Skip to main content

Street Safe Self Defence

Self Defense · Violence Prevention

What Self Defence Skills Does Street Safe Actually Teach?

Learn how Street Safe teaches awareness, boundary setting, de-escalation, threat recognition, safe escape, and practical physical defence.

Rob Andress
Rob Andress
Published
1 min read

Street Safe Doesn’t Teach Techniques. We Teach the Principles That Protect People.

By Rob Andress
Violence Prevention Specialist / Self Defence Expert
Street Safe Self Defence Training Company

Group practicing self-defence techniques during an indoor self-defence class
Self-defence lessons provide structured training where participants learn practical skills, improve awareness, and build confidence in a supportive environment.

Walk into almost any martial arts school and you’ll see techniques.

Punches.

Kicks.

Blocks.

Throws.

Locks.

There’s nothing wrong with learning those skills. I spent years in martial arts myself, and they taught me discipline, confidence, and respect.

But after decades studying violence and teaching thousands of Canadians, I came to one conclusion.

People don’t survive violence because they remember hundreds of techniques. They survive because they understand a handful of principles they can apply under extreme stress.

That’s exactly how we teach at Street Safe.

Our goal isn’t to fill your head with techniques.

Our goal is to give you principles that still work when your heart is racing, your hands are shaking, and your brain is trying to process the worst moment of your life.

These are the Principles of Protection.

Rob Andress
About the Author
Rob Andress

Rob Andress is a Canadian violence prevention specialist and co-founder, with Beth Andress, of Street Safe Self Defence Training Company. For more than two decades he has taught reality-based, behaviour-focused safety: how to spot the warning signs of violence early, make sound decisions under pressure and, when avoidance is no longer possible, respond effectively.

Street Safe has trained more than 32,000 students across Canada, including violence prevention in more than 70 high schools and over 8,000 REALTORS®. Rob works with municipalities, by-law officers, security and law enforcement teams, healthcare organizations, women and youth, and Inuit and Indigenous communities, including a specialized program for Inuit women in Nunavik.

Rob holds SAS and SAS-AP certifications in situational awareness [spell out], along with certifications in threat assessment, de-escalation and force de-escalation, A.L.I.V.E. active threat survival, trauma-informed practice, family dynamics of violence, date rape and drink spiking prevention, and close-quarter combatives.

His guiding principle: "Stop the Before, So the After Never Happens."

Build Practical Ground-Survival Skills

Street Safe runs mobile, on-site sessions sized to your group and goals. Early sessions walk through the priority sequence slowly, then add resistance once it is automatic.