About KSP and Female Weapon
Maria Contreras-Mata
Hi I’m Maria,
I started my journey after having my second child as a way to get back in shape. Like so many others, I had zero martial arts experience beforehand. I’ve learned much over the past 11 years from training in Krav Maga and Jiujitsu. And now, I’ve dedicated my life to helping others learn to protect themselves and their family better.
My Journey
The first time I walked into the Krav Maga training center in the Bay Area I was a bit intimidated. I had just had my second child 8 months ago and was nowhere close to being in shape like the others already training. Then when they began grappling, and I saw just how close they were, I thought, yeah, I won’t be rolling around with other people (mostly all guys) anytime soon! But I took it one day at a time, I learned at my own pace.
Since that first, scary day of stepping into the training gym, I’ve had some incredible experiences. I’ve had the chance to meet and train with MMA Champion Cris Cyborg, I trained with Alexis Davis prior to her fight with Ronda Rousey, and have met so many other skilled Krav and jiu-jitsu members that I now call family.
Women Teaching Women
I’ve learned much over the past years. One of the key takeaways is that there are not enough women teaching women. It’s one thing to learn a skill, but it’s another thing to see it working for someone who’s not 6 feet tall and 200lbs. So I created our Female Weapon line of training where we have women teaching so those looking to learn can feel more comfortable training. There’s no room for self consciousness when you’re fighting for your life. We want to help you gain confidence as quickly as possible.
Beyond the Mat
Another key take away from my years of training is that self protection isn’t all about the physical skills, it begins with smart decision making. Many martial arts training overlook the mental skills that will help prevent a physical encounter in the first place. At KSP we share incidents that have occurred and how we can do a better job at making sure we do not find ourselves in the same situation. Be sure to look out for new videos on our YouTube channel as we break down scenarios and how to be better prepared.
I look forward to helping you begin your journey…
Louie Mata
Hi, I’m Louie
I’m the new guy to the martial arts side, and Maria’s husband. I’m a student just like so many of you considering starting out. I’ve had the same perspective that newcomers have so I can relate to learning the new skills. I can share what I’ve learned after a year of training and can compare it to my thoughts prior to beginning my journey. And based on that insight, I can say that everyone could benefit from beginning to develop new habits that will make both them and their family safer.
Pre-Training
I have a degree in kinesiology and psychology so the learning process has been an enjoyable new direction to dive into. I’ve coached soccer at the college level and with our Olympic Development Programs. However, none of my experiences made me aware of the shortcomings in my habits. I went about my days like so many others thinking “sure bad stuff happens”, but they haven’t happened to me directly, the odds are low. That is until a few incidents did happen, and I began to rethink my decision making processes. I looked back at incidents that have occurred to others in my family and realized, so many of us have had close encounters with bad experiences, you might say we’ve just been lucky that the situations didn’t become worse or deadly.
Injuries?
Prior to training with Maria, I’d been a lifelong soccer player and coach, I still coach. However, as I watched the training I thought it was too intense for the back injury I deal with. What I realize now is that we can adapt the training more than I anticipated. At the end of the day, the more skills you develop based on what you can become good at, then better prepared you can be should your life ever depend on you fighting back. The more I’ve studied a variety of professional instructors, the more I’ve learned that everyone is dealing with some sort of past injury that they work around. Your injury is simply your specific hurdle to work around. Don’t let a physical issue stop you from starting, learn what fits your needs to protect yourself.