Knowledge is your best defense.

READING
Protecting the Gift  & Fear Less
by Gavin deBecker

On Killing;  On Combat  &
Stop Teaching Our Kids to Kill
all by Lt. Col. Dave Grossman

Girls Fight Back: A College Girl's Guide
by Erin Weed

Beauty Bites Beast
by Ellen Snortland

I Never Called It Rape
by Robin Warshaw

The Truth About Self Defense
by Massad Ayoob

Controlling People
by Patricia Evans

Awaken the Buddha Within
by Lama Surya Das

The Four Agreements
by Don Miguel Ruiz

It's A Meaningful LIfe: It Just Takes Practice
by Bo Lozoff

Passages
by Gail Sheehy

Living the Martial Way
by Forrest Morgan

The Making of a Martial Artist
by Sang Kyu Shim

Bio 
Owner/Instructor Lisa Abbott is a wife, mother and grandmother. She grew up in Elko, Nevada and began learning traditional martial arts in the early eighties. Relocating to Wells involved adding a two-hour drive several times a week to train. Lisa's alliance with her core instructor was an eighteen year journey. Not only was she often the only female on the floor training and teaching, she became the only female to have achieved a high rank in the system. 

As a brown-belt, Lisa opened her school in Wells and started teaching in 1989. After operating the Twin Jade Cat Martial Arts -Wells Branch from 1989 to 1999, the formal school closed. But Lisa still continued with informal martial arts workouts and taught Tai Chi. 

Throughout the years of development, the business went through a few name changes as the specific focus of educating women in self defense emerged. Subtle Warrior Self Defense, personal defense education- is a direct result of many years experience of learning, training and teaching. Lisa's own training and education in personal defense is continuously on going.

Lisa works for the public school system coaches high school softball. She is a member of Toastmasters, International, Elko Chamber of Commerce, and Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence, US Martial Arts Association. Training and certifications include Basic First Aid and EMT, Defensive Tactics, Confined Areas Survival Tactics, ASEP Coaching Principles and Sports First Aid.

Lisa's Rape Awareness & Prevention Instructor's Certification is from Modern Warrior© Defensive Tactics Institute, she has since taught at Modern Warrior's Female Self Defense Week in Long Island, New York. Lisa has taught seminars and workshops in Elko, Ely, Winnemucca, West Wendover and Ruby Valley, Nevada as well as in Idaho, Minnesota and South Carolina.

Subtle Warrior Self Defense has been 30 years in the making, and still continues to evolve to this day.

Background
Lisa's background began with an intense traditional/classical system called the Futago no Kokyoku Neko-ryu, which translates to the Twin Jade Cat Martial Tradition or TJC. The TJC was very comprehensive system comprised of five styles. Kyokushinkai was the foundation, the additonal styles included Sil Lum Jin Mo Gung Fu, Moo Sul Kwon Hapkido, Buddhist Temple Thai Boxing, and Pai Hu Jen Tiger Boxing.

A uniform, or Gi was worn and belt ranks were required. Classes were up to three hours long and commands were given in Japanese. The formal classes consisted of lecture in history, anatomy, meditation and all around general knowledge of the martial arts and ot the styles that existed, not just those of our own system. Physical training was harsh, or as some of us fondly refer to as 'old school'. Protective pads were not required and contact was controlled but strong. Training included specialty classes in Japanese Kanji Kana and advanced classes included weaponry, including sword work.

Throughout the 90's Lisa was also studied several forms of Tai Chi with Shenghong Eikenberry and Traditonal Oriental Medicine Principles with Bonnie Crotsenberg.

In 2002 Lisa was accepted into a work/study program at Upaya Zen Center. She travelled to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work and practice at the Buddhist Monestary with Roshi Joah Halifax. Her time at Upaya included several summers of work/study, participating in a Rohatsu and a Wilderness Fast. It was during the time at Upaya that Lisa realized she wanted to focus soley on women's self defense. Empowering women in personal defense education became the goal. In 2004 she became a certified Rape Awareness & Prevention Instructor.


Physical training in personal defense has been on-going. Lisa has attended several AWSDA (American Women Self Defense Association) training seminars. The opportinunity to learn from and network with many instructors throughout the nation and world was invaluable. But it is with Modern Warrior© and Phil Messina which she has trained with the most consistantly since her ceritification. Traing includes Confined Areas Survial Tactics Instructor Certification scholarship recipient, and Defensive Tactics Instructors Certification. Modern Warrior faciliy has an indoor environmentql simulation room. Training against multiple opponents in he wind and rain was part of the 2009 Female Self Defense Week annual training'.

Recent training has been with Rory Miller, author of  Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected and Meditations on Violence: A Comparrison of Martial Arts Training & Real World Violence. Rory's seminars are especially focused on how violence happens and educating about important details pertaining to implimenting self defense. So intesly informative that Lisa has travelled as far as Billings, Denver and San Francisco just to learn from Rory.