Self-Defence 300: Lesson 1

[Tania Yates]

Tania nodded gently. It was a valid question, especially coming from someone who had little training - at best - in these matters. She crossed around the table and pushed herself up, to sit on it while facing her class.

"That is a good question, but not an easy one to answer, as there is no single answer that will cover each and every situation. But in general the answer is threefold."

She paused to run her eyes around the classroom while she gestured at the whiteboard behind her.

"First of all, follow the list. Avoid, de-escalate, defend, and hit them where it hurts, but always keep avoidance in mind as your first and foremost goal."

She raised two fingers in a V sign. "Second, trust your instincts." She hesitated, as she fought down the grin she could feel welling up inside her and turned it into a smile. "I know most of you have no instinctive knowledge of how to perform steps 3 and 4 of our list - defence and offence. But we will change that. And evolution has equipped us all with a fight or flight reflex for a reason. We all have some instinct that tells us how to handle danger already."

"Third." Tania raised her ring-finger too, three fingers now up, to emphasize her next point. "Get out. If you are uncertain what to do, or how a situation will develop don't stick around. Look for the next exit and take it. When in doubt, get out. It all comes back to avoidance. Offence and defence are just means to that end."

She looked at Hayzie and tilted her head a little bit. "I know it's hardly a complete answer to your question, but if you have something specific in mind, perhaps you could give me an example to work with, Miss Roberts?"

[Hayzie]

Hayzie listened carefully to Tania's answer, and looked back to the board. It was basically what was written there, but to do it in order. Avoiding the situation to begin with sounded like the best thing to be doing. And if you couldn't do that... then just do whatever you can to get out of it.

It all sounded simple enough. So how come she hadn't managed to do it?

Shaking her head, the blonde let a smile appear on her face. "No situation comes to mind as such, Professor. It was just... just a generic question," she explained, fiddling with her biro. It really did all go back to avoid and run when you could.

But then, was this a defense class, or a class to teach you how to avoid situations? The one-to-one earlier that week had began to teach her punching moves. Now, Tania was on about avoiding things rather than take them on. Then again, people rarely went out looking for fights. At least not people who attended self-defense classes.

How had it all got so confusing in the last few minutes. Maybe once the class syllabus had been outlined, it would be clearer.

[Jarek]

Jarek hadn't taken any notes so far. It seemed easy enough to remember - four steps on a list, all pointing back to the first point as the main objective. Having it written down on the wall to look at made it easy to remember, but he wanted to make certain he had understood what had just been said. The course outline had said there would be very little bookwork, and that exercises would be the main point, but it wouldn't hurt to be on the safe side.

"Professor," he asked, "so you saying defence and offence are like... safety devices. Like an airbag or seatbelts in a car? Something to keep you safe in an emergency, but you still do best when you... drive safely?"

[Tania Yates]

"Yes." Tania nodded and offered a small smile. "That sounds like a good analogy. Self-defence methods are safety devices, something to help you out of an emergency. Not getting into an emergency is the part where you will mostly have to rely on common sense."

She nodded again while she paid that student a little closer attention. He seemed a little older than the rest of the class, and while he didn't strike her as a bodybuilder, he appeared to be in solid physical shape. Soon enough it would be time to assign sparring partners, but before that there was just a little bit more of the class outline to explain.

"What I a will try to teach you are measures for extreme situations that many of you might never encounter, unless you seek out danger, just like many people never make the acquaintance of the airbag in their car." Yes, it was an analogy to keep in mind for future reference.

"But..." She let the word hang there for a moment and looked from face to face. "At the end of this course you will be better prepared for those unlikely emergencies than you are now. But you should also be in a somewhat better shape than you are now, which can be useful in more than just emergencies."

Tania used her fingers again to count off the things she mentioned next. "We will begin each class with warm-up exercises, then I will give a short demonstration of the practice that follows, and afterwards you will practice those moves with a fellow student." She picked up her clipboard and held it up for the class to see.

"Today we will go light and slowly, but in the future we will practice more and more at full strength and speed. It help build up your reflexes, and it helps to prepare you for the suddenness real fights can have."

She stood up from the table again and took a step forward. "Now, any more questions, before I ask you to sign the attendance list and we begin with the real work? If one of you thinks this class might not be for you, now might b the time to leave."

[Hayzie]

Hayz breathed out slowly, taking in the class outline. It all seemed simple enough - warm up, demo, practise. Easy as that. As Tania offered the get out clause, it took everything for the blonde to stay in her seat. She'd at least try it out for a couple of classes. Surely it couldn't be as scary as it sounded.

Depending on who she was sparring. In the practise, Hayz had only had to hit a punch board. Were they going to be practising those sorts of things on each other? Surely not.

Shaking her head at the invitation for any more questions, the blonde awaited the next part of the class.

[Tania Yates]

As no one seemed to have a question right there and then Tania handed the clipboard and a pen to the nearest student and asked him to pass it along.

While the list passed from person to person she got one of the large padded boards from the shelf with the training equipment. "During the first few sessions we will concentrate on basic punches - how to throw them, and how to defend against them," she explained. "Then we will move on to kicks and elbow strikes. Grabs, holds, and throws will come afterwards, and I will mainly teach you how to defend against them, not perform most of them. There's only so much ground we can cover in one semester."

She took of her glasses and put them down on her table. She didn't need them, and right now accessorizing was not the best idea. "Would one of you like to help me with a few small demonstrations?"

