always be at least 1.5 hours long. One hour is too short…
If you want to bring a training partner with you for your lessons, there is an additional $25 per lesson charge for him/her. So, the total cost goes up to $100/lesson for the two of you.
I teach at three locations: Ventura, Camarillo and Agoura Hills. Since I’m retired, I am flexible with days & times to meet for lessons.
If we meet in Ventura, there is no additional charge. The cost of your private lesson is $75.
If we meet in Camarillo, there is an additional $10 travel charge, raising the total cost to $85/session.
If we meet in Agoura Hills, there is an additional $20 travel charge, raising the total cost to $95/session.
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