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Real skills. Real confidence. Practical training for real life.
Defense For Women by David Burnell is a practical, real-world training designed to help women recognize danger earlier, make better decisions under pressure, and respond with confidence when action is necessary. The focus is not fear—it is capability.
★ ★ ★ ★ ★“David is incredible to work with. He’s the perfect amount of tough, informative, assertive, yet genuine, trusting, and gentle. He is a light to work with. I hosted a women’s self-defense class at my gym, and everyone left empowered, informed, and touched by this incredible man.”— Ashley Wolf
Defense For Women Podcast
Real-World Awareness. Practical Protection. Stronger Decisions.
The Defense For Women Podcast is a special series within Echo Valor with David Burnell, focused on helping women recognize danger earlier, think more clearly under pressure, and build practical confidence for everyday life. Each episode explores situational awareness, personal safety, boundaries, preparedness, decision-making, and real-world lessons designed to help women become more aware, more capable, and better prepared—without living in fear.
The Four Pillars of Defense For Women
Awareness • Skills • Confidence • Empowerment.
AWARENESS
Recognize Danger Early
The best time to respond to danger is before it becomes a physical confrontation. Awareness teaches you to notice changes in your environment, recognize warning signs, trust what you see and feel, and make decisions while you still have options. The goal is not to live on edge—it is to move through life alert, informed, and prepared.
SKILLS
Simple. Practical. Effective.
You do not need years of martial arts training to become more capable. Defense For Women focuses on straightforward techniques you can understand, practice, and remember under stress. You will learn how to create distance, break contact, escape common grabs and control attempts, and respond decisively when physical action becomes necessary.
CONFIDENCE
Move With Strength and Certainty
Confidence comes from knowing you have options. Through realistic instruction and practical training, you learn to establish boundaries, use your voice, recognize when action is required, and respond without freezing or second-guessing yourself. The objective is not aggression—it is the confidence to act when your safety depends on it.
EMPOWERMENT
Stronger. Safer. More Capable.
True empowerment is more than feeling confident—it is developing the awareness, knowledge, and ability to protect yourself. Defense For Women helps women take greater ownership of their personal safety, make stronger decisions, and build skills that carry far beyond the training environment.
Choose the Training Format That Fits Your Group
Hands-On Self-Defense Class
Large Group Seminar
Hands-On Self-Defense Class
This practical 1.5–2-hour class is designed for women and focuses on simple, real-world skills they can understand, practice, and remember under stress. Through guided drills, demonstrations, movement, and direct participation, women learn how to recognize danger earlier, create distance, escape common control attempts, and respond decisively when necessary. Ideal for schools, churches, gyms, community groups, and organizations. Best suited for groups of up to approximately 40 participants.
What You’ll Learn
- Situational awareness and early threat recognition
- Verbal boundaries and command presence
- What to do if you are followed, approached, or confronted
- How to create distance and break contact
- Escapes from common grabs and control attempts
- Simple defensive actions focused on creating an opportunity to escape
- How to overcome hesitation and act decisively under stress
No previous martial arts or self-defense experience is required.
Large Group Seminar
Designed for schools, churches, universities, hospitals, businesses, and organizations, the Large Group Seminar delivers the core Defense For Women principles in a format built for larger audiences. The emphasis is on awareness, prevention, personal safety mindset, recognizing warning signs, making better decisions under pressure, and understanding how to respond when a situation begins to change. Seminars include practical demonstrations, real-world examples, audience discussion, and Q&A.
Ideal for larger audiences where hands-on participation is not practical, while still giving women practical tools to become more aware, confident, and prepared.
Who Is This For?
- Women preparing for college or living independently
- Mothers and daughters
- Hospital and healthcare staff
- Church and youth groups
- Relief societies and community organizations
- Working professionals
- Schools and college campuses
- Corporate and employee groups
- Women’s organizations
- Community safety programs
- Women who simply want to become more aware, confident, and prepared
No previous self-defense or martial arts experience is required.
THE COST
Training in Utah Is FREE
Defense For Women classes and seminars within Utah are offered free of charge. For events outside Utah, the training remains free; the host simply covers reasonable travel and lodging expenses.
Why is the Training FREE?
Because basic personal-safety knowledge should be available to women who want it. Defense For Women is part of David Burnell’s continuing mission to teach practical skills that help people recognize and avoid danger, make better decisions, and protect themselves.
HOST A CLASS
Bring Defense For Women to your community, organization, school, church, or workplace.
WHAT WOMEN ARE SAYING
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“David’s class was amazing! He is very honest and real when talking about his life experiences and what we need to do individually to protect ourselves. He doesn’t sugar-coat anything and taught us skills that we can easily remember and practice ahead of time.”
— Tricia Tippets
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“I have taken numerous self-defense courses, and this is the first where I actually walked away with some real-life skills I know I will remember. David stresses the importance of situational awareness and how that alone can save your life.”
— Debra Kelly
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“I HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU AND YOUR DAUGHTERS do the class together. I can’t express how AMAZING the class was.”
— Melanie Daniels
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
“He created a safe space for everyone, and we not only got to work on the physical aspects of self-defense, but the mental and emotional aspects so that we can be confident in tough situations.”
— Cori Sterling
MEET DAVID BURNELL
David Burnell is a U.S. Air Force veteran, former combatives instructor, personal protection specialist and instructor, counterterrorism instructor, rescue diver instructor, author, and longtime self-defense educator. For ten years, David founded and operated the Urban Warfare Center, a specialized training facility focused primarily on preparing law enforcement officers, military personnel, federal agents, security professionals, and others for high-risk assignments and deployments into harm’s way.
His work has included combatives, personal protection, tactical training, crisis response, survival, emergency preparedness, and helping people make effective decisions under extreme stress. David has also worked in humanitarian and disaster-response environments worldwide. Through Defense For Women, he takes principles developed through decades of professional training and makes them practical for everyday life.
The objective is not to make women afraid of the world. It is to help them move through it more aware, more confident, and more capable.
Listen to Before It Happens FREE
Listen free on Substack, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Amazon Music.
MORE Books BY DAVID BURNELL
Hard-Earned Lessons. Stories Worth Carrying Forward.
David Burnell’s books draw from decades of military service, training, rescue, humanitarian work, leadership, faith, and lived experience. From practical guides on survival, self-defense, strategy, and preparedness to personal reflections on service, adversity, grace, and resilience, each book serves the same purpose: to turn hard-earned experience into something useful and worth carrying forward.
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PODCAST • FOUR PILLARS • TRAINING • COST • TESTIMONIALS • ABOUT DAVID • FREE AUDIOBOOK • HOST A CLASS • SUBSCRIBE
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