Photo By Cpl. Corey Blodgett | Raven Rowe (left) and her mother, Lywanna Rowe learn self defense techniques from...... read more read more
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By Corey Blodgett
III Marine Expeditionary Force Public Affairs
CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan — The workshop, presented in conjunction with Sexual Assault Awareness Month, is designed empower women by promoting self-confidence and teaching women basic skills to protect themselves in violent situations.
"Perpetrators of sexual assault look for a certain type of victim," said Sharon Braun, a Criminal Investigations Division agent, who spoke during the workshop. "They look for women who are insecure and unconfident – someone who portrays an easy target."
Braun and Special Agent Nichole Crickenberger gave a presentation to the women, some as young as 13, on assertive skills to include carrying themselves in a way that makes them less likely to become a victim.
"All women, even teenagers, are at risk to become a victim," said. "So these kinds of workshops are very important to help all women better themselves; we're not teaching them anything they don't already have inside them. We're just reminding them to be more aware, trust on the self-confidence that they already have."
After the CID agents covered the psychological portion of the class, they let local karate instructors from the Okinawa Shorin Ryu Kenshinkan dojo take over and teach the more physical aspects of self defense.
The instructors first demonstrated to the women various self defense techniques that could be used to defend against a sexual assault. They then broke the participants into small groups to individually show them the moves.
"The techniques we taught the women were very basic techniques; basic—yet very effective in those situations," said Jerry DeVries, one of the martial arts instructors.
The women learned how to break out of attacker's holds, retaliate once free and use common items, such as keys, as weapons.
During the training, Fusei Kise, a grand master of the Okinawa Shorin Ryu Kenshinkan Karate Federation and a karate teacher on base, gave each group his expertise advice.
To prove the effectiveness of the techniques, Kise would allow the women to try the techniques on him to show that the moves even work on a grand master.
"The self-defense portion of it was awesome, I really learned a lot today," said Alma Claudio, a participant in the class. "Having the instructors making it so hands-on really helped and the grand master was just great."
DeVries said he was more than happy to dedicate his time if it meant helping women take a stand against sexual assault.
"If we can give one women, one thing, that can prevent any type of violent crime it was worth all of our efforts today," he said. "Hopefully all of these ladies come away with something that empowers them."
| Date Taken: | 04.25.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 04.24.2008 04:17 |
| Story ID: | 18719 |
| Location: |
| Web Views: | 297 |
| Downloads: | 258 |
This work, Taking a stand against sexual assault Women take part in self-defense workshop, by Cpl Corey Blodgett, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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