An Invited Intervention

Self-Defense/ Spatial Awareness Class 
September 11, 2009
Seoul, South Korea

I was invited by the esteemed Professor Pilwha Chang, Professor of Women’s Studies at Ewha University in Seoul, South Korea, to take over her lecture class for one day.  The idea was to get the students out of their seats and give them something unexpected but useful.

Goal: To wake-up sleepy students and to practice observing and moving through the world with curiosity, awareness, and confidence while learning valuable self-defense techniques. 

Activities:

Awareness practice - posture, breath, and observation

Balance - standing and moving with a strong sense of base and flexibility (tree/surfer)

Escapes

From ground to standing 

From wrist grabs (same side, cross grab, and both 

         hands)

From rear bear hug 

Voice projection & Spatial Confidence

Walking with awareness and confidence 

Role-plays with escapes and practice saying “no” with         confidence

If time allows we will cover a little more groundwork and escapes.

_________class outline_____________________________

Posture, Breath, Awareness (be alert and curios) 

Posture - What does your body do when you are frightened? Intimidated? Bored? What happens to your posture? (drawing inward, closing off, hunching over, collapsing shoulders)

*Broaden your shoulders and stand up straight.

Breath – What happens to your breath when you are frightened or intimidated? Does your breath become shallow? Do you hold it?

*You need to breath to get oxygen to the brain. Breath awakens your senses. You need to use all of your senses (sight, hearing, smell, touch, etc.) to be alert.

Observation/ Awareness - Look around you.  Who is in front of you? Who is beside you? Who is in back of you?  How much space is between you and them? Check in with your senses. What do you hear, smell, taste, etc.? Listen to your intuition.  How do you feel right now and what do your instincts tell you about the situation that you are in?  Keep this in mind for the rest of the class, the rest of the day and beyond.

Balance and Mobility

Balance - pole / roots / surfing tree / fighters stance

- Pole stance: stand feet together sway side to side.

- Root stance: imagine you are a tree - stand with feet hip     

         distance apart and grow your roots deep into the 

         ground. Sway side to side, and back and forth.

- Surfing tree stance: feet hip distance apart, one foot     

         forward one foot back. Sway. Explore your balance.

- Fighters stance: arms up ready to block a strike or kick to 

         the face or body (or throw a punch)

Practice mobility by moving forward and backwards (step, slide). Change sides.

Language/ Listening Practice Interlude 

Right/ left hand. Raise your right hand. Right/ left foot. Raise your left foot. Right/ left arm.  Block with your right arm.  Right/ left leg.  Block with your left leg. Sit down. Stand up. Sit down. Sit on your right side. Sit on your left side.  (left buttock). Scoot forward / scoot back.  Prepare for the Technical Stand-up.

Self-Defense (or Technical) Stand-up – from the ground to standing. The technical stand up is important to create distance between you and a standing attacker.  It puts you in a ‘ready for action’ position.

Partner Practice

Person A is on the ground, Person B is standing and is trying to tag A’s head.  A keep legs in front (between herself and Person B) ready to kick at B’s knees, A’s free hand is up blocking any blows to the head. 

Wrist grab escapes (then possible elbow jab)

- Same-side grab

- Cross-grab

- Two hands on one

Voice projection exercise

Divide the class in two.  The two sides face each other (one side is person A, the other is person B).  Start standing close. Each side speaks in unison, then switch roles.  Do it again from across the room – project the voice. Person B must make herself very big when saying NO! (No means NO). *The following role play  references a common practice of young men paid to get girls into nightclub establishments in Seoul.  This practice is part of the regular night-life scene and is not considered particularly threatening, but I see it as an opportunity to practice being assertive. 

A. Come with me to the nightclub.

B. No thank you.

A. Why not?

B. I’m not interested.

A. Come on!

B. NO! 

Walking with confidence and escaping wrist grab – The two groups are going to walk past each other.  Group A is going to try to grab their partner’s wrist and talk them into going to a nightclub. Previous dialogue can be used.

Escape from rear bear hug - Drop base, shooting arms out like opening an umbrella turning thumbs down with elbows out to the sides. When dropping base – turn slightly towards the attacker (same idea as fighter stance – one foot forward one back for more stability) Step out to the side – escape and run.  Drop attacker if needed. (If they’re taller, you can duck under)

Escape from Mount – if time allows.

*Side points:

Avoid presenting a victim’s profile. Keep your head up and walk with confidence.  Enjoy the world - don’t be frightened of it, but be prepared.  Use curiosity about the world around you as a tool. The more aware a person is, the less that person will find themselves in dangerous situations.  If you find yourself in a dangerous situation – get away. If you can’t get away, talk to the person in a calm but firm voice, if that doesn’t work, you may have to fight – be prepared to follow up with everything you’ve got.

Sensitive areas for attacking an assailant are: Groin, eyes, ears, nose, throat, and knees.