Welcome to the Gift Of Power:
"The King" Elvis Presley and Martial Arts
I thought that perhaps you might have some interest in learning about the story and motivation behind the Gift Of Power Foundation and what does Elvis Presley have to do with it anyhow?
Here’s the very short version:
I have been (and continue to be) a Martial Artist and Self-Defense Instructor for over 46 years now and for a number of those years I was Elvis Presley’s personal bodyguard. I mention this because most people I meet or know seem to find the Elvis connection to be interesting and, in fact, Elvis did have a significant part to play in the formation of what became the Gift of Power Foundation.
As you might imagine, I get lots of Elvis questions. These questions range from easy to difficult, from normal to bizarre and some you just would not believe. The three top questions over the years have been:
- “Is Elvis still alive?” Answer: “Yes, I keep him in my closet and feed him peanut butter and banana sandwiches fried in butter.”
- “What was Elvis really like?” Answer: “Besides being the greatest entertainer who ever lived, Elvis was, in many respects, the best person I ever met.”
- “Elvis’s personal bodyguard huh? I’ll bet that was a pretty cool job huh?” (usually I get this question from guys). Answer: “Well, actually, it was a crummy job. It was the worst. Just think about it, everywhere we went there were literally hundreds of loved crazed women just doing their best to get next to Elvis and it was my job to keep them from doing that. It was so bad that I often had to sacrifice my own body to save his.” “What a crummy job for a guy huh?”
O.K., O.K., I’m kidding. Actually it was a great job. It didn’t pay a whole lot but the perks were fabulous. Huh?
On the serious side, you may not know it but Elvis was a dedicated Martial Artist his entire adult life. In fact, Elvis attained the rank of 8th Degree Black Belt in 1975 and was so enthusiastic about the Martial Arts that he started his own Martial Arts organization and asked me to head it up.
I agreed and, together, Elvis and I developed the direction and purpose of this new organization. In short, because Elvis and I both had daughters, we decided that one of the primary purposes of this new organization would be to provide education and training for women and children.
Sadly, Elvis never lived to see his Martial Arts dream become a reality. But I carried on and some 26 years after his passing, I founded the Gift Of Power Foundation on Dec.8, 2003. You may not be surprised to learn that the mission of the Gift Of Power Foundation is to provide both education and hands-on self-defense training for women and children and, in the case of victims, to provide the education and hands-on training at no cost to them.
To support the mission of the Gift Of Power, I developed a number of critical components in a comprehensive program. This program is designed to empower women and children with the essential knowledge necessary to avoid an assault in the first place. In the event that an attack is unavoidable, it also provides the critical skills necessary to overcome fear and persevere in the face of a violent physical assault. Briefly, these components are:
- An assault prevention and avoidance book titled “Making it Out Alive, protecting women and children from violence.”
- A short-term but comprehensive self-defense training program called “Threat Level Yellow.”
- A nation-wide network of certified “Threat Level Yellow” instructors personally trained by me.
- A groundbreaking, highly interactive, instructional website, www.protectingwomen.com, which was produced in conjunction with partners Jim Taczy and Richard Herrera. This website features a video presentation of the entire Threat Level Yellow self-defense course.
Each of these components is explained in detail elsewhere on this site.
My hope is that you will find our efforts to be informative and helpful. Please take the time to check out the rest of the site and don’t hesitate to drop me a line or two with your thoughts and suggestions. Your helpful comments will be greatly appreciated.
Be safe,
Dave Hebler (dave@giftofpower.org)
Founder,
Gift of Power Foundation
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