ANSWER: One Woman's Experience.
Many people have powerful preconceptions about self defense
training. Some believe that pursuing such training is, by
definition, inconsistent with their personal identity as a
peaceful person; some believe that it must be scary. These
preconceptions are normal and often based in an experience or
awareness of a program that was indeed poorly conducted or
frightening or that presented physical skills without establishing
the overall goal of getting to safety as soon as possible, not
"winning."
When preconceptions of any kind prevent people from pursuing
accurate information, those preconceptions do them a disservice by
interfering with their own growth and development. We find
that often the words of our students are most helpful in the
process of enabling others to identify their own preconceptions
about self defense training and to research options for
themselves. Therefore, we'd like to share this e-mail we
received two weeks ago:
Dear (Instructor),
Thank you so much for the introductory class for adults
Thursday night.
I have already raved about it to several friends. When I
initially thought about taking the class, just the thought of
raising my voice (!) seemed near impossible, embarrassing and
frightening. I also thought there is no way I can
"fight" with the man in the padded suit.
The fact that I had such fears about mere role- playing made me
think that I really am someone who needs the class. Also, since
the birth of my (now 3 year old) son, I've been striving to be a
good role model for him by working on my self confidence and
assertiveness, overcoming my shyness, and generally standing up
more for myself and my son.
I erroneously expected the "fights" with the padded
man to be much faster paced, violent, and scarier than they were -
you might consider mentioning this in your descriptions of the
classes, if you think other prospective students might have the
same misconception and not enroll because of it. I do have
some woman friends who were thinking along the same lines I was
and became interested in the class after I told them what it was
really like.
I first heard about Fullpower / KidPower when you gave an
introductory talk to my home schooling group a few months ago. I
will definitely take a class with my son when he is four. I was so
impressed then by the positive approach that you take. I felt the
same way about the adult class last Thursday night. I just wanted
to say what a wonderful teacher I think you are. And I also have
the same feelings about the padded instructor.
I really appreciated the gentle approach you took with us; the
fact that you stayed physically close to us, coaching us through
the simulations; the gradual introduction to the padded man.
What I mean by that is that by first seeing the padded instructor
out of his suit, then showing us and explaining his suit and
letting us touch it, that he talked to us too, giving us
additional encouragement or explanations or reactions to our
feelings and questions in adjunct to what you said, you both
really de-mystified him and enabled me to see him as a real
person, a nice, gentle, caring person, in addition to his role of
the harasser or attacker which, frankly, really terrified me when
I first walked into the classroom.
I feel like I could take the same class again and learn so much
more Do people sometimes repeat the class? Anyway, I did come away
from it feeling so much more confident, and I really had fun too!
My friend and I are both definitely interested in taking a
subsequent class. You mentioned some others - weapons, multiple
attackers, on the ground, and one other that I can't
remember. Can you tell me what all the topics are, and when
/ where they will be taught?
Thank you very much,
(Name withheld due to KIDPOWER privacy policies)
And a final note from those of us at KIDPOWER: Yes,
people often take the Introductory FULLPOWER more than once.
If you have any questions about
FULLPOWER or any of our other workshops, please contact the
office nearest you (see listing below). We would be happy to
provide you with all the information you need.
