About the Instructor

My career in the martial arts began in 1988. I began my studies with a mixture of both hard style and soft style martial arts. By 1991, I began my training in the art of Shaolin Kung Fu. By 1997 I had achieved the rank of 2nd degree black belt.
In 1992, I developed a trial self-defense program. This allowed me
to constantly improve my classes by eliminating or modifying techniques that might be considered too technical or not practical to real life situations. I had to be cognitive to the fact that most people are novice students wanting to simply learn to defend themselves and not become masters of the martial arts.

In 1995, while living in Greenville, SC, I teamed up with the Association for Women’s Self Defense Advancement (AWSDA). This allowed me to associate my program with a well-recognized and well-respected network in order to receive and share ideas revolving around best practices within the self-defense environment.

With that, Carolina Defensive Tactics was created for the individual that knows they are not exempt from a physical, deadly-force confrontation and have accepted the reality that their safety begins and ends with them personally.

I have trained in Confined Area Safety and became a certified CAST instructor in 2006. I have also studied and adopted the tactics and techniques from other stand up and ground fighting systems that truly make the Carolina Defensive Tactics system a mixture of Martial Arts with the foundation being Shaolin Kung Fu.

Class Philosophy

In my career as a martial artist, as well as women’s defensive tactics instructor, I have met great martial artists that were not specialized as WSD instructors. Conversely, I have met WSD instructors that have never studied the martial arts. Carolina Defensive Tactics program is based on self defense concepts, strategies, and techniques that do not require prior martial arts training.
I attribute a high retention rate by keeping the concepts simple and consistent with one simple goal, WINNING.

Real Simulation Training

One element to "real world" training is not becoming a victim of your training. As such, CDT has incorporated "The Pine Box" for simulation training. We practice on the matts and then take it to the Box.
The Pine Box is an 8'x8'x40" enclosure with an attached staircase. This allows our students to practice in a confined area that could represent a hallway, between two parked cars, or the stairwell at work. If a strategy doesn't work in an adverse environment, we won't teach it.