Toronto, Ontario, Canada, March 6, 2010 - Here is some video from an Ottawa high school in Ontario, Canada. Safe International offers self defense to high school students throughout Ontario. Safe has taught more than 100 000 women and men since 1994! This video is a collage of several students utilizing some of the strikes that they were taught. Thanks to Ashley and the gang in this video.
There are a number of things to notice in this video. The majority of the attacks begin the same, as we want the students to experience being surprised from behind as if going to be dragged to a secondary location. Before this final class, students are taught avoidance/awareness/intuition skills and obviously would run before allowing such an attack, but we want the students to experience the physical nature of an attack. In some cases scenarios are set up before commencing the attack.
The strikes utilized by the students are all gross motor movements. Even though they are aware they are going to being attacked, once we start, the students are only able to perform these basic, simple strikes. No one can utilize complex motor skills in a high stress situation. We tell the students that they may remember 10 to 20% of what we teach when they are in the situation. This is being honest and we would rather the students left with cautious confidence rather than a false sense of confidence. So many self defense courses just end up building a false sense of security which can actually make the young women more vulnerable and likely to take unnecessary risks. Many of these hits without the equipment on may give the person a quick second to escape. It is also important to remember that the attacker is not throwing strikes until the students advance to our level 2 program.
While the attack is not real, we do make it challenging for the students to get a sense of how physically demanding a real attack may be. The students before coming up are nervous and they still experience an adrenaline dump which would occur during a real attack situation. The goal is for the students to get away as quickly as possible, not to stay and keep striking. We also emphasize getting onto one's feet as soon as possible.
In our wrap up we discuss how staying in excellent physical shape might save their life. Most students do not remember anything they performed which is also proof that they reacted with gross motor skills. This is only one day of the course and is the last resort. Avoiding trouble is always the priority. We teach the 3 R's of Recognize, React and Respond.
Chris Roberts can be reached at chrisroberts@safeinternational.biz for more information on high school, private or corporate courses. You can also check out the website at www.safeinternational.biz
I have many males think that it would be easy to do these attacks with young female students. I have had instructors who were over 200lbs who would still struggle to do a few girls due to their lack of cardio or smaller guys who had a lack of strength not being able to take the girls to the ground. It takes a special mix of physical skills to be able to do these attacks in a safe but realistic manner.
Posted by: Chris Roberts | 03/07/2010 at 07:23 AM