Monday, 24th October Entering school on Monday morning in my tracksuit, I walked into the Halla Nua not knowing what to expect from this Martial Art course! I have very little knowledge on the topic of self defence and martial arts. This course seemed to me as very useful and practical, to defend ourselves in the future. We were greeted by our two instructors, Daragh and Cathy, who are both very experienced martial arts and self defence instructors. The first part of the course was theory, which is almost as useful as the practical part of the course! We were shown a detailed slideshow on self defence, including a few videos of people street fighting and an elderly man being mugged. The purpose of the video of the man being mugged at a train platform was to investigate the stages of the man approaching the elderly man and eventually stealing his laptop. It is very important if we sense someone is a threat or dodgy we must always follow our gut instinct and be alert. When the ‘bad guy’ asks their victim a question they are ultimately interviewing them. Based in the answer the victim gives, they can figure out whether they are an easy target or not. Therefore if we feel we are being ‘interviewed’ by a ‘bad guy’ we must make a point of looking them in the eyes and answering with confidence. Very importantly we must be assertive, especially girls. I found this information very useful as I feel sometimes I am not assertive enough and this could have consequences. I now fully comprehend how to respond to a potential threat. When we find ourselves in a difficult situation, where we are not sure how dangerous a person could be or we don’t know what to do we must follow the SAFER method. S stands for step back, A for asses the situation using the POP method (place object person), F for find help, E for evaluate the possibilities and R for respond. We must not react to a situation but rather respond, as responding involves thought and is safer. We were provided with a lot of valuable information to defend ourselves and to avoid being attacked. We were explained that there are three main reasons you might be attacked: for property, physical attacks, or to be killed, and we were told how to handle each type of attack. Next we all ambled down to the sports hall to commence the practical part of the course, the part most of us had been waiting for! We got into groups of 6, I was with Emma, Carla, Anna, Eleanor and Lily. Firstly each group was given a pad, which one person from each group took turns holding. The pad represented a person’s head! We were shown how to effectively slap, punch, elbow, knee and kick the ‘head’. I greatly enjoyed this, as it is almost fun to muster all the power you have and lash out at a pad, I think I would be a lot less enjoyable were it an actual head! Emma was by far the strongest, her kicks were very powerful! It is interesting to see how some people are very aggressive if they want to be, while others remain calm but accurate with their punches and slaps. Everyone thought it was hilarious that I had to jump to successfully knee the pad, as I am quite small! After lunch we moved on to ground fighting. Daragh told us the last place you want to be in, during a street fight is on the ground, as you are a lot weaker and more vulnerable. We did a few exercises where we had to get off the ground as quickly as possible. Some people had good balance and got back onto their feet in no time, however others had more difficulty and kept falling back down! We were shown how to successfully get off the ground, and how to bring our opponent down to the ground using a few simple but effective tricks. As the day went on, instead of getting more tired, our year seemed to get more energetic and aggressive! We ended up doing actual ground fighting, the goal of the exercise was to pin your opponent to the ground for 3 seconds. A few girls did this exercise, but almost all the boys did it. They were very competitive and a few minor injuries aroused! It felt almost barbaric as we cheered on the boys fighting and scrambling on the mats...like wild animals. When it was time to go home I definitely felt more confident and skillful. I was already looking forward to tomorrow! Tuesday 25th October As opposed to yesterday, today’s schedule was all practical. We started off the day by getting into pairs and performing elaborate and slightly complicated moves. I paired up with Emma, there was only a bit of a height difference so when we had to ‘strangle’ the other person I couldn’t reach! The instructor advised me if I am in a situation where my opponent is bigger than me (most likely) I should first kick them in the groin and then strangle them (violent, I know!). It was very fun and exciting doing all these sequences as they looked and felt very realistic. Our instructors made a point of putting all the moves they teach us into context so we know when they could be used. I very important thing I learned is that if you ever find yourself being strangled the first thing you should do is bring your chin down to your neck as this will help the blood and oxygen flow to your brain. The following exercise we did was based on ground fighting again. This time we were all a bit more experienced and knew how to do the basic things in ground fighting. Soon afterwards the instructors brought in weapons. Firstly we were all given a bat, and were taught to to protect ourselves from a swinging bat and how to disarm a person. It was quite entertaining watching my year swinging rubber bats dramatically at each other and them swiftly disarming their fellow student! Then knives were brought in. Even though they were rubber knives, they could still potentially injure someone, so it was a bit frightening combating with my partner who possessed a knife! The method to disarm someone, be it a bat or a knife, remains mostly the same. By the time I managed to get the knife off Emma, I would probably be stabbed to death...The part of this course I found most frightening was the exercise where your partner sits on you and forces the knife down directly at your chest. The sensation of lying on the floor and a knife directly above you was, to say the least, frightening! Daragh and Cathy demonstrated how to forcefully stop the knife from coming down on us, and how to reverse our positions so that the victim gets onto the ‘bad guy’ in a matter of seconds. All it really takes is strength and aggression! The 'stabbing' exercise, demonstrated by Carla and Eleanor! As we were leaning all these fascinating skills I had forgotten we were also going to be assessed on them! As I am in form D, I was in one of the last groups to be assessed. The test was mainly fitness, strength and aggression based. I was paired with Mar. As Mar held the pad I had to slap it with all the power I could, them run up and down to the wall, then do push-ups and punch the pad. The format of the assessment was: performed a skill on the pads, run up and down and then do some type of exercise. I actually enjoyed the assessment more than I thought I would! I got really into it, and forgot I was getting tired or out-of breath. Finally we were shown what to do when the ‘bad guys’ have a gun. According to the instructors guns are rarely used in street fights, their purpose is more to intimidate when they want your property. For example they might hold you at gunpoint and demand for your purse. Although the guns weren’t real, they had the exact same design as a real one, and once I held one I felt a strange feeling of power over my opponent!
In conclusion I found this Martial Arts/Self defence course very useful and enjoyable. The instructors were kind and helpful and the students all participated well! They told us we were the best group they’ve ever instructed at our school, and possibly in the country. This was a lovely end to a great two days.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
April 2017
Categories |