Instructors: Jacob Little & Natalee Weidner
Location: Ballistic Forge | 220 S Cliff Ave Suite 102, Harrisburg, SD 57032
This Clinic is purchased through Ballistic Forge.
Verbal Combatants is a practical workshop designed to make your voice, posture, awareness, and decision-making your first line of defense.
Not every confrontation needs to become physical. This course teaches practical communication and de-escalation skills that can help you establish boundaries, recognize escalating behavior, and create opportunities to safely disengage before a situation becomes violent.

What You’ll Learn
Students will work with practical communication strategies and non-confrontational language designed to reduce tension while maintaining clear, confident boundaries.
Topics include:

Verbal de-escalation techniques (L.E.A.P.S)
Confident boundary setting
Recognizing manipulative or aggressive behavior
Environmental positioning and distance management
Maintaining awareness during confrontation
Safe disengagement
Decision-making under stress

Recognize When the Conversation Is Changing
Effective personal safety also means recognizing when talking is no longer working.
You’ll learn how aggressive individuals may use verbal pressure, intimidation, boundary testing, and distraction, as well as behavioral and physical indicators that may signal an encounter is becoming more dangerous.
The goal is to help you recognize when to continue communicating, when to disengage, and when you need to shift your attention toward protecting yourself.

Build Skills Before You Need Them
Verbal Combatants gives students an opportunity to think through difficult encounters before they’re standing in the middle of one.
These skills can benefit firearm owners and non-firearm owners alike and provide a foundation for additional personal-safety and defensive training.
By the end of the workshop, you’ll have a better understanding of how to communicate under pressure, establish clear boundaries, recognize escalating behavior, and make more deliberate decisions during uncomfortable or potentially dangerous encounters.
No firearm ownership or previous defensive training is required.

Parents & Minor Students
Parents are welcome to register their minor children for this course. Personal-safety education can be particularly valuable for younger students as they begin encountering situations independently at school, work, social events, and in public.
Parents should be aware that portions of this course may include mature subject matter and realistic discussion of violence, criminal behavior, threatening encounters, harassment, or other real-world situations necessary to teach the material effectively.
Parents are encouraged to consider their child’s age and maturity when deciding whether the course is appropriate for them. A parent or legal guardian may also attend with their child.
Because you are worth defending.