Safety First News
Articles
A prep course for surviving the worst case scenarios
by Callie White, Peninsula Gateway
Locally held class forces participants to conquer fears
How safe do you feel?
Since Sept. 11, the country has been alerted to a new worst- nightmare scenario and we’ve been inspired by acts of incredible heroism. Now what are we going to do? What is there in Gig Harbor that can help us?
Safety First, a new kind of self defense class, promises to help its students learn to act in the face of fear.
This day-long class is held at Gig Harbor Karate by George Warnell and Bill Kortenbach and promises “100 percent” satisfaction guaranteed. By the time I went through the class, I was told, I will find the courage within myself to take action in the face of fear.
To take the course, I had to fill out a form that encouraged me to be honest about the things I am afraid of. There isn’t much that paralyzes me, besides death and bodily harm.
Luckily, the day before I took the class I got a lesson in harm that taught me pain isn’t necessarily so bad – I fell really badly while inline skating. The first thought I had after I sat up, covered in dirt and scratches, was, “Cool! I should be a stuntperson!”
But fear has a pervasive way with a person, and I got a pretty good workout in it at the Safety First class, in spite of some misgivings I initially got from the hokey music they play. In fact, hearing a song from “Mulan” or “Top Gun” is nice after you’ve just had an adrenaline dump – you know you’re with people who believe in those sentiments, not sadists.
“Fear is a feeling I get from my body that directs my choices,” said Kortenbach.
The staff but me and two other students, both male, through some pretty intense exercises to teach us to separate confusion from fear, conditioning us to stay calm. I won’t say what the staff did, but I will say it wasn’t easy. I cried a little – super embarrassing.
To their credit, the staff and my fellow students stayed completely supportive throughout the first ordeal and all the others to follow. As intense as the scenarios were that they put us through, there was never a moment that I actually felt unsafe.
Then came the actual time to fight. We’d had a few warm-ups and were shown a few moves, none of them complicated.
My stomach was in knots. I took martial arts for two years and never liked sparring. I hated throwing kicks and punches at people I liked. I hated how we had to block blows – it doesn’t keep you from smarting, just from smarting more.
I was willing to get into the ring but I was disheartened to realize that my old ploys were not going to stop the “ghoul,” as the guy in the padded body armor is called.
After a few feints I caved. Totally cowered. Hands on my head and everything. The ghoul grabbed at my arm, and in a split second I though, “this isn’t over until I knock this guy out, they won’t let this fight be over until he’s on the ground,”
Next thing I knew I spun out of his grip and popped him. And kept whacking him. He didn’t stand a chance.
That wasn’t the last time that day that I fought the guy in the suit, and it wasn’t the last time I got him to the mat, but it was the most important time.
This course could not have worked without its sensitive and deeply caring staff. It uses the sort of intensity that a boot camp uses, but with much less actual fear. By the end of the class I had taken a prep for the kind of test nobody wants to fail.
Kortenbach said that Personal Protection Strategies is fashioning different kinds of classes for different groups – but all with the same purpose.
For example, there are classes for kids – less intense ones.
“You have to make it scary for adults, fun for kids,” he said. Still, children learn how to react when a stranger approaches them with evil intentions.
“There will also be women-only classes (called “Unleash the Inner Amazon”) in spring, and right now, Kortenbach and Warnell are creating advanced teambuilding classes (the same thing, but with an emphasis on relying on each other) for corporate clients.
I would say that it certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, but neither is being raped, beaten, or murdered. The people with the greatest reluctance to defend themselves also stand to reap the greatest rewards.