Learning to defend yourself in any situation

Times Reporter    

 

Knowing how to defend yourself is important, and while most won’t ever have to use what they have learned, having self-defense skills could save your life if you’re ever put into a threatening situation.

After receiving the request from a parent whose daughter had taken and enjoyed the course, the Strathmore Youth Club decided to bring it in as an option. The StreetSense Padded Assailant workshop will be held at the Youth Club Centre on March 23 from 10 a.m. until 2 p.m. 

“I believe a course like this is empowering. Personal safety is something that everyone should be aware of.  With the opportunity to practically apply the learned self defense moves, the skills can be recalled more fluently in a stressful situation,” said Program Coordinator Colina Clark. 

“Our goal is to (provide) quality programming, affordable programs that our participants will enjoy. We are here to meet the needs of the community with our focus being on youth. Whatever we can do, we will.”

Clark said she is currently working on organizing a Home Alone workshop, rocket making, and soapbox workshops. She has also secured a fishing workshop. 

Kerry Sauve, director of StreetSense Safety and Security Inc, will teach the workshop. The program is designed to allow you to actually put your Personal Safety and Self Defense skills to the test under realistic conditions.

“In my full time job working in a maximum security facility as an ERT (Emergency Response Team) member I see on a daily basis what the predators of society do to others,” said Sauve. 

“Good personal safety practices, those decisions we make on a day-to-day basis, can reduce our risk of becoming a target for crime and violence by up to 75 per cent. Add realistic self defense into the equation and your risk is decreased by up to 90 per cent.”

Sauve teaches people about both personal safety and self defense as they apply to their lives, and how crime and violence actually occur. 

“I think it’s important to show people what really happens on the street and give them options that are simple, effective and combat proven in order to keep them and their families safe,” said Sauve. 

Some of the concepts he has developed are to teach his students situational awareness, target hardening and emergency response and mitigation to avoid problems through proactive personal security planning and teaching military combatives to deal with unavoidable situations.

“I have been involved in the combat arts for over 40 years, and the martial arts can be an effective way to defend yourself if you’ve got the time and proper training to learn how to make it work. Unfortunately much of what is taught doesn’t have a direct application for combat or the street,” said Sauve. 

“I focus on only the Gross Motor movements when I teach as under adrenal stress our fine motor coordination and ability to think and function is severely limited. I teach my students to employ vital point striking and kinetic linking in order to do away with any size, strength advantage a bad guy may have.”

Sauve said the goal is not to teach the students how to beat up the bad guy, instead he teaches about avoidance wherever possible, and using physical measures only when there are no other options. 

Each student will leave with an 80-page book Sauve has written on personal safety that walks them through the process of creating a personal safety plan for themselves and their family. The book covers a wide variety of topics such as avoiding sexual assault, dating violence, surviving active shooter events and much more. 

Anyone interested in taking the StreetSense workshop can contact the Youth Club of Strathmore and Colina Clark by noon on Friday, March 22 to see if there is still space available at 403-934-4918. The cost of the program is $55 for members and $60 for non-members.