Wednesday this week little Miss I AM 7 attended her first self defence workshop – and loved it!!!
With domestic violence and violence against women and children rising by the week, it just makes sense to look for a solution that will give our girls the power to make the change our current society so desperately requires.
Therefore, along with the current program to educate our boys and men in all reasons why it’s not okay to hit or disrespect women, it is also of the utmost importance to, one; educate our girls that the behaviour is unacceptable; two, convince them of their true self worth; and three, TEACH THEM HOW TO DEFEND THEMSELVES OR HIT BACK if necessary.
That’s why myself and another proactive mum enrolled our girls in the Gymea Kyokushin Self Defence School Holiday workshop.
The girls [aged 6 & 7 years] learnt how to:
>Identify when they should be concerned about someone’s behaviour.
>How to bring attention to themselves should a stranger start interacting with them and also how to address that stranger with a big loud, “I DON’T KNOW YOU! GO AWAY!” voice.
>How to identify situations and scenarios where someone might be trying to coax them away from their home, parents or group or into a vehicle or isolated area.
>How to get themselves out of the grip of someone during a violent situation – aka. the trusty eye gouge!
Little Miss I AM 7 stated that the day was, “THE BEST DAY EVER!”
Although they were confronted with what is a very harsh reality of today, both girls left the workshop with elevated confidence levels and a great deal more understanding of what violence and ‘stranger danger’ really is.
I put it to all parents out there to consider this type of workshop as a solution to a problem, that right now, is being fixed more by band-aids than any real solutions that could possibly prevent the current violence epidemic from continuing.
Why isn’t the government putting some of the $100mil, recently allocated to Domestic Violence in Australia, towards putting programs like this in Schools rather than educating police officers ‘how-to’ react to the endless stream of concerns by victims of domestic violence. Should that not be part of their standard training anyway.
In my opinion, if we empower girls/women with survival skills like self defence, if we make it readily available and free of charge, an essential skill to be learnt; like Maths and English … would this epidemic not naturally decrease due to the limited number of available victims?
[Sutherland Shire locals] For more information on the programs offered by Kyokushin Karate Gymea please feel free to contact Keith Young on 0400 325 164 or keith.young@optusnet.com.au
