Better prepared to look after myself (From Kidderminster Shuttle)

Better prepared to look after myself

2:37pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in Lifestyle By Adrienne Wilson

As women's personal safety is an issue that's usually at the back of my mind, and if it stays there, well, all the better.

Having lived in Wyre Forest all my life I think it's safe to say I have always been pretty blasé about walking home alone late at night, I have never felt nervous or threatened and felt I was able to handle myself, however, having spent 90 minutes in the self protection class I realised how unprepared I really was, and all those male friends of mine who refused to let me walk home alone or made me get a taxi with other friends were actually right!

I have always believed that I live in a safe area, however, in recent months I have heard about attacks on women and children in Stourport, Kidderminster and Bewdley, some at night, but some in broad daylight! Issues like this really do question your judgment and what makes you wonder why people's minds work the way they do.

Having attended the self protection class I now feel better prepared should I ever find myself in a situation, whether it is protecting myself or others around me. The class it's self was not about learning to fight or becoming the next Jackie Chan, it was learning how to use skills we already have, common sense and actually conditioning your brain to be able to put them in to practice should the situation occur.

After a brief warm-up the group was walked through some basic self-protection techniques used to deal with real life threatening situations. This practical session covered a full range of blocks, then moving on to hand and leg strikes to venerable points of the body and also covering the best ways to gain DNA from your attacker through strikes.

Later the group was paired off to work on attacks to the body with the aid of focus pads, and progressed onto defensive techniques against grabs to the body. Everyone got the chance to participant and utilise their new found skills against a real attacker, who was “kitted up” in the latest state of the art body protection suit. This enabled the ladies to experience what it might feel like to be attacked from standing and from the floor, which could often to lead to rape in many cases.

The event was enjoyed by all and the chief instructor said: “It was the best free self-protection workshop I’ve done to date. Everyone was so enthusiastic, I have never seen so many people enjoy self-defence so much, when they all arrived everyone looked nervous and apprehensive, but as the event progressed they all began to relax and have fun, I hope to be hosting more of these events in the future at our martial arts academy”.

The event was attended by more than 20 people from the West Midlands area, ages ranging from 17 to 65.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all the members of the public for attending. I hope that everybody went away feeling more confident.

• The workshop was hosted by the Russell Perks Martial Arts Academy in Kidderminster and run by Russell Perks, a 6th degree Black Belt. For more information contact Russell Perks on 01562 636005 or email info@rpmaa.com