Discover the Confidence and Strength Within You
Train with purpose. Grow with discipline. Become your best self with McKinstry Family Karate.
Welcome to McKinstry Family Karate
We are a family-centred martial arts school dedicated to helping children, teens, and adults grow in confidence, discipline, and resilience.
Our classes blend traditional Tang Soo Do values with modern teaching methods, creating a positive and encouraging environment where everyone can thrive.
Whether you’re taking your very first step on the mats or returning to martial arts after many years, you’ll be supported, inspired, and challenged to become the strongest version of yourself — inside and out.
Stand Strong • Grow Every Day • Fight for What is Right
Our Programmes
Training programmes designed to enhance lives.
Who is RAID for?
RAID is designed for ordinary people who want extraordinary confidence.
You don’t need to be fit, flexible, strong, or experienced — RAID adapts to you.
RAID is for:
✔ Women who want to feel safe, capable, and free
Learn instinctive, practical skills that build confidence in everyday life.
✔ Teenagers who need real-world awareness and smart decision-making
Give them clarity, calm thinking, and the ability to avoid danger early.
✔ Men who want straightforward, no-nonsense self-defence
No complex moves. No “martial arts ego.” Just what works under pressure.
✔ Parents who want to protect their families
From awareness to decisive action — skills that make a difference when it matters.
✔ Professionals who commute, travel, or work late
Confidence, presence, and practical tools you can rely on.
✔ Anyone who has ever felt vulnerable, unsure, or unprepared
RAID replaces fear with ability, and anxiety with calm clarity.
⭐
If you can learn it quickly, you can use it when it counts — that’s why RAID is for everyone.
What Will I Learn in RAID?
RAID teaches you to stay safe long before a situation turns physical — and to act decisively if it does.
Your training is built around the Five Ds:
1️⃣ DETER — Stop trouble before it starts
Learn how to reduce risk instantly through confident body language, positioning, and awareness.
Understand what attackers look for — and how to make sure you don’t match that profile.
2️⃣ DETECT — Spot danger earlier than everyone else
Read pre-attack cues, threat behaviours, tone changes, and distance shifts.
The earlier you detect, the more choices you have.
3️⃣ DE-ESCALATE — Calm the situation before it turns physical
Use your voice, posture, and presence to reduce tension and create space.
Avoid unnecessary conflict while staying legally protected.
4️⃣ DEFEND — Act decisively when you have no other choice
Learn simple, instinctive movements that work under stress:
breakaways
defences against grabs, holds, and close-quarter attacks
direct, legally safe counter-strikes
No choreography. No complexity. Just what works.
5️⃣ DESENSITISE — Reset, recover, and return to yourself
After an incident, RAID teaches you how to:
check for injuries
stabilise your breathing and composure
recall details clearly
protect yourself from shock and panic
reduce the risk of PTSD
return to who you were before the conflict
Your safety includes your mind, not just your body.
⭐
RAID gives real people real confidence — skills that free you, and the clarity to stay yourself after the moment has passed.
⭐ Why RAID Works
Most self-defence systems fail in real life because they rely on long routines, complicated choreography, or techniques that collapse under stress.
RAID is different.
It’s built from the ground up for the real world and for real people.
Here’s why RAID works when others don’t:
1️⃣ It’s simple — and simple works under stress
In a real confrontation, you won’t remember long combinations or fancy moves.
RAID gives you instinctive actions that your body can recall instantly, even when adrenaline surges.
2️⃣ It’s based on how real attacks actually happen
RAID isn’t theory.
It’s pressure-tested in military and special-forces environments, then adapted for safe, legal civilian use.
You learn responses to the attacks ordinary people face:
pushes, grabs, intimidation, holds, hair pulls, and simple weapon threats.
3️⃣ It teaches you to avoid danger — not fight it
Most systems focus on fighting. RAID focuses on not needing to fight.
By learning to:
deter
detect
and de-escalate
…you stay safe long before anything turns physical.
4️⃣ It’s fast to learn and fast to apply
RAID is designed so that your first session makes a difference.
You don’t need to be fit, flexible, experienced, or confident — the system builds that for you.
5️⃣ It protects your mind as well as your body
The fifth D — Desensitise — teaches you what to do after an incident:
check for injuries
restore your breathing and composure
prevent shock or panic
reduce the risk of PTSD
RAID helps you return to who you were before the conflict.
Most systems don’t even talk about this.
RAID makes it a foundation.
6️⃣ It’s legal, ethical, and responsibility-driven
You learn exactly what the law allows, what it doesn’t, and how to make decisions that are both safe and lawful.
You stay protected during and after the event.
7️⃣ It gives you confidence that carries into everyday life
RAID changes how you walk, how you stand, how you notice the world — and how you feel about yourself.
Because once you know what to do, everything feels different.
⭐ Bottom line:
RAID works because it’s built for reality — for ordinary people, everyday lives, and the moments that matter most.
⭐ RAID Course Options
Choose the training format that fits your life.
Every RAID course is built around the Five Ds — helping you stay safe, act decisively, and recover with clarity.
