More from Richard Machowicz: http://amzn.to/2fZSHHp Richard "Mack" Machowicz is an ex-Navy SEAL, co-host of Spike TV's Deadliest Warrior and author of the book Unleash the Warrior Within. He's proficient in taekwondo and has studied muay Thai, kali, boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Paul Vunak's take on jeet kune do. However, this SEAL Team hand-to-hand combat instructor was, as a kid, clueless when it came to how to deal with bullies. "I had to deal with bullies all the time," Richard Machowicz explains. "I was a really small kid, a very light kid. There were bullies, but what I had to learn was how to take care of myself." In the years since, Richard Machowicz has studied a variety of martial arts and had an extensive military career, so his is a story of survival and self-reinvention — but that's not always the case, as evidenced by headlines from across the country of kids committing suicide and regularly citing nonstop bullying as one of their primary reasons. Richard Machowicz joined the military to develop the physicality and mentality that he did not have himself. "Even though I'd gone through a lot of tough times as a kid and could take pain pretty well — when I was 9, I spent four years in a place where the state sends juvenile delinquents — I had physical limitations," he explains. "I wanted to develop capabilities that would exceed them. That's the main reason I went in the military. I had a bunch of experiences on SEAL Team that allowed me to grow. It fostered the development of my thinking." _____________________________ WHEN BULLIES ARE ADULTS, WE CALL THEM THUGS And thugs can be a mortal threat. Stop them in their tracks using high-impact counterattacks from a former U.S. Marine special-missions officer and training expert for law-enforcement and government agencies across the United States. Download our new Free Guide — HOW TO WIN A STREET FIGHT: FOUR SELF-DEFENSE MOVES FROM COMBATIVES EXPERT KELLY MCCANN http://www.blackbeltmag.com/freeguides/how-to-win-a-street-fight-four-self-defense-moves-from-combatives-expert-kelly-mccann/ _____________________________ Kids, of course, often don't have access to expensive military schools for such development. Most wouldn't want to go, anyway. Therefore, a viable alternative for development of self-esteem, physical prowess and mental acuity would be traditional martial arts training. So Black Belt posed a question to Richard Machowicz: Are parents reluctant to enroll their children in martial arts for fear that their kids — rather than learn how to deal with bullies — may, in fact, become aggressors themselves? "I have no idea where that logic jump is coming from because that's not really what the martial arts are about," Richard Machowicz says. "It's about discipline — se ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCHZjSXTUE4