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Self Defense Instructor Certification

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CERTIFY TO TEACH SELF DEFENSE

UNLOCK NEW OPPORTUNITIES IN YOUR FITNESS CAREER

Are you a passionate personal trainer or martial artist looking to expand your skillset and make a real impact in your community? Adding Self Defense Trainer Certification to your skillset takes your career and your clients to the next level!

Join Our 30-hour Self Defense Trainer Certification Course Live & Online!

Course Language: English | Course Manual: English

BECOME A TRAINER

The Pretty Deadly Self Defense Trainer Certification course is a 30-hour online + live training that includes both theory and practice, that can be completed consecutively or in two parts according to your schedule*:

Days 1-3 Online: 2-hour interactive sessions + self study

Day 4 Live: 6-hour technique training

Day 5 Live: 6-hour practice & safety training + test

Online sessions:

theory
methodology
trauma awareness and support training

...along with business & marketing basics, and how to adapt self defense to your existing fitness or martial arts practice.

Live sessions cover our signature approach to teaching self defense techniques designed to fast-track your clients' skill acquisiton, grow community, and boost confidence levels through the roof.

*Online & live sessions must be completed within 6 months

ABOUT THE COURSE

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What Makes Pretty Deadly Different?

Pretty Deadly Self Defense was developed by American martial artist Susie Kahlich, based on her experiences as a violent crime survivor, her research into the biology of self defense and DV and trauma awareness training, and her 24 years of practicing and teaching the art of Ninjutsu. First developed for Susie's mom in 2009, Pretty Deadly has since grown to reach thousands of vulnerable people in 16 cities across 4 continents with accessible, user-focused, body-positive self defense.

Read more about Susie and her journey to empower the world through self defense and body confidence here.

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Course Outline

Our certification course is designed to equip you with the knowledge and skills needed to teach effective self-defense techniques. Here's a glimpse of what you'll learn:

Basic self-defense principles
Techniques for standing and ground situations
Safety protocols for full contact training
Teaching methods for different age groups and fitness levels
Legal and ethical aspects of self-defense instruction

Certification Benefits

Credibility: Stand out as a certified self-defense trainer, gaining trust and credibility among your clients.
Diversify Your Services: Offer self-defense training as an additional service to your fitness clients.
Empower Others: Help individuals in your community feel safer and more confident.
Increase Income: Expand your client base and potentially increase your income by offering specialized self-defense training sessions.

The Business of Self Defense

Did you know self defense has seasons? That there is a sweet spot when pricing courses and classes? The Pretty Deadly Self Defense Instructor Certification Online sessions cover teaching methodology and theory, and also the business side of things.

best days, times and seasons to offe self defense
how to find a space for a course or workshop
what to charge
how to market + marketing materials and support from us, including being featured on our podcast if you like;

We really want you to succeed.

We don't promise you a job, we show you how to build a career and earn money while doing it.

You'll have access to our trainer's dashboard that provides a video library of techniques but, just as importantly, easy to follow short videos on accounting, time management, setting up a payment system, booking clients, and how to set up websites, partnerships and more.

We teach you how to teach better.

We teach you how to teach - something your personal trainer certification course does not provide for you. We show you

how to quickly establish authority without being militant
how to identify client behaviors that need special attention
how to gently but firmly set boundaries and protect yourself from trauma bonding
how to handle training challenges and issues
how to identify when stored trauma is affecting training
how to identify when someone is about to be triggered and how to handle it (without becoming a therapist)

and we show you how to design classes, courses and workshops that are effective, keep your clients engaged and keep them coming back for more. And you can even use our course and workshop templates as training wheels until you're ready to design your own.

Self Defense Instructor Certification is perfect for you if

You're thinking about certifying as a trainer but aren't sure yet, this is a great way to start and takes care of your CEU credits.

You're a new trainer and are overwhelmed with how to even get started designing a class

You're an experienced trainer and are ready to level up your offers and increase community engagement.

You're a studio owner and want to introduce more small-group training options for your clients

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What do you get out of the Pretty Deadly Instructor Certification Course?

Self defense is usually the domain of martial artists, and most martial artists are trained in a classical style: the teacher demonstrates a technique, and students dive in and try to figure it out. That's one of the great joys of learning martial arts... but it doesn't work for women and non-binary people.

Girls who present as female grow up being socialized to not try something new unless they know they're already good at it. There are a lot of reasons for this, but we can sum it up as "girls are taught to be risk-averse". If your clients have ever shown reluctance to deviate from established routines and workout, this is why. And when it comes to martial arts and self defense, it's 10x more intense because there is greater potential for pain.

Our mission is to change the way self defense is taught, to focus more on body dynamics and progressive skills than whether someone can beat up the other guy, and to incorporate body literacy into a whole-body wellness practice.

We've developed a teaching methodology that works: one that

helps clients reconnect with their bodies in a positive way
builds their confidence in themselves, and
shows up in the form of engagement:
- they're more present
- they're more eager to try new things
- they're more ready to challenge themselves
- they're more willing to take action to find solutions

Our pre-set program incorporates techniques from 11 different martial arts, and we show you how to adapt everything to your practice, whether it's Pilates or Krav Maga.

Self defense techniques are universal, but learning them is gender-specific.

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OUR WHY

Women spend 50% of our time and energy strategizing how to stay safe. Imagine freeing up that time and energy to access an education, pursue a career, grow a family, give back to community, and build a better world.

Here's how:

Learning self defense gives us tools to disrupt violence as it’s happening, and that gives us a sense of agency. That agency is everything — it empowers us, it reinforces our sense of self trust, it gives us confidence. But most importantly, it lowers the risk of long-term trauma from violence. Which means we are less likely to pass that trauma on to our families and friends, our communities, and our children in the form of trauma-adaptive behavior.

Trauma-adapted behavior, when passed down from generation to generation, loses the context of the original trauma, turns into abusive behavior. And the cycle of violence continues.

Pretty Deadly was developed to break the cycle of gender-based violence--because gender-based violence contributes to poverty, hunger, unwanted pregnancies, child marriage, and illiteracy; to climate change, and to the rampant capitalism that is hurting us all.