[Tao]

Tao stepped into the self-defence classroom and could already tell that he was horrifically late. Jaw-droppingly, awe-inspiringly late. There was a full list on the board already, for cripes sake. The fact that the last thing Professor Yates had said before he stepped into the room was something about "demonstrations" made his blood run cold. He was in for it...and he truly doubted there was a damn thing he could do about it.

The fact that he had volunteered for this was suddenly not so comforting.

[Tania Yates]

Tania turned her head towards the sound of the opening door and smiled. She was no mindreader, but still her thoughts very much matched what was going through Tao's mind. She had just found her volunteer.

Not that she intended do more than throw a few punches at the board and demonstrate the basic techniques. But there was no need to point that out to Tao, or even hint at it.

"Mister Binter, so glad you could join us," Tania proclaimed loud enough that everyone in her class could hear her clearly. Mentioning him by name would be punishment enough for Tao's lateness all in itself. "Just hold on to this and brace yourself, will you?"

She tossed the padded board to Tao and turned to her class.

"I will now demonstrate to you a good solid fighting stance, and how to throw a punch. I bet you all know how to throw a punch, but there's a difference between just swinging around widely and doing it efficiently."

She placed one leg in front, one slightly behind her, both knees bent a little, with her hands raised to shoulder height, elbows close to her body.

Tania slowly extended her right arm, keeping her fist at shoulder-height. "This is the basic motion, but to be efficient you also need to put more momentum behind it than the arm alone can provide."

She fell back into her original stance and repeated the motion, this time rotating her body to add forward momentum to the strike. "Like this."

Then she turned to Tao and exploded in a fast strike aimed at the board she had tossed him, putting all her energy and weight into the punch.

[Tao]

Tao caught the board and immediately began wishing he was somewhere else. Still, though, he knew a hit was coming, so he held the board out at about shoulder level and put a foot behind himself so that he could take the hit hopefully without falling over and causing himself further embarrassment. Thus prepared, he waited patiently for her tutorial to end. Which it did, of course, and earlier than he had anticipated. Tania's fist rocketed forward and delivered a hit to the board that forced Tao back a couple of steps. His hands stung briefly from the force of the impact, but he felt that overall he had handled things rather well.

[Tania Yates]

Tania silently admonished herself for hitting the board that hard. While she had wanted to show a full-strength demonstration, pushing Tao back like that could be more intimidating than motivating to her class, despite the young man holding his ground fairly well. Demonstrations at full force would be a no-no for the next few lessons.

She offered Tao an approving nod, before turning to her class again. "I bet some of you are now asking yourself if you could ever do this, or how you are supposed to defend against a punch like this, but don't worry. It's not as difficult as it might look."

She began to distribute more training pads to the students and sorted them into pairs, trying to assign partners in about the same size and weight category. "As we are going to take things slow I think we can forego the warm-up exercises today. Just practice with your partner the basic movement pattern."

When she reached Hayzie, Tania suggested: "Why don't you practice with Tao?" Tao was about nine inches taller than Hayzie , but in this case her decision to pair them up had been based on them both being members of the student council.

It stood to reason that they knew each other, and was still not certain how serious Hayzie was about this class. Working with someone she knew would perhaps make her feel a little more comfortable about the training.

[Hayzie]

So. Hayzie hadn't been the last one to class after all. Though two student reps turning up late to the same class was hardly a good show. Smiling slightly at Tao as he caught the board, the blonde knew what was coming next. During the pre-class chat the two had had a few days before, Hayz had been in Tao's shoes (so to speak). She'd been on the receiving end of the blow.

Though the blow hadn't been anything like that at all.

Green eyes widened, watching Tao take a few involuntary steps back from the force Tania had applied to the board. It certainly hadn't been like that before. Hayz would have probably ended up toppling over backwards if it had been like that. Or squeaking. At least no one else had been in the room at the time.

Scribbling her name down on the clipboard as it went past her, Hayz pushed some hair over her shoulder, waiting to be paired up with someone. Tao was certainly the last person she had expected Professor Yates to pair her up with, but the blonde nodded in agreement as Tania made the suggestion. If anything, it would give the other student rep member a little time to recover from that last hit.

Standing up, she walked over to where Tao was waiting, board still in hand. "If it helps... I certainly can't hit a board that hard. You've got an easy time of it today," Hayz smiled, awaiting instructions for the practise sessions to begin.

[Tao]

Tao chuckled at Hayzie's little ribbing joke. Now that he'd received his punishment for arriving late, he didn't feel quite so bad.

"I'll do my best to return the favour." He said with a grin. Then he, too, turned to Tania and awaited instruction.

[Tania Yates]

Once everyone was partnered up, Tania took her fighting stance again in front of the class and slowly went through the motions of the punch she wanted everyone to practice.

"Just take your stance first. Those with a board too. Don't just hold it up in front of you. Get used to the right fighting position while you are at it."

She repeated her punching demonstration again. "Just extend your arm, keep your fist shoulder-high, and rotate your upper body - from the hip - to get in behind the punch. But do it slowly, so I can observe how you do it and correct any mistakes. For now the objective is to get the motion right, not hit as hard as you can."

Tania made a wide, inviting gesture to her students and smiled. "Begin whenever you are ready."

[Hayzie]

"Very much appreciated," Hayz laughed. The classroom went quieter, and Professor Yates gave the instructions for the class. It all seemed simple enough...

Looking back to Tao, the blonde tilted her head to the side. "Did you want to practise first? Or hold the board? It's totally up to you."