“I feel so much safer now!” KFUO & Facebook Live Radio Interview

“I feel so much safer now.” This is an empowered response from a young lady who eagerly learned the wrist escape during a Facebook Live radio interview at KFUO Radio and KFUO Facebook Live. (You can learn the technique too. Just scroll to the bottom and click on my online instructional self-defense video.)

Sarah, the co-host of The Coffee Hour, learned the simple and effective technique in an effort to showcase self-defense skills perfect for back-to-school and college bound students. The wrist escape is one of many online self-defense instructional videos from The Great Flip. Girls can train any time, any where subscribing to these videos. College students can subscribe to The Great Flip videos and watch from their dorms and with their friends! Click on 2 Ways to Join to get started and share with your favorite girl friends!

And I had a unique opportunity to share my faith and motivation behind The Great Flip.

My daughter created the name “The Great Flip.” She said learning Brazilian jiu-jitsu (BJJ) will turn a girl’s self defense game upside down! BJJ empowers girls with techniques so that a smaller, weaker person can overcome a larger opponent. TGF allows girls to feel empowered, confident and brave learning a new life skill like self-defense.

The Grace Place.

Martial arts is not typically associated with Christianity. There are a lot of eastern spirituality infused into the martial art culture. So it’s refreshing to learn a martial art and have a Christian world-view as its foundation.

But here’s my soap box … There is so much pressure on girls today. And heading off to college and back-to-school can be extremely stressful. Anxiety is at an all-time high, especially girls. They feel pressure to get good grades, participate in extracurricular activities. And quite honestly, I think there’s even more unintended pressure on Christian kids; Read your Bible, go to Youth Group, go on a mission trip, etc. The list goes on and on. I feel like we, as parents and the church, have dangerously exchanged one form of “law” for another set of expectations falling again upon a “work” based life. And its crippling for our children.

In a small way, I want to restore the value of a Grace-based life. Knowing Grace is remembering God’s unconditional, unmerited love for everyone. You don’t have to earn it. You don’t have to work for it. You don’t have to ask for it. It’s a free gift. When Grace is restored to its proper place, we love because HE first loved us. When children (and parents and the church) remember that “We are saved by GRACE, through Faith…” we experience freedom to live life to the full. (See Ephesians 2:8)

Flipped by Grace.

Therefore, The Great Flip is about The Gospel! Martin Luther, the great reformer, summarized the Christian faith using the Bible verse from the New Testament in 2 Corinthians 5:21:

“For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.” 2 Corinthians 5:21

He called it The Great Exchange. I call it The Great Flip.

I want girls to not only learn an effective martial art, but I want girls to have a safe place to find encouragement and motivation. The gospel of Jesus Christ is all about grace; the free and unmerited favor of God.

Here at The Great Flip, girls will receive unconditional love and acceptance, no matter her past, present and future. I want girls to grow in grace with herself, with others and discover the unconditional message of God’s grace for every person, every where.

If you are not a Christian, I encourage you to meet me on the mat and continue your self-defense journey. Everyone is welcome. Consider the spiritual content something to meditate and reflect upon while you learn a new life skill. Check out my blog Why the Great Flip for more insight.

Grace is everywhere to be discovered … for you!

A big shout-out and thank you to KFUO Radio.

KFUO Radio is the longest continually operating Christian radio station in the United States. Owned and operated by The Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS). I attend an LCMS church in St. Louis. I am extremely thankful for the opportunity they gave me to share The Great Flip.

It is my hope that young ladies every where, Christian Directors of Education, Youth Ministers and Pastors will be blessed by The Great Flip. You have an opportunity to share a life skill like self-defense (and team building activities) with a Christian worldview. Christ crucified … for you and me!

Want to see the official wrist escape video? Here’s the instructional video on YouTube

You can subscribe to this one and many more. Click on the 2 Ways to Join to learn more about the online self-defense instructional videos.

See you on the mat! – Coach Jody