09.11.14
The seminar was preceded by a minute’s silence as a mark of respect and in observance of Remembrance Day. It was an appropriately sombre note to address the issue of interpersonal violence.
This edition of CCMA’s “When Parents Aren’t Around” self-protection was designed for adolescent girls aged between 13 and 15 years of age. I tailor all of my lessons, seminars and courses to the requirements of my clients. Therefore, the material of today’s seminar focused on issues relating to crimes in the local area and also those likely to be targeted at girls falling within the aforementioned age bracket.
The session was sliced up into soft skills based PowerPoint presentations and practical activities with two official breaks. The presentations, which included questions and open forum discussions on the various topics, lasted no longer than 45 minutes and diminished in time throughout the seminar. They were then punctuated with the physical activities. Although I like to run my seminars through the chronology of self-protection – pre-fight, in-fight and post-fight – I have found that better retention of information and learning comes from breaking up the various teaching methods. Obviously students will be in a better receptive mental state earlier on in the session, but after 45 minutes they can switch off, especially with a large volume of information.
We began with a definition of self-protection and a humorous look at the bad side to self-protection teaching. I was happy to see that all attendees were switched onto the distinction between self-protection and martial arts, and could easily compartmentalize the concepts. They also had insight into some aspects of psychology and were quite streetwise. This made for a more in depth analysis of subject matter, better discussions and development in training. I have to say that this is quite rare and a great opportunity to provide more information that is the norm in these types of foundation courses.
Soft skills information consisted of looking at the local crime statistics with a focus on violent crime and sexual offences. We discussed typical offender profiles. Debunking several common myths, we raised the point that it was far more likely an attacker would be someone the victim knew and also closer to their age group. Men, particularly those aged between 17 and 25, are still the most likely to commit serious violent or sexual offences against girls and women. However, there has been a steady rise in female-on-female violent crime in the past 15 years.
We covered situational awareness, identifying the context of people, places, hazards and changes, and the relevance of context. I really feel that context is not a topic discussed enough and it is crucial in order for personal security to be realistic and efficient. We cannot have a one approach fits all attitude towards being aware. As the time of day changes, so does the likelihood of an assault occurring in a certain place. We discussed both unawareness – including denial and Inattentional/perceptual blindness – and hypervigilance.
We listed the types of violent assault, bringing in motivations and how they affect the choices an individual makes. Everything is a judgement call, as every situation is different. However, I would advise most people threatened with violence in a robbery situation to comply with the request, but to use a controlling tactic such as throwing the item away from them in order to facilitate an early escape. Preparedness for this type of incident might include separating money or items on your person, so that you might avoid losing everything. Rape is a controversial subject with a strong number of people claiming that complying in this instance is a better tactic than resisting. My personal view is that the victim needs to decide whether they wish to put their trust in a person who has never given them any reason to do so. I appreciate it isn’t always as simple as that and there can be variables with dissuasion being a valid tactic early on. When it comes to abduction I would advise on resisting due to the simple fact that you are greatly reducing any advantage you may already have in the circumstances. Remember, resistance isn’t always physically fighting.
Looking at offender profiles, we acknowledged that many offenders do stereotype themselves e.g. gangs. However, on the whole, all agreed that it was a person’s behaviour that determined more attention than their outward appearance. We moved onto Pre-Incident Indicators, both deceptive and aggressive. The former included various techniques of persuasion that scarily resemble salesperson’s methods and the latter addressed a lot of physiological warning signals.
The last topic we addressed was fear. We looked at how the sympathetic nervous system responded to threats – fight, flight or freeze. Understanding how motor functions act when the body is placed under stress and how we process information is key if we are to determine realistic physical responses. We discussed what to expect and techniques for dealing with the psychology of fear.
The physical self-defence activities included predator versus prey games, where students progressively learnt from experience and also how they would reacted to stalkers in their midst. They also understood about not getting cornered, recruiting help from others, raising the alarm and being proactive. Choosing the option of pre-emption as a frontline physical means in a counter-assault, we conducted a test that demonstrated the inefficiency of blocking an initial attack from conversation range. We then looked at developing impact, striking from different ranges and from a blind-spot. The final physical challenge, which highlighted the importance of never giving in, involved striking through all basic postures and reiterated the point of always getting to your feet.
Please note all of the above video fotoage was taken from our Denmark seminar children's edition of "When Parents aren't Around" seminar for Hinnerup Karate. Read the report on this seminar. Part 1 and Part 2.
Relevant articles:
Clubb Chimera Martial Arts Articles
Other Relevant Articles
Recommended books mentioned on this course
Comentarios