TDA Co-founder Profiled

Recently, TDA had the privilege of having one of the Co-founders profiled as a class assignment for two Texas Christian University (TCU) students. We thought you would enjoy what they discovered and wrote about and turned in to their professors as a final report. Again, this was a real assignment for them in their class at TCU.

The profile paper is a little longer (7 pages in Word) but we thought you would gain a lot of insight into why TDA exist and a little background on one of our Co-founders.

Please note: the format is as close as possible as the original paper.

Enjoy.
TDA Staff
Aubrey Todd

Katherine White

ct3, 2013

Final Draft

Authors note:

        Thank you for reading our final Portfolio essay on Edwin Rodriguez. This topic has been extremely fun to write about. Edwin is a very interesting and cool person. We had difficulties trying to explain his love and compassion because he did a lot of showing and not telling. We added a lot of more detail to this draft about Edwin and where he works. We also added in a personal experience that Katherine had while at the studio. Do we do a good job of painting a picture about who Edwin is? Does the paper flow well? We worked really well on this portfolio together. Katherine did a lot of the essay planning and participated in the self-defense lesson as well. Aubrey took a lot of notes and met with the teacher about a good way to write the essay. We both edited the paper many times and both participated in class workshops. We efficiently drafted the piece by using Google docs and meeting when we needed to. We learned that it’s not always easy trying to set times to get togther and meet but you just have to be cooperative and really communicate with your other partner.

Edwin Rodriguez and Self Defense

“It’s not who I am underneath, it’s what I do that defines me.” Who is the first super hero you would think of that would say this? Superman? Batman? As Edwin Rodriguez heard Batman say this to Rachel as he was saving her, along with a child, in Batman Begins, Edwin fell in love with Batman. As Edwin watched Batman Begins he fell in love with the fact that Batman was a normal person who learned a set of skills and created a plethora of defense objects in order to save others and to save him. These skills were what he did; he was the protector of Gotham City, causing everyone to look to him for help. Seeing batman with his sleek black cape, his midnight dark motorcycle and his tools to save people caused Edwin to want be that. This is how Edwin became interested in the martial arts and later into self-defense.

Since age fourteen Edwin has practiced martial arts. He started by learning quango when he was five years old and then when he was 13 he got into martial arts.  He became entranced with the way Batman fought and he decided to look up the special features of the movie. These special features showed how Batman fought. It showed the technique he used to defend himself and others. This technique was called Keysi Fighting Method or for short KFM, a non-traditional form of martial arts. KFM is a self-defense system whose training is based on the study and cultivation of natural instincts, combined with basic combat protection skills. KFM has also been known to be big in Hollywood movies, hence why it was in Batman. After Edwin’s discovery of KFM he began to stray away from his martial arts skills that he had since age fourteen and slowly move into the practice of KFM training. By 2009 Edwin was in official training for KFM under Bryan Malatesta. In the winter of 2011, Mr. Malatesta also signed on to A.C.W.A. Comabtives under founder, Justin J. Everman and now he is an instructor and the founder of TEXAS DEFENSE ACADEMY in Fort Worth TX.  

As we walked across the street into the TEXAS DEFENSE ACADEMY we were instantly caught off guard by the muscular life like dummy standing to the right of us wearing a KFM fleece. When we walked through the small two room location hard core club like music was blaring and a disco light that was flashing on and off in the corner. This also caught us by surprise, but as we saw Edwin and he turned the lights and music off we had the chance to get a feel of where we were. The place smelled like a typical gym and even kind of looked like one. It had a black mat that was firm ground yet soft for jumping and falling, it had bars to hold on to like ballerinas use, a wall of mirrors on one side, and a huge sign that said BALLISTIC 3 Velocity Acceleration Mass, which is also what Edwin’s shirt said. He was wearing a black shirt, dark wash jeans and black tennis shoes. This guy did not look like someone you wanted to mess with, especially after you looked down and saw his two thumbs wearing silver hook rings the size of our fists. After this we were a little nervous for what we were about to get into. At first Edwin seemed a little confused as to why we were in there and why we would want to interview someone like him. However, once the interview started his face lit up and his voice got louder every time he explained his passion for KFM & present A.C.W.A. training. After this we no longer were scared of Edwin but were very intrigued about what he had to say.

