“What do you know about self-defense?” This was the question that 40-year Karate instructor Kathleen Garrity opened the workshop with. It was interesting to hear that most of the students that answered did not know much about self-defense, but that was about to change after an hour with this wonderful instructor and her assistant.

It first started with our posture; there is so much that can be said when one has a strong, tall, and confident stance. By simply standing up straight and planting our feet firmly into the ground, we were already on our way to preparing ourselves for anything that was going to get thrown at us.

After grounding our bodies, be worked on blocking and striking with the heel of our palm and our knee. There were specific instructions given about every movement, the main one being engaging one’s core and using all of one’s body when striking. Another element that helped a lot with striking was using our voice to say commands. We would say “No!” or “Stop!” or “I don’t want to.” The power behind incorporating one’s voice made the movements more powerful, nearly three fold, and it encouraged us to try harder and put more emphasis in our movements.

At the end of our session, we recalled what we had learned and simply breathed in the powerful, positive energy that was surrounding each of us. It is important that self-defense is only to be used when necessary. Its purpose is to defend yourself, your rights, and get away as quickly as possible. Of course no one hopes to be in a situation where self-defense is necessary, but it doesn’t hurt to know of methods on how to protect oneself if something were to occur.

I feel prepared, and more informed about a couple tactics that I could use if I ever find myself being attacked. It is a matter of controlling my mind as much as I can and thinking of the quickest was to get away from my attacker. Although I may not be trained to fight back in these situations, I understand that I can prevent myself from getting into these confrontations and use self-defense if need be.