I have continued to train over the years at NESCJA and look to Sensei Ed Melaugh as a mentor because Small Circle Jujitsu is the most complete and practical self defense training that I have experienced.  We constantly challenge ourselves to get better and more efficient at defending all varieties of attacks including open hand attacks, grabs, punches, kicks, knife mugs (both moving and static), club, bat and machete attacks, both gun and assault rifle confrontations, and multiple attacker scenarios.  We always train to defend ourselves while staying standing if possible but we are prepared to go to the ground and grapple and defend quite readily.  Many of us probably go the mat too quickly for Sensei Melaugh's liking!  Our philosophy at NESCJA is to offer many different tools to our students who will then find the right ones to fit their body types, movement styles and personalities.  We teach our students to make the best decisions possible and to never give up and to keep fighting if exiting a situation is not possible.  We all work together at NESCJA.  Black belts train next to white belts and all ranks in between.  The hardest belt to get at NESCJA is the yellow belt because we expect a high level of understanding and skill from our yellow belts who must grasp the overall system.  Ed Melaugh has done a fantastic job over the years of developing a comprehensive and clear system of self defense. Ed’s system also continues to evolve over time as Ed constantly improves the efficiency of the techniques in our system and readily discards any techniques which he has not found to be optimally effective.  The students are NESCJA are very friendly and from all walks of life.  We are there to train together and get better as individuals and not to compete with each other or in any way denigrate or put down another student. Everyone at NESCJA has something to learn and something to teach.  Ed Melaugh and I have been training together since 1984 and he still amazes me all the time with the progression and evolution of the system and his ability to teach it to new students in a fresh, interesting and realistic way. I can be reached for questions by email at bfp@bostonbusinesslaw.com.