Edwin and two other formal KFM trainers Bryan Malatesta & Terry Whiddon started their own business called TEXAS DEFENSE ACADEMY, and they all teach when they can and they all have a passion for helping others. Edwin says that it’s most fun when we all three teach because we can all feed off of each other. Not only do they learn self defense moves to help protect themselves here but they also teach their students “the psychological part of it too.” Edwin’s classes do not just focus on the moves of beating someone up. Instead he teaches his students to be aware of their surroundings and to notice key signs in the environment around us. After he told us this he asked us if as we got out of our car and crossed the street if we were looking around to see who was there, what was there, and if something were to happen would we be prepared. Of course, our answer was that we had no knowledge of this and as the interview went on he taught more reasons as to why we should have been more aware. He also asked if we knew the proper way to hold our car keys when someone came up behind us as we were trying to get into the car. After we told him what we thought, he jumped up and ran to the back room where he got a thick telephone book. He then went on to show us that we were wrong in what we thought and that you should hold them like you would a hammer for best damage to the telephone book.  Edwin’s excitement and knowledge of self-defense has spread to many people in the City of Fort Worth and now Edwin is not the only one that is excited and passionate for his class, his students are too.

Before the class had started we met a girl who was probably in her twenties wearing a black shirt, dark wash jeans and black tennis shoes (we later found out that this was their uniform). She is one of Edwin’s best students. She said that she “looks forward to this class three times a week because if gives [her] the confidence to defend her self and helps her blow off steam.” She has only been there 2 months but already feels like she could defend herself whenever she needed to. We were lucky enough to hear about her story and why she decided to start taking this class two months ago. A few months ago one of her sisters and her friend were in a dark alley where they were taken by a man, held at gunpoint and almost raped. These girls did not know what to do, they had no knowledge of how to defend themselves and they had no men around who were going to defend them. Luckily today her sister and friend are ok. However this made her realize that people do not always get this lucky and needed to be able to defend herself in case anything like that ever happened to her or to one of her friends. Because of what Edwin has taught her she feels more confidant than ever, “this is my addiction, this is my get away. The best part of my day because it makes me feel safe.” As class began Edwin’s 3 other students started to trickle in, and each one of them had the same feelings as this girl about Edwin’s class. Edwin makes people feel safe. Batman was the only person in the world who could make Gotham City a safe city. This is because he was the only person who took the time to learn about fighting and how to defend himself. Edwin goes beyond Batman by teaching different people multiple times a week the different ways one can defend themselves. As we sat in on Edwin’s class the excitement was contagious.

The students could not wait to practice their skills on self-defense. They started with a natural motion of taking their right hand and swiping it along the left side of their head touching their ear. This motion was almost like washing your hair or doing a girly hair flip. Therefore it is a very natural motion. Edwin taught the class that this motion kills two birds with one stone. He said that as you swipe your right hand over to the left side of your head you are throwing your elbow in the persons’ head and you are protecting you skull (self defense is a lot about protecting your skull). Edwin said to the class, “this is how your defense also becomes your offense”.

                   As we watched Edwin teach this motion he incorporated different steps and motions that one could break into when the attacker does different things. As we sat there in awe Edwin asked one of us to come up and learn in front of the class. I (Katherine) nervously stood up and walked to him with extreme hesitation. I did not know the first thing about self-defense and I especially did not know the first thing about fighting or throwing a punch. As I stood there in flats and skinny jeans I felt like there would be no way in the world that I could defend myself against a man the size of Edwin. Edwin slowly taught me how to stand and where to put my hands. He showed me three different techniques that I could use to defend myself if a man were to approach me. Instantly, I understood what his students were talking about. What Edwin taught me made me feel a hundred times stronger and more confident in myself. This is a feeling I know Rachel had when Batman saved her.

                  

On paper, Edwin is a self-defense instructor and owner. He and another thousand people out there are. However, Edwin does so much more than that. He takes a passion that he has had his entire life and makes it so amazing that people cannot help themselves but want to learn it and look forward to it two or three times a week. Even in the short time we were there we wanted to know more and learn more, and yes as we were walking out to our car we were much more aware of our surroundings. Edwin has created a safe haven in the City of Fort Worth and he truly is their Batman.