The mission of Quick and Dirty Self-Defense is to establish an accessible, dynamic and realistic class for women, children, men and senior citizens in order to create a safer environment for themselves. Situated in the heart of the Silverlake/Hollywood area, Quick and Dirty Self-Defense is located on the Los Angeles City College campus. This self-defense class teaches techniques that are both quick and dirty. Quick and Dirty Self-Defense is a precise science utilizing physics and kinesiology. Therefore, the size of the people defending themselves does not matter. The techniques learned in this class will work for men, women, children and senior citizens, regardless of their age, size or strength. This class empowers students and addresses the physical, mental, emotional, and social cultural components of self-defense. The student develops the basic skills of self‐defense beginning with movement, strength and cardiovascular fitness, agility and awareness of self in one’s environment. The basic skills include striking, kicking, blocking, throwing, grappling (fighting on the ground), and other techniques. Additionally, legal and moral issues of self‐defense are covered during class. We also discuss the culture of violence, boundary setting, and physical skills (including awareness and escape)
Fighting and self-defense are not the same thing. Fighting because of greed, jealousy or the desire to dominate or harm another person is not what we teach. Quick and Dirty Self-Defense teaches students to defend rather than fight. The word defend means “to make or keep safe from danger, attack, or harm.” The sole purpose of self-defense is to protect your life, the life of someone in your family or an innocent victim. Reduce your fear and anxiety and become stronger, more confident, more engaged in the fight to end violence and make peace with your vulnerabilities. Aguilar was born and raised in the inner-city of Los Angeles, California. He grew up in the ‘80’s and ‘90’s and survived one of the toughest neighborhoods in L.A., the Rampart-Pico-Union district, known for its street gangs, drive-by shootings, drug dealers and corrupt police officers. As a young child, he started with boxing then moved to Shotokan Karate, Aikido, Filipino Martial Arts, eventually receiving his 3rd Degree Black Belt in Hapkido and 1st Degree Black Belt in Judo along with several medals and trophies in competitive fights, including three national Judo titles. This led to work as a professional stuntman, stunt coordinator and fight choreographer for several films including New Line Cinema’s “Mortal Kombat.”
His academic interests in the details of human interaction and interpersonal communication led him to teach as a professor of Communications Theory at California State University, Los Angeles as well as work for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory’s Office of Communications. With all of these interests combined, you get an instructor who knows and understands the science and effectiveness of how different fighting styles work. He can explain to you what is myth and what is real in fights on the big screen. He can also discuss from an academic standpoint how verbal and non-verbal communications empirically relates to self-defense. And finally, he has the ability to explain all of these concepts to you in a way that is both detailed yet simple to understand. Aguilar has been teaching self-defense at Los Angeles City College since 1994 and has been teaching Quick and Dirty Self-Defense since 2000. On his teaching philosophy…
“I stand in front of the classroom not as an instructor but as a servant to the students.”
He treats the practice room, aka “the dojo,” as a laboratory. It is a safe, controlled environment where you will find out how your body will react to an attack. He watches to see what you would naturally do, evaluates it your movements and then make slight adjustments so that your strikes, your kicks and your entire arsenal of attacks are both efficient and effective. He does not force-feed everyone the same techniques or brings you “into the house of my wisdom, but leads you to the potential of your own mind and body.”
“Teaching Quick and Dirty Self-Defense may be the greatest of all the arts since the medium is the human mind, spirit and soul.”
