Learning defense
Having completed seven weeks of instruction and hands-on physical defense, Rape Aggression Defense (RAD) instructors reviewed with the class on Wednesday all of the defense techniques learned before teaching the last two defensive tactics necessary for a woman to protect herself if sexually accosted.
“The reason I like RAD so much is because we teach these two techniques,” RAD instructor Shane Sessions said.
Sessions said he knew of no other self-defense class which taught women how to defend themselves if asleep in bed or lying next to a pool, sunbathing.
The women were taught what to do if a man got on top of her, both lying on her stomach and on her back.
“These techniques really work,” Sessions said.
RAD instructor Judy Crockett and Sessions demonstrated that the technique did indeed succeed in throwing an assailant from off of the prostrate victim.
Melissa Fryer, a freshman in the pre-vet program, said these techniques provided “really good information because you are so vulnerable when you are in that position and you really wouldn’t know what to do. The techniques that they give you give some options of how to defend yourself in those situations.”
RAD instructor Joe Huish counseled the women to “practice these things,” referring to all of the defense methods learned during the seven-week course.
“The key is the element of surprise and speed,” Huish said.
Crockett told the class to “be aware of your surroundings. Be aware of your town; the area you live in. Don’t put yourself in harmful situations.”
Crockett said to “walk with confidence.”
She said one misconception people have is it’s the really “pretty, popular girls that get raped.”
Crockett said that theory is false. Statistics show it is the more timid girls.
Crockett said, “If you walk with confidence, it is going to cut your chances” of getting raped.
Crockett also counseled the class to be assertive and to think positive if sexually accosted.
“There’s a difference between being assertive and being aggressive. Being assertive is protecting yourself. Being aggressive is the intent to cause bodily harm. Be assertive,” she said. “Don’t ask them, tell them. Take a stand, but be ready to run.”
“Think positive,” Crockett said. “Think you are going to get out of this, that you are going to be okay. If you are attacked and you have the attitude that you are going to lose, what fight do you have in you? The fight just isn’t there. But if you’re pumped up and you tell yourself ‘I’m going to get out of this, I’ll be okay,’ then chances are, you will.”