Chief Instructor

Noam Oz has over 15 years of martial arts and self defense experience. He received his 2nd Degree Black Belt in Chung Do Kwan under the instruction of 7th Degree Black Belt Master Steve Sciscione. Noam is also a Black Belt in Olympic Style Tae Kwon Do, and he has training in Krav Maga (the self defense method of the Israel Defence Forces), Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under the instruction of world famous Leo Dalla, no-gi grappling, wrestling, hapkido, and kickboxing. Noam has been instructing martial arts and self defense for more than 6 years. His passion for martial arts and practical self defense spawns from a genuine desire to see everyone he knows learn how to effectively defend her/himself.

Aside from instructing Safe Risk™ Self Defense, Noam works as a Systems Engineer and Requirements Manager. He received his Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering with minor studies in Bioengineering and his Master of Engineering degree in Systems Engineering from Penn State.

A Note from Noam...

"Through years of studying, training, and instructing traditional and progressive martial arts and self defense, I realized that something was missing. Most of the people I came across in daily life never learned how to defend themselves. I’m not talking about years of study in a martial art; I mean people just found no interest in learning how to defend themselves. They acknowledged the importance of self defense, but learning how to protect themselves never appeared as a high enough priority to take action.

Of the people I came across in martial arts or self defense programs, a staggering majority of them never really acquired a keen sense of what they learned. While they learned how to demonstrate movements, techniques, forms, etc., they never learned what it all meant. There was never a complete understanding of what the movements meant or how they could be used practically. With this in mind, I focused my instruction on the premise of interpretation; that is, I wanted to make sure that each student fully understood the implications of each technique. After all, if a technique doesn’t make sense to students, how can they be expected to use it, and use it effectively? I made sure that each student had at least one interpretation for how and why each technique is executed.

While interpretation seemed to be very well-received among students, and students started identifying what they’re doing and why, there was still a noticeable gap between the theory of an effective technique and the actuality of that technique’s effectiveness. There are always those students who make the most difficult skills seem easy to acquire. I believe it is due to these exceptional students that most instructors overlook the aforementioned gap. I started analyzing why the less coordinated students were having a difficult time understanding how to effectively execute a technique. Then, the light bulb lit up. Martial arts and self defense techniques are designed in the general—to appeal to a general audience in a general environment. In other words, these traditionally studied techniques are taught in terms of a specific motion but for the general student dealing with a specific attack by a general attacker. While the technique and the attack are specific, the people involved in the situation are generic figures that are impersonated by martial arts and self defense students.

In order for a student to truly acquire an understanding of how to execute an effective self defense technique, the technique must be personalized to the student. Furthermore, that technique must be adaptable to any attacker, regardless of height, weight, stature, strength, or gender. To appreciate the effectiveness of the technique, the student must also learn why the personalized technique is effective. These ideals are the foundation of Safe Risk™ and the scenario-driven study of effective self defense."

~ Noam Oz, Founder and Chief Instructor, Safe Risk™