Hello, I'm Rob Hooks. A Hollywood California native living in Berlin for the past six years. I developed NSP for personal reasons…
I was heartbroken after George Floyd was murdered by police. As a black man, I felt like an endangered ethnicity. Then a friend's son — a black child — was assaulted by an adult white male in a crowded Berlin park… and the man just ran away. No one even tried to stop him. That was the final indignity.
I pictured my little boy in that situation.
I realized, if I couldn’t count on the police or citizens to protect our children of color, I would teach them how to protect themselves. So, I formed NSP.
Thankfully, my parents made sure I knew self-defense. I earned my black belt from Master Stan Smith at the Tang Soo Karate Academy in Hollywood, was an advanced member of Shaolin Temple Los Angeles under The Venerable Sifu Shi Yan Fan, and have over thirty years of experience in various martial arts including Kenpo, Aikido, Jiu-Jitsu, and Ninjutsu.
At first, my priority was to teach NSP to black youth. My dream was to train every black child in Berlin to be in charge of their own personal safety.
But, when a white friend said his son wanted to learn self-defense and asked if I’d train him, I said, of course. Now all ethnicities are welcome at NSP.
My dream has since expanded... I heard a statistic that 1 in 4 women will be attacked by someone they know. Meaning, either my wife, mother, sister, or niece are likely to be assaulted by a non-stranger.
Most women's self-defense courses teach groin striking, throat chopping, and eye gouging. Problem is, if the attacker is a non-stranger, a woman might not want to do these moves... she may simply allow herself to be assaulted.
I added a Women's Empowerment course, so women can walk with the confidence of knowing they can keep themselves safe... without using unnecessary force against their attacker... because it might just be a person they know.
