Richard Dimitri had five black belts by the time he was 19 and found himself with a job as a bouncer and body guard for high-profile clients faced with constant confrontation. In the heat of the fight, however, he discovered his training went out the window – so he began looking for another way. 

“I found myself resorting back to hockey-style fighting,” he says. “I was just really passionate about what I did, and wanted to save my ass on the job.”

That’s when Dimitri began studying the physiological side to confrontation. Just what does the body and brain do when faced with violence, and how can we harvest that nervous energy into a reliable form of self defence? How can we use instinct, body language and words to prevent confrontations from happening in the first place?

Dimitri used 23 years of research to develop Senshido International, which is based on the principal that only the gross motor skills are available during confrontational moments. He studied fear, stress and the emotional aspects of a physical altercation. Often his research involved a Montreal-area Burger King that was open 24 hours, and often had intoxicated patrons starting fights. Dimitri would sit and watch these violent displays and take notes – where were the victims hands? How did the suspect pull out and use a weapon? What if a parent is holding a child, what can they do to keep the child in their arms, while defending both themselves and their baby?

“It worked like a charm,” Dimitri said of the unorthodox research.

Another way Dimitri researched was by interviewing prisoners in 1991. He spoke with violent offenders and asked them to break down their crimes and explain how they chose victims. He discovered that in the heat of the fight, even the world’s most terrifying criminals could get scared. 

Dimitri teaches students how to harvest that energy and defuse a situation before it starts, and if necessary defend oneself if it escalates. 

“The first step is to detect and avoid,” he said.

Dimitri said martial arts training often will not save someone on the street, because the moves are generally done in a controlled environment. 

“You’re bypassing millions of years of evolution,” he said, adding that even a black belt could become a victim in a street fight. “I gotta go home tonight, that’s all that matters.”

By 1999, he was considered to be one of the top five self defence teachers in the world. Dimitri has been profiled in many different magazines and has toured the world to teach students – especially women – how to defend themselves. Now, after a busy city life in Montreal, Dimitri and his wife have packed up and moved to Jasper. 

“I can live anywhere in the world,” Dimitri said. “Jasper is just, wow. The people are wonderful here.”

When he got to Jasper, Dimitri was happy to find that the local nightlife has a calm, friendly environment. Having worked in tough, often-violent bars in Montreal, it was a relief to see no need for a bouncer at Jasper’s many after-hours stops. 

“To be here is vastly different for me,” he said. 

Throughout his career Dimitri has had many international contracts, including working with the U.S. Marines, Canadian Forces, France’s Marine Infantry, the Finland presidential security team and more. He worked with the Girls Gone Gorgeous campaign, which educates women in Egypt on how to avoid rape and sexual assault. Dimitri is trained in 15 different styles of martial arts, and is certified – with a black belt – in five of them. 

Senshido is based on what the body wants to do instinctively. He noticed that most knife or gunshot wound victims have defensive wounds on their hands, as they throw them up in front of their body to protect themselves. 

“I looked at how the body reacts,” Dimitri said. He then based his self defence method on positions the body naturally goes to, and worked on movements and survival-based techniques from a flinch position. 

Dimitri said many survivors of random violence used survival-based techniques – often the victim does not remember what happened once the situation is over. 

His courses not only focus on the physiology of a fight and how to defend oneself, he teaches his students the moral, legal and ethical information that a victim must know after a fight. He discusses how to deal with the after-effects of an altercation, and how to speak to police and provide a statement. 

Dimitri remembers injuring a man during a fight, and feeling terrible about the outcome. 

“Responsibility for your actions is critical,” he said, adding that there are things people don’t tell you about physical altercations. 

Often people who get in a fight are both good people who let their tempers flare and egos get in the way of rational thought. 

“Nine out of 10 times it’s not necessary to get into a violent situation,” Dimitri said. “We deal a lot with the ego in our system.”

The stance used in Senshido is called the passive stance. It is when the hands are up in front of the chest and the upper body is leaned back to portray a passive perspective. Dimitri said it’s a normal body reaction when confronted, and makes a person look as if they are unable to defend themselves. 

Dimitri likens the stance to body language and tone of voice – research has said that 10 per cent of what is said is actually the words. The remaining is the position and stance of the body, and how the words are actually spoken. 

Dimitri says many of his students who have had to use their training found his classes to be extremely realistic, and have commented that, “It happened exactly the way we did it in class.”

In addition to his work with international clients, high school students, law enforcement, women and every-day people, Dimitri has done the Hollywood circuit, acting as a stuntman and choreographing fight scenes. He began by working as a bouncer at a new Planet Hollywood location and getting connections in the movie industry. He met many on-screen heroes – including Sylvester Stallone. 

“I’m much more interested in teaching with the general public at this point in my life,” Dimitri says. 

Since arriving in Jasper, Dimitri is beginning to set up shop. He is working with the Adult Learning Centre on youth classes and plans to teach workshops in the future. More information on Senshido International can be found online at www.senshido.com