Meet Our Team
Tina Dawn
Co-Founder · Lead Female Instructor
Registered Nurse · Certified Self-Defense Instructor · Fifth-Degree Black Belt • 15+ Years Experience
Tina brings a woman’s perspective to practical self-defense training, helping make the principles approachable, relevant, and empowering for every woman.
Joe Martarano
Senior Master Instructor
Owner, Self Defense Training Center · Sixth-Degree Black Belt • 25+ Years Experience
Joe has spent more than 25 years teaching personal protection across the globe, and training directly under John Perkins. He has a gift for making complex principles understandable, practical, and usable for anyone.
Michael Watson
Senior Master Instructor
Security Expert · Bodyguard · Personal Trainer · Eighth-Degree Black Belt • 30+ Years Experience
Michael brings decades of experience in security, personal protection, athletics, and advanced adaptive defense. His calm, precise teaching makes sophisticated skills easier to understand and apply.
Kevin Harell
Senior Master Instructor
Retired Federal Air Marshal · Former FBI Task Force Investigator · Executive Protection · Sixth-Degree Black Belt • 25+ Years Experience
Kevin's extensive experience in high-stakes protection, investigation, and self-defense, grounds his teaching in realism, sound decision-making, and practical application.
Other Team Members
Our Approach
LifeForce provides a focused, real-world training approach designed to rapidly develop instinctive skills, muscle memory, and practical readiness.
Because real violence is unpredictable, we emphasize adaptable skills rather than fixed sequences that depend on things unfolding a certain way.
These skills are reinforced through neuromuscular conditioning that builds on the reflexes you already have — helping responses become more natural, effective, and easier to access under pressure.
Close-Quarters Combatives for Rapid Skill Development
At the beginner level, students learn skills rooted in military close-quarters combatives, modified for women and the situations they may face today.
Close-quarters combatives were built around a practical need: teaching people effective, uncomplicated responses in a limited amount of training time. That same principle matters to us. You shouldn’t need years of training before you begin developing useful self-defense skills.
As students advance, the training becomes deeper, incorporating principles from Guided Chaos Adaptive Defense and other disciplines to better function in the chaos of real violence, under adrenaline, and as circumstances change.
Beyond The Physical Skills
Our training also includes situational awareness and prevention, recognizing red flags, boundary setting, mindsetting, dispelling common myths and misconceptions, and practical responses to situations and attacks women may face.
We bring these elements together so you’re not learning physical techniques in isolation. You’re developing complete foundation of self protection — how to notice what’s happening, make decisions sooner, and respond with confidence when needed.
Our Legacy: John Perkins
LifeForce is a proud sister company to Guided Chaos Adaptive Defense and the Perkins Self-Defense System — two globally recognized self-protection methodologies training civilians, law enforcement, military personnel, and security professionals since 1976.
Our team of certified instructors is directly trained by John Perkins, world-renowned self-defense expert and author of the best-selling book Attack Proof: The Ultimate Guide to Personal Protection.
John’s background included: Yonkers PD and detective, crime scene investigator, forensic and ballistics expert, private detective, executive bodyguard, martial arts instructor, and Grand Master of Ki Chuan Do/Guided Chaos Adaptive Defense.
With a teaching career spanning over 50 years, John was noted as the West's "foremost expert on the dynamics of violence" before his sudden passing in 2023.
Our instructors proudly carry forward John's teachings with integrity and purpose. His standard of realism, adaptability, and survivability is at the heart of everything we do.