My name is Jonathan Field. Master Taekwondo Instructor and owner of Cobourg Tae Kwon Do Ltd. and Co-Founder of EMPOWERED: Defense and Empowerment Training for Women, alongside Cheryl Sanders. But we will get more into that later.
So I digress, I started my Taekwondo career back in the late 90s. Earned by Black Belt in just over three years. Bought my academy from my original instructor back in 2003 while still attending college for Business Administration and Supervisory Management. Going to school during the day, teaching Taekwondo classes in the evenings, then going home after to study for several hours.
After nearly two decades of running the academy, teaching classes, coaching martial arts athletes, conducting workshops, and competing, I racked up 12 World Championships, and 9 World Records. Our academy produced 17 World Champions holding a combined 56 World Championships, 12 World Records, and 47 Competition Records. We have also been featured on ESPN2, Fight Sports Network, The Discovery Channel, and in the book "The World's Greatest Martial Artists, The Super 700".
I have lead the field of educating women and young girls in self defense concepts, strategies, and the physical tools in various seminars/workshops for women's groups, local schools, church groups, mother/daughter groups, local businesses and corporations, as well as local police officers and detectives, RCMP, OPP, fire fighters, and Canadian Special Forces.
Throughout all this, I have had countless conversations with women about what they fear most. I have listen to their stories about their experiences both good and bad. Unfortunately, more negative than positive. I combine that knowledge my own experiences of being personally involved or witness to various situations that should never have occurred. So, I get it.
Then, as if by chance, something amazing happened...
I had taught numerous self-defense seminars and workshops for women for nearly 20 years. Taught them alongside the numerous instructors and black belts from our academy. But when I started to conduct our Women’s Empowerment and Defense Workshops with one of our black belts, Cheryl Sanders, her passion and our teaching chemistry sparked a new passion in me.
That’s when it became crystal clear to me how to educate women and girls on a larger scale. That's when I made a decision to write a book all about the essential concepts and strategies all women should know about self-defense and how this could help women and young girls build confidence and find their inner strength through defense and empowerment training. This book could also help mothers and fathers educate their daughters about the potential dangers and how to make smarter decisions when it comes to their personal safety.
As a result I had to write a book on self-defense specifically written for women and girls of all ages. I found most books on the market were not really inviting for women. Most were too long, too boring, or too complex. Not very appealing for a teenage girl to read it… or for most women for that matter.
I realized that the right book was something that a mom or dad could read and pass down to their daughters, helping parents to protect their daughters when they couldn’t be around to do so.
The right book needed to appeal to women of all ages and experiences and give them the tools to see potential dangers before they occur and the strategies to deal with them.
That’s when I realized that the secret was teaching young girls and women how to recognize and avoid dangerous situations before they happen to them. The concepts that I have been teaching all along have helped my students and the women who attended our workshops. The concepts and strategies laid out in the book were simple enough that they could be practiced every day without taking up any extra time.
After I wrote EMPOWERED: Essential Concepts and Strategies Every Woman Should Know About Self-Defense, Cheryl and I co-founded EMPOWERED - Defense and Empowerment Training for Women were we strive to help women and young girls build confidence and find their inner strength through defense and empowerment training. Together we teach the concepts and strategies to the attendees of our workshops as well as on our YouTube channel dedicated to educating and empowering women.