By: Erin Schultz
Staff  Writer
I’ve always been weak. When we were moving into our house a few years ago and I was asked to help carry a dresser, my heart sank. With my sweaty palms and clenched fingers, I grasped onto the wooden piece of furniture. My dad was holding onto the other side and before I knew it, the dresser was on my toes. To make a long story short, I was holding ice on my foot for days after and ibuprofen became a part of my daily diet.
There are worse things in the world than dropping a hundred pound dresser on your toes, but it hurt. A lot. However, the main problem wasn’t a swollen foot; it was that I was weak as a baby.
In the scenario that I was to be put in physical danger, I would not have known how to defend myself and that scared me. Every day on the news I’d see women getting assaulted and all I thought about was if they’d known how to get out of it, the news would be full of viral cat videos.
Fast forward to this afternoon when I found myself with two hands around my neck. No, I didn’t get attacked; I took control. It was finally time for myself to learn how to fight like a girl.
I originally went to the program in Prospect’s gymnastics room to film footage for a video story I was working on, but Marianna O’Hara, one of the leaders of the class caught me right before I was on my way out after getting all the footage I needed.
To my surprise, she told me that I should stay and participate in the class. Not only could I get a different perspective for my story, but I could learn the information every woman needs to know.
Without hesitation, I thanked her and took off my shoes. A man holding a black pad came over to me and told me to grab him by the shoulder and knee the pad on his stomach as hard as I could. He went through a detailed instruction of the tactics I’d missed while filming the program, and after just five minutes of his guidance, I was already feeling powerful.
As the three hour long class went on, I found myself wondering how I was able to knock a grown man who has been practicing martial arts all his life off his feet. After all, I can’t even do 10 good pushups without struggling.
After standard kneeing the groin and punching the clavicle lessons, we moved on to the intense defense.
The second half of the seminar focused on fighting an attacker when they’re on top of you. I think this is an especially important skill to have because most attackers want to get on top and trap you. In fact, according to RAINN (Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network), 84% of victims reported the use of violent physical assault.
Middle school, high school students and mothers spent an hour and a half learning and practicing how not become  that statistic. I thought this would be a terrifying experience, but the instructors were extremely friendly and helpful. It made me feel very safe when one of them talked about how picky they are when hiring instructors just because of how close in proximity the instructors get to the girls and women: they’re literally on top of you. One of them even had me kick him in the face before starting the attack to show that it wouldn’t hurt him (he had a helmet on, don’t worry). With chest pads and a helmet with a facemask, the instructors would be hovering over us and we would have to fight back by either kicking or punching and using the techniques we learned during the program.
This program definitely is not a guaranteed lifesaver, but I feel a lot more confident now that I know the basic moves. I may still drop dressers on my toes, but at least I can fight like a girl.