Self Defense

ALL females of any age should take a self defense course. Not only to learn how to protect themselves physically, but to learn more about prevention of sexual assault and violence crime in general. Men and children should as well, but I am not talking about joining a martial arts class and spending years honing an attack or defense skill.

I've taken two self defense courses. One was a semester of GungFu at the community college and the other was R.A.D. (Rape Aggression Defense Systems) at Arizona State University. Although enjoyable, both provided a very different approach to self protection and some valuable lessons in life.

The GungFu course was based on an ancient Chinese martial arts system that uses elements of Kung Fu and the philosophy of peacefulness--defense using your attacker's size and momentum against him/her rather than attack strategy. This is excellent for women and children because size is irrelevant. It's all about timing and skill; however, it takes a lot of practice to remember the moves and then you should practice with someone to really get the brain/muscle memory to be effective.

Unfortunately, I heard a story in that class that really stuck with me: A young woman was a sexually assaulted and carried a greater shame inside her mind than many other victims because she was a black belt in Karate. To her AND her Karate instructor, she was a failure because her impressive skill did not protect and save her from rape. The anger started to rise in me when I heard about her second victimization, but then it struck me: I am sitting in this GungFu class doing the same thing. Although the instructor did a great job, how much of this foreign movement will I remember when I am terrified inside an adrenaline rush of fighting my way out of an attack? Not much.

Thank goodness programs like R.A.D. exist. Rape Aggression Defense Systems are based on real-world street fighting and something any person can learn and do. The 12 hour courses are the right amount of time to learn about how to avoid an attack (accounts for 90% of safety) like being aware of surroundings, watching other people's behavior, etc. Then the fun part, learning the natural and realistic way to fight your way out of an attack. The best aspect, you get to actually do it with a real attacker. In my case it happened to be a very sweet retired police officer to began to harass me and then finally grabbed me before I began yelling, hitting, and kicking at him. Don't worry, it's difficult to hurt someone you like who is wearing thick pads and a helmet. They even record your results to see how you responded, which usually ends in laughter.

There are probably other classes available, but I highly recommend taking the R.A.D. classes and they are FREE at ASU. Plus you can take it as many times as you want. Most likely R.A.D. will be offered free at a college in your area and you can do a class search on their website. Regardless of what program you choose to go with, learn self defense. It's your responsibility to do everything in your power to protect yourself.

R.A.D.
ASU Crime Prevention Unit (teaches free R.A.D classes)
GungFu