1️⃣ RAID Foundations — 6-Week Course
Our core RAID programme — fast, effective, reality-based self-defence.
Over six weeks you’ll learn:
the Five Ds (Deter, Detect, De-escalate, Defend, Desensitise)
how real threats develop and how to interrupt them early
breakaways, escapes, and instinctive close-quarter responses
awareness, presence, and environmental confidence
how to stay within the law while protecting yourself
Perfect for:
Women, teens, parents, professionals — anyone who wants real confidence quickly.
Outcome:
By week six you won’t just feel safer — you’ll move safer. Calm, prepared, and capable.
2️⃣ RAID One-to-One Coaching
Private, tailored self-defence training for maximum impact.
Ideal for people who prefer personal attention or want accelerated progress.
Great for:
confidence rebuilding
personalised scenario training
managing anxiety around safety
working at your own pace in a supportive environment
Outcome:
Deep, lasting confidence and rapidly developed instinctive skills.
3️⃣ RAID for Schools, Colleges & Organisations
Bring life-changing personal safety training into your community.
Examples include:
assemblies
short programmes
teen confidence & awareness sessions
staff personal safety workshops
Outcome:
A safer, more confident environment for students and professionals alike.
🔥 4️⃣ EDGE — Intense Knife & Edged Weapons Course
Advanced training for one of the most dangerous real-world threats.
Knife assaults are chaotic, fast, and overwhelming. EDGE teaches reality-based skills designed to help you survive and escape.
What you’ll learn:
• Awareness & Pre-Threat Indicators
Learn to spot concealment cues, ambush patterns, and behavioural tells.
• Distance, Positioning & Reaction Time
Master range, angles, and space to avoid engagement or create an escape window.
• Surviving the Initial Rush
Protect vital areas, stay upright, stabilise the moment, and regain control.
• Instinctive Close-Quarter Responses
Direct, simple, legally safe techniques that work under extreme stress — not choreography.
• Escape & Survival First
The goal is getting home safely, not fighting.
• Post-Event Recovery (Desensitise)
Check for injuries, restore breathing, prevent shock, recall details clearly, reduce the risk of PTSD.
Format:
A focused 3–4 hour seminar or short course, using controlled drills and safe scenario simulations.
Outcome:
Clarity, confidence, and instinctive survival skills for the moments that matter most.
⭐ Ready to Begin?
Whether you choose the 6-week course, private coaching, school programmes, or the advanced EDGE training, RAID gives you:
Skills that free you.
Confidence that stays with you everywhere.
⭐ Your RAID Instructor
⭐ Your RAID Instructor
Master Iain McKinstry
Qualified Personal Security Defence Trainer
Authorised to teach the RAID Defence System
4th Dan Master Instructor – Tang Soo Do (Jin Sim Do Kwan)
Founder of McKinstry Family Karate
With over 20 years of martial arts teaching experience and specialist self-defence instruction delivered directly by former UK special forces personnel, Iain brings a unique blend of real-world practicality, emotional clarity, and teaching mastery to every RAID session.
RAID is about empowerment, readiness, and the freedom to live boldly — and Iain’s teaching reflects exactly that.
⭐ Real Training. Real Experience. Real Guidance.
• Qualified Personal Security Defence Trainer
Authorised and certified to teach the RAID Defence System and its Five D methodology — Deter, Detect, De-escalate, Defend, Desensitise — in a safe, responsible and legally compliant way.
• Over Two Decades of Teaching Experience
Guiding students since 2005, specialising in confidence-building, personal safety, and meaningful self-defence.
• Trained Under Former British Special Forces
Direct instruction in close-quarter survival skills, pressure responses, and real threat behaviour.
• Royal Marines & Royal Navy Combat Training Experience (Civilian -exercise executive stretch)
Including live-scenario drills with Royal Marines and disaster-response / emergency survival training with the Royal Navy.
Experiences that shaped his ability to stay calm and decisive under pressure — and pass that clarity on to his students.
• Founder of Jin Sim Do Kwan – ‘The True Heart Way’
A philosophy of courage, integrity, and personal responsibility woven into every RAID course.
• Calm, Supportive, Empowering Teaching Style
RAID with Iain removes fear, builds clarity, and establishes deep, lasting confidence.
⭐ Why Train RAID with Iain?
Because you’re not learning from guesswork.
You’re learning from someone who has:
genuine qualification
genuine high-pressure training
genuine teaching experience
and a genuine mission to help people live safer, freer lives
With Iain, RAID becomes more than self-defence.
It becomes confidence you feel, clarity you trust, and freedom you carry everywhere.
See What Our Customer Say About Us
Stuart Williams
My daughter nearly ran out on her first session she was so shy and now she has just earned her yellow belt and her confidence is thriving. Great instructor who motivates and balances discipline with fun for the younger ones 🥋
Louise Sullivan
The Little Dragons Classes are the perfect mix of fun, engaging, educational and an excellent way of burning off all the energy a 5 year old has!! We are looking forward to trying the family classes in the future 😀
Graham Ogden
Fantastic place to train for all the family.
